Hi Marie - Thank you. This has been a real pleasure and this forum with your focus and support was just what was needed here to get this unraveled. What a truly wonderful service you are offering. Life's most precious gift offered freely. Thank you so, so much.

Jeff

5) What was the last bit that pushed you over, made you look?

The last bit was the investigation to whether there was ever choice. In the past there had been deep explorations of not having control, but there had not been this thorough exploration of choice. It seems that as long as there is a ...

4) How would you describe it to somebody who is very interested, but has never heard about this illusion.

Experience and our Perspective are determined by beliefs and mental structures (memories of what happened, reactions to those events, the beliefs that are built up around that). For example, if ...

How does it feel to see this?

It feels like being at the foot of a great mystery - truly no idea of what is going to arise next in this mind, in this body, in the world. No illusion of control and there is a great feeling of freedom with that. There is also a deep, quiet sense of simplicity ...

Explain in detail what the illusion of separate self is, when it starts and how
it works.

With human birth awareness becomes embodied - receiving all the
perceptions from the body, aware of the activity of the mind, the mind starting
with a completely clean slate of no memories, judgements or ...

Hi Marie -
I'll probably answer these one at a time to do each one justice and spread it out a bit.

1) Is there a 'me', at all, anywhere, in any way, shape or form? Was there ever?
There is only a habit of assuming there is a "me". Any time that is investigated it breaks down. There isn't a 'me ...

I got to play with being choiceless today. Lucy, my 14 year old step daughter was game, so we went out to dinner exploring this idea of choice. Quite fun because she was so open and willing. So before we knew it we were watching hunger arise, memories and associations coming up, options being ...

Boy, lots of excitement and energy happening here. Rereading our thread last night it was pretty amazing how much clearer things have gotten in just a few days. Some points that are resonating here -

The only new information, the only real information is coming in from direct perception.

Direct ...

Hi Marie - Yes, let's keep it up.

Should there be a sense of direction? I can't say that there should or shouldn't. Either way that would just be an arbitrary belief. Not having a sense of direction is just noticeable in contrast to the way of being that has habitually operated here. Not having a ...

Hi Marie -

Do I breath or does breathing happen? Breathing is happening all of the time without me being conscious of it - when I am asleep, when my attention is elsewhere, the few times in my life when I have been unconscious. If I were doing it this life would be at great risk because any lapse ...

And at a basic level, appreciating the difference between "isness" and "meness". Sensations just being what they are, all of them being equal, just a basic "isness" to it all. Versus the energy to claim them, associate meaning, and make a "me" out of them. Feels like there is energy getting freed up ...

Good morning/evening Marie -
I am appreciating your intuition with your questions. I am feeling a mixture of lots of excitement and some body oriented fear. I am very excited about this this thread of 1) recognizing that the only way I get information from the world is through sensations. Thoughts ...

Yes, the endless feedback look. I see that clearly.

And yes, the difference between being identified with thoughts and being thrown around by them, versus thoughts arising freely in the field and not taking them personally. I had that experience this evening as I was walking Stanley our dog ...

Hi Marie - So yes, it clear Jeff doesn't create the thoughts. And since the feelings seem to be a reaction to the thoughts it's clear that Jeff doesn't cause them. I have absolutely no idea where the thoughts come from. Looking at this deeply at a meditation retreat my experience was that the ...

Hi Marie - yes thoughts, I have absolutely no idea where they come from and no control over them. Any attempt to stop them is pointless. And i have ansolutely no ability to predict them. That is one advantage of meditating is it makes this understanding very explicit.