Our SUBJECTIVE Experience EXPLAINED by Shinzen Young

Mental images.

Rentals are.

Emotional body sensation.

So.

In general if you look from the side mental images tend to be sort of centered here. But they can be around your surroundings and they can also be back where your body is but memory plan fantasy tends to sort of be often in front talk tends to be posterior and up.

And then the emotional body is primarily download the body is so very, very roughly speaking.

You've got a triangle like this.

It's an oversimplification, but it's a way of thinking about it. This is the center of it in space, but it is basically broad can be quite why act?

So emotional body space is just the space of your body.

Some People have emotional centers places in the body where pleasant or unpleasant emotional sensations would likely be most prominent some People don't have emotional sent.

If you have emotional centers that position them bring yourself to your emotional body means somewhere to strongly in those centers in some awareness peripherally older model body if you don't have emotional centers, then just awareness in your power bill in general is to be in emotional body space daughter spaces typically ill defined, but most People sort of pointed ears there had this area cephalic.

So abstractly and in the over simplified schematic view we can think of.

In in Space Park Space Emotionalize.

Are descriptive word for visual thing? Is mental image but our label is see in?

Are descriptive word for auditory thinking? Is mental talk but our label is here?

Ann are descriptive word for emotional body sensation is emotional bodies in.

However, that label is field. Yeah.

Um.

This.

So when I memorized think about this system.

Well, I sort of get this image of the triangle.

And I also get the phrase.

That this system is reactive.

Prolactin interactive and occasionally in Act.

Um.

If you get this you will have such a handle on life.

Such a handle on.

Um because every heaven and hell that you will experience between now and the moment, You Die.

Will somehow involve the four things that I just mentioned?

Within this system.

It's reactivity, it's proactivity its interactivity and its occasional enact.

So let's see what that means.

Reactive means if you have external sounds external sites and physical body sensation. It could trigger 1, two or all 3 things at the same time.

So it reacts to the physical sense.

Producing Watt well if that reaction is unconscious and solidified it produces the sense that there is a self that here's.

CS and is physically compact.

So if you're in pain.

And this system is reacting to the pain judging it awfulizing it.

With an having living reactions, such as fear tear irritation.

Helplessness and so forth.

So that's the self arrived that's this system reacting to a physical contact with physical world.

So as a reactive system.

When it activates and it's not experienced with concentration clarity and equanimity. It will convince you that you have a limited self that is CA hearing in a physical world.

Uh.

So on the other hand, we're not trying to get rid of this activity is that it can activate to the Mass. But as long as there is clarity concentration and equanimity In other words, as long as you have incomplete experience or so and by the way equanimity is none other than total self. Love and Toning Self acceptance.

In this regard.

So if it reacts.

And you experience it fully that you love it to death is so active that it's no longer there is a thing so that it is.

OK, so.

So that's the reactive system.

Every single time you're convinced there's someone inside of you, it's a self experiencing another that is Alien and it.

At some soda level, the system is recast reacting to the physical world. It may be subliminally above the threshold awareness and our job is to clarify it and I block and I've loved it.

Uh that's the reactive.

Proactive now we've noticed this, it's called monkey mind.

When it's not reacting to the outside world, it starts spinning memory clan fantasy problem solving.

Fantasies basically 2 kinds fantasies that you run to scare you and fantasies that you run to entertain you.

Uh when there's nothing else, going on in neuroscience. This is well known it's called the default network default, meaning it's what People fall back on when you don't ask them to attend to something in an experiment.

They think they would tell People OK now just rest now OK. We're having you like watch that target that visual target. Now do nothing just rest and then they discovered there, not resting this all this distinctive activation billing.

By way of default.

So what's happening is monkey monkey?

Is memory playing fantasy problem solving on something etc? So I called that the proactive system meaning that this system will just go off on its own and spin memory plan. Fancy convincing you that there's a past convincing you that there's a future on convincing you of many, many things.

So that's the proactive side of this system once again. We're not trying to get rid of that. We're trying to have a complete experience.

Then the system is interact.

That means a mental image could trigger an emotional body cell.

Apple Todd could trigger an emotional policy.

