The complete stance, the way of being that recognizes the inseparability of nebulosity and pattern, shows up in characteristic textures. For example: wonder, play, and creation.
These textures may appear spontaneously as qualities of thought, feeling, and interaction, at times you adopt the complete stance. They spring naturally from the dynamic interweaving of nebulosity and pattern.
The previous book page, “Finding the complete stance,” may have seemed unhelpfully abstract. This section on the textures describes what the stance is like, so you can recognize it as it arises.
You can also deliberately enter into the textures, as methods. You can nudge yourself into a texture, as a way of adopting the complete stance in the moment. And you can practice the textures as methods for stabilizing it longer-term. As such, they are parallel to the eternalist ploys and the nihilist justifications. These are all tricks for stabilizing the corresponding stances.
This is the introduction to a series of six pages, each describing one texture. The six-way taxonomy is somewhat arbitrary. You’ll find that the textures blur into each other; and more could be added to the list. Each is simply “how things go when nebulosity and pattern are not divided,” so they are not distinct.
A spectrum of textures
The six textures can be thought of as each leading to the next: wonder → curiosity → humor → play → enjoyment → creation. It is useful to understand this as a causal sequence. It is also useful to understand that it is not actually one.
As a sequence, the textures are ordered from more nebulosity to more pattern. The order is also from least active to most. Denying nebulosity is habitual, so you enter the complete stance initially by recognizing it. At first that is simply wonderment: here’s this amazing feature of reality that somehow you’d been overlooking! Wonder is willingness to allow that perception to persist. Then you notice that pattern appears along with nebulosity; and that provokes curiosity. What’s going on with that? As you start to understand how that works, it seems humorous. It’s paradoxical, surprising, and fun. With growing understanding, you can play with meaningness. You can experiment, improvise, dance with it. Play is