Week 4, Experiential Exercise, Phenomenology of Infancy, A Patch of Sunshine

Note: In this Experiential Exercise, I am going to ask you to try to experience the world as Daniel N. Stern describes Joey at six week in Diary of a Baby, Chapter 1, A Patch of Sunshine. As Stern puts it” “Joey experiences objects and events mainly in terms of feelings they evoke in him, and the opportunity for action they offer him. He does experience them as objects in and of themselves [independent of himself]. In describing Joey’s immediate, focused attention to a patch of sunshine, which in and of itself isn’t even an object, is analogous to what is described in Tibetan Buddhism (and probably other forms of Buddhism) as interdependence of phenomena. Joey is seeing angles, flashes of light, and movement, that is a “dance” of angles, lights, movement, and so on. When he looks at his mother’s face, he sees angles, flashes of light, and movement, that is, a “dance” of angles, lights, movement, and so on. Only in time, does Joey impute a mental image or template of sunshine or face on these features of the environment and “see” them as sunshine or mother’s face. Many spiritual practices help us to again see things as we did in infancy.

Step 1. Complete the Basic Instructions for All Experiential Exercise.

Step 2. Continue to relax deeply into your awareness and gradually turn your awareness to the subtle senses within your body. Observe them without judgment.

Step 3. After you have steadied your awareness internally, invite yourself to see a patch of sunshine as pure sensations. (Right, it’s winter. If you have no sunshine, shine a light on a wall in a dark room.) Try to “see” the patch of sunshine as Joey does in Stern’s Chapter. Notice the features of the sunshine on the wall. Follow its features. Notice how the features impact your physical body and your emotions and how they run over you and others implode on your skin, etc. Follow from one feature to another as Joey does without thinking about what they mean or do not mean. Attend to that patch of sunshine until you feel it rather than label it with your mind. Just focus on the sensations.

Step 4. When you feel complete, return gradually to everyday awareness.

Step 5. For about ten minutes, write down any impressions or insights you experienced during this experiential exercise or express them in symbols or images using art supplies.

Step 6. When you have integrated this experience, write and post a 300-word reflection on how doing this Experiential Exercise has impacted your understanding of infancy.

© Rosemarie Anderson 2014