Emotional body sensation could build until you just have to make a comment about it or or have a picture of a mental image. You could trigger a comment a mental talk good make a picture to accompany it.

So the arrows point both ways. This is the interactivity of the system and once you become familiar with this system. You can start to track how this will trigger this and then this will be for this that sell for exactly so that's the interactivity.

Uh and becoming clear about this is knowing yourself at a sensory level at a system.

System theoretic level this is this is the system theoretic paradigm for thoughts and emotions.

Uh.

Then the last phrase is occasionally inactive.

Actually, more than you might imagine for brief moments the system turns off hundreds and hundreds of times during the day.

When you just here just see just.

Experience physical touch for just a second this system actually evaporates.

But People usually don't notice.

So it doesn't help them, they don't realize that they sell wings in and out of existence during the day.

So when it goes inactive we happening have uh no sub state, but unless you consciously experience it, it will be liberated.

So we want you to be able to notice when it's active.

So that's the subjective system and that's what we're going to do.

Um.

We're gonna work I will show you how to bring individually and collective.

So.

If we draw column.

And we have, we're going to use in as an abbreviation for inner arises.

Will you see to refer to the visual experience. It's a verb of visual perception here is the verb of auditory perception. Field is the verb form somatic perception so CN for mental images here in for metal dog feel them for emotional body sensation.

We can work individually and then we could broadly float will call this focus in.

Within the whole system.

So let me say that a lot most People have quite a bit of here in.

That's what we're going to start.

Um soda note here in each time the.

Mental talk arises when the mental talk comes to an end gone.

That's you period at the end of the sentence.

And then if there is no mental talk your rents now sometimes People find that by placing attention in talk space. It's sort of like turns off the map.

That's not suppression. It just is it just happens that way. So you'll hear rest. You'll listen to that. Restful state otherwise here in column. Some People find that after the gone. That'll be a restful state. Some People find that there's immediately into a rising of the next word or phrase are set.

So let's hearing on your rest that's how we could work individually with face this is actually pretty straightforward.

Mental images and emotional body sensations require a bit of.

Clarification.

1st and foremost if you're new to practice.

You may not have many mental images.

Um.

And that's not a problem you just.

May not have many of them.

So we're going to have you focus on the dark bright in front of behind your closed eyes? Which is recall is see rest?

Focus on that, if you don't have any mental images. But if you do have mental images remote that that as CDM if all or even part of the mental image drops away or drops off, then comma banishing all in finding information. If you don't have many mental images and find you'll just be serious Seacrest until 8:00 occur. Remember, however, that if you have memory plan or fantasy you probably are seeing the memory scene.

You probably seen the fantasy and so forth, we don't call it imagination for nothing.

Um.

But it may be very vague and fleeting just a ghostly impression.

That's CNN.

People often think that our mental images, it must be clear like a photograph or like looking at a physical object only for some People the great majority People a mental images are these vague wispy diaphanous.

Impressions of form.

That disappeared very quickly.

And that's that's it. That's the image remember also that if you are aware that you're in any particular place. If you're convinced you're in a room with People at a certain location, you probably get some Bay image of your surroundings that see.

And when you have body sensations, you probably get a sense of your overall body in Europe, it, but your appearance In addition to the sensations in the body. There's the image of the body once again often rather vague and feel defined that see him also.

So.

That's that.

Field in

Is there's a lot to be said about?

So.

At any given instant.

Somewhere in consciousness, you may experience.

Emotion.

The Alternative is at any given instant you're not experiencing any emotion.

If you're not sure assume you're not experiencing any.

OK, so at any given instant you may expect to have an experience of emotion.

Um that emotion, maybe well defined qualitatively orgil define quality. It may be intense or it may be so quite where that emotion is occuring maybe well defined or it may be able to.

However, at any given instant you either have an emotional experience or you don't and if you're not sure assume you know.

If you are having an emotional experience.

It is possible that part of that emotional experience will involve bodies in.

A change in your father.

If so are label for that body sensation is field again.

It is possible that you have an experience that you'll say is emotional, but it's mental only and does not affect the body.

In which case there is no emotional sensation in the body emotion is completely. Not all that could happen.

