The neuroscientists Olaf Blanke and Christine Mohr hypothesize that the sense of self is a function of the vestibular, ocular, and proprioceptive/tactile/kinesthetic senses.
I devote a lot of my thought to reassuring myself that it’s alright to experience depth in senses other than the eyes and the mind, particularly in the proprioceptive and vestibular senses, even when it makes me feel like a bat on a city street in the daylight. Action can happen when I feel like a bat; in fact for me, appropriate action is more a function of where I am than of what I think.
When I talk about Bodhidharma’s use of the word “mind” or “heart-mind”, I am talking about where I am as a function of the vestibular, ocular, and proprioceptive/tactile/kinesthetic senses. Relaxation and relinquishment that frees the heart-mind to move, however slightly, also realizes action from the distinct elements that make up the self, without embracing the notion of a self.
See your face before you were born- only a nickel!