Hi Canfora,

I have been feeling defensive in response to your questions . The experiences I've had over the past few months have been very difficult to put into words, even to understand them myself, and I don't find it easy to open up to stranger on an Internet forum. I felt misunderstood and ...

Hi,

No, that's not how it feels at all. Not trying to escape anything, least of all humanness. More like I've had some glimpses of what it feels like to be truly free of all the restrictions that stop me from being what I most deeply am, and I want to live in that liberated ground state on oneness ...

I just realised that the image you use as your avatar is a depiction of the process of self actualisation - stripping away all the layers that we've to been taught to think of as ourselves, to find the empty space inside that is indivisible from the empty space that surrounds it.

Hi Canfora,

Does this mean you can already see that a separate self is illusory? If you do, how do you see this? Here and now, how do you know a separate self is only an illusion?

The way I currently see it is this: that everything I had previously thought of as "myself" is just a constantly ...

Hi Canfora,

Thanks for stepping in - and also thanks Sarah for all your assistance. Sorry I didn't see this till now.

I assume you are here because you need some help to realize if a separate self is an illusion or not? From a scale from 1 to 10, how real does the illusion seem to you right now ...

Sorry to hear that Sarah. Hope you feel better soon!

Yes, I guess "mine" is the label for a feeling about or towards something.

The "my" isn't a physical property, but a relationship. So I guess using the word "my" in regards to the body indicates the relationship. Although that implies a "me" to have a relationship with the body...

Hi Sarah,

What about "my" in "my body"? What is it?


In one sense it's mine in the same way that thoughts seem like they're mine : that only I experience the sensations that come from it, and they happen in response to circumstances in my life.
It's mine in that I have some control over what ...

Hi Sarah,

I'll try to respond more frequently if you think that's a good strategy.

Does the little exercise to get a grasp of reality help at all?
I spend a lot of my time engaged in this kind of mindfulness practice, paying attention to the world through my senses, and most of the time it ...

Hi Sarah,
Thanks for reaching out. Sorry I haven't been responding. My mind keeps getting caught in a downward spiral so I backed off from it.

Exercise
Sit and explore your self. That sense of being. Of living. Describe it to me the way it presents itself now.

Wide expansiveness. Jolts of ...

Hi Sarah,
Thanks! I'm feeling better than I was.

In answer to your question :

Can you find a beginning in this stream? Is new input needed or is this system self-sustaining?


It doesn't need new input. It keeps on generating itself, regardless of whether there are new experiences or not. So yes ...

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for your patience.

Would it be fair to say that you have no control whatsoever over your thoughts?

It seems to me that I don't have any control over the content of the thoughts that arise. The only control I have is how I react to those thoughts and how much attention I give ...

Hi Sarah,
Sorry I haven't replied - I have the flu. HopefullyI'll be better tomorrow.
Moss

Hi Sarah,

Yes, I understand and agree with those definitions.

So, the voice. It doesn't have any physical location. It's not really my voice, or the voice of anyone I know. It seems to pop into and out of existence, appearing under certain conditons. It almost seems like a computer program ...