Hi Bob,
This is beautifully clear. You’ve seen that there never was a separate self directing any of this. No owner. No controller. Just the seamless flow of conditions, sensations, and thoughts—arising and passing in their own rhythm:
No, everything is connected. Everything influences, depends upon, everything else.
Yes. It is just one event leading to another, leading to another, with “actions” based on previous conditioning. And when it comes to decision making - the thought “
decision is made” is layered on top of other thoughts/beliefs/descriptions of what has happened before. However…
Why does the wind blow? It just blows. Yes we can say it happens as a result of previous events but there’s no entity “
wind” that does the blowing. There is no wind that decides to blow. It’s just
language.
What is “moving of the hands” in DE? We’ve seen that it’s just a sensation, labelled “hands moving” + colour/shape labelled “hands moving” (cup of coffee examples).
So, what makes the sensations to appear? What makes seeing to appear? LOOK!
Is there anything that causes anything to appear? Do cause and effect exist outside of thought content? Thought comes to describe that things are happening and why they are happening, but in DE things are just happening.
Is the description/explanation/label needed for things to happen?
We can look into time and memories in more detail if you like
Can you say with a big fat YES, it is clear what the illusion of a separate self is?
YES!
Now, notice what comes next.
Not as something to seek, but as what naturally unfolds when the illusion of “someone” is gone. There’s no one left to awaken further—but conditioning (thought) still plays itself out. That’s what we’ll look at next. Let’s explore these areas together:
When emotion, tension, or thought appears, does anything still subtly claim it?
Is there an echo of “my emotion,” “my body,” “my practice,” “my peace”?
Watch closely; ownership can reattach itself quietly.
Notice when discomfort arises.
Do you move toward it, away from it, or try to dissolve it?
Who—or what—would need it gone?
Bring attention right into the contraction itself.
Don’t translate it into story. Just feel: pressure, vibration, warmth. See how it unfolds when nothing resists it.
See how this functions in daily life:
Eating, walking, working, speaking. Notice that simplicity: no “doing,” no “deciding,” yet everything happens.
There is a sense that there are others, yes, other flows of experience that “my” flow of experience interacts with. Somehow distinct but not separate. There is no sense of actual boundaries, just a vague sense of subjectivity without a subject (if that makes any sense).
In DE there is my experience of others: seeing them, hearing them, thoughts arising.
I don’t know what “their” DE is.
You described beautifully the sense of interconnection. Look closer…
This “
vague sense” is where identity subtly reconstitutes itself—not as “
Bob,” but as a lingering sense of
center, especially in relation to
others. Not as a name or identity, but as a
position. A felt sense of being
here, relating to something
there. Subtle duality. Still a trace of center. Still a ghost of “
self vs other.”
Let’s take it apart:
Is there an actual “center” to experience? Where is here and where is there (point)?
Sit still. Eyes open or closed. Let your attention rest in the middle of whatever arises.
Now ask:
Where exactly is this “vague subjectivity” located?
Is it behind the eyes? In the chest?
Is there any substance to it at all—or is it just a faint shape made of thought and sensation?
Let it float there… and then look straight at it.
Does it hold? Does it survive contact?
What happens in DE when you see “another person”?
Is it seeing “another”? Or is it just shapes, voices, movements—appearing in the same space as colours, sensations and thoughts?
Is there a “you” here seeing a “them” over there?
Or is it just appearance arising without reference?
When you touch 'another', are there two sensations one of 'you' and one of 'other' or just one/just feeling? Where is this vague border between subjectivities?
Watch for this key contraction:
Does the sense of “subjectivity” intensify in interaction?
For example:
When someone disagrees with you
When you feel seen, judged, praised, or dismissed
When you're trying to help or be understood
Watch the body. Not the thoughts.
Where does it tighten?
Where does a subtle position return?
That’s the last illusion.
Not “Bob,” but the felt sense of being at the center of experience.
Right now, look at someone’s face—live or in memory.
Is there really a separate them over there?
Or is the entire sense of otherness just a flicker inside This?
Where is the line?
Keep digging into this. What you’re describing now isn’t confusion—it’s clarity refining itself, stripping away the final veils.
Let me know what you find when this “vague subjectivity” is seen through completely.
When there’s not even a subtle feeling of a “
here” relating to “
there.”
There’s nothing to fix or reach now—just the ongoing unveiling of where identification still hides. This is what the fetter work is about: the subtle residues that cling even after the self has fallen away.
Love
Rali
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.”
― Alan Alda
"The moment I am aware that I am aware I am not aware. Awareness means the observer is not"
― Jiddu Krishnamurti
