The Gate

You asked:

• Is the body you?
  Are thoughts you?
  Are sensations you?
  Is the very familiar sensation of being you, you?
  Is a thought saying "I am Mike" a Mike?
  Can an entity be found somewhere?

And my answer is: “No”. I do find it hard to see this for any length of time, but I suppose this is because I need reminding to step out of the “Me” story, which has been my default view of life for so long.

M

And my answer is: “No”.

Good job looking, Mike!

I do find it hard to see this for any length of time, but I suppose this is because I need reminding to step out of the “Me” story, which has been my default view of life for so long.

So when you look you can see there isn't an entity, a separate self living life?

What is thinking the "me" story? Are thoughts being thought by you? Can you control them?

Right now, is the story real? Can you see the difference between what's going on and what's going on as a story?

Looking . . .

M

Long day at hospital - too tired for a considered reply. Will reply tomorrow.

Thanks for your patience.

M

That's ok, thank you for letting me know. Take care Mike!

So when you look you can see there isn't an entity, a separate self living life?

Correct

What is thinking the "me" story? Are thoughts being thought by you? Can you control them?

No entity is thinking that story. There’s no “me” thinking or controlling them.

Right now, is the story real?

No

Can you see the difference between what's going on and what's going on as a story?

A story is a number of “what’s going on” experiences linked together by thought.

Mike, share more!
Is this moment ok as it is?
Could Mike be diferente?
What is Mike?

Write freely, please and don't try to be spiritual. I need to know what's going on with you.

You said:

What I would like you to do - if you feel comfortable to do it - is to speak to me like I'm one of your friends. Don't bother with finding the right words - this isn't about the right words, in fact, if you use them I'll think that you're just repeating something you learned, without looking with curiosity to what is always available to be seen - what is going on right now in your experience.

and you asked:

Mike, share more!
Is this moment ok as it is?
Could Mike be diferente?
What is Mike?

Write freely, please and don't try to be spiritual. I need to know what's going on with you.

To speak to you like you’re one of my friends, I’d use everyday language. This would include many personal pronouns, such as “I”, “me”, “myself”, etc. If you were to respond by asking what I meant by using them, I could take your reply as coming from an examiner, rather than from a friend.

If instead I studiously avoided using personal pronouns, I’d be speaking that artificial language which I call LU-speak, and which isn’t used between friends.

Which would be more useful in this enquiry?

As to what to speak about, should it be a what-I-did-today report? Or perhaps a closer focus on what I experienced directly?

Sitting in a crowded pub with a glass of wine, and with its customers illuminated by down-lights and low winter sun, I let my eyes take in the colours and shapes, and was reminded of http://www.caravaggio-foundation.org/, who painted with light. I also thought that not labelling another collection of colours and shapes as a car speeding towards me – and as a danger - might not be useful. Then I remembered the times when guides have suggested that because there never was a “Me”, death shouldn’t be a problem. And then I was sneakingly grateful that I’m not yet “Realized”.

To answer your question “What is Mike?” I always find http://www.wildmind.org/blogs/on-practi ... e-basement useful. If you were to reply by asking whether I can verify its conclusions by direct experience, I’d have to admit that I can’t, but I’ll still claim that it’s useful in the appropriate context.

I’ve heard of the distinction between the Absolute and the Relative. I suppose they’re two different perspectives, each one useful in the appropriate context.

Thanks for your help and patience.

Mike

Correction.

Caravaggio painted light.

To speak to you like you’re one of my friends, I’d use everyday language. This would include many personal pronouns, such as “I”, “me”, “myself”, etc. If you were to respond by asking what I meant by using them, I could take your reply as coming from an examiner, rather than from a friend.

I would prefer that you use everyday language, Mike. I do. Although language has a big role in maintaining the illusion there is no need to change it while doing this. Yes, it's highly possible that I'll ask you questions to know if you are stuck somewhere. That's the only way I can help you unstuck and move on. I don't see guiding as examining. To me a guide is more like a piano tuner. Questions are used to reach a certain "frequency" of looking to reality that makes possible to see the illusion of the separate self.

If instead I studiously avoided using personal pronouns, I’d be speaking that artificial language which I call LU-speak, and which isn’t used between friends.

I know what you mean! Don't use LU-speak, there is no need for that :)

Which would be more useful in this enquiry?

As to what to speak about, should it be a what-I-did-today report? Or perhaps a closer focus on what I experienced directly?

