One way of disembedding yourself from the subject-object frame of reference is to repeatedly look for the subject—that which is aware of your subjective experience. This process is like curing yourself of a belief in a non-existent ghost.
At first, you believe the subject exists. This is like being convinced that the ghost exists. When you believe there’s a ghost in your house, you will repeatedly perceive it, even if there’s actually no ghost there.
The way to cure yourself of this misperception is to move toward the ghost when you think you perceive it and actually look for it, carefully and methodically. When you look for the ghost, you don’t find it—but you still believe it’s there. So later, you think you see it again, hiding in the shadows. Again, you look for it, carefully and methodically—and again, you don’t find it.
Eventually, you start taking your perceptions of this ghost a little less seriously. You may still perceive it sometimes, but you don’t give these perceptions much importance. Eventually, you may even stop perceiving it.
Does this sound anything like your experience of insight practice? Leave a comment and let us know!
Photo ghost by avmaier is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.