Thanks.

I’m doing a shamanic sweatlodge retreat this week, so I will see what insights arise in terms of both trauma and no self. I will let you know if anything comes up.

Thanks. I can accept that the answer is that there are two realities. I like what your teacher says about stepping in front of a bus. Will do the body exercise.

Sarah.

I have been thinking a lot about your response. We may have to agree to disagree.

As far as I understand, the pain body is an entity that produces thoughts. But it’s not just thoughts. It also produces somatic experiences. If it’s simply denied, and the associated feelings remain repressed, it ...

So, what is "trauma?" What is it made of?
Energy stored in the body. It creates beliefs, I suppose, to keep the body safe.

Yes, I can see how the quote would upset people on Facebook. Trauma creates identity, which is a specific type of belief. Animals experience trauma but don’t necessarily ...

Body exercise:

Can it be known how tall the body is? Does the body have a weight or volume? In the actual experience does the body have a shape or a form?

No. I find it hard not to superimpose a visualisation of the busy onto the sensations, but when I only experience sensations there is none ...

Now, I’d like to ask you to explore this SENSE of self very-very thoroughly. Not by thinking about it, but by FEELING it. Keep the focus of attention on the sense of self and inquire:

Does the sense of self have a location?

Does the sense of self have a shape or a size?

Does the sense of self ...

Observe thoughts with precision; can you ever find a ‘me’ within the “me” thoughts and feelings, or just a sense of me?

There’s only a sense of me. A feeling of a me. I never find it. Thoughts about me and a body I associate with being me. But I can’t find myself in the body.

My Facebook name is Sarah Luna.

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

No, I see not in theory. In practice I can still feel like there is one.


2) Explain in detail what the illusion of separate self is, when it starts and how it works from your own ...

Yes please! I am keen to work with the final questions.

Thanks so much for all your help by the way.
I guess I am now in the falling stage, which is quite uncomfortable.

Thanks!
Yes, the exercise works to relieve anxiety. It’s a good way to distract that part of my brain.

Where are you doing that?
I listened to a YouTube video on impermanence today. I realised that I have been trying to control reality all my life, and so impermanence is thought to be ...

Back to our main question: is it clear now that there is no separate "self? "

If so, how does it FEEL to see this?

If not, what false thinking are you believing?


When I do the exercises you give me, it is clear that I am like a river and am in no way separate from life. This feels quite ...

I enjoyed the bilateral stimulation!

Thanks. Those quotes from ACIM are great. I haven’t had much contact with the course but it seems profound.

I feel like I have seen that there is no self, then I move back into forgetting. Another contraction habitually forms.

I have tried to control life for so long, and I believed the illusion ...