is realized—seen truly and fully—then no-self becomes a tool - PDF document

107 is realized—seen truly and fully—then no-self becomes a tool to help through any times of disillusionment, since you have something solid to compare the u to.What is seen cannot be unseen. ut that does not mean that you can never get lost in the story again. t’s like watching a movie and getting sucked into it. nce you look, you know: it’s a movie, not real life. o once you look, you know it’s a story and not reality.ow that you’ve woken up, come join our forum at www.iberationnleashed.com 106 is kind of cleanup is obviously not a pleasant process, but you’ll likely realize that it actually works. All you have to do is take your hands o the steering wheel and let things burn when they are set on re.f “you” do not exist, how is there a “you” that is still attached to the body and mind? ere are feelings, there are thoughts, but they just are. ere has never been a self, and these feelings and thoughts have always been here. Just because you know the truth that you do not exist, and there is no owner of thoughts and feelings, it does not mean they will magically go away. owever, now that the brain has seen through the illusion, why would the illusion of ownership and doer-ship be believed any longer?Aer awakening, identication with self sometimes happens, but usually not for long. onsciousness unmasks the belief, or life does. dentication with a story is also part of the story. Attachment to pleasure and fear of pain are also stories. ere is nothing that attaches. ere is only a story about attachment.oes the “” pop up? o what! ere is emptiness behind it. o back to that emptiness and stare at it. et familiar with it, focus on it, and let it wash over all that is still arising as doubt. ee that the “” is empty and it’s okay for it to be here. t’s just a word. You have to use the word ,” as without it, it would be dicult to communicate. does not mean that an entity pops up. “” is just another thought passing by.Perhaps it is possible to fall back into the fog if you stay stuck somewhere for long enough. ut once no-self here is a Zen saying that the birds have no desire to be reected in the lake, the lake has no desire to reect the birds, but it still happens. e birds are reected, the lake reects, although the desire exists neither on the part of the birds nor on the part of the lake.t’s very freeing to see how roles play out naturally, and the story unfolds eortlessly. All is happening to no one, for no reason. ife is simply going on. t’s safe to retire from being the “general manager” of life.e most important thing is that this is not the end of the road. t’s the rst step of an awakened, authentic life. While the belief in a separate and real “you” may be gone, chances are, a big part of the ego-based structure built on top of that belief is still in place. ow big, only you can know. t is likely that at some point doubts will come up, reactions that may be considered “not useful” will happen, and (possibly deep) negativity will arise. e important thing here is that all these things used to cling to, and be fueled through, the idea of self, which is now seen as an illusion. o whenever thoughts or emotions come up that are judged to be negative, don’t avoid, don’t ght, don’t argue. Just stay with them, and watch them happen and unfold. t’s not personal, so it has nowhere to stick to. R control was illusion, now that know that didn’t really have control, if stop the pretense and remove all of the eort and emotion and the whole control story—if all of that goes, what is le?ere is no need to try and stop the mind from waiting for a pop. Just watch it with a playful curiosity. Allow your expectations to play themselves out and dissolve.s it true that there is no separate entity, no “me,” in real life?o you think you are through the gate? ere is no “me” to go through the gate! e ateless ate is a concept that points to an event or non-event that radically changes the relation to reality.e gate is not a personality shi. t is a perception shi.f you can nd a park, sit there for a bit, and watch how everything moves and wiggles, how the wind blows, how the clouds move. f you can’t nd a park, a view through a window is ne too. People and animals move. Everything is one movement, including your body, breath, and thoughts. Watch the totality, and notice—there is no “noticer” separate from the noticing.e “” is truly only a thought. t is an illusion. A superb illusion. is “” can be searched for but never found in the real world. is truth has been there all the time, right out in the open. When seeing happens, clarity begins.sually getting stuck in the gate is a result of over-intellectualizing instead of directly experiencing life. heck if you can shut o the constant commentary of mind while you walk and experience the light, the air, and what you see.You can ask yourself, “ow that know that control was a myth, now that know that any sense of GAT 97 happening and thoughts about it. And don’t worry about unseeing or somehow forgetting this—you can’t. Anytime there’s a doubt, you can simply look.otice the thoughts and beliefs in your head that you think are you, and experience them as impersonal. o “me,” no struggle. ife lives. “” doesn’t have to think. oughts unfold as needed. ey always have. ere is such quiet joy and deep peace in this.oughts are like clouds, dark or white, scary or funny, sticking together or detaching from each other. oughts cloud the mind as they do the sky. y looking honestly, you will see that the sun is always shining beyond the veil. ere is as much point in believing in clouds as there is in believing thoughts. 96 a chooser? n witnessing, is there a witness? n thinking, is there a thinker? n writing, is there a writer? n perception, is there a perceiver? n experience, is there an experiencer? s someone having the experience? s life happening to someone or something, or is the experiencer merely a thought that happens within and as experience?What is the “” that gets lost in thought? sn’t it just another passing thought? “ get lost in thought.” an a thought get lost in thought?eep the focus on the obvious. You can never nd an entity behind the word “” because such an entity does not exist. All there is, is life happening by itself. s it true?e imaginary self is the result of thoughts, so a self could never control thoughts—especially when they are about “you,” because that’s exactly the process that creates the construct called “self” in the rst place. e self cannot simultaneously be created by and yet alter thoughts.f it is in fact the case that everything is one, as in one, continuous, unbroken reality. ow can there be someone to experience it, ever?You need to see this, clearly and directly for yourself—just like you see there is no atman in this room now. nce you’ve seen it, no one will be able to convince you otherwise.You are not who you think you are. iterally. ind out if you exist at all outside of thought. And what is le if you do not?ere’s no one to awaken or to see, just seeing 95 e only way “you” can go into time is in thought, in imagination, via an imaginary “you.”he contents of the mind are nothing but thoughts. an thoughts ever be real? houghts can be about the real or unreal, but thoughts themselves are never the real. f you don’t take their contents seriously, is there a problem with anything?All our descriptions of life and reality are conceptual, arbitrary, and made up. ut reality is non-conceptual. t just is. All explanations are bullshit. is doesn’t mean they’re not worthwhile, or that stories aren’t fun and entertaining. ut this is all action and reaction, as neurons re in the brain. e “” is their product, not their cause. Everything is on automatic. ere is one universal whole. o separation. o separation from life.f there are no labels and there is just life, what happens to “my” life? oes life belong to a “me”? an you sense, in any way, ownership of life? s there a center if it’s not labeled “my center”? With closed eyes, nd a center. Where is it? an you nd a line that divides here from there? f you hear a distant sound, is it heard inside the body or where it happens? f you were to take a nger and point to “my center” where would the nger end up pointing?What moves? Everything. Everything moves; nothing is separate; everything moves and exists as one thing. You can pick out parts of the whole to focus on, like a bird or a cat, but they’re not truly separate from anything around them.n looking, is there a looker? n choosing, is there 94 man is to be found, except as a bunch of thoughts about thoughts. t is a self-reective loop, isn’t it?o you think that a real “you” is controlled by your mind? What can possibly be controlled by thought? e content of thought is entirely imaginary. ow can something real be controlled by something imaginary? Who or what is being controlled? A thought-constructed being, a self-image? ook deeply at this.ow can you ever “control” your reactions? on’t they arise naturally? oes the brain need a manager, in other words? nvestigate here. Also watch how other people’s reactions arise when something happens.t may seem that the story can be controlled. ut when you look for what it is that supposedly makes the choices and tries to control the story, you can’t nd it. ings just happen. ontrolling or choosing also happens out of nothing, from nowhere. And it is only a thought-habit to assume that there’s a “me” doing the controlling.ocus on the feeling of being, that which is always here. Just stay with it for a bit. en notice how labels arise. an you see how thoughts are? ook at the content of thoughts. ey are just labels. ey tell a story. And a story is always ction.an a thought think? an a thought feel? an a thought become liberated?What feels as though it is behind the illusion of the “” is just what is really going on. eeing things, hearing things, moving around. ife without “my” manipulation. Quiet. pace. 93 funny ideas, and angry moments just show up? an you make them show up?When emotions arise, check very carefully, and answer this: Except for my thoughts about it, am okay in this moment? heck it!magine sitting on the white sand of a beautiful aribbean sland, sipping delicious drinks, and having a very pleasant time. en notice that this is obviously imagination—day-dreaming. ow look at the “” thought, and feel it, and see that it comes exactly from the same place as that beautiful island—imagination and day dreaming. ere is no real entity called “.”What is the reality of this moment? We are completely supported by existence. reathing is done, the heart beats, and this complex body functions. f we are cold, we pull on a sweater. f we are hungry, we go to the fridge. And for most of us reading this, we live in abundance. ut we overlook this.elief in the existence of an “objective” perspective is something learned. t is cultural. And the objective perspective is considered superior. t certainly is a powerful concept. is is not about giving it up. t is about realizing that it is a concept. t is not experience. t is not real.t is quite common to see through the illusion of self at one level and nd that a more subtle version is being reconstituted in some form. t is as if something refuses to believe that this can be possible. omewhere, there must be a little man running the show. n investigation, no little 92 Everything does what it is. A cat does what it is, and is what it does. ere’s no “self” of a cat there telling the cat what it should or shouldn’t do. ook at a bird doing what a bird is. e bird doesn’t “do” singing; there is a birdsong and there is a bird. ere is no cause there. t just is. t cannot help but be. e bird does choose to do singing; the