Subtle aspects of self

Get a remote control for a television that allows you to turn up the volume.

Sit about 20 to 30 feet from the television. Place a ticking clock or other quiet sounding device within a few feet of you. If it is a device that you can also control the volume of turn it down until it is easily heard but not much more than that. Listen to the sound of the clock for five seconds and increase the volume of the television from zero to the first time you can hear the TV. Listen for five more seconds. Continue increasing the volume of the TV until you cannot hear the nearby sound source no matter how hard you try.

Ask yourself,How are my emotions like the television’s loudness?

What am I missing from my spectrum of life experiences that, like the ticking clock, are “un-hearable,” because I am attending to much “louder” input from other sources? Are they unavailable to me, because they are, indeed, too quietly manifested in my nervous system or because they are too intellectually subtle?

What would my understanding be of the phrase “emotionally subtle?”

How can I turn down the volume on certain aspects of my life or turn it up for other aspects?

Would I want to have a huge wave of happiness ALWAYS going through my nervous system? At work? In sports? While driving?

If all of life were to be seen as the loud television, what would be the equivalent quiet ticking? Is there something that is NOT “all of life?”

When I am paying attention to something that really entertains me, is there still some slight effort involved-some aspect of it that is like this experiment/task?

What is the nature of true effortlessness for me? How could I set that up for myself?

What is the quietest part of me?