Day One Hundred and Sixty Three

Examining bare feeling at first seems to be a study of two of the hindrances, desire and aversion. Yet, feeling in the body and mind occur before and in absence of craving and grasping, before striking out at that which interrupts our grasping. And so I am left with the sensations of the body in contact with the stone as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. What is pleasant without grasping? It seems mostly biological, although rarely short of craving. The body seems to crave also a continuance of warmth or smooth, and to avert from too cold or hard. It changes much more quickly and subtly when I look closely at it. It is hard to get to the definition of me before I write myself down.