I.10 — The One Who Holds

Look for the one doing the gripping.

Turn attention around, away from what is held, toward the holder. Try to find it directly — not the story of who you are but the thing itself, the hand behind the hand. What you will find, if you look plainly, is another grip: a tightness around a picture, a set of preferences, a name. Look behind that one, and there is another.

This is the third mark of things, and the hardest to hold steady: the holder is also in motion. There is no fixed thing that has your experiences. There is experiencing, and among the experiences a recurring one called I, which is gripped harder than anything else because it seems to be the one doing the gripping.

Do not take this on trust. It is the kind of claim that only survives being tested, and it may not survive today. Sit for a few minutes and look for the looker. Report what you find. If you find a solid thing, keep it. If you find only more looking, you have seen something worth the whole book, and it will make the rest of the fist easier to open.