cat doesn’t decide to do some stretching.e lines we draw—that separate a self exists, apart from the whole—do they actually exist? n reality, is anything ever separate? ow would that work?othing is separate. Everything is joined. ife ows. oughts, emotions, and sensations come and go like clouds in the sky. one of them are to be taken seriously. Everything is happening at once without control or obstacles. ings just ow, light and free.an you tell if thoughts appear on automatic, or do you actually need to do something to make them come? o thoughts control the body? r are they just labeling what body does? r perhaps body and mind are engaged in dierent activities most of the time? e body is here, doing its thing; the mind is somewhere else, dreaming of an imaginary future and remembering the past.otice your equivocal thinking, too. Vague ideas are vague, and you don’t have to commit to a falsehood.s there a self in direct experience? an you nd a “me” that is more than a thought? n your direct experience, is there a “me” that is “having” pain? “aving” an easy or not-so-easy life? r do joy, pain, likes, dislikes, 91 returning to this focus on the thoughts as you move around. imply keep checking if there is something real—besides a thought—that owns and directs the body.ook at it. ow much of a self is truly needed in everything you do this day? at’s how you see through the illusion of a separate self that runs things. You look at how life actually is. n each moment. ot “about” life. ot the chatter in your head. What is happening moment-by-moment in real life? and moved. Eyes followed. ought happens. on’t let the voices in your head talk you out of it. ook!top guessing and look! Even if your theory is correct, it doesn’t help if you don’t see it. When you are hungry and decide to eat, who decides to eat? You or your body? You or your thoughts? an a “you” be hungry? bserve when the thought-commentary about actions sets in. you rst think, “ will turn le”? r do you turn le and then label this action in your thoughts, “ decided to turn le”? Pick apart all actions and thoughts, moment by moment.ook for your “self,” and what do you nd? ody and mind sitting here. s the body real? Yes. Would “you” exist without thought? o. s the body you? o. What is the “self”? A concept. What produces the concept? ought. Are thoughts real? Yes. s the content accurate? ometimes. s it real? o. o you exist as a separate self?ere’s no “”—just what’s going on, right here and now. ut how we complicate that. eeing the “” as only being just another thought among many thoughts is the key. And everyday life is still here and goes on. 90 knots, but in trains. ne thought comes aer another, but only one thought comes to awareness at a time. f it’s speedy and there are lots of thoughts, they may get labeled as a knot, but examine them with more depth and note what you nd. And there is no center. ere never was a center. All there is, is experience happening now plus the experience of thinking about it. f you had to point to a center, where would your nger point to? f there was a center, wouldn’t it be clear and obvious? t’s unclear because the mind is trying to recreate something that it imagines and believes to be real based on memories. heck if it’s true. Ask the center to reveal itself, literally. ee what happens.Without using thoughts and images (which are just thoughts in picture form) where exactly is the supposed “self”? Where is this self you are so sure is there? f it’s so obviously there, it should be ndable.f you were asked to nd a unicorn, what would you do? Would you go on a quest to look for it? Would you search for it inside? Maybe look around the room? ow do you know you cannot nd a unicorn in real life?on’t try to look for what isn’t. nstead, turn your face to the truth, to the obvious. What is here right now?tart looking, and by seeing reality you will answer your own questions.When you forget to look during the day (which will probably be most of the time), it doesn’t matter. e “” doesn’t become real only because you don’t think of it.You don’t have to decide or believe anything at all. Just look at the evidence. n life, in all your actions, keep 89 e -thought pops up all the time, even in the most mundane activities. Question these thoughts—“ am doing x,” “ am feeling y,” etc. ee if there is ever any reality in these thoughts, if there has ever been any reality to them.e truth is, there is no you or me. ere is no self. ere is no smaller self, there is no higher self. ere is the universe unfolding. f you look closely, honestly, with integrity, and with a certain amount of dedication, it will be revealed that self, or sense of self, only resides in thoughts. oughts of a self do not point to a self, in the same way as thoughts of a unicorn do not point to an actual unicorn.ave you noticed that the image you have of self and others is merely a thought? at it’s imaginary? You cannot actually know any other human being. All you can know is your story of them. And all they can know is their story of you. Who would you be without your story?he process of feeling is real, the process of thinking is real, and the aliveness feeling is real. All experiences happen and are then very quickly labeled with the ” thought to become labeled as “my” experiences. When a perception (an object of the senses or thought) appears, the “” thought associated with the aliveness feeling appears. rom these two succeeding thoughts appears a thought stating that the object is “mine” or “not mine” or “me” or “not me.” or example, you might look at the phone on the table, and immediately you get this thought, “My phone,” combined with the feeling of existing.otice another thing. oughts pass by not in 88 witnessing” just another thought passing by eortlessly?s there such a thing as “awareness in which things appear”? Where is the division between awareness and appearances? ere is no division between awareness and appearances. All that can be seen are appearances.Mindfulness is direct experience—ngers touching keys, ache in head, cramp in shoulders, view of screen, car going by, shaking of head, and so on. ere is no sign of a “me” anywhere, although in this stream a thought may come, such as “ need to go get a birthday card.”ook at a cup. t’s real. Even when you aren’t thinking about a cup, it’s still there. ow look at thoughts about the self. When you are not holding the story of “you” in your thoughts, is it still there? at is a hole in “your” experience, which the mind covers over by telling a story of supposedly seamless experience. owever, experience is not seamless, we experience no self all through our day, yet the mind covers over the holes! t is seeing through those lies that lead us to discover there is only experience without a “you.”ook again at what is happening. an you actually see awareness is doing the looking? r is awareness just another word for the looking happening? ook again. s there something doing the looking?What is consciousness and what makes consciousness “yours”?s there someone or something inside looking out and through, or can you only nd the looking itself? oes seeing require a seer? 87 an you change your thoughts? an you say, “don’t like this thought, think ’ll change it” and the rst thought gets sent to the trash, never to bother you again? r do thoughts simply show up, not controlled by a “you”? an you choose your thoughts?f the “” is linked to the body, how so? Which part of the body contains “”? f the body loses both legs and both arms, would there be a loss of the “”? With your eyes closed, can you nd a line between the body and what is outside the body? Where is “” located?f you think there is a “sense” of identity, where is it felt? ow does it feel? s it there if it’s not labeled and described by the mind? an you nd that sense of aliveness, of being (as a verb), and see if it is here if you don’t think about it? s it personal? Where is the line between here and there?e sense of being or aliveness plus the label “is is me” is what creates the illusion. eeing that the label itself is not a real entity, to which life happens, breaks the spell.ave you noticed that what happens, happens? hat there is no control? What is breathing the body? What is beating the heart? What is living? otice what is underneath the mind and emotions, under the stories, under the non-stop inner narrative. s there anything at all? ere has been much conditioning around this belief in a separate self. ut notice. s there anything there at all but life as a whole?”s there a witness behind thoughts, or is “ am 86 true? eep looking. ow does the doer manifest itself? what way do you know that there is a doer?s there a witness? A looker, A see-er? An understander? What is here now?What is the self? And where do you look to nd it? What is a story made up of?When you look for who is watching, you either do not know, or you come up with an idea, a thought-construct, a product of the imagination. Essentially “you” have no idea who or what you are, as all ideas of who or what you are, are imaginary.ow in any circumstance, any situation, in the past or in an imagined future—can there ever be a you which is not an idea, thought, or habit? n this very moment, is there a “you” which is not an idea? e truth is really simple and obvious. t takes a little courage to look, but once recognized it will become clear. ook in immediate experience. s there a self, other than habitual thoughts of a self? as there ever been anything but a story about you?You don’t have to decide or believe anything at all. Just look at the evidence. n life, in all your actions, keep returning to this focus on the thoughts as you move around. imply keep checking if there is something real, besides a thought that owns and directs the body.here isn’t a you who thinks your thoughts. on’t take my word for it. Just look. ere was a time when it was “obvious” that the earth was at the center of the universe, until someone dared question this—and turned out to be right. 