The experiencer, the watcher, the self. When we separate from experience all sorts of disconnects happen. Stories abound. A short discourse by Ken on subject-object.
So we have this experience of seeing and at the same time--we'll come back to this again this afternoon--we don't know where it comes from. We can't say where it comes from. We can't say where it is and we can't say where it goes. Which ordinarily we say doesn't exist. But I want to point out one particular thing.
When you focus on the experience of seeing, what happens to subject-object?
Student: Dissolves, unite?
Ken: Dissolves, unites, either way sense of subject-object just disappears right? It's like what subject, what object, okay?
The twelve sense fields was a map developed by the Sarvastivadins to eliminate the notion of the self as the experiencer. Or as you say the objective pole of experience; that's what the self is. And you see when you actually look at experience itself, that sense of being an experiencer that somehow stands outside of experience just vanishes.
In simple terms, to talk about an experiencer and an experienced makes as much sense as talking about the two ends of a pencil without talking about a pencil.
We actually have a far more intimate relationship with experience. You know, everything that we experience we're intimately connected. As connected as the two ends of the pencil. But we ordinarily ignore this. So we have the experience of separation.
So that's what this particular map is about.
