The Gate

Hello Jerry

Thank you for what you just posted. I get the sense that something has shifted for you. However you are the only one who really knows if that is so.

Also as I look back at the thread nothing comes up that seems to need particular attention.

So all in all when we get to this point there are some questions which are very useful , and which other guides will take a look at, to help us check if anything has been missed. It also gives other guides a chance to come back with any questions of their own or suggestions of where we might dig in a bit further

As you go through the following questions make sure you are not tempted to go to thought for an answer but ONLY Report from your Actual Experience in this very moment when you reply to each question. Do not reply from memory or a previous experience.

No need to rush, come from the heart and not your head, take your time and have some fun !!

Here are the questions.

1) Is there a separate entity 'self', 'me' 'I', at all, anywhere, in any way, shape or form? Was there ever?



2) Share in your own words what the illusion of separate self is and how it shows up in experience. Then give some experiential examples of how life changed for you after seeing through this illusion.



3) How does it feel to see this? What is the difference from before you started this dialogue? Please report from the past few days.



4) Can you remember any specific moment where there was an epiphany? ....a before and after seeing the actuality of no self? Was there a point when you ‘got it’?



5) From your own experience of no self please talk about
decision, & give examples from experience.



intention, & give examples from experience.



free will, & give examples from experience.



choice and control? & give examples from experience.



What makes things happen? How does it work?



What are you responsible for? Give examples from experience.



6) Anything to add?




With love


Alan

Hi Alan,

Still working on the questions, just letting you know.

Jerry

Take as much time as you need Jerry.

Just remember ....don't think about it !!!

Alan

Hi Alan,

Here’s what I got down, happy to elaborate on anything.

1) Is there a separate entity 'self', 'me' 'I', at all, anywhere, in any way, shape or form? Was there ever?

No to all, and there was never such a thing.

2) Share in your own words what the illusion of separate self is and how it shows up in experience. Then give some experiential examples of how life changed for you after seeing through this illusion.

The illusion of separate self is thoughts saying there’s a separate me, and more thoughts of believing there’s a separate me. In experience this is looking at your feet, thinking “these are my feet, that’s the floor”, and also thinking “I believe this is true”, creating an illusion of “your feet and the floor beneath”.

Right now, life is different in that this life is seen as a story. There’s the senses right now, and then a construction based on those senses of how I got here, and what’s going on, and that’s all clearly seen as a construction and it collapses.

Theres less confidence in the accuracy of memory. Thinking of the past day there’s much less certainty that things played out exactly as memory portrays.

Those changes, and others aren’t incredibly stark before-and-after types of changes, and seem closer to natural developments that were already set to play out this way.

3) How does it feel to see this? What is the difference from before you started this dialogue? Please report from the past few days.

Surprisingly ordinary. Feeling relatively relaxed and unworried. Sometimes feel like I’m a baby in a cradle, completely safe. It’s pretty funny to see how this was here the entire time.

Before starting this dialogue there were more feelings of dissatisfaction, yearning, and confusion.

4) Can you remember any specific moment where there was an epiphany? ....a before and after seeing the actuality of no self? Was there a point when you ‘got it’?

The closest thing that comes into mind was when pondering the question asked in this thread of: “within seeing is there a seer or a seen?”. Immediately the gap closed between the intellectual understanding of no separation, and the actual experience of a lack of separation. Even so, that didn’t 100% do it for me.

To the extent that it’s seen now, it snuck up on me and didn’t seem to come from anything in particular, nor appear all at once.

It’s funny to me that in retrospect one of my main expectations was this coming packaged in some sort of epiphany. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers!

5) From your own experience of no self please talk about
decision, & give examples from experience.

Decision is immediately seen as just a concept. In experience there’s a thought about deciding to type this, but in reality it’s just being typed. There wasn’t a thought about decision in the latter half of that sentence and it still happened.

intention, & give examples from experience.

Intention is also just a concept. In the experience of typing this there’s thoughts of intending to type apple. The thought appeared, apple was typed but the thought of intention was sourceless. There wasn’t something intending for the intention of typing apple to appear. It came as a complete surprise to me.

free will, & give examples from experience.

Free will doesn’t exist outside of the mind— it’s just another thought. There’s thoughts of freely willing this to be typed and at the same time those thoughts are just seen as thoughts. The typing feels completely automatic.

choice and control? & give examples from experience.

Both just concepts again, same stuff different name. Right now there’s thoughts of choosing to blink the eyes, and the eyes haven’t blinked. Now there’s thoughts of controlling the eyes to blink and in the middle of typing that, without a single thought the eyes blinked before I could even think of controlling them to make them do so.

What makes things happen? How does it work?

That’s what I’m wondering! I can’t perceive anything that’s making things happen, nor any way in which these happenings are happening.

What are you responsible for? Give examples from experience.

There’s no me to be responsible. At this moment it looks like this is all happening on its own without a me taking responsibility for it.

6) Anything to add?

Memory is implying that this isn’t 24/7. There’s memories of periods of not seeing and being completely caught up in the illusion, but the funny part is whenever I’m right here that’s never the case. It’s giving the perception of skipping around between moments where there’s lucidity.

Jerry

Thank you for your responses from your direct experience Jerry

They are very clear to me and I don't have any questions.

It’s pretty funny to see how this was here the entire time.

Love it ! Sometimes this is referred to as the cosmic joke !

I have asked other guides to have a look at the thread and to respond with any questions they may have. Sometimes this can take a couple of days.

So stay tuned and I'll be back to you!


With love


Alan

Hello Jerry

Other guides have looked at the thread and have no questions for us !!

Your honesty from the get go was something that was noted in particular.

Welcome to the doorway to home !!!

And here is something that is most probably so clear to you and is worth pointing to again and again

Wherever we "arrive" is ALWAYS only the beginning

Here is something that one of our LU guides wrote recently which beautifully describes the continuing unfolding.

'"When the core belief has been busted, a lot of other beliefs will still be hanging around. What you want to do at this point is LOOK and LOOK again. Keep your eyes open, let the beliefs come to the surface. Keep looking. They will come up one by one ready to be examined and released. Don’t fight them. Hold on to nothing.

As soon as you start holding on to beliefs and ideas, you get stuck - you feel right about something and feel like you have an opinion. To unstick, just let it all fall off. That means question everything you are certain about. It may take a few months to settle in, but everyone is different, so there is no way to know how long it will take for everything to be re-examined. Sometimes it is intense, sometimes it’s gentle, but there is no finish line, only falling deeper and deeper into peace.

LOOKING becomes a way of living.

“Crossing the gate” is only the beginning of a long integration and re-evaluation. Any conditioning has to be seen for what it is. The best part is that the cleaning happens on its own – it takes care of itself once SEEN. If fear appears, it just shows that there are areas that have not been examined and need to be explored with DE."

It has been particularly unique to work with a young person such as yourself Jerry who has little of the typical conditioning from traditional teachings to navigate. To see this truth of no-self at your stage of life is wonderful to say the least !!

Even with that being the case it is also worth reminding ourselves that one of the fundamental truths here is to be able to continue to see the story AND the sensation in emotions that arise - as you are already doing. Sitting with sensations is absolutely key to this on-going unbinding. FEELING into sensation without interpretation is another "tool" that we need to use again and again. Sometimes we can drop straight into it. Other times we find it really challenging. If you feel some extra help is worthwhile here just let me know and I will respond by private email.

It has been an absolute joy to do this exploration with you Jerry.


With love


Alan

Hi Alan,

Thank you so much for guiding me. May this thread help anyone else that stumbles upon it.

Eternally honored to have encountered you and have the privilege of being guided,

Jerry