Hi Amin
You seem to be agreeing/answering from knowledge (not looking) a lot. This shows up as inconsistencies in your answers…
Hard to tell the wife she doesn't exist!
Well, like I said before, my personal experience in the “guiding story” is that “others” have to be willing to be guided.
Is there anything wrong if the story is not a “guiding story” (i.e. telling your wife she doesn’t exist)? What happens with “others” is another story. Your relationship with “enlightened others” or “unenlightened others” is just more story. They are all fairy tales,
do you see that? THIS happens and the story is part of it – good, bad, ugly… Without lables describing the story, it is JUST a story.
The truth is that a life and commitments were made in the dream state from which there has been an awakening now. While the truth is that all of the past was based on Santa, now, in an awakened state there are disconnects and challenges. The only way forward is in the truth of this work and in an absence of self.
OK, so what you are saying is that your “enlightening” story is clashing with the “old” story :))) That is exactly the confirmation bias, I was talking about. Remember, thoughts stick to each other like magnets – repelling and attracting. The more old story you have, the more resisting thoughts. The more new story (e.g. story of DE), the more attraction of more DE thoughts. So keep on checking what is DE and what is not, this is the only way to change the story…
THIS Amin, who does not exist is living a conventional life based on an Amin that did. With people who have believed they exisit and come to rely on that mirage, where the two clash are full of labels, thoughts, and stories that are false. How to live genuinely with this with the impact it has on others. Ironically, equanimity reigns through all this.
Can a noun/label/word live any life? Can a word believe that it exists or not? Can a noun be awakened? Can a word make decisions how to approach other nouns? You seem to confuse reality with language.
Did “you” decide before how to approach “others” or it just happened? Even in the story you saw that “you” did not make any decisions – it is just cause and effect. Outside of the story (i.e. DE), this is even more ridiculous as there are no others, decisions, happening… just THIS!
You are talking like there is a character “Amin” that does things in the story. Followed by another character “No-Amin” that continues to do things in the story.
Does the story actually need a character? Is there a story or just language?
When you say “Amin does this and that”, is there an actor playing “Amin”? How does a character operate? Is there anything that controls the story? Is Spiderman choosing what he is going to do next in the story of Spiderman? Choice is also part of story, and the story is fictional. Take a look at Amin from the point of view of a friend, family member, somebody you never met, a colleague:
What can you see? Is it still the same character? Is there really anything playing Amin or the idea of a character is just an illusion/language? And before you say something like “awareness plays the character” :))), is “awareness” like a spirit/witness that makes things happen? How is this observed?
Is there life or lifing? LOOK!
Are there any entities/subjects/objects present in actual experience?
How can the character follow a script when there is no time, when it is always now? So where and when is the script unrolling if there is no space and time??? The past as we saw lives only in thought content.
Again, do cause and effect exist outside of thought???
The emptiness is seen, and acknowledged. just not shared.
Shared by whom/what?
I am guilty of agreeing with you and being crystal clear here but then losing the clarity mired in the day to day. Your reminders are most helpful. I see, says the blind man.
How can you lose the clarity? It is always here, you just have to LOOK! Looking is a matter of noticing what is already here, not inventing or imagining something that needs a huge amount of energy to sustain. It’s not mental gymnastics, and there’s no medal that you have to go for. This sort of noticing is effortless; attention moves and focuses on different perceptions, different information coming in. Thoughts rush in to label what is being noticed. No special state is required; it’s everyday ordinary business.
This is not about states.
How is it possible to "maintain" something when you are present? Present moment is just one present moment, and has anything to do with a duration of a certain state.
Is this clear???
This was a poorly worded statement. The separate self has no DE, A complete mental structure. The separate self "feels" as though it is the mind. However, the mind/brain WAS the location of the sense of self.
Yeah, we talked about the separate self, but what about the sense of separate self (e.g. the character/”Amin”), the one that “feels”? Does it have a location? What are “brain” and “mind”? Do they have a location? Located where? When you start questions like that it all falls apart. The story is seen as funny/empty.
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
