The Stream of Experience
La Corriente de la Experiencia
Notice how all your sensations, sounds, and thoughts move as one ever-changing flow, and rest in the ease of simply experiencing it.
The Stream of Experience
Just notice the stream of experience,
the stream of sensations,
sounds,
colors and shapes,
what we tend to think of as reality,
just the stream of experience,
sounds and body sensations,
tingling, breath.
And all of the shapes and colors,
narratives and the stream of thoughts.
Notice it's all one stream,
one flow of experience,
sensations, thoughts, sounds,
color, shapes,
what we call sight,
but which also has a form with our eyes closed,
its colors and shapes.
Textures
Textures in sound, textures in sensations,
textures in sight,
textures in thoughts.
Thoughts are just as textured as everything else.
And if some part of your experience is uncomfortable or challenging,
rather than trying to change it or shift it or expect it or hope it to shift,
just notice that it's just made of textures.
If it's a tightness in the body or a pain or some emotional activation,
whatever it can be,
boredom or worry,
rather than trying to change it,
notice just what its nature is, what it's made of.
Discomfort in the body,
tension is just a texture of sensation.
It's just a cloud of experience, just moving,
coming,
going.
Whatever is here that is difficult or a problem
is just another texture appearing,
known,
known by you.
But just keep a very gentle, open noticing
that you yourself recognize this.
One stream
The sounds are a stream of experience.
All experience is one stream,
but we can filter out streams within a stream.
The word stream points to just this water-like, non-solid, moving,
changing flow,
the stream of sounds.
It's just a flow of textures of the nature we call sound.
It is not too different from the stream of textures we call sensations.
They appear in the same stream of experience.
No real separation between sounds and sensations,
nor separation between sensations and sight perceptions,
shapes,
colors,
and no real separation between those shapes
and the stream of thoughts,
just imaginary sounds, imaginary shapes, imaginary textures.
What we call I
Everything we call I,
we normally confuse ourselves to be just sensations,
body sensations that are appearing, known by you,
or the stream of thoughts.
The image of the person, the past and the future,
all in the world and stream of imagination and thoughts,
perceived and known by you,
therefore not you,
not the true I.
And at the root of all this is the sense,
I am here and this stream of experience is over there, out there,
around me,
outside of me.
That is also part of the experience,
the thoughts and sensations,
imaginary distance between a sensation in your face or an image of your face,
and the imaginary distance between that and something else,
and the stream of experience,
distance only measured by thought.
At the root of experience there is no distance.
The stream of all experience has no location,
no center,
no dimension,
no time.
Dimensions and time are overlays created by thoughts and imagination,
useful,
perhaps practical,
but not fundamentally there,
not fundamentally reality.
Letting it flow
Just keep noticing and recognizing how much all of experience is this stream,
this flow of color,
shape,
sounds, thoughts, sensations.
No need to change anything, as it changes on its own,
unless you focus on something.
The more you let it be, the more it can flow and change on its own.
Something key to notice is the temptation to focus on partial experience,
to control it, change something,
to improve something,
to fix something.
It's tempting to focus on that.
Your attention narrows on this stream and flow of ever-changing experience.
It's assumed to be real.
It's assumed to be fundamentally there.
Rather than the flow,
they seem to be solid rather than fluid.
That's when worry comes in,
the struggle comes in.
Dissatisfaction comes in.
And the more everything is noticed as this fluid flow of ever-changing experience,
sensations, thoughts,
feelings,
emotions,
colors,
shapes, sounds,
the more it's recognized as a flow of experience,
you will notice a sense of calm, enjoyment,
an underlying sense of delight in just experiencing.
A barometer
So just have that be your barometer.
If there's struggle,
dissatisfaction,
notice what part of your experience you're assuming to be solid,
making it solid.
Just let it be what it is, a fluid flow.
Just swim with it.
Taste it while it's here,
fully immersed,
fully savoring, savor it while it's here.
Even what there's the habit to call unwanted,
even the sense of pain or fear or worry, boredom, anxiety,
notice its nature,
it's fluid.
ephemeral, impermanent nature, savor it, let it flow.
Notice the reality where one can just sink into all of experience.
Let it flow on its own.
This is the light of just simply being.
Effortless.
Not requiring experience to be in any particular way.