85 ere is only thinking happening, plus the habit of thinking that there is a “you” who is thinking, doing, hearing, etc. Actually, everything is happening now out of nothing.ow about the body? s that owned, in reality, by a “me”? As you move around in your ordinary life, check and see if you can nd a “self” moving the body around—walking, driving, typing, picking up a cup. s there a “who” living your life? r are there thoughts about everything, including a self, apparently living your life?Are you really in control of the actions you experience? o “you” send messages to your muscles telling them to operate? o your eyes telling them to see? your brain telling it to understand? o you tell the wind to blow or the sun to shine? Aren’t these happening all by themselves, without a story of “you” required to make them happen?is is a process of subtraction. f we subtract the tendency to believe the “my-ication” labels on virtually everything, what is there? ake away the layers of story and habitual appropriation of experience, and what is there? on’t even call it “my” awareness and “my” consciousness, and what is there? on’t claim the movement of the body, and what moves there?e self isn’t actually involved in the action. e thoughts sometimes seem to arise simultaneously, but aer some practice, and while paying attention to it really carefully, you see there’s a moment aer the action has happened but before the self kicks in to take ownership of it.ere is a feeling that there is a doer, but is it 84 moment than what actually is present? nly the mind produces objections to what is. When these movements of the mind fall away, what is le?ook at a cup or glass on your table. s it truer to say that it is “a cup,” or a “my cup”? Where exactly does “a cup” become a “my cup”? What is the mechanism?Are your thoughts possessive in nature? o they always have an “” attached to them? r are some just thoughts? An example of this: look at your phone or tablet. s it your device or just a device? f it is “yours,” how did it get to be yours? ry this on some other things in your life. Are they yours or just things?f you write a name on a piece of paper, will the piece of paper be that name? f you get a pet and give it a name, will the pet be that name? r will it just be a pet you named in that way? Was the pet breathing and eating and drinking before you gave it that name? And how about you. f you had another name, would you still be breathing and eating and drinking? f you had no name at all, would breathing, eating, and drinking still be happening? reathing, eating, and drinking are happening to no one. ey are just happening. ere is nothing and nobody behind the experiencing.o you feel there is a self that is doing, feeling, thinking? e illusion is the belief in a “you” actually doing, feeling, or thinking anything. ook at your thoughts and see if you can control any thought. s there a controller of thought? s there a thinker? f you look carefully, you will realize there is nothing—no “you” controlling or thinking. ow do you know that there is no “”? You look for yourself and nd out the truth of it. therwise it becomes another belief, and nothing changes.t is not the “” that is looking. inking that there is “” that is looking is an illusion—just an assumption that you must question.ere may be a sense that there’s an observer. You can’t shake it, and you assume it indicates an observer. Well, you can’t shake it, because it’s a feeling like any other. You don’t have to shake it. You don’t have to wrap your mind around it. You just have to see if there’s anything behind it.ow about not fabricating anything for a moment, and simply looking at what’s present right now? o “you” exist at all?ow do you know there is a witness, apart from just the obvious process of witnessing or observation? ow is there a witness as an entity? Where is it? oes it actually exist?s there such a thing as awareness in which things appear? s awareness ever actually experienced, or is it just an idea, an abstraction? oes it actually exist?s there any other possibility for the present OOKING 79 struct it completely. What is the “” made of? What keeps it together and operational? 78 be found? r does the idea “ just chose to (not) raise my right arm” come aer the event itself?ow raise your le hand above your head. o it. ow did that happen? What was that made the choice to do it? s it possible that the choice was already made, and thought came in later? Watch closely the relation between what is happening and how thoughts label it.et’s look at the body and see if there is an owner or entity controlling it. i one of your hands. Either one. Move it to the right. ow move it le. ook with your eyes at what is happening. id a “self” move the hand? r did the hand just move?ry raising your hand again. ook at it very closely. id a thought “own” that? Was it a self that chose to do that? ow, pretend someone just threw a ball at your head. Watch the hand move, very quickly. oes the hand “choose” to come up and catch the ball? r does it just rise and catch it, without a thought? ow, raise your hand and move it to the le, then to the right. Watch the thoughts. ook for a self, something which is not just a thought, which is able to move your hand. heck and see where a story attaches to that thought, where “ raise my hand” comes efore, during, or aer the raising?rop this clinging to a control you never had.Who are you? ow look behind that. And behind that. And behind that. Which is more real: the rst answer, or the way beyond answer?s there an inside and outside? s there a separate self at all? What is the self? issect it, take it apart, decon 77 an you see an absence of something? et’s say there is a pen on your table. ook at it. ow take it and hide it behind your back. ook at the table again. an you see an absence of pen? All you see is what is there, not what isn’t.it down and examine your present experience. ee if you can actually nd a central entity, a “me” who is directing the whole show. heck out if you nd a specic “me” who thinks thoughts, has feelings, or directs the processes of the body. Watch how you move through the day—the movements of the body, the reactions to situations. You can only nd this in your own direct experience of this moment.eep looking at your daily experiences. ook for the moment the “” label gets attached to a movement, to “doing-ness.” ere is an experience, and the thought comes up, “” did it. Watch out for this. e like a detective, ready to spot it! Experience happens, and a thought labels it.All thoughts, feelings, and emotions are impersonal. Absolutely everything that is experienced is conditioned and changes. is mind-state that is experienced right now is changing. Wishing for it to be constant—trying to make it constant—is stressful.aise your right arm (or don’t). n that process of raising the right arm or not, a decision is made, or at least something happens (or doesn’t). ut can you pinpoint the actual moment of choice and nd the actual entity that appears to be making that choice? n direct experience, can that moment of choice, that apparent chooser, actually 76 it quietly, wherever you are, and notice what is real: body, furniture, feelings, thoughts, sensations, surroundings. an you nd an “” here? r are there just thoughts, feelings, sensations?When you open your eyes, what happens? there a “you” looking out of two holes in your head? Are you “doing” seeing? r are the sights just here, without any boundary? Just clear unobstructed seeing. heck it!A widely-held assumption is that, in order for looking to happen, there must be someone doing it, a looker. ight now, nd out if this is in fact so. When ask you, “ook at the object in the room you’re in,” what happens? an you closely observe the process, and tell me if there is someone involved in this process at all—someone that is not merely an assumption? heck it out!ere is no magic button, no armation or mantra, no secret knowledge. t is all out in the open. t’s simple, and it’s right under your nose. t’s so simple you are overlooking it. ight here, right now, sitting with your phone or tablet, point with your nger to “you.” o it. ow look with your eyes at what the nger is pointing to. What is it? What do you actually see?e lie resides right at your own center, at the place you call “” or “me.” nvestigate. oes the thought or sense of “” point to a reality? Just like the word “rain” points to the wet stu in your face, or the words “fear” and “joy” point to a set of body sensations? r is it the case that the words “” and “me” are just words, denoting nothing more real and solid than the name “anta laus”? 75 of the birds. otice the habitual thought “ hear that.” ow just pay attention to how sound happens. ake your time with it. Are you doing the hearing, or is it just happening?When smelling an object, what is real about the sense of smell? When does it start, and when does it end? What causes the experience?When you observe a ower, is there any separation between you and the ower? ow about with smelling experience? ry this with the music. isten to the music not with your ears but with all your being. You will discover that you can’t truly listen and think at the same time. e slightest thought stops the natural owing of the music.or the time being, during this investigation, just look at how feelings, thoughts and labels show up. on’t make the mistake of trying to change what is. Please don’t try to be “not me.” e “me” you are talking about doesn’t exist anyway.ow does your “” work? Where did it come from? s it the same “” you were ten years ago? Where does it reside? hi attention to seeing what is true about the sense of “you.” tay focused as much as possible on investigating “you-ness.” ook now in your experience, and keep looking, at what “me” or “” is, and relate what you see here. eally stay one pointed on that specic process.When something appears, whatever it is, tension, desire, sound, anything—focus on it with laser sharpness. bserve it before any thoughts about it appear. s there an ” before the thoughts appear, or does it come with the thoughts? 74 there. ow take your life, your limbs, head, brain, blood, guts, memories, thoughts, and feelings. All this stu very much exists and is very real, but when all this stu references itself and uses language like “me,” “myself,” and “,” over time something that seems real appears, a feeling of ownership over all that—a feeling of control, a feeling of “am my name,” “is is me.” ut truthfully, there’s nothing more there than the brain, the blood, the guts, the thoughts, the memories, and so on.Much of this work consists of seeing how we get hooked by “our” thoughts. We examine these sharp, pointy, and sticky places. Just look in your direct experience and thought processes for the answers. Very simply: how do we “own” things? e screen you are reading on, is it a “your” screen or just “a” screen? Which seems more true? And why?s there a gap between the perceiver of thoughts—thoughts and thinking—or is there just one process that we call thinking? est it with a sound. top everything for two minutes and listen intently to all sounds that are present. s there a hearer of sounds, separate from hearing and the heard? Where does hearing happen? isten to distant sounds. Where is the hearer then? With closed eyes, check if there is a line between here and there. an it be dened?What is happening in this moment? With your ve senses, what do you experience? ights, sounds, tastes, smells, tactile sensations, even thoughts. Just list up what there is, don’t draw conclusions.otice the sounds you’re hearing, like the chirping o this little exercise. lose your eyes and imagine you are holding a watermelon in your hands. magine it so vividly that you can feel its weight, the shape and texture of the skin. old it there, sensing it, and open your eyes. What happened to a melon? ow about the sensation that was so believable? at which is real can be sensed in one or more ways. at which is imagined exists only in the mind.“You” don’t exist. e “you” that you think you are is just that—thinking, thoughts. ot real. ot in control. oes a “you” do the breathing, or the thinking? s a “you” really in control of anything? Examine thoughts and actions. What is really here? What is real? ere is an experience of aliveness, but does that need to be labeled “me”? is identication with all these thoughts feels normal and familiar, but it is ultimately not real and is the cause of suffering. And it is so simple that it is overlooked.o you exist? ere is no you. ook!ook at a university. All it is, is a bunch of buildings, with certain types of people, with certain things being thought there. e label “university” is put on this area, and the feel of it being a university becomes very real, almost like an entity in itself. ut there is only a bunch of buildings RCIS ere is a play-acting of seriousness going on rather than an actual real life tragedy. e whole world-drama is like a vast movement and eld of intertwining energies. ne movement appears to be many, each happening on its own.ere is something happening. Please re-read this a hundred thousand times. is is it. ere is something happening. All the rest is story. 