Experience of Being

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Experience of Being

Self-study and others-study of the Experience of Being (aka existential feeling-awareness and background experience)

Our experience of being is the experiential ground, backdrop or atmosphere in which all our experiences occur. It is our ever-present, all-pervasive and all-inclusive sense of reality and of ourselves. It permeates, contextualized and colors all our experience. Because it is ever-present and all-pervasive, for most people the experience of being remains unnoticed in the background of their awarene

ss. The Experience of Being project is based on the understanding, that the more aware one is of their experience of being, the more stably grounded in it one is. As a result of that groundedness, the more stable, free of circumstances and available to others one is. The purpose of the project is to bring the experience of being to the forefront of awareness, explore different qualities and aspects of it and highlight its importance. The Experience of Being project follows my previous research projects, titled Spiritual Transmission and Living Transcendence. From the interviews I conducted in those two projects I made a compilation of a few dozen statements, referring to different aspects of the experience of being. These include, for example, “There is something constant, stable and ever-present in my experience” and “I feel guided in my life.”

In the Experience of Being project I am conducting interviews with spiritual adepts and practitioners from different backgrounds, traditions and cultures around the world about their experience of being. In the interviews, I use the above-mentioned statements as “prompts” for reflection. The interviews are video-recorded and the recordings will be used mainly for educational purposes – for facilitating self-reflection and self-inquiry in adult learners, mainly university students of education, psychology, philosophy, theology and spirituality and leaders of religious congregations.

16/01/2026

❇️❇️❇️ Couldn't have said it better myself ❇️❇️❇️

A short clip from an "Experience of Being" interview with Haile Thomas, a young woman carrying ancient wisdom.

16/01/2026

❇️❇️❇️ Experience of being and spiritual awakening ❇️❇️❇️

My proposed definition of "spiritual awakening":

“Spiritual awakening is a shift from focusing on and identifying with the constantly changing contents of experience (thoughts, feelings, sensations, memories, intentions, etc.) to sustained awareness of the Experience of Being - the ever-present background and context of all experience.

This shift is not a construction or acquisition of anything new, but an identification and recognition of a background and context that is always already present in human experience.

This experiential background is characterized by direct knowing of ultimate reality; an atmosphere of subtle positive qualities (sacredness, vibrant stillness, joy, love); a tangible, sensory-embodied sense of presence; a felt connection with the world and everything in it; and an intention to surrender, obey, or be in service of a higher calling.

Spiritual awakening is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon, but a graded process. A person can be considered within the field of this phenomenon if the Experience of Being is readily available to them. This means that the Experience of Being can be directly and immediately recognized without reliance on external conditions such as psychedelic substances, a special practice or retreat.”

29/12/2024

❇️❇️❇️ 存在の経験またはExperience of Being ❇️❇️❇️

私は「存在の経験プロジェクト」の日本へのインタビュー旅行の準備をしており、プロジェクトの説明を日本語に翻訳することにしました。これは、私が英語で書いた文章を Google Translate で翻訳したものです。もしここにいる日本語を話す友人の中で、このプロジェクトについてもっと知りたい人がいたら、Messenger を通じて私に連絡してください。

私たちの「存在の経験」(または「実際に経験」)は、私たちのすべての経験が起こる経験的な基盤、背景、または雰囲気です。それは、私たちの常に存在し、遍在し、すべてを包括する現実と私たち自身の感覚です。それは私たちのすべての経験に浸透し、文脈化され、色づけされます。それは常に存在し、遍在しているため、ほとんどの人にとって、存在の経験は意識の背景にあり、気づかれないままです。

存在の経験プロジェクトは、存在の経験に気づけば気づけるほど、その経験にしっかりと根付くという理解に基づいています。その根付いた状態の結果、人はより安定し、状況に左右されず、他の人に利用できるようになります。プロジェクトの目的は、存在の経験を意識の最前線に持ち込み、そのさまざまな性質と側面を探求し、その重要性を強調することです。

存在の経験プロジェクトは、「スピリチュアルな伝達」(Spiritual Transmission) と「生きた超越」(Living Transcendence) というタイトルの以前の研究プロジェクトに続くものです。これら 2 つのプロジェクトで行ったインタビューから、存在の経験のさまざまな側面に言及する数十の発言をまとめました。たとえば、「私の経験には、不変で安定していて常に存在するものがある」や「私は人生で導かれていると感じている」などです。

