To: K-list
Recieved: 1999/05/21 22:51
Subject: [K-list] Any help for anyone?
From: Raymond Wand
On 1999/05/21 22:51, Raymond Wand posted thus to the K-list:
Dear Friends,
There is one thing which has helped me in this 'insanity' of mine....
http://www.headless.org/experiments.htm
General Introduction.
This method of self-enquiry, sometimes called 'headlessness' or 'seeing who
you really are' ('seeing' for short), has been pioneered by the English
philosopher and workshop leader Douglas E. Harding, born in 1909. It is a
contemporary approach which investigates the question Who am I? and suggests
that you can see Who you really are here and now. It provides simple but
deep awareness exercises that direct you to this Seeing within yourself.
Background.
In the 1930's D.E. Harding was asking himself the question Who am I? He
realised that what he appeared to be to others depended on their range from
him. His observations and thinking included the following: at several feet
he appeared human, but closer to he was just an eye, cells, molecules,
atoms, electrons and so on, down to practically nothing. Moving away but
still looking at him, the external observer lost sight of his individual
form which became absorbed into humanity, life, the planet, the solar
system, the galaxy. The map he drew of himself looked like an onion with
many layers. The human layer was half-way out from the centre.
The question Harding became particularly concerned with was: What or who is
at the centre? This question was of vital importance to him partly because
it was during the Second World War, Harding was in India, and threat of
invasion from the East loomed. He wanted to find out who he really was
before he died. In a sense, any other question became secondary to this one:
Who am I really?
Harding finally discovered what and who was at centre not by thinking but
simply by looking. This moment is described in his book 'On Having No Head'
(Arkana). Basically, he realised he could see his legs, arms, trunk, but not
his head. From where he was looking, he was headless. Instead of his head
there was nothing - clear space, emptiness. And in this space was the world.
He had 'lost a head and gained a world'.
This experience corresponds to what in other traditions might be called
Liberation, Enlightenment, seeing God, seeing the Void, being centred.
Following this, Harding wrote The Hierarchy of Heaven and Earth, (1952) a
great book (prefaced by C.S.Lewis) which places this experience in the
context of contemporary and traditional world-views. It makes sense of this
inseeing in terms of contemporary science. It is a contemporary map of our
place in the universe. Harding also developed awareness exercises
or'experiments' whose purpose is to test the truth of this perspective.
So look in a mirror and mediate on how and what you see!
The 'answers' we seek are to be found within us.......
Love and Hugs,
Raymond
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