The Gate

This is unbelievably helpful Delma. Thank you so much.

You're right, I was resisting because I didn't like it, not one bit. What I see now however, is that it wasn't so much that I didn't like the notion of no self (which I still may not to like to some degree). Instead it was the notion that I was somehow done... because I can tell that I'm not. I feel obsessed in this way and compelled to keep going until it's all done. It was freaking me out that done would feel so not done. And so it's a huge relief to know that I'm not done. Some part of me has known that that's the truth of the matter.

Not that I've had the misfortune of any kind of direct experience of this but it has felt to me as if my body has been rejecting an organ for the past several weeks, trying to get my mind around what I knew couldn't be true. Now that I know it's not true, I'm not done, I feel way more sane. My body is suddenly relaxed.

Thoughts are easy. They happen. View sees them. They are real but their contents are not. I can think "this iPhone is made of papaya flesh." View sees this thought. It happened. But the content of the thought isn't real. My phone is not made of papaya flesh... thankfully. I must be hungry. : )

So so helpful. Frankly I believe a big part of my panic was around the idea that enlightenment may not actually be a real thing. Again, some part of me knows that's not true but I have very few examples to go off of.

I feel compelled to get it done until every cell of my being knows it. I have no use for fantasy or fairy tales. As I said in the beginning, "I want the straight dope." I'm 48 years old. It's taken enough time to get to this point where nothing seems more important. Now that I'm here, I need to get on it... in the most efficient way possible, no matter how unpleasant it might be.

I have no idea why I'm so gripped by this but I am. Being so gripped by something that I wasn't sure was even real was eating me up. Not that I somehow know for sure now either but I trust you and your words have helped reassure me that I'm not crazy and that what I want to know more than anything actually be there.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart Delma.

Ben

You're welcome!

Whew. I'm glad we figured out what was happening. Not a good plave to be in, certainly, but an almost necessary one to pass through.

This inquiry was my complete obsession before gating three years ago. Now I'd call it life's obsession with itself. Remove the angsty me and all that's left ia life itself, inquiring into itself.

Besides, take a look around. Without that "me" filter, are things clearer, sharper, more poignant and dare I say, "beautiful"? Or at least beautifully rendered. ;)

By the way, this new tool of inquiry can be applied anywhere. It's uses are endless,
but so are the resulting realizations. What we've done here at LU is to focus on one main aspect of waking up only, and then provide further resources once this part is done. As for me, I am happy to continue working with you for as long as you'd like via email or other means such as LU facebook groups. But I think that the gating piece is done.

What do you think? It's your "confirmation" that counts.

Ironically. ;)

Besides, you're in good company as far as those gripped with this. Trust me. Lots of company.

Whew is right! Things do seem clearer now. I was getting tunnel vision there for a bit.

A few more things...

1. Just for my own clarification, while the content of thoughts aren't real, their content MAY correspond to reality. Seems like an important distinction. I can think how my phone is made of plastic and glass and while this thought corresponds to reality, it is not reality. It is still just a thought.

2. I can be a little slow, especially when my circuits have been fried. Can you tell me explicitly what the tool we've been using is, what the questions are that we asked here?

Is it simply inquiry, asking what's real over and over again or have there been specific steps or layers that I'm not recognizing?

I'm also happy to go back and read our thread and take notes if it's complex but I'm guessing it's not.

3. I believe I'm through now. We will see how it unfolds, whether the obsession sticks around or fades away.

For now I'd like to keep moving forward, especially if there are proven tools and questions available to me, ones that deliver results.

I would love to continue working with you Delma. You've been so incredible helpful. Until I change my mind about this, you know what I'm after.

Spot on as to what the tool is.

And, while thoughts MAY refer to reality, they never even come close.

For instance, if you were dying of thirst with a glass of cold ice water in front of you, you could think about the water all day and still die of thirst.

No?




So, the next step is for me to get others to take a look at our thread here to see whether we've covered this well enough or if they have additional questions. I'll be back and no worries. I'm always around as well as many other LUers.

Be back!

Agreed, thoughts are simply not reality.

Thank you Delma!

Hi. Got a question from one of the guides and I think it's a great one...

"What's different now, when that ego is triggered off? Who's ego is it?"

:)

Love it! What a funny question. Who's ego is it anyhow, if there is no self? Nobody's, that's who's. Ego is just another label, one we use to describe our attachment to self, the thoughts and feelings that arise when "self" is threatened, hurt, offended. Ego is just more thought about thoughts and if thoughts aren't real then thoughts about thoughts are REALLY not real. Yikes!

What's different now is that the process from flare-up to "I don't really care" goes by quite quickly, often in minutes.

Got another one. Love it. Theae folks are making sure you are properly through.

"Thoughts are easy. They happen. View sees them."
Could you ask him what he means by "View sees them"? What is "view"?

We've covered this but it's back in the thread. Hope you don't mind a revisit.

Delma

Please extend my thanks to your peers. I am truly grateful. Don't mind revisiting at all.

View? I have no idea. There is something, I'll call it awareness, that perceives. The senses plus thoughts and feelings land in View, in this place of "knowing." It's not owned though because while it seems to have a locus "here" there is no self. It just is. It's not controlled either. Whatever arrives in View arrives in View. View is always here. In a way it's the definition of here and now.

Anything that is known, thought, or felt, is "understood" to be happening through "View." It's like the lens that all that is perceived passes through, or maybe the screen into which all is projected.

Thank you.

Let's look at whether there us truly a locus. How do we know that it's "here"?

Well, locus really just seems to be the notion of here and now as View relates to Viewed. View is wherever View is which maybe means no locus.

View and viewed seems relative. Either space and time exist, in which case there may be a locus and it can move around in relation to them or space and time are an illusion and there is no locus. I don't know really.

I suppose if I boil it down and zoom way, way out, with no other assumptions attached, then there is no locus.

So weird - like the center of everything that is known now by View.

Thanks Delma. It helps to look more closely at that.

Is everything within this view? In other words, is anything outside of this view actually there or is it assimed to be there?

Now, this may seem to be a stretch, but outside of memory (thought) does anything ezist outside of view?

And if not, can a locus of view be assumed?

Nope, unless we make assumptions to the contrary, nothing is there except what shows up in View. Everything that is know is know is within View, nothing outside of it. Without those assumptions in place, there is no locus. All of it is right here, now... all of it.

Lol.. thanks for excusing the typos which are difficult to catch via the phone app. Be back.