Week 4 — The Seamless Experience of Inter-Being

In the first three weeks of this course, you explored awareness, thought, and bodily sensation.

Up to this point, practice may still have felt like something happening inside you—with thoughts and sensations appearing within a body, observed by a separate observer.

Week 4 gently questions that assumption.

This week introduces Inter-Being, a term used to describe the direct experience that:

Experience is not divided into a separate “inside” and “outside.”

Rather than being a personal observer looking out at a world, you may begin to notice that experience arises as one seamless field.

This is not a belief or a philosophy.
It is something to be noticed directly.

Key Idea for This Week

Inter-Being points to a simple observation:

• Sounds are not “outside” awareness.
• Thoughts are not “inside” awareness.
• Sensations, sights, sounds, and thoughts arise together as one field of experience.

The sense of separation is largely conceptual.

This week explores what happens when that conceptual boundary softens.

Core Practice

Open Field Awareness

This practice invites attention to widen beyond any single object and include everything that is present, without prioritizing “inner” or “outer” experience.

Guided Audio Script

Begin by finding a comfortable position.

Allow the body to settle naturally.

There is nothing you need to achieve.

[pause]

Notice that awareness is already present.

Just as in previous weeks.

[pause]

Now, rather than focusing on a single sensation or thought, allow awareness to open.

Let sounds be included.
Let sensations be included.
Let thoughts be included.

Everything is welcome.

[pause]

Notice that sounds appear effortlessly.

You are not reaching out to hear them.

Hearing simply happens.

[pause]

Notice sensations in the body.

Pressure.
Movement.
Stillness.

They appear without effort.

[pause]

Notice thoughts, if they arise.

They appear on their own.

[pause]

Now gently observe:

Are sounds really “outside” awareness?
Or do they appear within the same field as sensations and thoughts?

[pause]

Is there a clear boundary where “inside” experience ends and “outside” experience begins?

Or does experience appear as one seamless whole?

[pause]

Let go of any attempt to answer intellectually.

Just notice what is actually present.

[pause]

Notice that seeing, hearing, feeling, and thinking are not separate events.

They arise together, in the same field.

[pause]

The sense of a central observer may appear.

Notice that too.

See if the observer itself is just another appearance within the field.

[pause]

There is no need to dissolve the sense of self.

Simply notice how it appears.

[pause]

Rest here.

Not as an observer of experience.

But as the open field in which experience arises.

[pause]

Nothing is excluded.

Nothing is held.

Everything belongs.

[pause]

If attention narrows, gently allow it to widen again.

No effort.

[pause]

When you are ready, allow the practice to come to a close.

Notice that the field of experience continues.

After the Practice

You may have noticed moments where experience felt more open, unified, or less divided.

You may also have noticed the mind returning to familiar ways of organizing experience into “me” and “world.”

Both are completely normal.

The aim of this week is not to maintain a special state, but to recognize that seamlessness is already present, even when it is not noticed.

Inter-Being: A Few Clarifying Notes

Inter-Being does not mean:

• that you lose your individuality,
• that the world disappears,
• or that you must adopt a spiritual belief.

It simply points to the direct experience that:

• experience is not as divided as we usually assume,
• awareness is not confined to a body,
• and stress often relies on a sense of separation.

Informal Practice for the Week

Once or twice each day, pause and notice:

• sounds,
• sights,
• bodily sensations,
• and thoughts,

all at once.

Rather than labeling them as inside or outside, let them be experienced together as one field.

No need to hold this for long.

Just a few moments is enough.

Reflections

You may reflect on one or more of the following:

• Did the experience feel divided, or seamless?
• Where did the sense of “inside” and “outside” come from?
• How did stress feel when separation softened, even briefly?

Important Note

If this exploration feels confusing or destabilizing, return to earlier practices from Weeks 1–3. Inter-Being is not something to force or understand conceptually.

Clarity comes from gentle noticing, not effort.