Does anyone else find it weird that there is no self?

[Reena]

I don't know if I'm the only one. But I can't function normally mentally if I think there is no self. 

[Mandy]

6 minutes ago, Reena said:

I don't know if I'm the only one. 

No one knows or realizes that there's no self. Sounds pretty weird. 

 

If you were a figure skater, thinking about yourself and how people respond to you, thoughts of concern for yourself, looking down at your feet will more often than not make you lose focus and fall, but being in the flow of the joy of skating where there's "no you" is what's wanted and it's full and free uninhibited expression. It's what "we" all really want, and it's love and it doesn't exclude grace and appreciation for the falls along the way. 

[Reena]

1 hour ago, Mandy said:

No one knows or realizes that there's no self. Sounds pretty weird. 

 

If you were a figure skater, thinking about yourself and how people respond to you, thoughts of concern for yourself, looking down at your feet will more often than not make you lose focus and fall, but being in the flow of the joy of skating where there's "no you" is what's wanted and it's full and free uninhibited expression. It's what "we" all really want, and it's love and it doesn't exclude grace and appreciation for the falls along the way. 

So a few days back I began drinking. I had slurred speech and lack of control. If I had been driving in that state, I would have rammed into a car. Of course the person who is driving is me? Who else can it be? Also if I thought I'm not a self or there is no me, wouldn't it lead to more accidents as I'll be inclined to be less careful since there is no me? 

[Mandy]

@Reena Lack of focus or substance induced states of low inhibitions and focus has nothing to do with there being no separate self. No self is not a state. 

[Reena]

32 minutes ago, Mandy said:

@Reena Lack of focus or substance induced states of low inhibitions and focus has nothing to do with there being no separate self. No self is not a state. 

Then is it a concept? 

[Mandy]

@Reena If you think it, it's something that's imagined to be missing or nothing. It's like a cut out of a self, negative space of a self which is a self. There's no line, no border, no separation that defines a separate self. Not a concept unless it's made to be, and the concept will certainly feel weird, as you are not a negative space or a vacuum. 

[Phil]

On 6/2/2024 at 10:45 AM, Reena said:

So a few days back I began drinking. I had slurred speech and lack of control. If I had been driving in that state, I would have rammed into a car. Of course the person who is driving is me?

If you’re presently aware of the thought about a person driving in a past, how could you be the person driving in a past? 

 

 

On 6/2/2024 at 10:45 AM, Reena said:

Who else can it be?

A person driving (in a past)… is a thought… and who else can it be… is a thought. Awareness is present & aware of thoughts and is not a who. 

 

If there was a belief in unicorns and the belief was dispelled, the unicorns wouldn’t be, have been or become something or someone else. 

 

On 6/2/2024 at 10:45 AM, Reena said:

 

Also if I thought I'm not a self or there is no me, wouldn't it lead to more accidents as I'll be inclined to be less careful since there is no me? 

The presumption is there is ‘a thinker’. There would be the thoughts ‘I’m not a self’ or ‘there is no me’, there just isn’t any actual experience of ‘a thinker’ ‘thinking thoughts’. 

 

Accidents don’t actually apply to you.

 

Liberation is that there isn’t anyone else (that may or may not find it weird), and therein no anxiety, social anxiety, nervousness, embarrassment, regret, resentment, depression, tension, stress, etc. 

 

There’s no suggestion to “think there is no self”. 

[Orb]

4 hours ago, Reena said:

I don't know if I'm the only one. But I can't function normally mentally if I think there is no self. 

Lol no one's been there at all in the first place

[Reena]

12 minutes ago, Phil said:

If you’re presently aware of the thought about a person driving in a past, how could you be the person driving in a past? 

How would memories exist if there was no thought? And how were such memories captured on photo? 

[Phil]

On 6/2/2024 at 1:32 PM, Reena said:

How would memories exist if there was no thought? And how were such memories captured on photo? 

Memories already don’t exist as separate things and are experienced only presently like all appearing thought(s).

That memories were captured like a photo is a presently appearing /  thought, about a past.  

A photo is a present-experience-only as well. 

[Aware Wolf]

Ramana, the master of Self Inquiry and Who am I? practice never said there's not a self. Ramana called what's left after Neti Neti practice (Not this, not this) , True Self. 

 

I'm reading a book by Fadiman, "Symphony of Selves" which is an interesting perspective. We are not just one permanent solitary self, but many. Sometimes we are the sinner -- sometimes the saint. 

 

There are different perspectives here. 

 

To me, its obvious being a meditator, sometimes intensively, for years, that there IS a self. Self, or lowercase self, as a construct. That's fine. When I obliterated (minimized?) self construct in meditation or with psychedelics , it seemed to be gone, but i think rather its minimized, waiting to come back online. I could talk more here but it gets weedy. 

 

We need that construct to function in a human world. To go to war and try to eradicate the self construct seems undesirable and akin to psychological disassociation. It's not necessary. 

 

I just don't take it all too seriously. This was also the approach recommended by Advaita Vedanta Swami TV

 

Now what is aware of this construct, the consciousness, Is True Self. Or Brahman. 

 

 

 

Edited June 14 by Aware Wolf

[Phil]

@Aware Wolf

Yo!

 

Mouse in your pocket? 

 

🙏🏼♥️

[MetaSage]

It might or might not be the case, but believing in either because you've heard it elsewhere makes no difference. In other words, if what's the case is unknown, start with that.

[Phil]

On 6/13/2024 at 7:56 PM, Aware Wolf said:

We need that construct to function in a human world. To go to war and try to eradicate the self construct seems undesirable and akin to psychological disassociation. It's not necessary. 

This would make for a great thread. 

[Jane]

On 6/2/2024 at 2:08 PM, Reena said:

I don't know if I'm the only one. But I can't function normally mentally if I think there is no self. 

For me, I find it weird knowing there is a self. And that self is me.

 

Thats what I mentally struggle with the most, since I am also aware I had absolutely nothing to say or do with the construction of this self  at all. And so for me personally (“the something”) that is constructing (me) and living as and through (me) sometimes freaks the heck out of the (me) LOL… why, because I have no control over the matter. I’m at the mercy of ( “this something” )  never ever knowing how this something that’s living me was possible or even what this  something is, and that the fact that this apparent something is  possible at all, is absolutely mind boggling to me. 🤯

 

 

[James123]

On 6/2/2024 at 4:08 PM, Reena said:

I don't know if I'm the only one. But I can't function normally mentally if I think there is no self. 

Because you think. You can not understand no self, you can only be. 

 

Moreover, it is not weird, it is inevitable. 

[Jane]

1 hour ago, James123 said:

Because you think. You can not understand no self, you can only be. 

 

Moreover, it is not weird, it is inevitable. 

Yes, self cannot experience no self, so all self can do is to be. 
 

James, is the self and no self identical? 

[Joseph Maynor]

There is no self, but there is a Self.

[Jane]

@Joseph Maynor 🤣👍

[James123]

1 hour ago, Jane said:

Yes, self cannot experience no self, so all self can do is to be. 
 

James, is the self and no self identical? 

Self is just a temporary reflection.