Help me to enlighten

[Veganmamma]

LU is focused guiding for seeing there is no real, inherent 'self' - what do you understand by this?
That I am oneness, part of a whole, part of God, the universe and plants and animals / insects.

What are you looking for at LU?
Enlightenment. Support to guide me to truly see and feel the above statement (not just in little snippets while meditating). I (!) think that the right questions at the right time will truly help me. I am looking for help from someone who has experienced what I am looking to experience.

What do you expect from a guided conversation?
Challenging questions that I hadn’t thought of - in response to the experience and ideas I already have. Support from a kind person who has gone through this process and is keen to help others to develop.

What is your experience in terms of spiritual practices, seeking and inquiry?
I have been a soul seeker for many years while getting ‘off and on the bandwagon’ I suppose. As life can be busy. I have meditated for many years (with gaps in between). I am a reiki master teacher (not currently practising) I also do pellowah. I have tried so many things! Joe Dispensa, Breathwork, healing, mindfulness, psalms, witch craft etc etc etc my calling now is ‘to be’ stop pushing (I do find this a bit tough) and immerse myself in the moment. I want enlightenment, so much. I know I need to focus on this before trying to heal others. I am a natural ‘helper’ I want to heal the world. But have taken a step back to focus on myself.

On a scale from 1 to 10, how willing are you to question any currently held beliefs about 'self? 10

[Veganmamma]

admin5229@liberationunleashed.com

[Veganmamma]

Hi am I still able to have a guide please?
What do I need to do?

[Anastacia42]

Please be patient. There are people in line ahead of you.

Thank you,

[Veganmamma]

Thank you Stacy
Much love
🥰

[Veganmamma]

Please be patient. There are people in line ahead of you.

Thank you,

Thank you Stacy
Much love
🥰

Sorry I meant Anastasia

[Anastacia42]

You're right. It's Stacy.

[Kaiho]

Hi Veganmamma,
(Is that what you want me to call you?)

My name is Liam, and I can be your guide if you like.

The way this works is that I’ll give you exercises to help you investigate whether there is a separate self. Your task is to look directly at your sensory experience in the here and now and report on your experience without input from memory, thinking, and imagination. Try to approach these exercises with “beginner’s mind,” setting aside everything you know about spiritual teachings, science, and philosophy.

Please read through “Liberation Unleashed is not …” in the FAQs of LU.
http://liberationunleashed.com/about/faq/#faq-1041

When you reply to a question, please use the quote function to highlight the question being answered. This will make our dialogue easier to follow. Please watch the video below to learn how to use the quote function.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fAToDNh9hQ

The website goes down at times. To avoid losing your work, you may find it helpful to copy and paste questions asked into Word, answer them there, and then copy and paste them to your thread.

Let’s try to post daily, if we can. Of course, life happens, so if you need more time, just let me know. I’ll do so as well. I can let you know now that I’ll be traveling from October 2-6, and I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to be online during those days.

What time zone are in? I’m in Portugal, which is in the Western European Time Zone.

Let me know if you have any questions about anything in this message. If everything sounds ok, we can start.

Love
Liam

[Veganmamma]

Hello again Liam

Can call me Nic my name is Nicola

. I just practised with the quotes! I have watched the video:)

I am in South Wales so London time which is one hour in front of you I believe. You are going away beginning of October and I am from 13th for a week - but would still love to do this work during that time and whenever you are able to really.

I am keen to start and appreciate you so much.

Love Nic 😌

[Kaiho]

Hello again Nic

Thanks for watching the video on quotes. It will make it much easier for us to see who said what.

We're actually in the same time zone, GMT+1, a.k.a. British Summer Time! Thanks for letting me know when you'll be away. We can continue this work at whatever pace is good for you during that time. I have two upcoming silent retreats from 21-7 Oct and 11 Nov to 1 Dec. If you'd like to work with another guide during that time, I can put you in touch with one or more. There's no predicting the pace of this process. I'm available until you see that there's no self.

Here's a first exercise

Coloured Socks

There is a big difference between knowing that there is nothing to give up and seeing that
there is nothing to give up.

Here is an example to illustrate the difference:

If I ask you what colour socks you are wearing right now you have two ways to come up
with an answer:

• You can have a think about it, you can think back to this morning and try to remember
putting your socks on, and you can probably tell me what colour you think they are.

• Alternatively, you can take a quick look at your socks and tell me what colour they
actually are!

Hopefully you would agree that you can only be 100% certain by looking.

It might feel like we're starting at a snail's pace, but for this process to work, it's very important that you're clear
about this difference. Knowing is about knowledge which is all in the mind, and we are not
interested in that. We are only interested in looking at and seeing what is actually going on
in your present moment to moment experience. We are only interested in your direct
experience in the moment.
Please let me know if you're clear about this or if you'd like any further clarification.

Love
Liam

[Veganmamma]

Hello Liam

I am absolutely clear on this yes!

Happy to wait for you or continue with someone else. I hope you enjoy the silent retreats - sounds amazing!

Thank you,

Nic ☺️

[Kaiho]

Hello Nic,

Great! Since you're absolutely clear on this, I'll give you two exercises. Just let me know if you need more time. Based on your handle Veganmamma, it sounds like you're a mother, which no doubt keeps you quite busy :-)

Direct Experience

Sit quietly and relax. Take your time just looking at what is in front of you for awhile.
Observe how the mind is dividing and labeling every thing into objects and then embellishing these objects with stories about what they are.
Give it some time.
Then, stop watching the objects as labeled objects. Just look at the seeing itself. Observe the pure process of seeing. This is direct experience (DE). Let me know how it goes.

