[Buddha-l] What is direct experience?

[Stefan Detrez]

In traditional karate it is said that one should become 'empty' in order to
practice properly. Becoming 'empty' means the mind should be 'opened' and
'without ego' and it should not be occupied with the rationalization of the
movement of the body, for instance, 'I see a kick coming, so I move
backwards.' This should happen without thinking and doing this correctly
without the verbal thinking process is what's it all about. If you think it
through, when you face an opponent and receive or deliver strikes, there is
little time left to literally sum up what is happening. To explain what is
happening or to put into words what is happening, not to mention worrying
about an unpaid bill, is distracting from the concentration required to
fight succesfully. It is then not a matter of non-cognitive knowledge, it is
a suspension of naming what is happening because of lack of time. In a
similar way, the normative 'non-self' can be understood as a instrumental
denial of the self as an existential coping mechanism, an idea I losely base
on the approach to anatta of Stephen Collins' Selfless Persons.

Stefan