Tonight I was at a birthday party, the same place where I had a very short experience of non-duality in February. I was sitting at the table in a chair and I was feeling pretty clear , I noticed hearing the people talking and I could notice that there was sound coming in and there was hearing, but no ‘hearer’. I’ve heard this many times; that there is only seeing but no see-er, feeling but no feel-er, smell but no smeller, thought but no thinker etc but always found this difficult to notice for myself. Now I could see it fairly clearly. Hearing just happens. It was funny because I heard the sound of the talking and I knew my brain was interpreting the sound as language into meaning but this was a process that is fully automatic and requires no effort at all. It just happens. ‘I’ didn’t do anything.
I was wondering why this happened there again and it occurred to me that normally around that time I would be meditating at home. Maybe my mind went into a more meditative state out of habit?