What is experience?

[Someone here]

23 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

This" can be anything and everything. Are you even clear about what you are referring to by that? What is "this"?

It cannot be explained. Words don't define "this " since words are not more fundamental than "this ". " this " is not a name or a word ..but words and names are part of "this" .so the part can't define the whole . 

The question of what is "this " is the biggest mystery in existence. And I know this is not helping ..but the only way to really know what "this " is is by going insane .🤷‍♂️ and I mean it in the most literal sense possible. 

 

Edited April 29 by Someone here

[UnbornTao]

15 hours ago, Someone here said:

It cannot be explained. Words don't define "this " since words are not more fundamental than "this ". " this " is not a name or a word ..but words and names are part of "this" .so the part can't define the whole . 

The question of what is "this " is the biggest mystery in existence. And I know this is not helping ..but the only way to really know what "this " is is by going insane .🤷‍♂️ and I mean it in the most literal sense possible. 

With or without an explanation, are we clear on what is being pointed at?

Language will be used. Besides that, it is about getting what experience, in this case, is; insanity has little or nothing to do with it. So again, what exactly do you mean by "this"? The body? A perception? Feeling? A sense of awareness? A sense of being an internal "one"? Sensation? This present moment? Emotion, perhaps? Conscious experience? Feeling present and existing, but as a vague or undefined "space"? What you are? 

But what we're tackling now is experience, rather than self or existence, so that's that.

Edited April 29 by UnbornTao

[Osaid]

1 hour ago, UnbornTao said:

what is prior to experience can't be experienced, or it isn't an experience.

Yeah totally. 

1 hour ago, UnbornTao said:

Say awareness is the source of it -- what would we do with that?

That would be a "distinction", or "other than experience", which thus wouldn't actually be experienced.

Interestingly, it's very easy to say what isn't experience rather than what it is.

[Someone here]

8 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

With or without an explanation, the point is being clear on what is being pointed at.

Take your thumb ..point at literally anything in your environment right now ..that is what I mean by " this ". Your proplem is you want a word to slap it on top of " this "...right? 

Fine ...here you go : "this " is unconditional watermelon juice with unconditional love tea sweeteners. 

11 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

it is about getting what experience, in this case, is; insanity has little or nothing to do with it. 

Quit this Peter Ralstonian nonsense. 

12 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

insanity has little or nothing to do with it. 

No .it has everything to do with it . Go three days without a single second of sleep ..then go take a walk in the streets and observe people fighting..cars parking .. street dogs raping each other's....and then I promise you ..you will get EXACTLY what I'm blabbering  about .

Or..get stoned on some Salvia .

[Yimpa]

 

[Natasha Tori Maru]

Experience is existence teaching you, in the moment.

[UnbornTao]

18 hours ago, Sugarcoat said:

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?

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)

I see, thanks. 

13 hours ago, Yimpa said:

 

Exactly.

[UnbornTao]

13 hours ago, Osaid said:

Yeah totally. 

That would be a "distinction", or "other than experience", which thus wouldn't actually be experienced.

Interestingly, it's very easy to say what isn't experience rather than what it is.

Yep, tricky subject. 

13 hours ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

Experience is existence teaching you, in the moment.

I like this, although it doesn't seem to point to what it is in and of itself. 

[UnbornTao]

On 29/4/2025 at 3:34 AM, Someone here said:

Take your thumb ..point at literally anything in your environment right now ..that is what I mean by " this ". Your proplem is you want a word to slap it on top of " this "...right? 

Fine ...here you go : "this " is unconditional watermelon juice with unconditional love tea sweeteners. 

Quit this Peter Ralstonian nonsense. 

No .it has everything to do with it . Go three days without a single second of sleep ..then go take a walk in the streets and observe people fighting..cars parking .. street dogs raping each other's....and then I promise you ..you will get EXACTLY what I'm blabbering  about .

Or..get stoned on some Salvia .

You're talking about things other than consciousness, which isn't madness; it's just being conscious of what is already true. An unprecedented openness might result from that but those are functions of mind, and activities.

If that were the case, how come awakened individuals generally seem to be freer than most of us? Hey, it might turn out to be the other way around -- consciousness being the recognition of inherent wholeness at last.

We may be getting sidetracked from the main topic, though. 

Edited May 1 by UnbornTao

[Someone here]

@UnbornTao truth can't be told . You can't say everything there is to say in a sentence or Two.

[UnbornTao]

3 hours ago, Someone here said:

@UnbornTao truth can't be told . You can't say everything there is to say in a sentence or Two.

Start contemplating something already. 

Edited May 2 by UnbornTao

[Someone here]

22 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

Start contemplating something already. 

How about you contemplate truth and find out how on earth could INFINITY be watered down into a paragraph or two or even a whole book ?

[UnbornTao]

1 hour ago, Someone here said:

How about you contemplate truth and find out how on earth could INFINITY be watered down into a paragraph or two or even a whole book ?

