What Is Observing the Inner Field?
Lesson 10
We ended the last lesson with a question.
What is present.
And what is that to which it is present?
We asked it first about a single thought.
Now we have something larger to ask it about.
Go back to the state we found last time.
Worry,
or something like it.
Thought,
memory,
sensation,
narrowed attention,
anticipation—
all moving together.
Notice something about it now,
as you recall it.
The state itself has already passed.
The missed call was answered.
The moment moved on.
The bodily tension changed.
The thought disappeared.
And yet—
the configuration of that state can enter the present again.
Something previously formed can be reintroduced into a new manifestation.
You can bring it back into view.
You can describe it.
Examine its parts.
Notice what happens when you do this.
This is not the same thing as the state simply remaining unchanged.
The original manifestation has passed.
What happens now is that something previously formed becomes available again within a new manifestation.
Ask yourself:
Is the state itself the same thing as your noticing of the state?
Do not answer theoretically.
Look.
The state was one thing.
Your noticing of the state is something else.
Now go one step further.
Think of the last time you were genuinely caught in a state like that.
Fully inside it.
Thought and body and attention all moving together.
Ask yourself honestly:
In that moment, were you also aware that you were in it?
Perhaps you were.
Perhaps you were not.
For many people,
the awareness comes later.
Only after some distance has already opened.
Notice what this suggests.
There may be a difference between
being absorbed in a state
and
noticing that the state is occurring.
The distinction may be very small.
Sometimes it may appear only for a moment.
But it is there.
Now test it directly.
Bring to mind a mild irritation.
Something small.
Something from earlier today.
Notice the irritation itself.
Whatever tension it carries.
Whatever narrowing.
Whatever movement of attention.
Whatever impulse accompanies it.
Now ask yourself:
You are aware of the irritation.
But is that awareness itself irritated?
Do not answer too quickly.
Look at the difference.
The irritation has a certain intensity.
A certain emotional character.
A certain bodily quality.
Does the awareness that notices it have the same character?
Or is it simply aware of the character that belongs to the state?
Now try something different.
Bring to mind a calm state.
Perhaps the quiet feeling of reading something familiar.
Perhaps the stillness after finishing a task.
Perhaps simply a moment in which nothing particular demands your attention.
Notice the calm.
Then ask:
Is the awareness of calm itself calm in the same way?
A moment ago,
it was aware of irritation.
Now it is aware of calm.
The contents are different.
Their qualities are different.
Their intensity is different.
And yet the fact that they are noticed remains.
Try another state.
Boredom.
Excitement.
Anticipation.
A memory.
Whatever happens to appear.
The state changes.
The content changes.
The body changes.
The attention changes.
And the changing itself can be noticed.
Pause there.
We have discovered something important.
The investigation has already established more than the mere fact
that different states can be noticed.
It has revealed a recurring structural distinction:
the changing content of experience
and that to which this changing content is present
do not appear in the same way.
We do not need to reduce this discovery
by treating it as merely an interesting feature of introspection.
At this stage,
we have not yet followed the distinction to its deepest ontological consequences.
But we have identified something real within experience,
and we can now examine where that distinction leads.
There is phenomenal activity—
the thought,
the memory,
the sensation,
the narrowing of attention,
the anticipation,
the entire gathered state.
And there is the fact that this activity is present to awareness.
Now turn attention around.
Look for the one who is looking.
What happens?
You may find a subtle sense of:
I am here.
I am watching.
I am the observer.
But examine that carefully.
What is this sense of being the observer?
Can you notice it?
Perhaps there is a feeling of distance.
Perhaps a feeling of stillness.
Perhaps an image of yourself sitting here,
watching what is happening.
Whatever it is,
if you can notice it,
then it has become something appearing in experience.
Ask yourself:
If I can observe the feeling of being the observer, is that feeling itself the observer?
Or is it another appearance?
Another thought?
Another sensation?
Another configuration?
Another piece of furniture in the room?
Notice what happens when you try to turn the observer itself into an object.
You may find something unexpected.
You can find representations of the observer.
You can find thoughts about the observer.
You can find feelings associated with being the observer.
But the observing position itself does not present itself in quite the same way.
The moment you try to look at it as though it were another object,
what you encounter is something that can itself be observed.
Pause.
This is not a problem with the investigation.
It is a result of the investigation.
The object can appear.
The state can appear.
The thought I am observing can appear.
Even the feeling of being a separate observer can appear.
But the fact that these things are being observed
does not appear simply as another item in the same list.
Hold that distinction carefully.
We can now give the two sides names.
Phenomenal activity.
The thought.
The memory.
The sensation.
The attention.
The expectation.
The belief.
The identification.
The entire lived state.
And:
The observing position.
That to which this activity is present.
Not another thought added to the list.
Not another emotion.
Not another state.
Not simply another appearance waiting to be found.
Notice that we have arrived here before.
This is not an entirely new discovery.
It is the same question we encountered at the beginning of the course,
now appearing at a different scale.
In the first lesson,
we examined the distinction between what appears
and the Consciousness to which it appears.
We found that Consciousness itself could not be determined
as one more content of Manifestation.
Every attempt to determine Consciousness
introduced another thought,
another sensation,
another concept,
another content within the field.
The Witnessing Pole could not itself be turned
into one more object of determination.
Now we have followed the process much further.
We have watched a thought become organized.
We have watched a belief participate in that organization.
We have watched several elements converge into a state.
And now we are asking:
To what is the entire state present?
The answer is not something we need to invent.
The state is present.
Its changing is noticed.
Its disappearance is noticed.
Its previously formed configuration can be reintroduced into the present
and noticed again.
Its different elements can be examined.
Something is therefore functioning as the observing position
in relation to the phenomenal activity.
And something important has now been established.
The observing position is not encountered
in the same manner as the contents it observes.
When we look for it,
we encounter representations,
feelings,
thoughts,
and configurations associated with being the observer.
But these are themselves observable.
The observing position is therefore not simply added
to the inventory of phenomenal contents
by the act of looking for it.
It is already necessary
for the very possibility of searching for
and distinguishing phenomenal contents.
For now,
we have identified the structural relation itself—
and that is already a substantial result.
Ask yourself one final question.
What exactly is happening within the field being observed?
A thought can be observed.
A belief can be observed.
A state can be observed.
Even the sense of I am the observer
can become something observed.
And this opens the next question.
If the observing position is not simply another state among the others,
then what exactly is happening within the field it observes?
What functional organization is operating within Manifestation—
through Recall, through which previously formed configurations can re-enter;
through Differentiation, through which the present field becomes structured;
and through Actualization, through which new configurations emerge from possibilities?
That is where we go next.