I don't know. Just do a post at a time.

Sitting in a crowded pub with a glass of wine, and with its customers illuminated by down-lights and low winter sun, I let my eyes take in the colours and shapes, and was reminded of http://www.caravaggio-foundation.org/, who painted with light. I also thought that not labelling another collection of colours and shapes as a car speeding towards me – and as a danger - might not be useful. Then I remembered the times when guides have suggested that because there never was a “Me”, death shouldn’t be a problem. And then I was sneakingly grateful that I’m not yet “Realized”.

This is very beautiful. Thank you for sharing. I have no idea of what being realized would be. I think the fear of death is the most primary fear. I still feel it from time to time and I suspect that under certain life circumstances that fear would become central stage in Sandra's life story. It amazes me how painting like that can be made. It's such a mystery. I'm the kind of person that can't do anything special using it's hands.

To answer your question “What is Mike?” I always find http://www.wildmind.org/blogs/on-practi ... e-basement useful.

That's a very nice article. What Bodhipaksa says in one of the comments is also very nice: "To be honest, I think most “explanations” of anatta are pointless. Until you’ve had the experience of seeing through the delusion of self, you’re just playing with words, in a noble sort of a way, but in a rather futile one, too. Once you have had that kind of experience, though, you’re in a position to help people have the same insight."

If you were to reply by asking whether I can verify its conclusions by direct experience, I’d have to admit that I can’t, but I’ll still claim that it’s useful in the appropriate context.

Yes, this stuff can be useful. Like maps to find a place. But they're not the place.

I’ve heard of the distinction between the Absolute and the Relative. I suppose they’re two different perspectives, each one useful in the appropriate context.

Yes, again.

Thanks for your help and patience.

It's my pleasure.

So Mike keep talking with me! I would like to know what are your ideas and experiences related with separation. Can you spend some time with that concept and tell me what pops up, please? Or you can bring other thing to the table and we will go from there.

When you asked:

Share more.

I felt threatened. I didn’t want to. I looked for excuses.

I’m reticent, perhaps reclusive. Being “friendly” isn’t my habit. I’m defensive, by default. But when this little girl whom I didn’t know, came to sit beside me and smiled, and spoke in a foreign language, I smiled, and felt . . . I don’t know what. (I’m not good at identifying feelings, if indeed I have them.) It was a surprise. So I acted out of character, and gave her a piggy-bank, and we (including her mum) have gone from there. I don’t have grand-kids, so no great-grandkids, although I’m of an age to, if that explains anything.

M

“Separation”, or its variant “separate”, is a word used in LU in a particular way, as in “separate” self. So, not just a “self” is mentioned, but it is often described as “separate”, as in “separate self”. “Self” I’m relatively comfortable with, but “separate self”? Who, or what, is this “separate self”? Is it a sub-species of “self”? Does it have a different colour, or longer ears? What makes it different from the ordinary common-or-garden self? And who, or what, is it separate from? I know about the “self” – see “Basement Boys” – but not the “separate” one. It’s claimed to have magical properties: when it’s lured out of hiding and “seen through”, there’s just

life flowing freely, all is one reality, one life. Life just IS.

Wow! What does it do for an encore, in its absence?

Hi Mike,

Are you picking a fight with the labels that are used at LU? Is this a way to avoid looking to your own experience? You can use your own words, I'm 100% ok with that!

Most people think that they're a person inside a body separated from what's going on outside them: I'm in here experiencing a world out there. <------- this is my immediate idea about "separation" and "self".

Do you have other ideas about what "self" and "separation" point to in your experience? I would like to know them. In your words not in other person words.

You mentioned that "I acted out of character". Is there a difference between what you think you are and what you're calling the character?

You also said about you:

I’m reticent, perhaps reclusive. Being “friendly” isn’t my habit. I’m defensive, by default.

I wonder if you think these are facts about you. To what are these labels being applied to? What proves their reality? Could these be just beliefs about a you that doesn't exist?

Take care,
Sandra

Hi Sandra,

Most people think that they're a person inside a body separated from what's going on outside them: I'm in here experiencing a world out there. <------- this is my immediate idea about "separation" and "self".

Thanks! That's what I wanted to hear. It makes things much clearer.

I'll write more later.

Look after yourself (!)

Mike

Are you picking a fight with the labels that are used at LU? Is this a way to avoid looking to your own experience?

[Sigh] Where to begin?