69 What is the payo for clinging to the stories that you know are stories? Experience arises in this moment. ife is experience arising, in each moment. ow. ow. ow. You perceive a lot of your experience not directly, but through images of that experience. ot as word-thoughts, but as image-thoughts. e sense of self seems to arise from that image, as it seems solid and unmoving and corresponds to images of yourself in the past. n reality, there are only sounds, sensations, sights, tastes, and smells. e payo for clinging to untrue stories is another story.f you watch a movie, you forget that you are looking at a screen. You become totally involved in the story that is being displayed. n the same way, all the thoughts that arise about your self are just like pictures on a screen. n this way you realize they are just that—thoughts passing by. o matter whether they are about the weather or “me,” there is no dierence. Just images on a screen. “Me” is a thought like any other. ere never was an entity, person, or thing called “me.” ere has only ever been a story.oughts about yourself may arise, but this can be seen to be just another thought—a thought about a thought. o what? Another thought comes, and another. o what? oughts do not mean anything. f a thought is thought to mean something, another thought has just arisen.an the unreal be a problem? f you know that all thoughts are about the real or the unreal, but are never themselves the real, do they have to be taken so seriously? 68 possibility that you could see that you were wrong all along. earing, seeing, feeling, heart pumping, and breathing happen, with or without this “.” en you realize that the ” or “me” is just a thought, like any other thought that has no substance. All suering stems from this thought. All dramas were created by it. rue liberation starts by liberating yourself from yourself.Everything is running on automatic. f you watch a great movie and get sucked up in a good part, then zoom out, you see it’s a movie, though for a few minutes the focus was completely on what was going on in the scene. is is also happening in real life. ere is zooming in and out of character. dentication with the story is also part of story. Attachment to pleasure and fear of pain are also stories. ere is nothing that attaches, only the story about attachment.Every time there is a story about a future, it may trigger depression: “ings will stay the same,” “ cannot or don’t want to change,” “ might have no job/no money/no assets/no relationships,” “ might get sick,” or “ don’t want to die destitute and alone.” e core feeling behind all the other feelings is fear—fear of change, fear of people in general. e fear is derived from very early childhood and being attacked. t is just deep conditioning that has stayed in the body and mind.What is the future, anyway? t is a completely made-up thing. ere is no future (or past), except in the mind. ere is only really the now. And it’s always now! ocusing on an imaginary “me” on a path to an imaginary future is a piece of runaway ction. 67 e “” is a gment of almost every living human’s imagination. At a very young age, from the time you start to know your name, comes the process of identication with this image of yourself as an “.” “at’s me,” you tell yourself. “is is my stu, my face, my body, my family, my life”.“ook in the mirror! at’s me!” e stories start, and the “” is at the center of every one. “ did this” and “did that.” “ know this,” and “ know that.” Everything that comes into contact with the “” sticks to it. ood and bad. e “” likes it or hates it and every shade in between.e “” is almost never satised. t gets what it thinks it wants, and then something else is wanted. e ” is deeply afraid it won’t exist someday and is continuously concocting schemes to protect itself and to get what it wants. t doesn’t know that it is feeling separation, yet it still experiences a deep feeling that something is missing or not whole. ere is no end to it. Even though you can’t nd an “” anywhere in reality, this truth lies unquestioned by the world.e “me” is an imaginary entity that exists only in thoughts about “me”. t attaches a “me,” “mine,” “yours,” and “theirs” to thoughts about the world. My husband, my child, my job, my philosophy, my rights. Without a “me,” is it the end of the world as we know it? And without a “me” in thoughts, does the world disappear?f you stop for one second to take a hard look at the reality of your personal “” and try to locate it—looking without the baggage of religion, spirituality, or beliefs—just simply looking as a simple innocent kid—there exists the 66 its own. e frequently arising -thought, and the identication with it, is an old habit learned when you were a toddler. ut this can be seen—and thus disidentied from.oughts call out what has happened; describe the experiences to the other thoughts which together make a story with a beginning, middle, and an end. oughts are distractions, irrelevant to what is happening now. t’s like the commentary in sports. f the television is muted, the game still happens. e players don’t know that the commentary has stopped, and they don’t care. e game is still real—and still just as much fun.umans suer so much because there is such an investment in the self-image or persona that has been built up over the years. And why wouldn’t you try and protect yourself, if you really were in danger? ut all these concepts we have about ourselves are simply adopted, taken to be true, and never investigated. What if you just stopped for a moment to question some of these ideas you have about yourself? an you really nd a bad person? you are always growing, working at dierent jobs, changing residences, beginning and ending relationships, playing in a constant ow, then can you really say what you are? an you be pinned down and dened by any one moment or experience?All these sensations, feelings, and thoughts are there. ey are life doing its thing. “” is a story, which is a thought on top of life. You can name it, make more poetry about it, and use it for practical purposes, but in reality it is empty. 65 ple—and then conrm to yourself how true it is. e brow is tense, the face is hot, the sts clench. And then you’ll start to think about just how very angry you are, at whom, and why. You’ve given yourself a script, and you will follow it to its end because it makes for an interesting adventure for the brain.ook at it this way. ought thinking something leads to believing something, which leads to assuming that something needs to happen with or to the body. ere is nobody home, yet demands are made of others. t happens all day long, everywhere. is is the falsity of “” showing up and pretending to be real.Years and years ago, you got curious about having a personality and decided to play with the possibility. You’ve experimented with dozens of character traits over the years to gure out what “shape” your personality should have. ut all this has been like decorating an imaginary hristmas tree. ere never was anything to hang those qualities on. f you look really closely—really honestly—you’ll discover that the truth is that there never was a you to begin with.e “” does not wake up, since it does not exist. t is seen that the only place that an “” exists is in a thought about oneself (a self-image) that arises from time to time. A thought happens, an -thought happens, and then another thought happens that says something like, “ just had a thought.” And all this happens with no actual, personal self being there. o you see this? e -thought happens frequently enough for it to arise and claim arising thought as 64 unplugged—reading a million books, meditating, rebirthing, and so on. All of these were necessary to make you burn for real freedom.ife isn’t personal. Your life isn’t personal. You and your experience are one, not two. ere is no “you” living a life. ere is life as you experience it, and that is you. t happens with and without the thoughts of “me,” “myself,” and “.” ife is intimate but not personal. You have no need to protect and defend yourself, not because everything’s going to be alright and the universe is friendly (although that may also be the case), but because there is no “you” who can do anything. Your self doesn’t exist except as a thought that refers to nothing.e conditioning that accumulates since childhood is like coat aer coat being put over reality, so that life becomes more and more weighty and conned. ne by one, these coats can disappear and dissolve. Each time this happens, it is a small liberation. e experience of life becomes more and more direct, with more and more freedom in the experiencing. rust in life grows.e self is only habitually reinforced neural pathways. Awareness of the right hand can be brought about any time at will, so the mind incorporates the right hand into the sense of self. e same goes for memories, which are just events perceived by the body. ut since the body has been conceptualized in the mind (as “me”), anything that aects the body is seen as happening to the whole of “me.”e brain likes to theorize and then prove its theories. o you’ll think something—“’m angry,” for exam 63 And what happens to anta when the truth is realized?oughts build a small me, a grandiose me, a miserable me, an awakened me. e variations are endless. And it doesn’t stop. Just as optical illusions keep working, the imaginary self keeps getting built. ut that doesn’t make it true “self.”We perceive things. abeling happens immediately, and then the stories start. t feels like the “” is the controller. ut is it really? r is the “” just another story?ere was a time and place where people had certain rituals every day for making the sun rise again. ey thought they had control over the sun’s behavior. And to them it was so “obvious”—their rituals worked!e believe in a self, soul, or personal essence resembles animistic beliefs—that the sun is alive, that there are gods in the trees, that a falling stone “wants” to fall. is an unnecessary hypothesis. You are the product of your genes and your upbringing. ere is no room, no necessity, and no possibility for the existence of a personal essence.You might be on the right track with your philosophizing, but slow down and look what is going on instead. therwise you will end up with interesting theories instead of the simple seeing of reality.o you want to “unbite” the apple? o unbite the apple is to get unplugged from the illusion of “you.” is is an enormous freedom. ife continues as before, but there is a silence in which perception intensies. nstead of being ltered through thoughts, the experience of life is raw and direct. You may have tried many ways to get 62 ere is no self. e “” is made up—have you noticed? ave you looked inside and ever literally found this “,” this self you have been referring to your whole life? Would you like to take the time to see? t can end the seeing story of this “,” which will keep you on an endless search for a happiness that is already there—“ need,” “want,” “ can’t,” “ am not enough” and so on and so on. could liberate you from the painful story of “” and all the thoughts that attach to it to protect it and keep it safe. Yet it does not exist.e mind thinks it needs an “” to exist, yet this is not true. Would you like to go inside and see for yourself? o a walk-through and check it out? is cannot hurt you. e only thing that can happen is that you could see the truth for yourself. All you need is curiosity and trust.he mind is playing a great trick—which is believed—that the individual is the author of their life. We have never gone directly looking to nd this “you,” which is supposedly a separate entity that is controlling and directing your life, just accepting this is true. ut this “you” cannot be found if we go directly looking for it because it does not exist. ife is just happening by itself. You don’t exist separate from life, but as life’s experiences. ere is no loss experienced on seeing this because the belief in a separate “you” causes all suering.e illusion of “me” is very convincing. ut it cannot stand up to examination. nce the mind sees how it’s created, it ceases to have power. t’s like anta—once you know he is not real, you’ll never write a letter to anta again. 