Taiyaki, welcome to LU!

[Nick]

cool.

Check out life flowing without any control or orchestration. There are thoughts and feelings that appear including thoughts about I, me, self, that stuff. The thoughts are real (as in real momentary experiences that "happen"). But the I that the thoughts refer to is imaginary, no more real than Batman or Santa.

LOOK right at it. Use your physical eyes, even. When you close your eyes you can imagine anything. A watermelon. You can feel it in your hands, the coolness, the smooth surface, the heft, the smells. Really make it seem real for awhile. Then open your eyes, and look for the melon. :)

Close your eyes again and imagine yourself as the subjective entity, the experiencer of all this, the experiencer of EVERYTHING that ever happened. Really evoke that sense of being real, of being the unchanging witness. Nail it down by thinking about your history, relationships, memories, everything. Imagine thinking the thoughts and making decisions, controlling and living your life. Convince yourself 100% if you can. Then open your eyes again and see, life flowing without any you in it.

Gaze around and see how there is no physical or subtle barrier or boundary between "you" and the world. Wherever you look, the world effortlessly appears - complete, silent, impersonal, effortless. Touch something and notice there's no barrier just vibrations and colors and sensations arising and dissolving.

Look at the computer screen. What do you see? I see one total continuous image, with various colors and shapes inside. Notice the words. You can focus on a word, a letter, a pixel. Each one can be given "name and form" by thoughts. But they do not exist separately from the total image. Each person including yourself is given name and form by thoughts, but in reality there is no separation.

These little exercises remind us that everything is always like this. Nothing has changed in reality, it was there all along. This is what we call looking at no-self.

So try it out and answer this: When you're looking and seeing no-self, what is it that's doing the looking? Is there anything?

[taiyaki]

Fun exercises. They bring one to the immediate!

When there is looking there is just the colors, shapes, forms. There is absolutely no "thing" looking. There is no sense of I am here looking out there. There is only the color, only the shape, only the form. Looking is the groundless appearance of everything arisen in this instant. And I do see that separateness is a construction of imputation. Thoughts too arise without a thinker, then gone. Smells, sensations, everything is a zero distance impersonal happening. Already and always so.

I'd also have to add that the sense of zero distance really brings a sense of intimacy and with the heart a sense of interconnectedness.

I suppose I am more fascinated and curious on how no self realization matures the heart. So thanks for orientating my practice in that direction.

[Nick]

Take some time to enjoy it and to write some more about questions #1 and #2 from before:

was there ever any self in reality?

and

how does it FEEL to see this?

:))))))

[taiyaki]

In the action of seeing, there is only the display of color, shape, and form. This color, shape and form arises dependently upon the eye, attention, and light being reflected into the retina. This is all happening all at once without a doer, without a self inside, outside, here or there. Just empty phenomena rolling on and on due to causes/conditions.

Whats fun is to realize that the eye, light, attention and the effect of all that eye consciousness is one process. And there is no eye without the other factors that go into the process. But that is just what is apparent. The process of seeing requires everything coming together in this instant. Each instant the big bang of everything then gone, distinct yet interconnected with all the causes/conditions that allow this effect of consciousness to occur.

Experientially this is pretty significant as it brings a sense of wonder and joy. Each moment is the full conclusion and beginning of the whole universe then gone. Just this constant movement with no solid objects. A process of dependent origination.

The self being a fiction of believed thought. There is hearing, which is exactly the sound. And we say I heard this or that sound over there is the plane. But that is just thinking, another impersonal process.

It is interesting to see how thoughts form reality. If the thought I am here listening to that sound over there is believed then that is exactly what is experienced. But without the conceptual overlay, there is just the non dual sound. Sound in its clarity appearing due to everything. And this sound dependent upon ear, dependent upon attention, etc.

The heart feels light, open. This is the end of seeking because already reality is so. The end of fabrication, brings about the apparentness of this instant. Just the impersonal flow of phenomena with no inside, outside, no subject and no object. Everything feels intimate, everything feels pure. Looking at what I used to consider my hands, I just see the functioning of the universe. Seeing bodies of others, that too the functioning. Just magical, smoke and mirrors. Nothing truly there. Be it self or thingness. Yet clarity rolls on!

[Nick]

The heart feels light, open. This is the end of seeking because already reality is so. The end of fabrication, brings about the apparentness of this instant. Just the impersonal flow of phenomena with no inside, outside, no subject and no object. Everything feels intimate, everything feels pure. Looking at what I used to consider my hands, I just see the functioning of the universe. Seeing bodies of others, that too the functioning. Just magical, smoke and mirrors. Nothing truly there. Be it self or thingness. Yet clarity rolls on!

