What is experience?

[Someone here]

@UnbornTao So is it the same question as what is existence or what is reality or what is THIS? 

[UnbornTao]

18 minutes ago, Someone here said:

@UnbornTao So is it the same question as what is existence or what is reality or what is THIS? 

Not sure, although I'd rather keep the discussion focused specifically on what experience is. When you say "this," it leaves a lot of room for confusion. When we say that we have experience, what do we mean by that? 

And from that contemplation, we start to make new, finer distinctions within experience. 

Another angle to investigate this: What's the difference between experiencing something, perceiving something, and interpreting and making sense of something?

Edited Sunday at 05:18 PM by UnbornTao

[Someone here]

9 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

Not sure, although I'd rather keep the discussion focused specifically on what experience is. 

It has no definition unless you give it one . You expect an objective answer to the meaning of the word " experience " ? When you yourself say "experience " ..what ..exactly..are you talking about? 

11 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

What's the difference between experiencing something, perceiving something, and interpreting and making sense of something?

Experiencing something means experiencing something. 

Perceiving something means perceiving something. 

Making sense of something means making sense of something. 

This is merely tautological and linguistic kind of deal here .

[CARDOZZO]

1 hour ago, UnbornTao said:

What is that something, and is it actually happening for yourself? For example, when perceiving an object, do we experience what it is? What is it that comes up for us in that encounter, relative to that thing, say, a banana? 

What if your self is happening to experience?

I would say that self is something that YOU are doing to experience.

Experience is independent from self.

YOU (Consciousness) add SELF (I) to experience something (object, feeling, sensation, mind)

Edited Sunday at 05:29 PM by CARDOZZO

[theleelajoker]

I just came back today from a 10 Day meditation retreat (Vipassana after Goenka). I went deeper than I ever went before. Many things they say in the instructions manifested step by step. And I was and I still am a very long distance from further steps and deeper experiences they describe. Still, the insights are invaluable. A lifetime of wisdom compressed in 10 days.

I open this forum and see this thread. I go through all the posts from the beginning until now. Pretty much everything @Breakingthewall says resonates as true for me, very much aligned with my experience.

@Breakingthewall I admire your patience, again and again discussing, explaining, taking up points, giving examples. I guess reality leaves you with no choice but to do so, creating a strong desire to awaken people, to break through barriers. Your posts helped me (a lot) and surely helped others but due to the nature of this forum a lot of your energy might unfortunately being wasted. Intellect is very limited and understanding fragmented at this mental level.

I am at a point where I see that direct experience is what helps most. Direct experience through meditation. Slow, steady progress. Psychedelics are a dangerous game, it shocks the organism and many can't take it. For everybody looking for answers I can only say one thing: Divert attention inside and you are likely to eventually find all answers you are looking for.

 

Edit: Two things that help most: 1) direct experience and 2) a good sense of humor

Edited Sunday at 05:48 PM by theleelajoker

[Breakingthewall]

4 minutes ago, theleelajoker said:

I just came back today from a 10 Day meditation retreat (Vipassana after Goenka). I went as deeper as I ever went before. Many things they say in the instructions manifested step by step. And I was and I still am a very long distance from further steps and deeper experiences they describe. Still, the insights are invaluable. A lifetime of wisdom compressed in 10 days.

I open this forum and see this thread. I go through all the posts from the beginning until now. Pretty much everything @Breakingthewall says resonates as true for me, very much aligned with my experience.

@Breakingthewall I admire your patience, again and again discussing, explaining, taking up points, giving examples. I guess reality leaves you with no choice but to do so, creating a strong desire to awaken people, to break through barriers. Your posts helped me (a lot) and surely helped others but due to the nature of this forum a lot of your energy might unfortunately being wasted. Intellect is very limited and understanding fragmented at this mental level.

I am at a point where I see that direct experience is what helps most. Direct experience through meditation. Slow, steady progress. Psychedelics are a dangerous game, it shocks the organism and many can't take it. For everybody looking for answers I can only say one thing: Divert attention inside and you are likely to eventually find all answers you are looking for.

 

Edit: Two things that help most: 1) direct experience and 2) a good sense of humor

Great if you found what I said useful. I don't talk with the idea of helping the people, it's like a kind of meditation in company.  Talking about this make everything becoming clearer little by little. Without this activity it would be impossible to me

[theleelajoker]

15 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

Great if you found what I said useful. I don't talk with the idea of helping the people, it's like a kind of meditation in company.  Talking about this make everything becoming clearer little by little. Without this activity it would be impossible to me

Yeah I get you. 

I guess I was projecting a bit with the idea if helping others. For me it helps if I feel understood. So I want to talk and teach about these things. Which means I need to help people understand what's actually going on. Which fails in 99% of cases.

