What It Feels Like To Be Headless - Richard Lang | Modern Wisdom Podcast 336

You have been under the deep conviction that you are what you look like, with a head. All right, you've got that going, but now pause and look for yourself and take seriously what you actually experience. There isn't anything here except space for the whole world.

Sam Harris says that the implications of The Headless Way provide insights into the nature of the mind, which he considers to be among the most important things that he's ever learned. Why do you think that the realization of not-self is so impactful?

Because it's true. It's just the simple truth. I mean, I'm looking at you, Chris, and I know some people are just listening, but you can imagine, but I see your face, I don't see mine. And I know from the outside we're face-to-face, I understand that, but my own direct experience is face to no face, so I say I've got your face instead of mine. I'm built open for you, and that is verifiable now. I'm not going by what someone has told me, I'm actually just looking and enjoying having your face, and you've got mine, you see, so we call it trading faces. So that is available, it's verifiable, uh, and it's loving actually because you're seeing that you're built open to others and, uh, welcoming the world in your open space here. And all the viewer or listener has to do is, is look for, for their own face, notice you can't see it, you see a bit of your nose coming out of nowhere and there are sensations, right? But they don't add up to this, uh, to a, being inside a, a head. So I, I hardly use the word non-dual. I, I just, um, it, it... That seems to sort of... Because I like the dual as well, you see? Uh, it's important to remain aware of yourself as separate, you see? Well, we've got that, we don't really have to work on that. (laughs) Now, now we, uh, return back to our own point of view and see, you know, are you looking out of two eyes or one opening, you see? And there's one opening and, and y- you can't miss that, I think. You can't actually see your head and you can't do it wrong 'cause you can't sort of half see your headlessness. (laughs) And, uh, y- you know. So, uh, and, uh, The Headless Way, uh, it really started with Douglas Harding back in the 1940s and he was asking the question, "Who am I?" And finally... And he realized, well, there's this model you were mentioning, so, uh, for those who can't see, it's a model with layers. And, uh, Douglas designed this and it shows you that at a certain range, you see, this is you at center, the no-thing, emptiness, your no face, and then at a certain range, six feet, you're a person, but further away, you know, you're a, a city and then a planet and a star and a galaxy or closer to your cells, you see? So this is w- this is verifiable. If someone looked at you and said, you said, "What am I?" I say, "Well, from here, you're Chris, but if I went way up, you'd be the planet Earth. And if I came in close to you, you'd be cells." Now, the question is, what is at the center of all these layers? What are you really? And you're the only one there, you see? I'm pointing right at you. The on- you're the only one there, so you're the only one that can see. But as close as anyone can get, you're almost nothing.