Hello

[Aris53]

Can a decider or someone who makes choices be found?

No, so called decisions just happen.

When do thoughts like "I decide for this....."/"I am deciding this" appear: before, during or after a decision or choice is made.

Thoughts like choosing and deciding about experiencing always come after experiencing.

Observe your actions. Can a doer be found?

No, there’s just experiencing happening as continuous flow or movement without starts and ends - no self of any kind doing or making decisions, so 'decision making’ also is just a thought consept.

What is found?

Experiencing what ever there is appearing at the moment.

[Jadzia]

No, there’s just experiencing happening as continuous flow or movement without starts and ends - no self of any kind doing or making decisions, so 'decision making’ also is just a thought consept.

Yes, it is one of the fantasies accompanying the belief in the separate self.

Thoughts like choosing and deciding about experiencing always come after experiencing.

What exactly do you mean by this?
There might be thoughts about a choice even before picking up a piece of vegetable while shopping. Though it might not be more than guessing and commenting....

Wanna test?

Take two food items you like to eat and place them in front of you.
1. Allow thoughts to rattle on about what to choose, why one food is a better choice right now than the other, weighing in the pros and cons of whatever choice.
2. Count slowly to 5.
3. Choose one food and bite into it.

In step 1:When thinking about the pros and cons about each food – did you choose the pros and the cons? Or did they just appear? If preferences manifested did you ‘choose’ them or did they just pop up?

In step 2: When you counted to 5, if the preferences took the back seat while the numbers took the front seat, did you ‘choose’ this sequence of event? Did you ‘choose’ to shut down the preferences to give way to the counting? Did you directly experience a mental function or faculty doing the ‘choosing’? Have you seen this function in action?

In step 3: Where you made a choice, did you actually witness or directly experience a mental function or faculty doing the ‘choosing’? Did anything arise that announced, ‘I am the chooser’? If so, what does this function look like?

Sometimes we describe this sense of choosing as a ‘feeling’: It feels like ‘I’ did the
‘choosing’. But the question is, can a feeling ‘choose’? Is it in the nature of a feeling to
‘choose’?

Love,
Jadzia

[Aris53]

Thoughts like choosing and deciding about experiencing always come after experiencing.
What exactly do you mean by this?

Good question, because I don’t understand that either now when I read it.
I think I meant something like that there has to be choices to choose from before decision can be made, and some sort of knowledge or criterions in the background. All that happening without a self in control though.

In step 1:When thinking about the pros and cons about each food – did you choose the pros and the cons? Or did they just appear? If preferences manifested did you ‘choose’ them or did they just pop up?

All that just popped up.

In step 2: When you counted to 5, if the preferences took the back seat while the numbers took the front seat, did you ‘choose’ this sequence of event? Did you ‘choose’ to shut down the preferences to give way to the counting? Did you directly experience a mental function or faculty doing the ‘choosing’? Have you seen this function in action?

No, no, no and no.

In step 3: Where you made a choice, did you actually witness or directly experience a mental function or faculty doing the ‘choosing’? Did anything arise that announced, ‘I am the chooser’? If so, what does this function look like?

No “I” or mental function seen as ‘doing the choosing’.

Sometimes we describe this sense of choosing as a ‘feeling’: It feels like ‘I’ did the ‘choosing’. But the question is, can a feeling ‘choose’? Is it in the nature of a feeling to ‘choose’?

There are feelings happening, but they don’t choose or do anything.

[Jadzia]

Good question, because I don’t understand that either now when I read it.
I think I meant something like that there has to be choices to choose from before decision can be made, and some sort of knowledge or criterions in the background. All that happening without a self in control though.

What is it that tells that there are choices to choose from?
What tells that to make a decision one has to have choices? Same with knowledge and criterion.

Another question is: Does their need to be a controller of any sort? If it is not self would it have to be awareness or whatever?
Why not life as Aris simply happening?

Another fun question is this cause and effect thing, we touched it shortly - does it exist?
Or is it thought which wants to "make sense" of something, "round off, sort things properly"?
Is life neat and orderly - like "thought would like to have it?"

Lets follow this path for a moment.

Love,
Jadzia

[Aris53]

Good question, because I don’t understand that either now when I read it.
I think I meant something like that there has to be choices to choose from before decision can be made, and some sort of knowledge or criterions in the background. All that happening without a self in control though.

What is it that tells that there are choices to choose from?

A thought. Actually, there is no 'teller' there telling anything.

What tells that to make a decision one has to have choices? Same with knowledge and criterion.

What ever is happening, is happening without needing to think about it. Thoughts about knowledge and criterion are just part of 'conditioned self'.

Does their need to be a controller of any sort?

I don't know, I don't think so.

If it is not self would it have to be awareness or whatever? Why not life as Aris simply happening?

I don't really know anything else than what is in AE – everything else would be thoughts.

Another fun question is this cause and effect thing, we touched it shortly - does it exist?
Or is it thought which wants to "make sense" of something, "round off, sort things properly"?
Is life neat and orderly - like "thought would like to have it?"

This is a sticky thing; like an itch you want to scratch, but in AE everything happens now.

[Jadzia]

What ever is happening, is happening without needing to think about it. Thoughts about knowledge and criterion are just part of 'conditioned self'.

Careful. The separate self is an illusion, yes, not to be found anywhere in AE.
Thoughts are part of what Is, of This. They are noticed in actual experience, in the moment – it is only their content which isn’t real.