61 moment fresh, and be better o because you’re not carrying around all this baggage.ook at the story of you from the eyes of your best friend, a parent, a colleague, a stranger on the street. s it the same story? ow does it change depending on a point of view? ow does it change depending on your mood? there a true story or is it all ction?magine a movie with “you” as the main character. t’s a cool movie, sometimes exciting, sometimes tragic. ut at all times, it is only a story, and you are not real. and by the way, there’s also no director, no screen, and no audience at this movie.Ego is just a concept based on the belief in separate self.n the “story of me” there is always trying to make things dierent than they are right now, as if to drive away anxiety. n reality, this moment is as it is because it cannot be dierent. ere cannot be less anxiety. e relations between the environment, genes, conditioning, the weather, and everything else make it what it is. You might just as well allow this moment to be as it is. Maybe then the fear will dissolve (if the weather is right).e idea of attaching a real thing to a mental construct is ridiculous. t only seems to exist because most people believe in it so strongly. ut there’s not actually any evidence that the self is real. We try to attach a real something to what is basically nothing, and we get upset when everybody else doesn’t go along with our make-believe story. 60 would not exist, nor be maintained. ook at this dubious and changeable history of a self. We tell our stories and memories to other people as if they were real. We use words to identify things as ours: “my” computer, for example. t is truer to say that it’s “a” computer. e word “computer” is not the same as the computer itself, of course. t’s just a verbal pointer. Please take a moment to look at the computer and think about this. s the word the actual thing? What happens in your mind when you say the word “computer”? When you’ve done that, say: “My computer.” A whole new story starts. ere may be lot of thoughts about the computer. Are any of them real? Please check.e mind gets caught in all the stories it is fed and begins to dictate how you behave, who you spend time with, and how you engage with life. e “self” we take ourselves to be is fearful, restless, anxious, and defensive. e desire arises to protect this “self” from the threat of what others say, do, and feel. Everything in life seems to be about “you,” and that makes it impossible to simply be.o you think there is a sufferer from which thoughts appear? sn’t that just another thought? “ere is a suerer here.” “ere is no suerer here.” oth are equally just thoughts, a story about suering.Your own “story” has absolutely no relevance to you. You can’t be sure that your memory is correct, or that your feelings haven’t changed since the last time you experienced something. o you don’t actually gain anything by keeping the stories around. You could just look at each 59 And as long as there is a “you” with all these labels and features, then there is also the “other” with its own labels, who can threaten and harm you. iving in a world of separation perpetuates conict, violence, and the painful story of loneliness.e answer to the great yearning of life for fulllment and satisfaction is not in the mind. t is right here and now, in seeing through the false, apparent reality of the controller “me.” Without that story, life ows more easily, more freely, and it is free of psychological suering through apparent good times or bad.e “self” is a story, a ction. t works like a computer program. ertain inputs produce certain results, although sometimes there can be glitches or unexpected results. ere may seem to be triumphs or disasters, but these are still just stories, whether beautiful or sad.magine a child totally immersed in the belief of a tooth fairy. Everybody around her thinks tooth fairies are real. he doesn’t have a chance to discover the truth. Every “sane” child believes there is a real tooth fairy. As soon as she catches the tooth fairy—her mother—in action, the belief disappears. e story is revealed to be a story. e child can’t believe in it anymore, even if she wanted to. ow let’s investigate how much substance is there to self. You just have to catch the “self” in action, that is, observe the processes as they concoct the illusion of self in real time. en you’ll know the truth.Your “own” story has absolutely no relevance to you! Without the narrative in thought (not reality), it 58 An insult provokes an emotional response only when it is identied with. f someone were to call you “too blurry,” there would be no suering in that because no part of the mind would believe that. f, however, you were called “too fat,” it’s much more likely that that might be believed and identied with. f someone were to insult your family or even country, that would also provoke an emotional response because of identication with them. lattery, of course, is the same in the opposite direction.an you see that “ am a good person,” “ am a bad person,” “ am attractive,” and “ am ugly” are all just thoughts that arise? at “positive” thoughts are thoughts that complement the “” and that “negative” thoughts are thoughts that disparage the “”? ow can you look at what these thoughts are pointing to? ere are thoughts of “ am a good person.” What is the “” that is the good person? What is the “” that is the bad person?elf-evaluation boils down to there being something “wrong” with you. You believe you suer from a character defect. en there is a movement to create a better, nicer, more lovable self, who will attract good things, be important, right, and beautiful.f you just look at the bad feelings that arise without the story—the “” story—then they dissolve. f the story is believed, the feelings go on for hours or days. ut without the story—that is, seeing the story as a story—the feelings and sensations in the body hang around for a much shorter time. ere is more freedom in that—more ease, more space, more peace. 57 f you remember what happened when you were ve years old, it comes in the form a story, recreated every time, perhaps slightly dierently every time, but all just a ction. emember a movie you saw recently. ere is a story in a movie, with made-up characters, yet the characters appear real. ey have their likes, their dislikes, and their ways of dealing with situations. t is the same with the character “you.” t appears to be a real character, but is there anything solid in its story? t’s all made up from thoughts about it.At a very young age, we are told that our body and thoughts are ours. We are given a name and identity and are led to believe that this identity is in control and is responsible for everything we do. t is an identity that exists solely in thought, and it can lead to thought-based stories of tragedy or delight. ut look directly at it. e “” itself is a thought only. t does not refer to anything in reality. And you can’t control your thoughts ultimately. ey just appear out of nowhere, with no author. You can see this just by observation or, even better, with the help of someone who has seen through the illusion.omeone talks about you in a disparaging way, and hurt and anger arise. r perhaps praise and adoration fall upon you, and you believe you are special and wonderful. Either way, you are buying into a story about a self, and you are going to cling to it one day and resist it the next. You have become trapped on a roller coaster you can never get o. ife will take you up and down, and the mind will keep layering on this data as proof of your identity. 56 e illusion of “” is born when mind, in complete innocence, believes that it is a separate human body. Another body—a feeding, nurturing body—talks to it and calls it “aby,” “immy,” “ood boy!” And in an innocent unquestioned moment, a believer in “self” is born.oon aer birth, you were given a name and a bunch of data to help identify you: length; weight; eye color; date and time of birth; parents’ names; and so on. You were now a little person who had a whole bunch of words and pictures associated with you. ver time, as you grew up, made friends, participated in activities, attended school, and landed a job, many adjectives and qualities were stuck to you, in the same way you might put a sticky note on a white board. ese were invisible sticky labels, though. ey lived inside and were fed by belief, attention, and the meaning given to them. t’s quite natural to know yourself as your name, your title, roles, and positive or negative qualities that have come to dene you. We are told we are good, kind, talented. r that we are bad, lazy, worthless. We also learn to connect our value to the job we have and how much money we earn. ur self-image gets a boost when we get a promotion and think that we’ve made it now. ese are all words and ideas about who we think we are.As babies we are not separate from our world. ere is no place where baby begins or ends. en the story of a separate self is begun by our parents and family who tell us who “we” are. y around three years old, the story of separation is complete, and we add our own bits to it as we grow up. e substance of a story is ideas, thoughts, and habits. o you see that? an you get a clear view of that?What are stories made of? ook more closely at this question. f someone just met you on the street, could they know any of your story except the part where you were meeting on the street? ey could see your body, but not your story. What tools would you use to convey to them the supposed reality of a self, with a past, a present, and a future?Apart from the tools (words, images, and sounds) you use to remember and convey a story, does a story of “you” actually exist?e only reason you think your story exists is because you’re so used to focusing on it. f you didn’t keep bringing it up in your thoughts—and acting as if it was there—there would be nothing that would keep it alive. obody else would know it existed. t exists only so long as you buy into it. You are the only one keeping the stories around. ey don’t exist if you don’t keep remembering them and then telling other people about them.t’s an illusion that there is a “you” that is living your life. ere’s just life and the movement of life.An “” story is a high-maintenance story. t is a lot of work caring for something that isn’t there. TOR he notion of identification, as commonly understood, presupposes two elements: something being identied with (thoughts and feelings) and someone doing the identication.ere are no objects, and there is no subject, except by mental imputation. e seen and the seeing are indistinguishable. Everything is as it is and does what it does.ere is no self here except as a label. You might imagine a witness, but what indication is there that this witness exists, except that witnessing exists? is is an assumption we never even think to question, an assumption that we all completely take for granted: that for observing to exist requires an observer.eeing the labeling process happening is not easy because we blind ourselves to it in order to continue believing the story of self. Yet once the illusion of self is seen through, we have the power to stop and check how the labels appear. With practice, this too can become habit. Experience—label—check—label-removal—experience. ut checking is just another part of life life-ing! 51 ” is a thought. “ am” points to a feeling. at is this feeling of aliveness, of sensations, movement, and being. at feeling has been assumed to be a “me” that is in charge. ere is controlling and willing and focusing, and all these experiences are being experienced, but not by an .” e “” is nothing but a thought. Where do thoughts come from?oughts are particularly interesting because, while nobody is experiencing or having a thought, the content of the thought is what carries the “”. elieving that this thought-content has an actual existence is the illusion. imilarly, the illusion of a separate self arises when you take ownership of a particular experience through the thought “my” or “mine.”dentication with the body and senses is one of the most common confusions. What experiences a toothache? What senses space or visualizes the body’s orientation? What is the thing that knows the body is experiencing these things? ow does it know this is “my” body?ere is a stream of thoughts and sensations, but no “” you can point to. A thought could come up in this stream, and then a thought may follow and claim that -thought it, but that -thought would just be another thought in the thought-sensation stream.e “” is not only an imposter, it is also just another thought in the head, the same as any other thought. And thoughts themselves cannot think. ere is no “” that can be found outside of thoughts. ot now, not yesterday, not tomorrow. e reason? t’s not really there! 