You're engaging in speculation. Again, you need to get over this tacit assumption of yours that something you haven't investigated is impossible to discover because of a predetermined outcome that you hold in your mind. It isn't discovered until it is discovered. And I'm not saying it will be known as an answer; I'm just encouraging real openness.

You might as well start with what language is, and how it is meant to represent experiences, but that's for another thread if you want to open it. For now, you're invited to focus on what experience is, not what you think about it. Avoid abstraction.

Edited May 2 by UnbornTao

[Someone here]

@UnbornTao I'm talking east and you are talking west . Not going to work .

If you are not enlightened..then you probably don't know what Truth is . But are you satisfied with this state of not knowing ? Why not brainwash yourself with any kind of ideology or religion and buy your peace of mind instead of doing the hard work of finding the truth by yourself? 

The point I'm trying to make is that given that our current state in the spiritual journey is less than let's call it  .."fully awake ".. Then how do you at least find a ground for your metaphysical and epistemic questions which you know isn't complete and you are deluded about ? I'm not speculating . I asked you how do you fit the whole inside the part?  The "whole " being all that there is..and the "part " being words.. Language...etc.

[UnbornTao]

@Someone here Zen stick for you.

[Someone here]

4 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

@Someone here Zen stick for you.

My stick "down there " for you 

[UnbornTao]

A couple definitions to keep us going:

experience:

1. something personally encountered, undergone, or lived through
2. the act or process of directly perceiving events or reality

[Natasha Tori Maru]

On 30/04/2025 at 2:19 AM, UnbornTao said:

I like this, although it doesn't seem to point to what it is in and of itself. 

Hmmm okay, I see what you mean.

I thought about this on my morning run.

Could we say, experience is a function that arises from space-time, and consciousness' perception?

Time is certainly a variable to describe the initial state of the 'space', as it will describe the transition of the matter change from start to finish.

So the span of time between these 2 variables & the description of space (we can also ascribe an x-y-z cartesian system to isolate a box of space) is the transition. And our perception and reaction is the resultant experience?

Ultimately, experience is a change in consciousness - all other intricacies removed.

Its for sure better to express this as an equation. 

I genuinely feel the collective consciousness needs to be accounted for here. Consciousness is here within us all, individuated, to have experience as the highest truth. It is why we are here. We are all part of a collective consciousness learning through this experience. But to do so we need to be individuated, otherwise we would just know all. No surprises. No experiences. All is known. Knowing is the burden when all is known.

 

[UnbornTao]

10 hours ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

Hmmm okay, I see what you mean.

I thought about this on my morning run.

Could we say, experience is a function that arises from space-time, and consciousness' perception?

Time is certainly a variable to describe the initial state of the 'space', as it will describe the transition of the matter change from start to finish.

So the span of time between these 2 variables & the description of space (we can also ascribe an x-y-z cartesian system to isolate a box of space) is the transition. And our perception and reaction is the resultant experience?

Ultimately, experience is a change in consciousness - all other intricacies removed.

Its for sure better to express this as an equation. 

I genuinely feel the collective consciousness needs to be accounted for here. Consciousness is here within us all, individuated, to have experience as the highest truth. It is why we are here. We are all part of a collective consciousness learning through this experience. But to do so we need to be individuated, otherwise we would just know all. No surprises. No experiences. All is known. Knowing is the burden when all is known.

We can observe that experience always occurs now, yet this now is not readily apprehended nor does it seem to be dependent on time. What we commonly consider now is a process and so it isn't actually now, as in when we say "I'm angry now," which is an activity that arises to serve some end. Without any concept, even without the assertions above, what's experience?

How do you see perception and its relation to experience?

Edited May 5 by UnbornTao

[Natasha Tori Maru]

8 hours ago, UnbornTao said:

We can observe that experience always occurs now, yet this now is not readily apprehended nor does it seem to be dependent on time. What we commonly consider now is a process and so it isn't actually now, as in when we say "I'm angry now," which is an activity that arises to serve some end. Without any concept, even without the assertions above, what's experience?

How do you see perception and its relation to experience?

Great thoughts, thank you very much! 

You are prompting me to drill down into this.

Ultimately I feel like experience is consciousness cohesively focusing on a subject as a data harvest, as a way to change state. To grow. Experience is a delectable meal for consciousness. A veritable feast!

I suppose I am still not answering the question. There is certainly an element of doing involved, and wisdom earned. Certainly, feeling is part of this experience. Experience also serves survival, but I feel the needs to serve survival are purely so that the body can continue as a container. To harvest experience to contribute to the collective consciousness of God. So behind it still lays this unifying love that is harvesting, clothed in what appears to be survival. 

It seems to me experience can only be the act of consciousness perceiving, reacting & learning from data it creates as a result of defining & placing limits - and then the resultant learning and change of state.

I fear I still haven't answered, but I have enjoyed the process