It's sad, but on a personal level, there is actually nobody I can talk completely honestly about all this. I hinted sth with our very experienced Vipassana teacher and even he did "pretend" not to know what I am talking about. The false self is really incredible strong...

Edited Sunday at 06:02 PM by theleelajoker

[Breakingthewall]

20 minutes ago, theleelajoker said:

Yeah I get you. 

I guess I was projecting a bit with the idea if helping others. For me it helps if I feel understood. So I want to talk and teach about these things. Which means I need to help people understand what's actually going on. Which fails in 99% of cases.

It's sad, but on a personal level, there is actually nobody I can talk completely honestly about all this. I hinted sth with our very experienced Vipassana teacher and even he did "pretend" not to know what I am talking about. The false self is really incredible strong...

It's almost impossible to find anyone truly immersed in this process. Millions are into spirituality, but what they are looking for is be grounded. security

Another reason for talking so much about this is that it seems the subject of "enlightenment" or whatever we want to call it isn't truly formulated precisely anywhere, or at least seems so, everything is confusing ; no one has drawn a clear map. It's something that can be done, but it's extremely difficult, subtle, and full of nuances. It's extremely confusing and subjective. Our minds are full of barriers. The configuration of our reality is a structure that traps you and makes it extremely difficult to step back and see everything from another perspective. 

Edited Sunday at 06:21 PM by Breakingthewall

[Aaron p]

Ontological awakening: experience is insane expansion of chaos and random insane what the fuck is going on expansion. Everything becomes impossible, and awesome. Experience is unimaginable fear, and heaven.

Practical/self improvement: experience is balls, experience is putting your money where your mouth is. It's strength, power, having character, being "real", being respected. Experience carries more weight than theoretical knowledge. I think the reason this is because, while cerebral knowledge can be very powerful and pragmatic, experience deals with an exchange of energy. Kind of how a phone call or zoom call carries less weight than a physical meeting...even if you don't hug during said meeting, the human body is an energetic field of real energy, when it *experiences* something directly, it affects that which it experiences and likewise that which it experiences affects it. An energetic exchange.

My 2 cents. ♥️ 

[Sugarcoat]

4 hours ago, UnbornTao said:

A sense is experienced, so that doesn't seem to be it.

What if self is the ancillary process here, a result that comes about after experience, rather than the self being the foundation for it?

Sight , sound , physical sensation are all senses, they are experienced = sensed, sensing = experiencing. To sense= to experience. 
 

We both experience ourselves as an object and are the experiencer (the subject) kinda I think. We are both aware of ourselves and of other objects. The self is special in that way

Maybe I’m making zero sense

Edited Sunday at 07:46 PM by Sugarcoat

[UnbornTao]

2 hours ago, CARDOZZO said:

I would say that self is something that YOU are doing to experience.

Experience is independent from self.

YOU (Consciousness) add SELF (I) to experience something (object, feeling, sensation, mind)

Sounds good. And what is the nature of either? In this case, experience. For example, how do you see perception and experience? 

[UnbornTao]

2 hours ago, Someone here said:

It has no definition unless you give it one . You expect an objective answer to the meaning of the word " experience " ? When you yourself say "experience " ..what ..exactly..are you talking about? 

Experiencing something means experiencing something. 

Perceiving something means perceiving something. 

Making sense of something means making sense of something. 

This is merely tautological and linguistic kind of deal here .

It's not about having a definition but an insight. Not the meaning per se but what it is. 

That's what we're tying to work out here. Since we already live within the distinctions "experience," perception, etc., then it begs the question what those are. The distinctions aren't mere abstract notions that we cognize.

It is neither linguistic nor tautological. What are they, really? 

One of the goals here is being able to experientially differentiate between these in a precise manner. Intellectually, we think we know what these are but in reality it is likely we mush them all into the vague label of "experience."

You encounter an object; it turns out that you feel attracted to it and it has positive associations and memories relative to you -- use this example.

Might edit the response.

[UnbornTao]

25 minutes ago, Sugarcoat said:

Sight , sound , physical sensation are all senses, they are experienced = sensed, sensing = experiencing. To sense= to experience. 
 

What about the sense of self? There's no perceptive organ for that. 

I propose that much of what we consider to be experience is more conceptual in nature than we currently are aware of, whereas experience may be something else entirely. 

Is there something within experience that isn't a sense or a sensation? Do we even experience an object as it is, or do we rather experience how it relates to us? 

Look at an object you like. The liking itself isn't a perception or experience of the object, even though these -- the liking and what we may call the interpretation of the object -- are both commonly put under the same umbrella of a singular "experience."