50 construct seems ridiculous. t only seems to exist because most people believe in it so strongly, but there’s not actually any sign that the owner or self is real. is means that, in a sense, we try to attach a real something to what is basically nothing, and we get upset when everybody else doesn’t go along with our make-believe story.elf” is a label, a word that points to nothing. is a story, a ction that we were initiated into at a very early age and have never questioned. ut look. ook through your eyes. Point at an object. t has shape and color. You label it: “esk.” t is real. When you stop believing in it, it does not disappear. ow point to “you.” ook through your eyes. What do you see?t is only a matter of language. eel the dierence: am sights, sounds, movement” implies “ am the world.” “ere are only sights, sounds, movement” implies there is only the world. is is unity. And it is already there. t is only a tiny shi in perspective.ife goes on, including thoughts about life, and those thoughts are only commentary, not the driving force of life. ook more closely at language and how it works. Every noun points to some object, real or imaginary. Every verb points to an action. Put them both together, and we get a sentence that is a label for movement, for action, for doing. “ walk,” “You read,” “ingers type,” “atman ies,” “e table stands.” s there an “” in the walking? s there a “you” in the reading? oes a table “do” standing? Play with this a bit. What is the word “” pointing to? s there a doer in the doing? s there a thinker in thinking? 49 aer the fact and then creates a story. e “” does not exist in the moment. ife really does ow freely. ere really is no “you” running your life. You have to, literally, think outside of the box. You have to see outside of the way you have always seen.,” “my,” and “mine” are simply concepts (labels) that don’t have an actual existence in our direct experience. ese concepts are useful in a social context, but understanding that they are simply concepts is very important, because if you believe in them, they distort the way you perceive reality.e “” does not exist except in language. t is like naming a location to identify it in relation to other places.s this search for the truth something that you do, or is it just happening as part of the story? s there a “you” that wakes up? What does the word “” point to? an an ” wake up? an a label “” see the truth?f course, we keep personal pronouns. ey help us communicate. ut no more than that.is isn’t about using or not using the words “or “me.” ey are perfectly useful concepts in day-to-day life. Yet in the direct observation of experience itself, it helps to be clear about words, especially if we’re trying to clarify confusion. o what is the -ness of the “,” the you-ness of “you”?n language, in law, we attach a possessive pronoun to something (as in “my wife”) and act like it’s real. Explore this notion. n “my body,” how is the “my” attached to the body? e idea of attaching anything to a mental 48 talk about this body and mind to others, instead of using a name. Everyone is called “.” is name does not automatically create a separate “” that drives the body around.s there a “you” that can get lost in thoughts, or is it just the thoughts, labels which are there, until they disappear again? oughts will keep coming. ut their content doesn’t have to be believed. nstead of engaging with the content of the thought, watch how it tries to suggest the existence of a vulnerable “.”otice how labels for objects are nouns and labels for actions include an action and a doer: “ type,” “You read,” smile,” “You think,” “ walk,” “You talk,” “We sit,” and so on. Examine the labels for actions. ee if there is really an ” that does the breathing, walking, and thinking.otice the body breathing. ook—is it breathing by itself, or is there a breather? e label says, “ breathe.” s there really an “” that does the breathing? ow about when you sleep? s there an “” that sleeps?Without the thought “ am breathing,” breathing still happens. Without the thought “ am thinking,” thinking still happens. is extra level of “” thought is redundant and unnecessary. t’s like an obsessive tic that continues to poke up out of habit and conditioning, feeding on itself. t’s clear to the rational mind that there is no “,” but the defenses are strong.All the names given to human beings are labels. e pronouns “,” “you,” “she,” “he,” etc., are used to communicate. e events are happening in the moment. And if you really, really, really follow the “,” it always comes 47 questioned. f there were no language, there would not be an “.” t’s a label.oughts layer concepts over the direct experiences. A thought (concept or label) is never the actual. ome thoughts point to the actual, and some point to other thoughts, but the content of every single thought is just a story.e “sense of self” label should not be mistaken for an actual self. t is just a label. f you take a jacket and stick a label on it that reads “Armani,” is the jacket now a real Armani?What kind of a word is “”? o what does it refer?ere is no “” or “me” except as labels, words, thoughts. ere is no “” reading this—no “reader,” no “one” reading. ere is just reading happening here.” is not a place where thoughts appear. “” is a thought. t appears and disappears by itself.e illusion starts when you learn to speak and think in a subject-object kind of way.abeling this impersonal life, awareness, and presence with “” or “me” leads to confusion—to the creation of imaginary boundaries and then a belief in them, and a consequent narrowing of experience. bserve how and when you use those labels and how that feels.At some point, when we learn to speak, we learn to say the word “.” oes that mean we are given an “” or “me”? We grow up never questioning that. ut the word ” is like an agreement to use this short sound when we 46 the actions, or is it just a word that is serving as subject in the label? s there a subject in doing? While watching breathing, is there an “” that breathes? s there an “” that wakes up in the morning? s there an “” that goes to sleep? s there an “” in any doing?A sound is heard, and thoughts about it arise. e eyes rest on an object, and the object gets labeled. Watch this. Wherever you are, focus on what is going on around, and notice how the mind names everything and tells stories about it.When attention changes from a sound to something else, very quickly a memory of the sound plays back in mind. ere may be a related thought, which may be a judgment or recognition. at thought (the memory of the sound) can be mistaken for a perception of the sound, but the sound has already been heard. o there is a gap between the hearing and the thought that manifests aer it.Your name is a label applied to a process, by the process. is label—and all others—are not actual objects or subjects. abels are not real things in the sense that terms such as pride, honor, blame, etc., can’t apply to them. abels can only point to objects or ideas.ook at language and how it is constructed. ere are labels for objects: “table,” “car,” “body,” “thought,” “feeling,” “fear,” and so on. ere are labels for activities: “breathe,” “ cough,” “ scratch an itch,” “ run,” “ feel.” ere is an object doing an action, according to the way that language is composed. t’s an assumption that has never been ook at the mind as an automatic labeling machine, a narrator without an on-o switch. ook around you now. otice how thoughts spring up and label objects, tell a story about things, how they got there, without your having any control over them. oughts are just that—labels that point to things, senses or ideas.ontinue to view the mind as a labeling machine. ts purpose is to name what the senses perceive, to label feelings, and to narrate the story. it for a couple of minutes with your eyes closed and notice what the mind does. on’t pay much attention to content, but observe how the labeling mechanism works. A sound is heard and thoughts describe what happened. A tingling sensation comes and thoughts label it. Just pay attention to how something is experienced and then labeled immediately aerward. ee how everything runs on automatic.e mind labels everything that it focuses on. ook around the room slowly. otice how mind immediately starts telling stories and names things. When we acquire language, the mind learns to label actions: “ walk,” talk,” “ type,” “ breathe,” “ digest,” “ sleep,” etc. you change these labels to: “walking,” “talking,” “typing,” “breathing,” what happens? s there an actual “” that does LALING ND LANGU ence? When the “” is removed from all these sentences, the description of what is really experienced is true.isten to a sound. What is hearing the sound? am” is simply a thought. bserve the direct experience of hearing the sound.e direct experience of music is so dierent from the mind coming in aerward and trying to describe it. Music is hard to describe. When music is heard, no one hears it. t is an experience of hearing. ere is no gap: sound and hearing arise simultaneously. What was it that heard the music? “othing heard the music” is the most accurate way to put it.You won’t know what masters are talking about until you take a look for yourself. inking is not looking. 