Hi Mike.
I'm sorry for the delay.
Reading this
“Anytime a sense of self comes up I see it tends to get me to shift to thinking again rather than just observing. I am able to notice it more and more however and release it. “
few things come up. Please read them carefully. Actually is very good that they come on the surface, so that we can look at them.
1. Why the sense of a self should stop coming up? Once the illusion is seen through it doesn't mean that the sense of a self will stop appearing. The illusion (the sense of a self) will continue appear. To keep looking and checking the reality (looking through the illusion) is very much the key. Once is seen, it cannot be unseen. The seeing and knowing becomes factual. But it doesn't mean that the self will never be taken as something real at any moment. It's just about being able to see it every time when it's looked at. But in the next moment (of not looking) the self might be taken real. But when checked again, it's clear that it's not there.
2. You believe that seeing through the self means, not to be INSIDE the story, but be OUTSIDE of the story as an observer. To be a separate observer, untouched by everything. This is a very common belief among non-dual and advaita seackers. But this is just an uninvestigated and unquestioned belief. There is nothing that can observe anything. And that’s the beauty.
The observer you are trying to become IS the self itself.
Observer = self
So it's not about becoming or staying as a background observer. That would be the SAME self just in a disguise.
3. You are trying to release something and acheive something, rather than looking. You believe that the self is something that can be released, that there are 2 selves, and self 2 has the ability to release self-1. But the one that is trying to release the self IS the self. Trying to release the self is a trick, it's part of the illusion.
The releaser = self
There is NO another you who could release the other self.
The releaser and the released are the SAME.
The same illusion.
The same illusionary self.
Just in a disguise.
Let's look together very thoroughly with the following questions. Since it's not enough to understand and accept what I wrote above. That would be totally useless for you. You have to see it for yourself, experientially.
"Anytime a sense of self comes up I see it tends to get me to shift to thinking again rather than just observing. I am able to notice it more and more however and release it. “"
WHAT is it exactly that gets into thinking?
Where is this I that could think or observe?
And where and what is the I which has to power to release the other self?
How many selves are there?
Look very carefully.
How many selves are there in experience?
Are there really two? One? Zero? Three?
Please don't just guess or theorize. You really have to look.
Find this special self which you called as an observer.
Where is it? Where exactly? - find its exact physical location.
Just look, Mike.
Sending love
Luchana