Direct Experience - Labeling Daily Activities

Here's an exercise that I'd like you to try as many times throughout the day as you can. Label daily activities simply colour/image, sound, smell, taste, sensation, thought.
For example, when having breakfast, become aware of:
Seeing a cup simply = image/colour
Smelling coffee, simply = smell
Feeling the warmth of the coffee cup, simply = sensation
Tasting the coffee, simply = taste
Hearing the spoon stirring the coffee, simply = sound
Thought about drinking the coffee, simply = thought
Just break down daily activities into these categories (which are all actual/direct
experience) and report back how it goes.

Love
Liam

[Veganmamma]

Hello Liam
I really appreciate your help your time ☺️
Okay so

Let me know how it goes DE

I am able to see the difference between the mind labelling / judging and relaxing my focus to see everything as ‘crisp, bright and together’. However I have to relax and focus to do this. It does feel nice. In my general day to day I find it harder as I need to sort of get in the right mind frame - like relax, meditation ish.so when it’s quiet I can do this.

DE labelling activities.

Again I could do this when it was quiet and I remembered to do it. I kept my book and under headings noted things like ‘colour/ image’ radiator, plant, cushions or ‘sound’ grass being cut outside etc etc I did try to do it when in the gym and I remebered like ‘sound’ music! And ‘sensation’ aching muscle / felt a bit sick etc etc. The ‘thought’ one was the most ‘busy’ box with many thoughts such as am I doing it right? Need to pay that bill, how much will I chdnge? What if I never chdnge? Will I get a job I like? Etc etc !

So I can do it but need to remember and concentrate..?

It is nice though as I find it makes me be more present overall.

Oh in relation to my children they are big ones now! 22 and 24 ❤️❤️ I am currently off work (burnout) for the time being so it’s nice Having more time because of that.

Your silent retreats will be amazing ! Love the sound of that. I did a day one in a Buddhist place before.

Thank you so much once again ☺️

[Kaiho]

Hello Nic

I am able to see the difference between the mind labelling / judging and relaxing my focus to see everything as ‘crisp, bright and together’. However I have to relax and focus to do this. It does feel nice. In my general day to day I find it harder as I need to sort of get in the right mind frame - like relax, meditation ish.so when it’s quiet I can do this.

Great! This was an exercise to try while sitting quietly. There's no expectation for you to do it all day under all circumstances.

DE labelling activities.

Again I could do this when it was quiet and I remembered to do it. I kept my book and under headings noted things like ‘colour/ image’ radiator, plant, cushions or ‘sound’ grass being cut outside etc etc I did try to do it when in the gym and I remebered like ‘sound’ music! And ‘sensation’ aching muscle / felt a bit sick etc etc. The ‘thought’ one was the most ‘busy’ box with many thoughts such as am I doing it right? Need to pay that bill, how much will I chdnge? What if I never chdnge? Will I get a job I like? Etc etc !

This is good. It sounds like you understand the difference between 'colour/ image', 'sound', 'sensation', and the labels and thoughts we add: radiator, grass being cut, aching muscles. You also noticed that the 'thought' category was the busiest, and this is usually true. Notice how hard it can be to simply label a thought 'thought' and not get drawn into the content of the thought. (This was not in the exercise I gave you, but it's in one coming up.) Some thoughts can really hook us, like the thought, "Am I doing this right?"

When you ask, 'How much will I change? What if I never change'?, it sounds like you have some expectations that would be helpful to get out in the open. So, here are some questions:

1. What will be different when you realize there’s no separate self?

2. What do you expect to happen as a result of this?

3. What do you want not to happen?

4. What are you hoping for?

5. What is missing?

Please try to put the questions above in quote boxes, like those above, and write your answer underneath. In case you need it, here's a reminder of how to do that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fAToDNh9hQ

So I can do it but need to remember and concentrate..?

There's nothing unusual about that. We've been labeling and elaborating our whole lives. We need to train ourselves in direct experience.

Thank you so much once again ☺️

My pleasure!

Love
Liam

[Veganmamma]

Hello Liam

I hope you are good today ☺️

Do I need to continue to do the ‘thoughts / sensations’ task?

Thank you for the questions please find my responses (hopefully will do the quotes right!).

1. What will be different when you realize there’s no separate self?

Nothing and everything! Will have more confidence in my place on earth and my life path. Will have a full knowing that I am completely connected to life, to God, to all. Will have more peace of mind, or at least less attachment to thoughts and their merry go round. Will be more calm and will be able to help other people. My vibration will be higher.

2. What do you expect to happen as a result of this?

Be able to deal with and react to life less emotionally. As an empath I can have high ‘highs’ and sad ‘lows’ so maybe will feel more balanced. I will have an inner knowing and confidence of connection and my way instead of worrying.

3. What do you want not to happen?

I guess not to really lose my empathic qualities as they possibly give me a drive to help others. Don’t want to lose the ability to communicate with others who don’t see life the same way.

4. What are you hoping for?

Peace of mind. Peace. Confidence in my connection to all. Calm. Love. Acceptance of all (I do try with this anyway but like even people who can be cruel to animals / others etc). Filling the gap (connection?) that has been missing and that I have been looking for all my life. Ending the spiritual seeking as I will have full knowing (or seeing! As you said knowing is knowledge). Helping others through my own experience.

5. What is missing

?

Currently - something. Possibly that full connection? Not sure - but something. Even though I have everything you know- lovely family, home etc

Thank you once again Liam xxx