存在の経験プロジェクトでは、世界中のさまざまな背景、伝統、文化を持つスピリチュアルの達人や実践者に、存在の経験についてインタビューを行っています。インタビューでは、上記の発言を「プロンプト」として使って考えを巡らせます。インタビューはビデオで録画され、録画は主に教育目的で使用されます。つまり、主に教育、心理学、哲学、神学、スピリチュアリティを学ぶ大学生や宗教団体のリーダーなど、成人学習者の自己反省と自己探求を促進するためです。

29/12/2024

❇️❇️❇️ Spirituality and Zen ❇️❇️❇️

As I'm preparing for my departure to India this Thursday, 2nd of January, for 5 weeks of Experience of Being interviews with spiritual masters and practitioners there, I'm also preparing for another trip, to Japan. That one will be in mid-March, only a month after my return from India, so I have to do a lot of the preparations for it now. Ruti and I rented a house in Kyoto for the first 5 weeks, and then we'll go traveling around Shikoku and Kyushu for two weeks.

In preparation for that trip, beside practicing my spoken Japanese (which has gone quite rusty in the 40 years since I lived there), I'm also contacting Zen masters and practitioners and asking to interview them.

In his response, one of the Zen masters asked me what I meant by "spiritual" and how it was related to Zen. After watching some of his talks online, I replied:

"I watched some of Roshi's talks on YouTube with deep joy and interest. Roshi’s expression of what Zen means is what “spirituality” means to me.

I would like to mention that when I was 25 years old I went to Japan and practiced for 2 years with a Zen master in 静岡県の函南町 [Kannami-cho, Shizuoka Prefecture]. Since then (42 years now) I have been practicing 祇管打坐 [shikantaza, "just sitting"]. This practice is to me the essence of “spirituality.”

I know that the term “spirituality” means very different things to different people, and using this word can be quite confusing. In my current project I am not referring to “spirituality” but to the Experience of Being (実存的経験 or 存在するという経験) . I believe that the Experience of Being is a way of speaking about Zen in a language that are more familiar to the Western way of thinking.

I would like to clarify that in my interviews I focus on the constant, stable and ever-present aspects of the interviewee’s lived experience. So my questions will not be about the Dharma but about Roshi’s lived experience here and now. I would like to make sure that Roshi is comfortable with that."

I was glad to receive the Roshi's confirmation that he would be happy to be interviewed by me.

23/10/2024

❇❇❇ Interviews about the Experience of Being in Italy ❇❇❇

In the last two weeks, Ruthie and I stayed, with our friends Sabi and Ayelet, in northern Italy (Lake Orta) and with friends who are establishing an intentional community, inspired by Kibbutz Neot Smeder, in Tuscany.

In the last few days I conducted interviews about the Experience of Being with the friends we were staying with, Ion Bloch-rand and Adi Wiezman (a "couple interview", a format that I like more and more) in the living room of their home in Tuscany, with the "Fourth Way" teacher Patrizio Paoletti in Assisi (here with our translator), and with one of the leaders of the Jesuit order, David McCallum SJ, in the Vatican. Here are some pictures from those interviews.

And now we are back in Israel.

30/09/2024

❇❇❇ Highs and Lows ❇❇❇

Tomorrow (Tuesday) night, if all goes according to plan, I'll fly to Milan and from there make my way to Le Reposoir in France (in the photo). In that beautiful setting I'll attend a four-day workshop of researchers in micro-phenomenology, sponsored by Mind & Life Europe.

Here in Israel we go every night to sleep at our neighbors' place, because they have an underground shelter (while in our house we have only the cardboard walls to protect us in case of a missile attack). Here in Israel our survival instincts are constantly triggered and our anxiety level goes up and down with the latest news.

