Another take on the path

Liz talked about Dag Nam - Sacred View or Pure Perception. She said that closing the gap between experiencer and experience was the path. It’s funny. At the beginning, we have to notice the gap, because we take our thoughts to be reality. In a sense, they are our reality. They cover real reality with a film that we don’t notice… like a fish not knowing it’s wet.

Having realized the difference between our thoughts and reality, having experienced the thickness of our thoughts and how they color our world, and having thinned them, is she saying that now we can collapse the separation between the watcher and the world? That the path is about letting the watcher dissolve into the experience?

I think that’s what she’s saying.

So maybe the stages of the path are something like:

Be a kid - Pure perception but no agency. Totally at the mercy of the world around you and your emotional swings. We all experience trauma at this stage and need to heal.
Develop agency - Become your own person, separate from your parents and family situation. Build up the weapons and armor to journey out on your own. Develop your own friends and community. More trauma can occur here. We are harmed and cause harm while we’re reacting or trying to escape pain.
See through our thoughts - recognize that thoughts are not reality. Same with emotions. They come and go, but there is something deeper. There is a gap. There is space in which all of this takes place.
Clarify and Practice - learn how to live from that place. You have choices. You have options. When something comes at you, from outside or from inside, you can respond in a variety of ways. Or not. You see how the world reacts and learn more. Life as a dance. Developing strength and flexibility. The world as teacher. We make mistakes on the dance floor, cause harm and are harmed too. We have to heal from these injuries and take responsibility for the harm we cause.
Not about You - Other people don’t feel this way. We wish they could. Our orientation turns from self to others. If we are not our thoughts or feelings, maybe we are not our perceptions either. Our skin gets thin, permeable, transparent at times. We float in the water and then dissolve. We get stuck on feeling superior to others. Instead of using our wisdom to criticize others, we have examine our own experience and take responsibility.
Close the Gap [what Lama Liz was talking about] - Spend more and more time in Sacred World, connected to everything around. Act from that place. Merging body, speech and mind. Working with others more directly, with more intention. There is significant power here. The trap of spiritual materialism that was present before can be particularly subtle here.
Ordinary Mind - 100% alive and connected. In the flow. Awakeness and therefore benefit naturally emanating from simple actions. It’s ordinary because it is what it is - simple, magical, just as it is.

I think that’s what she’s saying.

So maybe the stages of the path are something like:

Be a kid - Pure perception but no agency. Totally at the mercy of the world around you and your emotional swings. We all experience trauma at this stage and need to heal.
Develop agency - Become your own person, separate from your parents and family situation. Build up the weapons and armor to journey out on your own. Develop your own friends and community. More trauma can occur here. We are harmed and cause harm while we’re reacting or trying to escape pain.
See through our thoughts - recognize that thoughts are not reality. Same with emotions. They come and go, but there is something deeper. There is a gap. There is space in which all of this takes place.
Clarify and Practice - learn how to live from that place. You have choices. You have options. When something comes at you, from outside or from inside, you can respond in a variety of ways. Or not. You see how the world reacts and learn more. Life as a dance. Developing strength and flexibility. The world as teacher. We make mistakes on the dance floor, cause harm and are harmed too. We have to heal from these injuries and take responsibility for the harm we cause.
Not about You - Other people don’t feel this way. We wish they could. Our orientation turns from self to others. If we are not our thoughts or feelings, maybe we are not our perceptions either. Our skin gets thin, permeable, transparent at times. We float in the water and then dissolve. We get stuck on feeling superior to others. Instead of using our wisdom to criticize others, we have examine our own experience and take responsibility.
Close the Gap [what Lama Liz was talking about] - Spend more and more time in Sacred World, connected to everything around. Act from that place. Merging body, speech and mind. Working with others more directly, with more intention. There is significant power here. The trap of spiritual materialism that was present before can be particularly subtle here.
Ordinary Mind - 100% alive and connected. In the flow. Awakeness and therefore benefit naturally emanating from simple actions. It’s ordinary because it is what it is - simple, magical, just as it is.