41 control our thoughts. ere may be seeming control, but no real control and we don’t know really where they come from. ey just happen, arising out of nowhere. All come, then go. ey are not really “ours.”oughts are possessive in nature. ey divide everything up into what is good or bad for “you,” or what is neutral. e neutral stu is discarded right away. e thoughts refer to objects as either “mine” or not. f course, being thoughts, they can only infer possession, not create it.You separate one cup from all the other cups in the world, and make it “my” cup, with a thought. n reality, there is no boundary between “my” and “not-my.” A cup has no intrinsic nature or quality that makes it “yours.” one. We create a whole self-centered world with this kind of thinking.e illusion of a separate self happens when you identify with your experience. e process of identication involves believing that there is an “” that experiences phenomena. or example, there is identication if you believe that when a sound arises, there is an “” that hears the sound. n reality, through direct experience, you can see that there is just hearing of the sound. e addition of an “” that hears the sound is merely conceptual and is unnecessary. am space,” “ am awareness,” “ am consciousness,” “ am (you name it, random feeling, thought sensation).” an you see how the “” in any such sentence is entirely superuous and never actually found in experi 40 image of the cup in mind, but you cannot pour tea into it or drink out of it.Examining thoughts and their contents is pointless. t is completely pointless unless you see there is no self experiencing them—unless you bring your attention to just that.What happens as you directly observe thoughts and actions is very simple. ife carries on without thoughts about it. Movement occurs before its appropriation in thought—the “my-ication” of pretty much everything. An ” gets attached to everything in “my” world.ow about the subtle witness? Witnessing, focusing, intending, inspiring, observing, and watching are all processes that have no subject, no doer. Every form of identication is assumed, mostly due to language.ere is no hierarchy of thoughts. ere is not one thought thinking the others. oughts cannot think.e belief in a “you” that has to protect your interests functions like Velcro. houghts stick to this “you” and feed on each other. ere is nothing but these thoughts—no “you” at their core.ee if thoughts really are in anyone’s control. eally look at the process. ow are you choosing to think or not think them? s that in itself not a thought? ere are present circumstances, past experiences, and patterns or conditioning of the mind. All these lead to a thought arising. s there really someone in there controlling what you should focus on, what to decide, etc? Watch it carefully.When we look at thoughts, we nd we really can’t 39 awareness is just happening. f life is being lived, who is doing the living? o one, life is just living.Watch the sea. Waves come and go, each one unique. ome are quiet, some splash and spray, but all return to the sea. uman beings come and go in the same way. e sky without labels looks like life, like the ocean. ook at that and feel the spaciousness of it all.Everything is conceptual except direct experience. When ask if you can make a true statement solely based on direct experience, am trying to get you to question the reliability and credibility of the content of thoughts. f direct experience is the only real thing, what does that tell you about the contents of thoughts?bserve thoughts. Just close your eyes for a moment and notice. ey come, one by one, a never-ending river of thoughts, labeling everything that is being felt, sensed, experienced.What is a thought? an you touch it, can you hold it, can you show it? Where do thoughts come from, and what decides which thought will come up next? Where do thoughts go when they disappear? Examine in detail how a thought works. What is noticing? oes the noticing happen also between thoughts—when there are no thoughts—and if so, are thoughts what you are?ome thoughts point to real things: computer, desk, body. ther thoughts point to imaginary things: atman, anta, self. e thought itself is real, we experience it in reality. ut the content of the thought is an image literally, imaginary. When you think of a cup, you have an 38 unfold, and how the mind operates as a translator of what is going on, as a concept-maker. ometimes this is useful, but sometimes it is just a distortion of reality.Everything is happening by itself, including looking and seeing through illusion. otice this. ere is no eort, only thought about eort. otice that there’s no one looking, but only looking and seeing happening.ere is no one inside you that is what you think of as “me.” o one that acts; no one that thinks. nly acting, thinking, and happening as a ow.oughts are real. e thinker is not real. ere are only thoughts passing by, like clouds in the sky.What is being aware? s anything being aware? s anything doing the being aware?What happens if we turn “awareness being aware of itself” into simply “aware-ing”? ife is not a noun, but a verb. ife life-ing, happening. y the very nature of the dierent experiences happening, the avor of each is different. ut all are manifestations of life. e subject-object division collapses. All that’s le is the experience.ere is no one liking lollipops, but the enjoyment of lollipops is happening. e existence of lollipop-liking doesn’t imply the existence of a liker.f snow falls from the sky, who is doing the falling? o one, the snow is just falling. f wind blows through the trees, who is doing the blowing? o one, the wind is just blowing. f thoughts run through the mind, who is doing the running? o one, the thoughts are just thinking. f awareness is aware of a tree, who is being aware? o one, 37 as if there is. oing happens, walking happens, speaking happens—no doer involved. And if there is no self, there is also no other. ere is just life in another embodiment, the same life that is expressing itself through you.lose your eyes and search for the boundary of “you.” With your eyes closed, where do you end and where does the world begin? With your eyes closed, are you aware of a boundary between the skin and clothes, or is this only a kind of blurry sensation? When you open your eyes, what happens? s there a “you” looking out of two holes in your head? Are you doing the seeing? r are the sights just here, without any boundary?ere and now—is there inner and outer in the experience?o you know what perception is and how it works? Perception is a collection of memories that massages the data received when a stimulus occurs, before the data go to the brain for processing. Perception is that frame of reference, the bias we all develop that judges and alters our experiences. And because every stimulus creates data that are perceived before being sent to the brain for processing, we can never actually see reality for what it is, our perception will always shape our experience to t our memories.his sense of self is an artifact of thought: thoughts about feelings about thoughts.it with this possibility: there are lots of unexamined beliefs and concepts that are not necessary for life. eep looking into direct experience, and see how things just 36 ry to keep an open mind. ook at direct experience. ow do you choose which thoughts come into existence? And where do thoughts come from? en start looking at the rest of the illusion of self—emotions and sensations in the body. id you bring them into existence? What about the story of “you.” s it real?What happens as you directly observe thoughts and actions is very simple. ife carries on without thoughts about it. Movement occurs before its appropriation in thought—the “my-ication” of pretty much everything. An ” gets attached to everything in “my” world.s it not possible that all this happens without an ” attached? t is a habit and language is like a rutted road. t has an “” buried so deeply in each narrative and story and general assumption that it is dicult to get the wheels out of the rut and drive on the road!What is the “”, the “self”? ake a look and see if you can nd a self. s it “you” that is thinking? Watch your thoughts, and see if you can nd the thinker. Watch your actions, and look for the doer. You will start to realize that thinking is happening on its own, that having control of thoughts is another illusion. oughts arise from your mind, which has a lifetime of training in how to think, what is important to pay attention to, as well as all the information from the past and hopes or fears for future, and attention to how others are possibly perceiving you. is large and complex program is running itself. ere is no “” making it happen. Actions arise on their own, too. ere is no doer deciding what to do, even though it appears ere are raw experiences: hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting. ere are sensations in the body (hunger, thirst, or pain). is is what we refer to as direct experience. is is the level of experience of cats, dogs, birds, and newborn babies. en there are thoughts. oughts layer concepts over these raw experiences. A thought or concept or label is never the actual. ome thoughts point to the actual, and some point to other thoughts. is is the realm of make-believe. is is the realm of “.” s there an ” in direct experience?When you stay with your immediate, direct experience, you perceive only sights, sounds, smells, taste, sensations, thoughts, and emotions. one of those experiences belongs to you. ey start belonging to you only when a “my” or “mine” arise.You can sense the environment. You can sense aliveness. f you stop thinking, aliveness is still there. eing-ness is still there. We are talking about direct experience here. on’t theorize. ook.tay with bare observation and what is actually seen. eally try to describe what that false sense of self is. s it really false? oes it seem true? f this launches you into a present-moment investigation, go with it. Act like your own scientist. Verify whatever you can by observation. CT EXPENC 31 think you are going to become an unmotivated zombie or something?e next time fear arises, welcome it. ring that fear closer for examination. ook at the mechanics of it. bserve and study how it works. What do you notice? Ask the fear to reveal its wisdom. Ask it what it is protecting. ank it for doing its job so perfectly.We are afraid to lose our story because it has become so familiar and dear to us. What would we be without it? t’s worth taking the time to nd out because what you keep looking for (so you can nally relax) is what you already are. o accomplishment, external fame, material stu, or appreciation will ever fulll you.ife is just “life-ing.” Anxiety may appear from time to time, but there is no one there to attach to it. t is seen that that “me” is just passing by—as a thought in the thought-sensation stream.oubt is to be expected. And it’s not an enemy. only points to unresolved “stu.” nce seeing happens, the whole structure of belief starts to fall like dominoes. on’t fear it; welcome it. ere is no one to control it. Just trust the process and let it be okay. 30 You will not disappear. You cannot. You never “were” in the rst place. Existence exists and always has and always will. What does not exist is this “you” —the imaginary ownership of a piece of existence.et whatever comes, come. Just look at it, even fear. otice that the fear is the result of what is being thought.onsider any fear you have of no-self to be a protective mechanism. t is doing its job perfectly, and it is a loyal friend and protector. an you look at the fear itself, how it works, and where it is felt in the body? Ask it to come closer. heck that raw feeling. s it personal? Ask it what it is protecting. What is it that it does not want you to nd out? ow to it. ank it, and look behind the fear as if you would be taking a peek with curiosity. What is behind it?ife is perfect, now, apart from the thought that “can make better or worse decisions”—the fear that “” can get things right or wrong. at is “selng.” ear is the motor, or the energy supply, of a “me” or of the sense of a separate individual. ut it is like a circular argument. e belief in self is there to protect the self, but without the belief in self there’s no self to protect.ear is your friend. t is trying to protect you. n this case, it is not fear of a real danger. ere are no snakes. t is trying to protect you from something imagined—something that might happen, something that might happen if you see clearly. What are the possible consequences if total dis-identication with the story occurs? o you o you ever experience a sense of terror when looking at reality too closely—as though you’ll