No-self .. Liberation from the ego .. or a more subtle ego game ?

Tuesday, 13th December 2011

05:48:Hrs;

Speaking about what I see going on in all the no-self & enlightenment groups.

All the hoo ha boils down to .. There is a presence behind all the thoughts feelings and reactions to stuff happening .. it is constant and unvarying .. a unified field of awareness .. stick with that .. stay there and watch the rest .. (the you that is not you) .. when you get identified with the “you” .. return there.

Enlightenment is for those that stay there all the time.

A part of me says “Big deal” ..but that is probably just sour grapes .. I’m tired and fed up with it (older than most also) ..

Sheikh used to say “Step on the ego and come, so simple but so difficult.”

The groups are nice for sharing .. cus they are all people trying to do that .. stay with the real and watch the ballshit .. in themselves and around themselves ..

I say the real is God .. they say it’s nothing .. or just being or presence or whatever ..

End of .. labels shouldn’t get in the way ..

I also actually think that the same constant unified awareness is the essence of all the other stuff as well .. or actually there is no other stuff or awareness to be separated .. but it’s all just ideas probably .. an attempt to put into words that there is nothing but Allah or it is all One ..

Who or what knows that there is no self ?

Something in all those people teaching this stuff knows that, otherwise they wouldn’t be so pleased with it and keep teaching it. What is it in all these liberators that knows and teaches or liberates ?

Real self & compassion .. maybe .. (or ego with a clever idea ?)

It seems very close to the Buddhist concept of anatta or no-self ..

Jackson Peterson

The Illusion of Autonomy

I would say that the aspect of the relative, autonomous self is an illusion, as far as autonomy goes. That self is like a reflection in the mirror of Being. There is nothing autonomous about its activities, its totally stimulus response. Thoughts happen, emotions happen, choices happen, actions happen, but no where can one find this person who is doing this. The conventional person per se, is just a bunch of tendencies arisng in Awareness. How can a bunch of tendencies be autonomous? Its not that we are a person who has experiences, but rather the person is just an experience arising in Awareness. As the Buddha taught in earliest of his teachings in order to shatter identification within the mind, that for whatever arises one should apply the knowledge: "This is not mine, this is not me, this not my self". He recommended one apply that to all thoughts, sense of personhood or self identity, memories, images, the mind, emotions, sensations, all five senses, perceptions and the body. Try it with each of those listed. But That by which all of these arisings are known is That which you are. Its a Knowing and Perceivingness without there being a defined Knower or defined Perceiver. The Knowing is the Mirror in which the relative person arises as a reflection. There is no autonomy amongst the reflections... and no one choosing autonomously on any level... Its all just happening...

Which is cool as a description .. but .. if you can’t do anything and it is all just happening .. who “applies the knowledge” .. ?

If there is no autonomy how can this non-existent entity .. (contradiction in terms) .. do anything ? How can something that does not exist stop existing ? .. How can something that does not exist point to itself and say “Look I don’t exist!” .. & then go on to say .. “I’ve discovered I don’t exist .. now I am going to show you that you don’t exist either.”

Who’s deciding ? Who’s pointing ? Isn’t this all just illusory bollocks ? Another enlightenment game ?

The self tricking itself into sitting in a different bit of itself which it identifies and labels as “knowing” or whatever and then has a great time watching all the other bits coming up and saying;
 “Look! That’s not me .. oh .. and that’s not me .. and that’s a belief .. and that’s not real .. Oh .. how free I am ! Now I’m free .. I feel such compassion for all those others that haven’t seen this .. I must tell them .. and free them as well ..”

All the time living in a newly invented “free self” .. with a wonderful role of liberator (which of course makes them subtly superior and with an element of control) .. and now feeling such love for all the newly liberated and such compassion for all the ones who haven’t seen.

Just asking .. cos what is going on here feels very interesting and like a key to something else but not really enlightenment .. Going through a quick process of questions and answers on FB or in a forum does not enlighten anyone .. and that is what is being advertised and assumed ..

Freedom from the self is enlightenment .. let’s be clear about this .. abiding non-dual awareness .. or knowing God .. or enlightenment are a result of, or the same as, freedom from the self ..

Pointing to no-self and being able to explain it is not the same as attaining it ..

Seeing it is not the same as attaining it either  ..

If it’s not permanent and complete people are just sifting through the contents of the mind and the ego and it never ends ..

True enlightenment has to be a one shot thing .. complete abiding and non-reversable .. like a snake losing its skin .. no matter how much the snake looks at its skin and says “That is not me.” It’s a part of it until it falls off ..

Sitting in one part of the ego and looking at the rest .. is not the same as stepping out of it.

Stop kidding yourselves and others and find out who or what knows that there is no self.