One aspect of the inner critic is the constant commentator. It shamelessly criticizes you regardless of what you do or don’t do; you will never get it right. Like the story of the demons who visit the home of Sakka, the way we relate to our inner demons is to relate to them with kindness. Without resistance and negative emotions, they will shrink away.
Beyond the visual and sensory experiences of body, there is a felt sense that is our center. Life keeps pushing other things to the center – sights, sounds, attitudes, views and opinions – but these are only the center of our suffering, not the true center. From the true center, primary sympathy becomes available to meet suffering.
We can know the body directly, using tactile sense and contact impressions. Step by step we can build the specific body with what is actually present, discerning the center, and placing with specificity. The act of placing is sacred.
Where there is freedom from self identification and object fabrication, from subject/object duality, we have the experience of atammayata , "not made of that"