In that case when we work with this.

Ann.

You're having a mental emotion, but there's nothing the same types of guarding your bot whatever may be happening in your mind your body is emotionally recipe.

So we call that field last.

So.

If you go to your body and try to figure out which sensations are physical and which are emotional. You may be able to do that, but you probably won't, it will probably just be crazy.

To try to figure that.

So it depends on the individual but the way that I set up this category Theo PM.

Is not?

Specifically, I'm asking you to go to the body and figure out what's physical and origin once emotional.

If you can do that fine but most People that study.

And it doesn't compute.

However, here's something anybody.

At any given instant you ask yourself.

And my experience in motion.

Summer.

Well defined bill define OK my experiencing emotion.

The answer is yes.

Is any part of that experience? Does any part of that experience in pop projects?

Yeah, I'm certainly there be yesterday. If you're not sure the answer is melt.

If the answer is yes that's appealing.

And that's what to focus on the answer is no then when we're doing this technique your body is emotionally neutral.

And that is a flavor of rest. There are basically 3 flavors of rest that could come up in the body physical relaxation, emotional neutrality and the sense that there are parts of the body that hunt there or that your body is the CPU. Those are the 3:00 basic flavors of field rest. When we do this, if there is no emotion in your body that field.

It is quite common for People to when they try it when they do see in that they mostly just sequence.

It is quite common and People do feel them, but they mostly just feel less In other words, cities don't activate this usually act.

But sometimes it doesn't even.

Now are you going to make it a problem that there's nothing but rest within this system. Please don't someday it will activate my promise.

Come now.

So I'm a common complaint is.

Well, when I do formal practice and I try to work with my subjective experience. It's all rest. I this system doesn't activate. It goes inactive during formal practice or or this part might be active. But these other two parts aren't and during form practice, I can never get the field or the the feeling of the CN dog.

So I have a button in daily life. Of course, it is going, but I don't have the wonderful situation of being informal practice to work with it. So what should I do so. Watt is my standard recommendation for this situation do lovely Wifey.

Yeah, or In other words of course, they do nothing is OK, you could just accept the fact that nothing is happening, but let's say that you want to be in a formal practice situation and he wanted to be able to add middle activate the control the direction and intensity of the subjective reactive system, which would be a way of working smart.

Uh a way of training where you're in control, so that when the reactive system gets activated in daily life who sort of trained yourself in ideal situations well, what I recommend is that you expose yourself to emotive sounds or emotive sites that activate the system. Sound is the best 'cause you can do it with your eyes close. It's easy to detect the images, so I usually recommend something like.

Flipping around the TV and then getting things that activate pleasant or unpleasant. Feelin would be amazed. How many images. You have if you listen to the soundtrack of a movie.

Your mind would just immediately try to see what's going on OK and so it activates the whole system.

And that way you train yourself to work with the system and you can have the best of both worlds because you're in a formal practice situation and you're in control of the type duration and intensity of the stimulus for this system so.

Uh.

If you

If you come to me and say, I'm not getting a carryover into life.

I'm going to ask you well have you tried media practice have you tried training?

4 lives impacts.

In stillness.

I I call that working smart, so at the retreat, if not much activates Wendy's for this that's fine. We'll just do the rest of nothing but there are ways to intentionally activate it and not necessarily a negative directions, either just all sorts of interesting things can be done so. That's the subjective system. Yes, well 20Q. Four licitation can. We imagine ourselves in both situations, then that's just don't get that.

The intentional as a general principle intentionally controlling the system is only something we do is.

Focus on positive which will be starting in the afternoon. However, I sent as a general principle. People will sometimes asked well. Can I activate it by sort of thinking about a certain something I would say it's OK to do that? Occasionally, I wouldn't make that the centerpiece of his practice.

Yes, in terms of field and they're talking about the emotional body and what's the distribution between a headache and the emotional body or is that part of the emotional Bobby Orr back pain, OK good. That's a good question. The The way you know it's an emotional body sensation is by following that little procedure that I just.

Baby OK.

In other words.

If you

You ask yourself, Li students in an emotion.

OK.

And then you go to the body and see if any, part of that's in the body.

