Pure Experience is the end point of Self-knowledge. We can pinpoint the different aspects of Pure Experience and relate it, through metaphor, to the art of archery. We will correspond, in a creative fashion, many of the deeper areas of experience, to the different processes to drawing the bow and arrow.Nothingness, the orgin of experience, can be related to the person drawing the bow. The origin of the process of archery, begins with the drawer of the bow. Similarly, the origin of the person, the deepest aspect is the empty and deep Nothing, without category, substance or quality. The bow can correspond to Being, both as Being-in-itself and being-in-the-world. The former is the front part of the bow, the part that connects immediately to Nothingness, or the drawer. Being-in-itself is very close to Nothingness. It emerges first from experience. We first experience Consciousness-as it-is, then emerges our essential Existence. The second section of the bow, that contains the pulled part of the Bow that the aiming hand holds is Being-in-the-world.
Being-in-the-World emerges, secondarily from Being-in-itself. They are both the same, but the second is extended from the first. Same with the bow. The second half of the bow, the part that is pulled and extended, and furthest from the person (holding the hand that is aiming the arrow) is connected to the first part. The second section of the bow is connected to the first part, as is Being-in-the-world connected to Being-in-itself.
The Deeper Qualities, such as Freedom, Love and Clarity are the “child” or extension to both aspects of the Essence of the Real Self, Nothingness and Being. The Qualitative Condition is what helps us to understand experience, and is thus “pure” or unfettered by narcisstice subjectivity. The “shot” is the Qualitative Condition. When we are connected to both Nothingness and Being, we are “aiming” to our experience in the world, and the “shot” is the Quality itself. The shot emerges from the bow (being) and the drawer of the bow (Nothingness or Consciousness-as-it-is).
The target is the external social process, whether relationships, career, art, health or home. When the shot is aimed, through both aspects of the Real Self, Nothingness and Being, we hit the target. This hit connects us to experieince; we have to hit the target, because we have aimed it. We may not hit a bulls-eye, but if all the conditions are right, we will hit the target. When the subjective identity is contacted, we do not see the target; the drawer of the bow is unsteady and the bow is not held appropriately. When that occurs, the “shot” is made up of displaced qualities, particularly excesses and deficiencies, which miss the target completely. The shot misses because the drawer was not present to the shot, the bow was not aimed right - being and thus, being-in-the-world, was clouded by thought; thus the distraction, will produce the displaced qualtity. This misses the shot. When there is an excess or deificiency of the original Qualitiy, producing many of our unwelcomed traits, we do not act appropriately, or miss the target of our living.
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