Intimate is a great word for capturing the feel of this process here. You have the understanding and ability to write long elaborate passages like Soh. Your first few paragraphs are like this. You are riffing, showing off a bit, showing that you "get it"... It's fun.

The beautiful paradox is this: There is no you. There never was. You write all about this fact and how it operates, etc. BUT... at the same time there you are, typing away at the keyboard. It's all magical illusion, and yet here we are. There's still a story about Albert and Nick. Nothing changed, nothing disappeared. Right now looking at this I'm laughing at how funny it is. My heart is filled with energy and love. It feels wild like a primal animal, and yet calm and peaceful at same time, because how could it be any other way?

I like your last paragraph above because you're connecting to this intimacy. There's nothing wrong with expressing it on the "macroscopic" level of human being. It's the expression of the paradox. I can write and day long using normal ordinary language, using I and me in every sentence because it doesn't matter, there's no belief in it. It's impossible to write in a non-dualistic way. Seeing dualism vs nondualism is just another duality lol. SO keep opening up, let the feelings flow without any controller (they are anyway).

So here's where we are: There's no self. Never was. It feels GOOD...

Allow yourself to be open. How does the illusion of self operate? When does it start? Does it end?
:)

Nick

[taiyaki]

With the fabrication of a thing both self and other is made.

With the end of fabrication of a thing both self and other cease.

Consciousness without feature. Present as the appearance rolling on and on yet ungraspable landing no where.

Whether sad, happy, closed or open it is the full conclusion of all causes and conditions in one function. Fully expressed and intimate and fully released, traceless, coreless expression.
No subject, object, no thing, no consciousness, the total end of fabrication.

Nothing else to say or construct.

Words have no power. They too are the luminous emptiness functioning.

Gone. Everything the center, thus no center!

[Nick]

How would you explain it to a friend who never heard of this stuff before?

[taiyaki]

Listen to the sound. Listen directly.

There it is, the sound in its clarity.

In the process of hearing there is only sound. There is no listener behind the sound, that is just a thought or a contraction in the body/mind. In direct experience there is only the sound as the process of hearing. Refering to no thing, no person, and no source. The sound itself says absolutely nothing about itself. See direct how we shape reality through imputation. We shape it through thoughts. The sound is coming from the radio and it is such and such song. And I am here liking it and disliking it, etc. But set aside the assumptions and look directly, bare, nakedly at the sound. There it is, just one instant of sound then another then another then another. That is sound-consciousness.

Hearing depends on a working ear, vibration hitting the ear, say the radio, the designers of the radio, the people who thought of the original radio, the materials of the radio, and basically everything.

So that one instant of sound contains the whole, contains everything. It is the full conclusion of everything in that instant then gone, traceless.

And reality is always like that. Just sound where it is, then gone. The location, time, subject, object, etc are all imputations onto the direct perception.

And even the sound. Is it really sound? What is it? If we do not fabricate and construct what is experience? If we do not assert anything what is this experience? How does this experience happen?


So if I were describing this to someone I'd point them to their direct experience but at the same time I'd point to dependent origination.

So bare, naked and directly listen to the sound. This is non conceptual, direct and apparent clarity.

Then see how the sound appears. What is required? The condition of a ear, condition of vibrations hitting the ear, the radio, mental attention then bam the effect is the sound. But this is one functioning process. All happening at once, interdependent. Because it requires all these conditions it is groundless, empty of essence, empty of thingness, empty of solidity.

Examine for yourself. The sound is clarity-emptiness.

[taiyaki]

And I forgot to add.

This doesn't mean that the ear or radio or any condition is existent or having solidity.

What this implies is that the sound, the ear, the radio, the mental attention, etc are coming into appearance with the sound all at once.

This is why the ear is empty as well. The radio is empty as well. Those are further divisible because they too are constructions, perceptions, assumptions of a thing.

The realization of no self is important but the big daddy is emptiness of self and phenomena. Everything is completely empty of essence be it self and be it what we construct the self with and experience.

The everyday experience of that is like being in a still car with infinite movement occurring, yet absolutely nothing moving.

[Nick]

I know you've interested in this stuff for awhile, Albert. Do you remember what it was that pushed you over the edge so that you really saw thru the self for real? Was it sudden or more gradual?

Does this conversation help you feel it more deeply? Anything changed or is your experience the same? Is there any doubts or questions from you? I don't know if I can help you much, but we also have the whole LU army at your disposal, with dozens of awakened peeps on this forum :)

Nick