Neil,

Sorry about the delay, illness in the house. It was a realisation that the only thing that could be found was a self image made of thoughts, sensations, feelings... all of which are transient.... An entity called self as a limited , finite thing can not be found... There was also confusion ...

yes please that would be great

Neil

Thoughts can change but there is no one changing them. The current thoughts just appear spontaneously.

Pamela

Neil,

Thinking does just happen.

The second question is more diificult to answer.The best I can do is say is that it is just learnt behaviour... just a convention ... so that the body /mind here can be refered to as opposed to the bodymind over there.
The last question ...

Thought is believed ...

Neil,


Soooooooooo there is no one thinking the thoughts ..........thinking just happens like seeing , hearing, smelling etc.

So `my` body is just a thought... `my` mind is just a thought

Neil, wrote
1) Is there a self, in any way shape or form

There is no self in any way shape or form ...

Neil,


There is no self. .. no I ... but there does appear to be a body and a mind.... the body and mind is unique... What is it that wants to say `my` body.. `my` mind ? help! I seem to be flipping between getting this and then going back to old thinking patterns....

Pamela

Neil,

I will attempt to answer these questions ,but there is reticence. A feeling that" I "dont have all the answers and secondly, a reluctance to write rather than speak because writing is labourious. That said he goes;
Question One;

There is no self as a separate entity because that would mean ...

Neil
wrote"

To try and consolidate things a little, tell me who is it who felt the quiet joy all day? Who is it who felt the guilt when waking up? Who is it who is having the doubts? Who is it who doesnt agree with everyone"
There is no one having doubts, feeling quiet joy,etc. These things are ...

Neil,
Can I reply tomorrow... Had to attend a funeral and it's been a long day... I want to do your questions justice .

Pamela

Neil,


Wonderfull!! I really get that....
I have spent last night and today, with the the following thoughts going... I hope I can explain it... It goes something like this. Well suppose I assume their is" no self", instead of assuming there is a self ,( thus spending so much time mentally trying ...

Neil,

You wrote;I would guess you are still secretly hoping for all thoughts to go away, as they did in your clear experience you mentioned before.

I think you are right I am expecting something different to happen.

Today I will continue to notice the thoughts and feelings as you suggest.

The ...

Neil,

I can see that if there is a thought `I will raise my arm`... then I have no power to raise the arm... the trillions of muscular/ celluar actions required are beyond my managing/ power......It must happen on its own... But there is a stubborn thought that says I have will power... I have ...

Neil<
As an example been out to lunch today and wasnt hungry but had a mental argument with self and chose to buy and eat chocolates... I really need to loose weight so that was a crap decision .

Pamela

Neill,

Neil wrote" Is their a self" ... Well yes there still feels there is a self ... bugger... and I cant say why.. It feels like I am making decisions for starters... Thats a big one


Pamela

Neil,

I spent yesterday doing what you suggested and tried to find out where the chatter was coming from and it was obvious that it is just arising .

I can also see that to attempt to get back to a state of "no thinking" is not possible...

I keep going back to the one and only assertion that is ...