5c) What are you responsible for?

Is this a trick question? :) There's no separate entity for which to take responsibility! In that sense, there is no one to be responsible. I used to fear that this kind of realization meant that a person would operate pathologically, but I find that I'm behaving ...

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


No! I see now that the separate "me" is simply a thought. If I (using "I" here in the colloquial, mind-body sense) look beyond thought, there is nothing to be found except seeing ...

Are there any doubts or areas of un-clarity still remaining?

No, it's very clear! At times, the concepts return, but in the noticing of this, they are yet again dissolved.

How are things going?
Anything new to report?


Hi! Thanks for nudge. Previously, you wrote:


But the point is NOT to stop thinking - it is simply to KNOW that thinking/labelling can be seen through and discarded any time desired or necessary.


You could say that this has been my main ...

Hello, my friend! Very much looking forward to replying to your message :)


When a table appears in experience, what makes it a table?
What makes it an object at all?
Thought!
The mind is a labelling machine, using thought to constantly label everything that appears. That's its job.


Yes, yes ...

So if there is no "self", what are you?
LOOK.

What remains?

There is no self, just experiencing. I am that which flows with all of this. There is seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling... but there's nothing behind it. It's not happening to "someone". Maybe "I" am nothing at all? It seems ...

So, indeed there is no way to look in the "past" to see if there ever was a self, because we cannot look at direct experience of the past. It no longer exists. This was seen directly.

Yes, I see this clearly.

Simply LOOK if this "self" exists right now as a real entity -- or is this too only a ...

“I can’t see how...” sounds like logic/analysis.
Not directly seeing a truth/untruth?

Is there any “self”, any doer, that can be found right now?
Can any “self”, any doer, be found at any time?
Simply LOOK and check if it exists.


If I look now, there is no self that I can locate.

Actually ...

Has there ever been an experiencer, a doer?

I can't see how that could have ever been the case, no.

Yes. So is anybody actually there at all?
Is there an experiencer (doer) of these things?
Or, just the experience of things itself and no experiencer?

LOOK now and see for yourself!

There is no experiencer, no doer. There are concepts that form around this in the mind, but when I look in direct ...

My apologies for the delay -- I have been traveling, but I am back!

Do not feel bad about the doubts. This is actually perfectly normal, it happens a lot at this stage of the process.

Thank you! I already feel some loosening around the doubt. Let me look in the present moment in reply to your ...

Hi Tim,

It feels like so long since we've corresponded! Sorry I dropped off. I started to feel a lot of doubt with the process. Something I've been practicing very diligently is watching thoughts and the way that they create this concept of "I". But still, I don't feel a shift.

If you are still ...

Hi Tim,

I'm still struggling, but I am working with these pointers. Here's where I'm at:

Does the "self" come back?
Or does the belief in a "self" come back?

I know intellectually that it's just the belief that comes back, but I don't remember to bring this pointer up, else I wouldn't be ...

Hi Tim,

Thanks for following up, and apologies for the lack of a reply. I was struggling to answer your question, but let me try now anyway:

Now, where does belief in a self still remain?
Where are “you” still holding on?

I’m not sure. It seems like whenever I look, I can’t find a self, but the ...

Can you let go of all expectations and be open to see what may appear as even the tiniest realisation when it is finally encountered?

What you've said here makes a lot of sense. I see the expectations clouding my perception. Yes, for now I have let go of them, and I will watch out for them going ...