Introduction
John Astin introduces his series of short "experiential inquiries."
Refer to Nothing
Let all prior knowledge and understanding fade into the background.
What Is Experience Made Of?
Relax any effort and "feel into the texture" of your experience.
Reality—Virtual, Actual, Both
Discover the limits of language as you explore the sensations in your face.
The Indescribability of Experience
Look into your direct experience and notice how everything is always changing.
Boundaries
Try to find a dividing line between your skin and the rest of the world.
Everything Slips Away
See how everything appears and vanishes in an instant.
Presence
Discover how experience "cannot be collapsed into any description or category."
Resting as the View
Notice how this moment is inescapably present, no matter what happens.
No Distractions
Let go of any attempt to control attention and allow the mind to be as it is.
Drifting Toward Reality
Feel how experience "shapeshifts" and never holds still.
The Miracle of Perceiving
Shift your focus from the "content" of experiencing to the greater "context."
Everything Is Present
Notice that presence is happening, all by itself.
Beyond Hierarchy
Drop all labeling of experience and notice how everything is equal.
Wide Open
Feel the "swirl of sensations" of your body and see how there are no boundaries.
The Borderless Field of Being
See if you can find a place where "you" end and "the world" begins.
Expressions of Energy
Feel "the energy of life itself" and make no effort to alter or control it.
We Have Not Been Here Before
Encounter the world anew, as if you've never been here before.
Time
Notice how "time" is an abstraction—a product of memory and thought.
The Bottomless Well of Infinity
See how "the more carefully we examine things, the less coherent they become."
What Are We?
Look and feel what is presently happening—and contemplate what you are.
Everything Is the Flowering of This
“All that's here, now, is the potency, radiance, and wholeness we've been looking for.”
Already Here, Already Welcomed
To experience reality is to embrace it—fully, unconditionally, and inseparably.
Everything a Universe unto Itself
Our concepts obscure the infinitely rich complexity of all they seem to point to.
Like Writing Your Name on Water
Each moment vanishes the instant it appears, liberating us to embrace the next one.
Nothing Here to Resolve
The problem at hand has already become entirely new—neither a problem, nor at hand.
The Ground That’s Always Here
Experience is always shifting, but the flow of change is constant, and contains all.
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Beyond Concepts
Discover John Astin’s unique approach of "experiential inquiry"—and examine what lies underneath the words and concepts we use to label experience.
to listen to all 27 sessions in this series.
Artwork by James Daus