Will there be no sense of self left?
When you got behind the belief of Santa and dropped it – you just dropped the belief. You can still imagine Santa and enjoy a Santa as figure in a film.
Same with the separate self, the ‘I’, you dropped the belief that it is separate and the controller, feeler, thinker, but a sense of ‘I’ remains. Though the story of the ‘I’ isn’t a personal one any longer and seen as story.

There being no separation – what does it mean?
Wouldn’t everything being included, even the story of Aris? The thoughts, the whole game?

Think of something like compassion, love, kindness?
Nowhere to be found in AE and still nice to have in a story, or?
Is a feeling found in AE? No.
Still a 'feeling can be felt', one can unravel it in AE (physical sensation + thought + colour (body in which sensation happens)) and look behind the sensation, which can be a good teaching.

Another fun question is this cause and effect thing, we touched it shortly - does it exist?
Or is it thought which wants to "make sense" of something, "round off, sort things properly"?
Is life neat and orderly - like "thought would like to have it?"
This is a sticky thing; like an itch you want to scratch, but in AE everything happens now.

Just follow your thoughts and have a look, do you find a cause in AE or just a thought?
Same with effect.

Love,
Jadzia

[Aris53]

Thoughts are part of what Is, of This. They are noticed in actual experience, in the moment – it is only their content which isn’t real.

Thank's again for a reminder.

Will there be no sense of self left? When you got behind the belief of Santa and dropped it – you just dropped the belief. You can still imagine Santa and enjoy a Santa as figure in a film. Same with the separate self, the ‘I’, you dropped the belief that it is separate and the controller, feeler, thinker, but a sense of ‘I’ remains. Though the story of the ‘I’ isn’t a personal one any longer and seen as story. There being no separation – what does it mean? Wouldn’t everything being included, even the story of Aris? The thoughts, the whole game?

Everything is included, but it's seen differently - AE as it is, and stories as stories.

Think of something like compassion, love, kindness? Nowhere to be found in AE and still nice to have in a story, or?

Why not have also nice thoughts in a story. :)

Is a feeling found in AE? No. Still a 'feeling can be felt', one can unravel it in AE (physical sensation + thought + colour (body in which sensation happens)) and look behind the sensation, which can be a good teaching.

Yes, looking behind sensations also means that you don't resist what is experienced in the moment.

Another fun question is this cause and effect thing, we touched it shortly - does it exist? Or is it thought which wants to "make sense" of something, "round off, sort things properly"? Is life neat and orderly - like "thought would like to have it? Just follow your thoughts and have a look, do you find a cause in AE or just a thought? Same with effect

I looked at that and saw that there is no cause aka past in AE - no coming from somewhere to this point, or going from A to B.

[Jadzia]

Everything is included, but it's seen differently - AE as it is, and stories as stories.

This is important, thoughts aren’t something to get rid of, and quite often they can be really amusing.
It good to see stories as stories, but even stories can be fun if you clear about their nature.

I looked at that and saw that there is no cause aka past in AE - no coming from somewhere to this point, or going from A to B.

Well done, so what is time at all? What is future in AE? Is it more than thoughts?

And please, since I do stumble a bit about the phrase ‘conditioned self’ would you please explain to me what exactly you mean by it?
This might be a language thing….

Love
Jadzia

[Aris53]

I looked at that and saw that there is no cause aka past in AE - no coming from somewhere to this point, or going from A to B.
Well done, so what is time at all? What is future in AE? Is it more than thoughts?

Yes, they are just concepts. AE can happen only now.

And please, since I do stumble a bit about the phrase ‘conditioned self’ would you please explain to me what exactly you mean by it?

In AE it would mean an "I", a story of an I.
It's good to look what phrases are about and if they are useful in communication - one thing that has actually changed is seeing that there are no concepts in AE; words' only "meaning" is for communication.

[Jadzia]

In AE it would mean an "I", a story of an I.
It's good to look what phrases are about and if they are useful in communication - one thing that has actually changed is seeing that there are no concepts in AE; words' only "meaning" is for communication.

Alright.

A concept is a bunch of words, made of a bunch of letters, which is some colour in AE, which is labeled “This is an A, this is a B,……”
Yeah, no concepts in AE.

That is a good change to see that – any more changes you noticed lately?
What about actions and interaction with other people? Did you notice any changes there?

Love,
Jadzia

[Jadzia]

And
Let’s go back to control one more time:
Can a controller be found in direct experience of colour, sound, thought, smell, taste and sensation?
If not then where can a controller be located exactly?

LOOK, and only answer from that.

Love,
Jadzia

[Aris53]

Any more changes you noticed lately?

Nothing else than "trusting AE" more, coming back to senses more often.

What about actions and interaction with other people? Did you notice any changes there?

I think I mentioned earlier patiency and not trying to force things, that has 'grown stronger' by being more 'in the now'. Even if things or situations seem complicated they open up anyway, somehow simpler when being with what actually is there any moment, one thing at a time so to speak. Of course you never know what the outcome will be or what happens next.

And, let’s go back to control one more time: Can a controller be found in direct experience of colour, sound, thought, smell, taste and sensation?

There's no controller in experiencing those things - all that is just happening.

If not then where can a controller be located exactly? LOOK, and only answer from that.

A controller can't be found anywhere.

[Jadzia]

Hi Aris,

no more questions. You will have a pm by Admin and one from me.
It was a joy walking with you!

Love,
Jadzia

[Aris53]

Hi Jadzia,

Big thank's for the assistance.

You will have a pm by Admin and one from me.

I'll stay tuned. :)

Aris