My big insight from the IEW · The Consciousness Path

My big insight from the IEW

I just finished the IEW last week and wanted to share the most impactful insight from my experience.

I spent the week contemplating "what is existence?"

I spent the entire week contemplating this one question. Towards the end of the week I had an insight that was unlike any insight I've ever had before. I want to describe it in detail. So this is a long post but I want you all to hear the details.

It started when I was just sort of mulling over my most honest guess about what existence is. I held it as being just pure "is-ness". It is the fundamental IS of anything that is. But from all my contemplation thus far, I kept noticing there is nothing in my experience that is existence as itself. No element, no dimension, no location, or anything else I can perceive. But what is it?

Then I was looking at a poster on my wall, just getting that it exists... It is a poster. It is itself. A distinction yes for sure. But what is its existence? So here I was taking a distinction and was digging into what that distinction is "made of" and saying it is its existence. I then asked rather casually what is this existence then? At this point it was as if time slowed down. I saw my own mind trying to dig into the "substance" of existence. I literally became conscious that I was trying to "carve" a distinction out of that which cannot be carved into a distinction. Existence is already itself, there is no need to carve anything. I noticed my mistake. I cried out "I just discovered something!" It was a true and incredibly powerful discovery. I never noticed this before.

It makes sense that I tried to do this. In all the distinctions I make I can always find something more fundamental about it. But with existence there is nothing more fundamental to find. I guess I finally got tired of the mistake and ended it.

That left me with just becoming conscious of what existence is. That is all there is to it. From this point on my contemplation changed in a big way. I stopped trying to dig into it like I had been doing. I simply intended to get what it is and remained open. And nothing more. I didn't get it but this is a much more powerful way to contemplate.

2 comments