We are all Charlie Hebdo

Nous sommes tous Charlie Hebdo

Drawing by Didier van de Steene

I am Charlie

I have a hundred thousand faces (and so do you)

One of my poems have just been published on the Headless website: www.headless.org

I have a hundred thousand faces (and so do you)

My face is everywhere
Except where it is supposed to be
That face I cannot see
My face is in the mirror
In the water is my face
In the hollow of a spoon: my face
On the dead screen of a TV: my face
In the portrait that I paint... my face
But where my face is supposed to be
there's a void
Where everything explodes
Into delicious (non)-reality
Of Here and Now
Of non-duality, of you and me.....
Undividedly.... Taking it slowly...
Making no plans

Suzanne Visser

www.headless.org

Letter to Richard Lang:

Hi Richard,

It is great to practice headlessness in solitude, deep in nature. I have just had 20 days of that. Sometimes I have a visitor. I did the experiments with whomever wanted to listen. Some get it straight away.

It is quite astonishing to me how I have studied Zen and Theravada Buddhism for such a long time, traveled far for it, while, 'next door' (I'm Dutch), in England the headless movement was flourishing. I can now see how much dogma, silly costumes, and unnecessary practices I went through. I find this quite hilarious. I am sometimes overwhelmed with the richness of the experience. When it fades I simply point at my no-face and it is back straight away. One has to be a bit careful not be be seen as a bit crazy. I was doing the pointing experiments with a friend in a restaurant yesterday for example.

I would like to tell you a bit more about my seeing experiences: When I was a child and later a teenager, I 'saw' all the time. I was terrified of it as I had no references to it. When I was 27 I had a very strong experience that lasted for months.
I went through extensive psychotherapy and the sense of 'non-self' and 'becoming the other' was described as a kind of illness by well meaning professionals.
It was then that I found Zen to try to understand it. I practiced ZaZen and mindfulness (through Japanese calligraphy) and later Theravada Buddhism for 30 years, stayed in monasteries, almost ordained as a nun (and did not because of the inequality between men and women in Buddhism).... I came across Douglas Harding's work only months ago and it has given me all the answers I was looking for. Simple as that. Most koans and mysterious remarks by teachers made sense. And those that did not made sense I could disregard as nonsense and know why they were nonsense. I have done a tremendous amount of sitting, reading, going through pain, bowing, strict eating habits, etc, etc.. I'm 57 now and suddenly look back to it quite amused. I had to drift away from Zen and Theravada to find the headless thing. What a long and winding road! I finally can make perfect sense of the experiences I was so terrified of a long time ago. This of course is a massive relief, but it is also very simple and plain and not a peak experience at all, really. As they say in Zen: Before seeing: cut wood, fetch water, after seeing: cut wood, fetch water.

What the experiments have done so far is: they make my 'mind' really small. It is there, amongst all other things. It has jumped out of my broken head and it has joined the enormous world. In the first weeks of pointing it literally felt as if my head was disappearing bit by bit. The last bit that went was the back of my head. This is most relaxing.

It is now a matter of keeping it up by mindfulness. To this I'm looking forward. Getting older suddenly does not seem a chore anymore, but a new adventure. Douglas Harding and you are the cause of this. Thank you!!!!!

Warm regards,

Suzanne

Douglas Harding

 

Douglas Harding 1909-2007

There once was an Englishman who understood Zen deeply and completely.
He answered the famous Zen koan (question): What did your face look like before you were born?
Douglas Harding.
Why have I, interested in Waking Up for 30 odd years, never heard of this man before?
I read about headlessness and facelessness and eyelesssness in some obscure Tibetan text on the Net and couldn't locate it anymore afterwards. It was in Sam Harris's book, Waking Up that I first heard of The Man without a Head, Douglas Harding, a couple of months ago now.
This lead me to the Headless website:
http://www.headless.org/

I began doing the experiments and I immediately Woke Up (to the true nature of reality). I then did the experiments with my students and two of them had a profound Waking Up experience.

Headlessness? Experiments? You might wonder. Has she finally gone insane indeed?

Check it out.

Here's an introduction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q3VacEvh8M

Wonderful stuff!

Mind

Poem

Non Self

Thoughts like colorful ribbons

Lead me away

From the empty heart that remains still

The lips smile, the brain knows

I am nothing but

A bundle of weather

Imagine that you are your own best friend

Lay back like that

Hands behind your head, as if in the grass

Near a well, clear water bubbling

You and yourself by the well

Best friends

Transported on colorful ribbons of thought

Away from the empty heart