No! But the point I was making is that a strong habit of grasping to a solid separate self happens that makes it feel like it really exists. But it's just that this powerful thought has gone unexamined.

The second question: again, it's not "me". There is no Me looking, hearing - there is just ...

(I can't yet get the quote function to work - I'll play with it a bit more).


Can a thought kill?

No, it's just a thought, it can do nothing. But....



Is it possible to see a thought creating an effect?

...if solid separate self *believes* the thoughts or perceptions, is enmeshed in them as ...

There wasn't a strong trigger but I felt the atmosphere thickening ("heightened state") during this email:

Ghata: Are YOU awareness?

Dh: No, definitely not...there is awareness, but its name isn't Dhammapala, or any other name. It's just knowing...


Ghata: Choices are made, sure. As you saw very ...

Thank you :)

2) Explain in detail what the illusion of separate self is, when it starts and how it works from your own experience. Describe it fully as you see it now.

The separate self is a creation of my thought, the little images of "Dhammapala" in my head that have gone unexamined for so long ...

Oh, sorry, I ran off at a slight tangent....

When I look within I only see thoughts, images, feelings in the body. But that's all they are - experiences coming and going. Any thought I could possibly have that looks like it could be Me is just that - a passing thought. There are just thoughts ...

I don't even have any control over my own body, or its physical processes, or even over my own thoughts and emotions, which ironically I call Me....so control is an illusion. Anything can happen, any time....

1) Is there a separate entity 'self', 'ME,' 'I', at all, anywhere, in any way, shape or form? Was there ever?


No, there isn't. There are forms, shapes, colours, sounds, tastes etc - but none of them has a self essence. None of them ever did.


2) Explain in detail what the illusion of separate ...

Yes....

It feels good, and true. Sure, I need to deepen and integrate it and stabilise it, but when I look, I see just thoughts, just ideas, just mental images, all changing. Then I see grasping at some collection of mental images and freeze-framing it into Me. But it's not true... :-)

Ghata

Have another look.
Can a ME be found anywhere?
What is doubting the seeing?

Dhammapala

No, only seeing can be seen - everything else is thinking and believing the thinking, getting lost in it. The Me is just a belief. The clarity dims, or moods take over and the seeing dims and gets swept ...

Yes, of course I have doubts: have I really seen the illusion of Me? Is it genuine seeing? Is this really the famous "stream entry" that all those buddhists salivate over attaining? If so, why was it so straightforward? Why can't all those monks and nuns do it with all their years of practice? Does ...

Thanks, yes, please do post.

It feels personal to the "sense of self", to what I call "me". But I then need to consciously make a (small) effort to re-look and see how this "me" is not present in any of the senses. But it's not a natural insight (yet).

Thanks

Dh.

Sometimes, if the wind is blowing in the right direction.

At other times, no - everything feels very personal...

Dh.

Dear Ghata

Thank you.

I haven't looked back at the date we started but I must have been in email contact with you for about 3 months? It felt like a long time, like I wasn't "getting it", and I sometimes felt frustrated by this (unnecessarily!). We did a variety of exercises, all of them very ...

What brings you to Liberation Unleashed?:
I have just been guided by Ghata to the gateless gate, and I want to deepen my seeing. I am not seeking an initial guide, but hope to continue being mentored by Ghata through what she called Aftercare and beyond.

What are you looking for? What do you ...