That if In other words, you didn't have any motion then an emotional rise.

What changed in the body that's the emotional balance sensor?

The places to look our reaction.

If there's a sound.

And you're smiling.

If there's a sound in the environment and you're irritated by the sound and it's not just mental comment about it, but you actually like having irritation of the body that's emotion in the body.

In general.

I I will give you a list of.

A dozen or so common situations where there is likely to be emotional sensation in your body.

Anger when you experience a hanger? Where do you usually experience it in the bottom?

Are you asking me? Yeah.

OK, good so that's an emotional bond.

Feel.

That's an emotional life.

Send.

Bats and emotional bodies.

Sure.

Fancy machine of lattice.

Um.

Enthusiasm interest.

Not sure OK shame embarrassment.

OK.

You got all of those are emotional values and stay.

Physical pain, no that's a physical body.

However, if it causes an emotional reaction that.

That that could happen so? How do you work with that let's say my start to sit and all I mean? I hang in with some physical pain. I just want to sit and then I have emotional reaction to physical pain. It's not something I. Bring up it's not something that sort so it's it.

I'm not making any sense are you asking how to work with the pain or whether you most of our reaction to it, OK, so In other words.

Let's say that you're doing the field intending OK, so you are the instruction is if you have what seems to be emotional body sensation you focus on.

So now the pain what flavors of emotion does the pain causing.

Feel.

Well, you're very precise so now you're going to be aware of the pain is one thing.

And the fear reactions in the pain is another thing.

You're going to note that as field him.

A fear reaction that sensation.

Then, what is noting means acknowledge and then focus on that sensation as you focus on that sensation he will attempt to accept that sensation. This vast civilization. Yeah, the fear sensation. The react member. I said reactive so you're looking for the body reacting to the bottom in this particular case.

And then what do you do with it just?

Try to make friends with it as best you can now that's only one way to focus of course, you might want to focus on the mental images triggered by the pain or the mental Top treatment. I think it also might want to focus on the game itself or you might wanna focus away from pain onto arrested.

All of these are options.

Just be clear, which one you're doing.

And then the data answer your questions sufficiently OK excellent.

Yes, I just wanna clarify if we were working with this procedure and we were having a lot of resting and see in a lot of resting.

Field in we would not be noting that because we're not focusing on the rest where he is actually 4 procedures on the board, so let's be clear what we're talking about.

This is one option. This is another option. This is another option. This is another option that's great OK.

So if you're doing this, the instruction says if you don't have any activation note the corresponding recipe.

But if you do have an activation then not the app activation.

Of course, if you did, it for awhile that there wasn't any activation that you might want to switch technique because essentially not just melting recipes.

Same thing for here, the instruction set is crystal clear as long as you're doing this procedure, which could be for 2 minutes or 2 years, however long you want to be doing it.

If there's mental Top urine when it disappears golf if there's no mental talk here rest.

And you just do that and then if it doesn't seem productive. You do something else.

Crystal clear answers yes if you want if you're in the rest day. If you want to activate more active state. You recommend like a team. You know like turn on the TV or female? Can you use your image I mean? Can you pretend you're in a traffic jam and actually that question was just asked a few minutes ago but I'll answer it again as in general.

The.

Ah, you are passive with regards to these things OK, you just let them when you do this technique.

So you are waiting for activation to occur if it doesn't occur then you just note the corresponding vessel.

Um.

However, if you find them.

This system hardly activates when you do practice in stillness and you want to do something to sort of stimulate it so that you can observe it and practice up with it, then I recommend media practice. You listen to the TV or something like that. You get things turn up. But that would just be a sort of special thing that you would do to help train your skills.

Is that clear?

As far as intentionally bringing something up.

In order to have something to focus on with this that was asked over here. I said it's OK to do that occasionally but it's not it's not really the the waiting today.

OK.

Yes. Sorry I had a brain last? What does in at the Top stand foreigner activation so this is this is this is easier here in Dylan focusing focusing?

Focus as it stands now.

When something is prefixed by focusing means broadly float with him that theme or that sensory modality. Otherwise, we see the specified box again.

OK, good good to go.