Hi Elizabeth!

As I mentioned in the PMs, sorry for the delay and thank you for your understanding and support.

Here we go:

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

Nope! There is no 'I'. There are only thoughts about 'I'. What we perceive as self is a collection of ...

And again, I'm sorry there's been longer than a day between my past few replies. The painting is now done. They were very long days, and it was with family, so we were working until quite late and then sitting around talking and eating together.

I'm back to having more time again, which means I can ...

Hi Elizabeth,

It's down to observation. Watching how body reaches for the glass, or the fork.
Does anything own or do, in reality?
Look again at animals, small babies and children, trees, water, moon.
What moves? What lives, breathes, is perceived?
You need not have a rational response. Just ...

Sorry for the lack of posting! I've been painting a house which is taking up a lot of time. It's giving me time to think, but not time to organize my thoughts.

A lot of my time and attention has still been towards what we've already covered. It's so easy for the 'self' to kick back in at the moment ...

I figured it out. The part I've been having issues with is that I don't own my actions or thoughts.

There's a fairly simple pattern which occurs. It's the thought that says "You need to do x to achieve goal y." It's almost always running, and it has helped me to figure things out in the past. But ...

Look at a world where a self is just a thought, separation is just a thought, can you see how everything (that just

is) is moving? A world where everything is, is moving.

I have looked and tried to answer your question, but the truth is that I feel overwhelmed at the moment. The realisation I ...

Do the lines we draw, that separate a self, and other things from the whole, do they exist? In reality, is anything ever separate? How would that work?

Uhm. They don't exist in reality, just in the mind. That much I know. And everything at a fundamental level is made up of the same stuff but ...

No, I don't.

I'm not real.

I felt so strangely good when I realized that. It's been a few hours since then.

It's so simple I keep thinking I've missed something, though. I feel pretty good about it, but I keep wanting to battle it and set up safeguards and tell myself 'watch out if you start ...

You're right about the self having some purpose, of course. I was a bit quick to discount it as useless. You're right, it's a tool. It reminds me of the questions you asked me earlier about language. The words themselves are pointing towards the reality, they aren't the reality themselves. It's the ...

So, just to nail it down, is a thought ABOUT reality different from direct perception of reality?
Without a thought, how does reality look? Try catching yourself looking or feeling something before a thought claims it.

Yes, a direct perception doesn't seem to involve any thought at all. It just ...

Is the word the actual thing?
What happens in your mind when you say the word "computer"?
When you've done that, say "MY computer".
Whole new story, as you've indicated. Lot of thoughts ABOUT the computer. Any of them real? Please check!

I think I realise what you mean. I've done a lot of ...

Hi Rogue.
Ah, this is a good answer to start work with.
What are stories made of?
I'd like you to look a little more closely at this question.

They're made up of a mixture of memories and feelings. I've been thinking a lot about this question and I'm having difficulty narrowing it down any ...

1/ Do the feelings have a story attached?

I think they usually do. There's almost always an ongoing commentary or story being told by thoughts and memories influencing how I feel. I can usually influence the story being told by changing how I think about something, and usually that changes how I ...

The self is...I suppose the self is almost more like a half remembered story than a fixed thing. The details of the story can change in each retelling. In some people it does seem to be more fixed than others, and it seems the more fixed it is the more people get angry when they're questioned about ...