25 minutes ago, Sugarcoat said:

We both experience ourselves as an object and are the experiencer (the subject) kinda I think. We are both aware of ourselves and of other objects. The self is special in that way

Maybe I’m making zero sense

You're making sense. I wouldn't consider the self to be at the source of these activities, but maybe you (what you are), as @CARDOZZO alluded to.

[Someone here]

@UnbornTao I have no answers. We literally could dive into what youre doing here all night long until sun rise and we won't arrive nowhere. You need to stop dissecting concepts into more concepts exponentially..and just grasp that you can't grasp what's doing the grasping. Because it is already itself .

Much love 🙏. 

[theleelajoker]

 

1 hour ago, Aaron p said:

Ontological awakening: experience is insane expansion of chaos and random insane what the fuck is going on expansion. Everything becomes impossible, and awesome. Experience is unimaginable fear, and heaven.

Practical/self improvement: experience is balls, experience is putting your money where your mouth is. It's strength, power, having character, being "real", being respected. Experience carries more weight than theoretical knowledge. I think the reason this is because, while cerebral knowledge can be very powerful and pragmatic, experience deals with an exchange of energy. Kind of how a phone call or zoom call carries less weight than a physical meeting...even if you don't hug during said meeting, the human body is an energetic field of real energy, when it *experiences* something directly, it affects that which it experiences and likewise that which it experiences affects it. An energetic exchange.

My 2 cents. ♥️ 

Yeah, I agree. For whatever reason, it's doing > knowing, doing > thinking, doing > understanding.

Thoughts etc seem just to be a support wheel, the same way you learn how to ride a bike.

[UnbornTao]

23 minutes ago, Someone here said:

@UnbornTao I have no answers.

That's the best place to start. Progress!  

23 minutes ago, Someone here said:

We literally could dive into what youre doing here all night long until sun rise and we won't arrive nowhere. You need to stop dissecting concepts into more concepts exponentially..and just grasp that you can't grasp what's doing the grasping. Because it is already itself .

Much love 🙏. 

You are essentially saying "it is not possible to grasp the nature of experience." I understand the irritation, though. 

The purpose of this thread is to recognize that the truth of experience is currently unknown to us, and to open up as a result. It isn't meant to "enlighten" us, although it wouldn't hurt. The point is precisely not to dissect concepts but experience. It just so happens that the medium used for that is written communication, which makes the exchange trickier. 

[Osaid]

5 hours ago, UnbornTao said:

Something perceived seems to come prior to experience

Is something "prior to experience" experienced, or is that more of what isn't experience?

[Someone here]

1 hour ago, UnbornTao said:

The purpose of this thread is to recognize that the truth of experience is currently unknown to us,

Really? "The truth of experience " is unknown? 

This  is experience. Sorry to disappoint you . It doesn't get better than that even if you sit lotus meditating for absolute infinity trying to get into a truth about what this  is .

You want to know what THIS  is ?😱 are you fucking kidding me ? 

[Sugarcoat]

23 hours ago, UnbornTao said:

What about the sense of self? There's no perceptive organ for that. 

I propose that much of what we consider to be experience is more conceptual in nature than we currently are aware of, whereas experience may be something else entirely. 

Is there something within experience that isn't a sense or a sensation? Do we even experience an object as it is, or do we rather experience how it relates to us? 

 

The sense of self is special. Like I said it’s like we both ARE ourselves and are aware OF ourselves. It’s a special appearance with no regular qualities to it, like it’s not a sound not a sight not a sensation, it’s different. 
 

 I think our conceptual mind is  involved in shaping our experience 

“is there something within experience that isn’t a sense or sensation?” yea the sense of self. 
 

“do we experience an object as it is, or do we experience how it relates to us?” 
Firstly are there even objects that exist outside our perception?

23 hours ago, UnbornTao said:

Look at an object you like. The liking itself isn't a perception or experience of the object, even though these -- the liking and what we may call the interpretation of the object -- are both commonly put under the same umbrella of a singular "experience."

You're making sense. I wouldn't consider the self to be at the source of these activities, but maybe you (what you are), as @CARDOZZO alluded to.

We experience the liking too, it’s two experiences 

In absolute sense yes, reality (you) is imagining self, and that creates experience (to me experience implies duality)

[UnbornTao]

On 4/27/2025 at 10:48 PM, Osaid said:

Is something "prior to experience" experienced, or is that more of what isn't experience?

"Prior to" as in the source of, or base for, it. I'd say that, by definition, what is prior to experience can't be experienced -- or rather, it isn't an experience. Say awareness is where experience originates -- What would we do with that? 

Another thing: we seem to live as if perception precedes experience, but what if that isn't the case?

Edited 20 hours ago by UnbornTao