Is there a particular place I should hang out? I take it the One-On-One forum is not the place anymore.

It is strange for me right now, because I can regard all these emotions as just sensations, and view the me at the center as just a story, and actually watch all the suffering cease. But then it tries to come through the back door. Do I want to be detached, emotionless? What about love, caring? This ...

Thank you for your help. Maybe you can advise me on how to handle all of the emotional stuff that arises. Say, for instance, someone says something unflattering or mean about me. OK, so the me is just a story, no reason to be upset. But wait, I do have a relationship with this person. I do have ...

How does it feel now? Apart from the letdown at there weren't the expected bliss and instantaneous peace? Is the shift in perspective tangible, or is it more theoretical?

I was constantly being caught up in the me story and occasionally catching myself before. Now I am not caught up in the story ...

Do you understand now why it is called "Gateless Gate"?

Yes, but I have a lot of trouble trying to put it into words. The me can't pass through the gate. Without the me there is no gate. Understanding this is passing through the gateless gate.

Is it liberation? Are you "liberated" from the illusion of self?

Yes, from the illusion of self, but I am not free of the never-ending cycle of sensations tripping off a lightining quick chain reaction of thoughts centered around me, making it seem real for as long as it goes unnoticed. I think ...

1) Is there a you, at all, anywhere, in any way, shape or form?

No. There is a physical body, and a mind with a lot of conditioning. There are sensations that interplay with the thought networks of the mind. But there is no separate agent controlling or deciding anything, or to which anything is ...

I see my self now as a movie. It is ultimately fiction, but it is easy to get lost in the story, just like when watching a dramatic movie. So I keep getting caught up in the story, but then I remember it is not real.

If I watch very closely, there are just sensations. The sensations come, and then they go. If a label is not attached, the "fear" thoughts never fire, and there are just neutral sensations and nothing more. Anxiety is a chain reaction, a feedback loop.

Oh. I thought that fear and anxiety meant that the me had to be operating on some level. I used to read a lot of Krishnamurti, and that is what he said. Well, to be more exact, he said that fear was always related to attachment on some level. I suppose he could have been wrong, and fear and anxiety ...

How do you imagine it would feel? How does it feel that the tooth fairy doesn't exist?

I imagined that it would be really life altering, because I spend so much time in anxiety and worry. The fact that the tooth fairy doesn't exist doesn't feel like anything ... which is kind of like what I feel ...

No. Somehow that is the problem. I don't feel it completely. I know it, but I don't feel it. I feel it more than I did, but there is still doubt, deep down.

Who is listening to what is being said?
Who is worrying about the future?
Who is waiting in traffic?
Who's energy is being saved or exhausted?

There is listening -- that sounds weird, but it seems true. Worrying is a chain reaction of thought based on the false premise of me. Actually, when I pay ...

How does the "clinging play out in your day-to-day life? Give me examples.

When someone criticizes me, my reflex is to be defensive and to think "Well YOU aren't so perfect either" and to criticize back. Now I catch myself and see that there is nothing to defend. I actually listen to what is ...

Jwhooper, are you ready to see that the assumption there is a self at the core of your life is a lie? Which, contrary to the belief in a tooth fairy, is hijacking your life. The lie is locking you into a treadmill where you try to defend/improve/get rid of (...) an imaginary self. It is time to ...