Rod to Heloisa and Piet

Piet & Heloisa,

Let me put into my own words what you might be trying to describe, using Vipassana meditation as a framework.

I envision Vipassana meditation as a temporary "stepping back" in order to create a heuristic duality of awareness. By stepping back I become aware of my awareness, and can observe the rising & passing of all phenomena—including memories of the past & anticipations of the future.

Both of you have described immediacies of experience in which memories of the past and anticipations of the future were set aside. Does the following in any way speak to what you've described?

Level 1—Conventional Reality: I do not realize that I live in the timeless now. I think that memories & anticipations are proof that linear time extends from the Past out into the Future. My "now" is smeared and spread out over a time-span of many minutes, days, even years, causing my experiences to lack vivid immediacy. The Past & the Future blur the timeless now, as if layers of plastic wrap were placed between me and the world.

1st Shift

Level 2—Vipassana Insight: I learn to step back one notch from my self in order to observe dispassionately the rising & passing of all sensations, thoughts & images, and emotions. I temporarily separate my observing from that which I observe. In that way I can see that all phenomena, including memories of the past and anticipations of the future, come and go always within the arena of the immediate now. Awareness-of-awareness has "bootstrapped" me out of Conventional Reality.

2nd Shift

Level 3—The Timeless Now: With practice and insight, I reconstitute the Observer & the Observed as they truly exist in the timeless now. In other words, I return to Level 1, but with the realization that my memories of the past and my anticipations of the future are nothing but passing phenomena that arise and pass away within the timeless now. Instead of a time-smear, my "now" coalesces into vivid immediacy. The more focused my "now" becomes, the more vivid it becomes.

3rd Shift

Level 4—Pure Consciousness: Re-expansion of the timeless now so that all of reality is included? I am simply me, being myself, pure consciousness, without separation from the world? (This version of a 3rd Shift into Level 4 is merely a guess. I've not experienced it, nor do I know if it's what Piet is referring to.)

Rod Rees