Ah—there it is. “Awakening” has been carrying the promise of eventual immunity from suffering. If K is already awake, that imagined rescue disappears—and after such a long, exhausting search, losing it feels terrifying.

I’m at the library, at table by a window, looking out, so no one can see the ...

The fact that it hit suggests it is relevant now.

Yes.

Poor K wasn’t merely seeking an insight. She was asking awakening to provide a lifetime guarantee of safety.

Yes, something like that.
(Tearing up again, as I did when first reading your message last night before bed and when reading ...

What is the usefulness of recognizing all of that?
i think the key is in what recognition is.

I’m finding this rather cryptic, but cryptic doesn’t generally seem to be your style, so let’s see . . .
"What recognition is" . . . ?
Maybe the “re” is important? Something I’d cognized before needs ...

Read “The Morning After.”
Bookmarked it, hoping that it will be relevant soon.

Read “The Question That Couldn’t Be Answered.”
This part really hit me:

But underneath the demand for certainty was something much less intellectual.
Fear.
Not fear of being philosophically incorrect.
Fear of ...

Having an ordinary day, with ordinary little challenges.

After the mind made note of that, it then started to form a thought like: This is certainly an improvement over all the time I’ve spent feeling like life is torture, but if I didn’t have hope that things would keep getting better, I might ...

So where is the usefulness in recognizing all of the above?
Well, I don't know.
That is, I'm having a hard time figuring out how recognizing all of this intellectually is useful.
Um . . . Maybe having an intellectual understanding of the lack of a need for a separate "self" removes some sort of ...

OK. Wow. That looks like a final exam for “Buddhist Philosophy” or “Nondual Phenomenology” or something. And I think a lot of my responses would be mainly rather cognitive.

But let’s start with a couple of these that I feel like I've come to understand through experiential exploration:
5 ...

As an exercise, make a list of the things that are dependent on the existence of an inherently separate self that's in control of running life. What comes to mind?
What first comes to mind is: Obviously, nothing.
But I know that's the "right" answer, so I paused to see if it feels to me like ...

Post #5 in this batch (I'll stop now!):

This morning, feeling resistant to doing work and trying to remind myself of my own insights about dealing with the mind, I dug this up, from a post of mine on July 1:

Earlier today, a fleeting thought arose: “It’s just thoughts and physical sensations ...

P.P.S. Then our power went out late tonight for like an hour and a half, for no apparent reason! Spouse and I were not happy but both dealt with it okay.

P.S. Ignore the next-to-last quote and comment in the previous message. I think I might have quoted the wrong thing and/or just lost track of what I was thinking.

I'm having a discombobulated day because we woke up to having no water in our town because of a water main break. So our routine got ...

About the story:


“But the changes are still happening.”
“Yes.”
“So I can enjoy them.”
“Of course.”
“Without saying I caused them.”
“Yes.”
Daniel thought.
“That feels annoyingly reasonable.”
Saying that “I” didn’t cause the changes seems perfectly reasonable to me and not even “annoyingly ...

objection sustained!
I appreciate the fair judgment. :-)


Changes are happening. No independent changer is required.
Yep.


Can the changes be enjoyed without making them pass an awakening entrance exam?
I think so.


But neither pleasantness nor unpleasantness reliably measures awakening ...

Also pleasantly clear and quiet .
Are you still alienating unpleasantness from THIS?
Ironically, there will be more "pleasantly clear and quiet", but this means the same as unpleasant, unclear and unquiet - nothing.

Aw, c’mon!

I thought I was being encouraged to notice how things are changing ...

Late-night sit:
Also pleasantly clear and quiet.
Noted.