In the Le Reposoir workshop, these are the titles of some of the topics on the agenda:
* Exploring the experience of beauty in nature
* On becoming aware that one is dreaming
* Exploring spiritual peak experiences and daily contemplative
practices with ordained priests
* Subtle Sensations within the Goenka Vipassana Tradition
* Slowing down in the context of research
* Where do I end, and we begin? Intersubjectivity in Micro-phenomenology
* Exploring the Experience of Being – a constant, stable and ever-present experience (that's my title of my presentation)

I so look forward to these four days of immersion in the subtleties of human experience and phenomenological research, with leading researchers from all over the world.

After the workshop I'll meet Ruti and a couple of friends in Milan, and we'll travel around N. Italy and Tuscany for ten days.

And then we'll go back to Israel. Barring the possibility that a full-scale war between Israel and Iran starts in the meantime, which is definitely a possibility.

19/09/2024

❇️❇️❇️ A characteristic of spiritual seekers ❇️❇️❇️

In the interviews I conduct as part of the "Experience of Being" project, I read out to the interviewees statements, which touch on constant, stable and ever-present aspects of experience, and ask for their response to each statement. The interviewees include people with long experience in self-reflection and self-inquiry. Some are on a spiritual path or in a religious tradition, either as seekers/practitioners or as masters/teachers, and some are "just" reflective people.

I noticed a typical response of interviewees, whom I would call (and many of them would probably agree) spiritual seekers or practitioners. When I read out to such interviewees a statement such as "there is something constant, stable and ever-present in my experience," their common response is "I wish it were the case... I have glimpses of that constant, stable and ever-present something in meditation / long retreats" - or a variant of this response.

This response is based on two assumptions: one, that the statement is aimed at a very specific experience, which they had encountered in meditation or retreats or read about. Second, that the goal of their spiritual path is to permanently abide in that experience, which so far they only have glimpses of.

Such an understanding or interpretation of the statement "there is something constant, stable and ever-present in my experience" (for example) is in no way trivial. After all, every person has constant, stable and ever-present aspects of their experience (you can recognize them in your experience). Other interviewees respond, for example, with something like "Give me a moment to reflect and check with myself if this is true of my experience or not..."

So this response of spiritual seekers or practitioners is related to the way they perceive themselves as standing in relation to a certain goal, a desired experiential state, which they have not yet reached. It seems to them that (1) they know what the goal is and (2) that they also know where they stand in relation to it.

To my understanding, both these assumptions are erroneous.

14/09/2024

❇️❇️❇️ Groundedness in a spiritual path vs in experience ❇️❇️❇️

I realized something interesting (it is for me, anyway) about the interviews I conduct with and practitioners about their Experience of Being. It may also say something about the difference between being firmly grounded in a spiritual path or teaching versus being grounded in experience itself, or at least being willing to examine it freshly and freely.

In the "Experience of Being" interviews I read out to the interviewee statements, which I had heard in previous interviews from spiritual exemplars of various traditions, and ask them to respond to each statement as they see fit. The statements include, for example, "There is something constant, stable and ever-present in my experience," "There is something I know without any doubt" and "I feel guided in my life." Before we start the interview I make it clear to the interviewee that any response would be welcome - from "It completely doesn't match my experience" to "Yes, that's true - but I’d like to say it a bit differently."

So far, I have interviewed about forty spiritual exemplars and practitioners using this method of statements, and I see an interesting phenomenon: some of the interviewees, especially those who are firmly grounded in a spiritual path or teaching, hear the statements through the filters of the path or teaching they are grounded in. They immediately relate them to the ideals of the path or teaching in which they are grounded, and to their assumed position in relation to those ideals.

Others, usually those who are not strongly affiliated with a specific spiritual path or teaching, meet each statement in a fresher and more innocent way and examine their experience with less assumptions, without comparing it to an assumed ideal.

For example: an experienced Buddhist practitioner would be more likely to respond to some of the statements with "I wish this was my ongoing experience - I have moments like this on long retreats." An "innocent" interviewee would be more likely to respond to them with "That's an interesting statement! Let me check if it's true to my experience or not."

The result is that I often receive fuller and juicier responses from the "innocent" interviewees than from exemplars and spiritual practitioners who are firmly grounded in a spiritual path or teachings.

05/09/2024

❇️❇️❇️ What is the enlightened/awakened state? ❇️❇️❇️

In the responses to my previous post, a friend wrote to me: "The concept of the enlightened/awake person seems very tricky. How do you measure the degree of enlightenment or wakefulness of a person?"

