On the Given World-Picture (or 'sensuous manifold')

[AshvinP]

Let's start with something else. This following exercise may sound very trivial, even insultingly so, but I just want to make sure we are on the same page concerning the inner experience of cognitive activity before continuing.

We can forget the triangle image. Pick a random point, say, the corner of the table, and hold your attention still at it for a few seconds, then move to another point. It’s not important what the object is – it acts only as an anchor point. Try to feel the act of focusing your attention.

Then, after you get a good feel for this, try with eyes closed and focus your attention at random points. The eyes are closed only to avoid distractions, you are in the same room space. You can also think of it as, instead of closing your eyes, the lights simply go down. Then you focus your attention at the space where, for example, the chair should be, the table, and so on. But this is only for reference. In reality, you need not try to imagine anything at the points of focus. At the center of the experiment is the very act of pointing your ray of attention at various points in space. You can also try something more advanced like smoothly moving the focus of your attention in circular, spiral, rectangular, etc. paths.

Now after you do this experiment, I guess you would agree that what you experience is entirely your willed movement of the focused attentional activity within empty space. Is that an accurate characterization of the inner experience?

Sorry for bumping this topic. I just wanted to point out that this specific exercise by Ashvin was the one that helped me succeeding the Inner Space Pt. 1 exercise by Cleric.

Well, at this point of the discussion, I think that I was basically copying and pasting things Cleric had proposed before

But yes, it's amazing what a little bit of concentrated effort to feel our inner movements can help us do, the new degrees of freedom it can help us attain. Such inner experiences can then set off a positive feedback spiral, as our 'densified' inner gestures begin to render the ideal landscape we probe in our intellectual inquiries as more expansive and substantial, as overlapping more with the wisdom communicated by the spiritual seers of all ages. Then the sharp divide between 'intellectual thinking' and 'exact clairvoyance' begins to loosen and diffuse, such that we can intuit how our thoughts about reality testify to the contextual constraints of the ideal flow.

Since you attained your initial success with the inner stretching, have you noticed any other inner developments in the following weeks (which you don't mind sharing)?