The Gate

You're welcome. Thank you for keeping on, regardless of the apparent difficulties. I appreciate your tenacity.

I am me, a human being, complete with a full body that has a face, eyes, ears, hair, legs arms (all the appendages). I have a mind that allows me to think, process data, make decisions, feel emotions. That us me...my self.

That is a nice description of the self.

What it seems to me is that you're saying that you think a self is made of:
- concepts (I'm this and that)
- a body / body parts
- a mind (thoughts, emotions, etc)

Ok. I would like you to use the picture feature that is in your mobil phone with the goal to prove there is a real self that matches your decription.

Take some pictures of what you think is your self, or the self, or you.

Then check if the pictures prove the accuracy of your description of a self.

Let me know what you find while comparing the ideas about a self and a image of what was present.

Hi C,

I have performed your exercises. Here is what I have observed. I cannot take a picture of my thoughts, emptions, these are processes that occur within me and are invisible to the eye. Since these are invisible, they cannot be me, they are simply a process of life that aids the computation of information in my environment. Which leaves the body. I took a picture and what i saw was that the body is simply a collection of mass, all working together to form what I then see as 'my' body. Basically, it is all just flesh and blood strung together running to operate as a living unit. I am not my hand, when I cut of my hand, there is no 'me' in it but my sense of me carries on. The same happens when I cut of my leg etc. There are some vital organs and parts of the body that if were cut off would impair the unified functioning of the entire body, much like would happen if a river were to be cut off from it's source...it would eventually dry up. So what I see now is this...'I' am nowhere, I do not exist as a separate self because everything that I think I am depends entirely on something else, the air I breathe, the water I drink , the ground I walk on, the food that I eat, it is all me...all of it. What I think is 'me' is simply the life witnessing itself. There is no me...only life...connected, shared, ever present.

Hi Wintonia,

I was travelling and I just saw your post today.

How are things going?

Are you sure that a separate self isn't real? Is this realization something that you can see, every time you look, or is this an intellectual understanding?

Take care,
C

In other words. If I tell you you are wrong, that there is a separate self, would you have doubts?

Thanks C.

Don't worry about it, we have an understanding here it seems, we speak when we can, I appreciate it.

So to answer, your question, it kind of comes and goes, I see it, I feel it...and then something else takes over and the separation kind of lifts. But when I focus on something, anything or anyone, I start to feel it welling inside and all around, especially more so when I picture myself as someone else, that is when I really see it....there is no me, there is no them. It's a little eerie at times to be honest.

In other words. If I tell you you are wrong, that there is a separate self, would you have doubts?

Lol, well I wouldn't have any doubts because it simply is not there. This is something I seem to have created all by myself..I'm simply looking at the evidence and nothing I see seems to support it, nothing I feel points to this conclusion. I am working with what is in front of me, around me....what is there....one massive ball of life.

Sounds good!

that is when I really see it....

So, what are you seeing? How would you describe this to someone that never heard about it?

Honestly I thought and felt like I had it and lost it again....frustrated.

Hi Wintonia! Thank you for your honesty!

Honestly I thought and felt like I had it and lost it again....frustrated.

Well. That's what thinking is about. Creating a constant engaging story about you. The thinking is working perfectly, doing its thing, creating beliefs, stories, an apparent world made of thinking. And even creating this idea of a self that loses it! It's the most creative thing.

Can you change the thoughts that appear? Other thoughts? Don't you find this suspect?

What is here that can be lost? What is here that can be had? Isn't this just this?

Take care,
C

Can you change the thoughts that appear? Other thoughts? Don't you find this suspect?

This should be:

Can you change the thoughts that appear?

What is giving credibility to the content of any thoughts? Other thoughts? Don't you find this suspect?