To answer this question, we should first answer "What is the enlightened/awake state?" I know there are many perspectives and many answers to this question. Here is my latest stab at it:

To be "enlightened/awake" means to be aware of or connected to the Experience of Being - to aspects of being and experience that are always present and constitute the backdrop, the ground, the atmosphere and the container for everything that happens in one's life and experience. An enlightened/awake person is relatively persistently aware of their experience of being - of those ever-present aspects of being and experience.

This is different from the "un-enlightened person," whose attention is constantly directed towards aspects of experience that are constantly fluctuating and changing - the dramas of the external and internal life - and whose awareness of the stable and constant aspects is quite minimal. In the "enlightened/awake person" this order is reversed.

How does that sound as a possible answer? I am aware that it is devoid of any reference to the behavioral-ethical dimension, which for many probably takes first place. But I distinguish between "enlightenment" and moral development, and see them as different from each other.

(Artwork by Eric Wayne)

03/09/2024

❇️❇️❇️ Enlightened Joy and Love, Selflessness and Beyond❇️❇️❇️

I have just hit the button and sent on its way a book chapter with the above title, which I co-authored with my friend Prof. Aviva Berkovich-Ohana. It's going to be published in a book titled "Happiness and the Psychology of Enlightenment."

I chose to start the introduction with the following quote by 14th-century Christian mystic Meister Eckhart:

"[R]easonable satisfaction is a purely spiritual process in which the highest summit of the soul remains unmoved by ecstasy, is not drowned in delight, but rather towers majestically above them. Man only finds himself in a state of spiritual satisfaction when these emotional storms of our physical nature can no longer shake the summit of the soul. "

The abstract of our chapter says:

"This paper explores the concept of enlightened joy and love as an aspect of a stable and enduring spiritual “high plateau” state, referred to as "Living Transcendence," which contrasts with transient mystical or spiritual “peak” experiences. Drawing from a phenomenological study of 32 "spiritual exemplars" from various traditions, the research identifies key characteristics of this state. Enlightened joy and love are described as stable, constant, and intrinsic to daily life, manifesting as a subtle, integrated presence rather than an intense emotional peak. These qualities are intertwined with other aspects of spiritual experience, such as noetic awareness, embodied presence, and relational interbeing. The paper also examines two Buddhism-inspired models of selflessness—the Self-Based Psychological Functioning model and the Pattern Theory of Selflessness—which suggest that spiritual development and selflessness are related to enlightened joy and love. The findings suggest that enlightened joy and love are integral to the lived experience of the spiritual “high plateau,” offering a sustained sense of well-being and connectedness that transcends the fluctuating emotions of ordinary consciousness. This paper contributes to the understanding of spiritual development by highlighting the role of selflessness in achieving a stable and enduring joyful and loving state of being."

I'm happy about it. And now I can finally get back to my PhD dissertation and finish that!

31/08/2024

❇️❇️❇️ Experience of Being Grant Application Submitted ❇️❇️❇️

After a week of the most intense work I've ever done (it always feels like that, I noticed) and little sleep I have just clicked on the button and sent my research grant application to BIAL Foundation.

If I receive this grant (which I'll find out in four months) it will enable me to start in January next year a post-doctoral research at the University of Haifa. The new research project will be a follow-up on my Living Transcendence doctoral research, and take it to a new level - a truly multi-cultural and multi-traditional level. The grant would enable me to hire translators in India, China and Japan who would help me conduct interviews in Hindi, Chinese and Japanese - in addition to Hebrew and English. And I'll be working with cultural experts, who would help me adapt my interview protocol to the local cultures and languages.

The title of the project is "Experience of Being: Exploring Universal and Culture-Specific Transpersonal and Parapsychological Dimensions of Experience." The project will aim at "revealing transpersonal and parapsychological dimensions of the "Experience of Being" among spiritual masters / adepts / exemplars and practitioners of different cultures, and at identifying universal and culture-specific aspects of these dimensions of experience."

Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I'm very excited about the potential of this project, for me and for the world, and hope I'll get the grant that would enable me to dive into it in just a few months.

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