Thanks Bananafish,

No hurry from this end:-) Spending the weekend at the place we usually do retreats - sitting, walking, sauna!

With deep gratitude. You've done/are doing splendid work Bananafish! Thanks to you and the founders and guides at Liberation Unleashed!

John

Hi Bananafish!

Thanks for wading through such a pile of verbiage!

Wonderful questions again!

There are raw experiences of hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting.
Are they the "body" itself, or is "body" a label attached to these experiences?

The body is a label, an idea that has no ...

Dear Bananafish!
Sorry about the long silence. Been keeping a working document logging responses to the set of 'final' questions.
Trust things are well with you. Just being lived by life. As usual, lots of content, two funerals, way too much work, just doing what I do, nothing sticking, habits ...

Hi Bananafish,

So sorry for the long silence. No sign of self, but this mind-body typing has been insanely busy with a ridiculous work-load! Should find time on Thursday to address the final questions - actually have a fairly lengthy draft on my computer, but will try to more succinctly respond in ...

Hi Bananafish!


Sorry for the delay in reply ...
No worries, time has been needed to check this out!

Your last post was a wonderful description of
your understanding!
Thanks. It seems that this has been more a matter of keeping up an illusion despite overwhelming evidence! The prompts from you ...

NIce. :) How is that "defence mechanism" working?
Feelings that swell-up of special-ness, sorrow, need (for acknowledgement), (there used to be fear, angst, etc., now the mechanisms are more subtle, but equally misleading - implying that there is something under the layers of protection/defense ...

p.s. noticed that my second (successful) attempt to respond missed your last question, which was a great one!

(regarding "tendency to put off LOOKing until a 'suitable time'...")
Ok. Is that a problem? If so, for whom is it a problem?

As might be expected from a somewhat wayward and discursive ...

Ha, spent all afternoon (wedged between a large bit of work that should be completed today) on responding to your incredibly stimulating and pertinent comments, Bananafish, but didn't save the response, and all has been lost to cyberspace! Ha ha! Trust you've had a pleasant Christmas, although I ...

Can you refine the LOOKing? Who told you that?
Has LOOKing become something like a training for you?
Yes, I think you're right. Making a causal expectation, if I get it 'right' results should follow
Refining doesn't make sense, a habit-pattern - along the lines of 'there must be something I'm ...

Don't worry, Bananafish!

I've been very busy too. One interesting and positive observation was that last Friday, I was late leaving from work to go to a Christmas party and found that the bus no longer left from the same bus-stop. Normally, something like that would have prompted a bit of annoyance ...

Is the "no self" you are referring to a mere idea, or do you feel it as real?
Can you describe?
In this context, 'no self' just means no 'self' can be found, so 'no self' is more like a deduction than a visceral experiencing. As there have been several true but transient 'no self' experiences in ...

That's fine, Bananafish! Things are going fine!
Greetings from the cold dark north!

Can a sense have a subject behind it?
No:-) A complex nerve and neural processing, no subject to be found... OK, sense in the sense it was used in 'a sense of familiarity' is more emotional than a pure sense (touching, hearing, etc.), but still, feelings, emotions, dependent arisings, but not ...

Thanks for the honesty, John! No problem at all, we can continue LOOKing ...
:-)

So, what makes this "association" happen, and with what (whom) is it associated?
It seems to arise from a sense of familiarity (like an old garment or guise), which erroneously implies a sense of self!' Awareness ...

Now, tell me (with 100% honesty!) if anything like "I," "self," or "me" exists
as any form other than a thought.
There's a sense of presence - awareness, well and good, but still, I'm afraid, an as yet ingrained association with this as 'I', even though such an identity has not been found, and ...