discover something you didn’t want to know? You’re right! is work is not easy. ut why live in denial, where all that straining causes you suering that doesn’t need to be there?or some people, this process can be really intense. on’t ght it, allow it. o with it. et it rip. ace it. Ask the question, is it true that there is no separate self whatsoever in reality? et the doubt in. Ask for the truth to be revealed.s the fear of freedom bigger than the desire for freedom? Are you letting fear win this game? ace it head on, without any reservations. Ask the fear what precisely is it protecting. ee if there is anything that needs to be protected. What comes up here? ring that fear closer for examination. What is behind it?When you become aware of anxiety about this process, the mind tends to distract itself away from the anxiety and the “hunting.” ook directly at the anxiety. Pinpoint its message. s it “f there is no self, will disappear?” r “Without a self, will cease to exist?” ometimes it’s “Without a self, nothing will get done.” heck and nd out what the anxiety is. en ask, “s it true?” FEA knowing. ome of what you expect may occur. ur world reality does not alter with our liberation; only our perspective alters, our way of being in the world.utside of your perception, nothing changes with awakening. e world is as wonderfully ordinary as it was beforehand. You just become more aware of it, as you’re no longer caught up in the stories you tell yourself about yourself. t’s like experiencing life directly, rather than through a lter. t’s as if everything suddenly becomes very simple. e world of words and concepts no longer clutters everything.magine having blurry eyesight that came on so slowly you didn’t notice you weren’t seeing as clearly as before. en someone hands you glasses with just the right prescription for you. Everything appears dierent. as anything changed? Absolutely not.ne person who saw no-self could not stop laughing once she saw exactly how the mind was creating the story about life, while life was just doing its thing. he could not stop laughing for days aer this. t is that simple. 25 is still a rope in reality, and the fear is a bodily reaction to a wrong perception. When the rope is seen as a rope, the fear is gone, together with the illusion of the snake. ere is only a change in perception when you really see that the ” is an illusion.e whole universe is one unied existence that is in a constant state of transformation and change and movement and functioning. o the change of seasons, the transformation of forms, death and life, and all the rest, are the functioning of that oneness. t is a seamless ow of forms, as the continual creation of all.reedom does not mean freedom from feelings, thoughts, judgments, obsessions, or experiences. All these are part of the ow of life. reedom consists of recognizing that all this is happening to no one.e thought processes will keep happening for all eternity. at is what’s happening. e wind blows, and thought processes happen. ometimes you are aware of them immediately, sometimes later. You don’t expect them to stop, do you?iberation is not a thought, feeling, or state. t is really so ordinary that we have almost totally missed it. is through direct experience that it is seen. ook with fresh eyes at the truth of common everyday experience. t’s not hidden; it’s just a shi in perspective. Each person is different. o don’t expect reworks, as they may not happen. All of the emotions we have had in the past are still here; it just seems there is much less stickiness to them.is is easier to approach from a place of not- 24 on life-ing? o you see how humans seek for a meaning and put one where it isn’t—just to feel special? What is specialness? What if you are not special at all? niqueness is at the core of everything. ere are no two same leaves on a tree, no two same owers, no two same humans. s uniqueness special? o you need to be special to be unique? o you need to seek meaning in order to be unique?at restless, compulsive searching for that one bit of knowledge—that one experience, that one insight that will make everything okay—is the condition a lot of seekers are in, and it can go on for decades, because there is literally nothing, no bit of knowledge, no specic experience nor insight, that will satisfy you. ere is no “you.” issatisfaction with what is, is the essence of the illusory self. e self exists (in appearance) due to that very dissatisfaction.eeing no-self is like getting the diagnostic manual for suering. ne has the means to get to the root of the “problem”—which is only a thought.t is as if you all your life thought you were paralyzed, sitting in a wheelchair. en a doctor tells you that there has been a diagnosis—that actually you are healthy. e doctor proves it, and you see he is right. ut you still have to get up and go by yourself, instead of staying in the wheelchair and nding reasons why not. Actually, it is much easier than that. ere is not even a wheelchair. You have been walking yourself the whole time—it was only a hypnotically induced belief that made you think you were in a wheelchair!When you mistake a rope for a snake, the rope 23 experience will be seen to be fantasy. You will simply notice that you have a new perspective, and that you no longer believe in a separate self.ook closely at the most precious beliefs that are close to the heart, those in the “no-touch” zone. ey are the ones that you really need to inspect up close. You will recognize them by the feeling of resistance. ollow resistance. t is here to let you know that another bit of the lie is sitting somewhere, waiting to be noticed.ealization feels like waking up from a dream. You haven’t le the dream, and nothing looks any dierent, but there is a feeling that whatever you are is vastly dierent than what you have previously taken yourself to be. is realization creates a feeling of wonder. You will see at a deeper level how powerful the illusion created by the mind is.ere really is no liberation as such. Who is liberated? o one.Awakening from the story of self does not mean that all of a sudden all of your problems are going to vanish—that there will suddenly be no more tough emotions or challenging situations. is is not about getting away from diculty, pain, and suering. ot at all. ese are, and will remain, part of the drama of living a human life. o please don’t consider dicult feelings and overwhelming thoughts as a sign that you’re never going to get this, or you’re doing things wrong.ell me, does a tree “mean” anything? ow about a bug, a bird, or a ower? oes life need a meaning to carry 22 take to be your self is an illusion. We are simply going to see this. We will see how this delusion distorts reality and causes all of your suering.an you remember some occasion when you realized that something you previously believed to be true, actually wasn’t? ave you ever come to realize that your views on something prevented you from seeing the thing as it is? Probably yes. o how would the world change if “you” didn’t exist? What if everything you had believed to be “you” was be seen to be an illusion? at’s one description of awakening. You see that you are not the body, feelings, or thoughts.We’re not looking for a specic kind of feeling, or even something out-of-the-ordinary. We’re looking to see what has always already been the case—no separation. o “in here,” no “out there,” no “me here, the rest of the world out there.” t’s always been like this and will always be like this.f there is no belief in a separate “you,” then there are no expectations. ife is just experience unfolding. And expectations are nothing more than thoughts.All we are doing here is seeing through the illusion that there is a separate self. You are not going to change your stripes for spots. You are not going to become a saint. You will not disappear. You never were in the rst place. e world will be the same world you are experiencing now. e dierence is that the story of self will be seen through; the chattering of mind that cries ownership will be seen to be a lie; the thoughts that busily smooth over the holes in 21 stronger or experienced more clearly. t’s simply about seeing what is real when you are not subject to the “illusion.You do not have to have a spiritual history or a certain number of hours of meditation to see the truth. is has nothing to do with enhanced states, nor is any prior knowledge needed. All you need is the desire to see, no matter what, and the will to engage with this inquiry fully. onesty is your best friend.e aim of this inquiry is not to give security. is to see through illusion to reality. And in that process, we nd that the person looking for security doesn’t exist. en the need for nding security and the need for answers falls away, too.othing changes aer awakening. t is just a way to see things dierently, without a “self” involved, and without thoughts gripping the mind for hours about who and how you are. is is a peace.n awakening, the belief in a solid, controlling self is dropped. All of a sudden it is seen there really wasn’t anything to do, because nothing could be done. t is the realizing that there is nothing to realize. oughts arise, the body acts, and life is lived, but it is not happening to anyone.What we are doing here is not about state of oneness. t’s not about a eeting state that comes and goes. does not require meditation or sitting in silence. t is about showing the mind what is real and what is imaginary.We are not going to take anything away. What you 20 is, but it gets lost under the piles of crap that get heaped upon it. en confusion happens. All you need to do is let stu go. rop it. lear the way. Wipe the sleep from your eyes.et go of all the beliefs, all the gurus or masters, all the books you have read or seminars you have followed. ey won’t help here. is is not something learned; it is something to see. t comes in dierent ways, but when you know it, you know it. e present moment is the only truth.on’t look to “liberated others” to dene your own knowing. Everyone is dierent, and every karma-stream is dierent. With some there is a huge “pop” (like a champagne cork), and with others a so pop. n the end, the knowing that you have truly seen through self is truly yours. therwise this would be persuasion, not investigation.is work does not aim to trigger certain types of altered states of consciousness. ese may happen (or not), yet they are entirely beside the point. What these conversations are intended to do is invite you to simply look directly at what is already the case right now, regardless of whatever state of consciousness may be happening.he wish for a final “done” is—surprise, surprise—a story of the nal carrot to be reached, a reason for the ctional “” to try to get “somewhere.” Everything is constantly changing, moving, and interacting. ere is no “done” in the real world. f you want to be at home, be at home in the ow.is isn’t about making the sense of being alive What do you expect to happen?Write down a list of everything you expect from this process. ow do you imagine the awakening will make you feel, what will it be like, and what do you want it to be like?t is good to recognize the expectations you have for awakening. t will be nothing like what you expect. ere we are not looking for an experience or an altered mind-state. is is not a quick path to eternal bliss or anything like that. We are looking for a simple recognition of reality. at is all.is is not a project where you gather information, cover lots of dierent angles, lay out the results, and draw conclusions. t is about looking within your experience to see what the “” is. t is about taking an honest look. t’s not about thoughts.While it is good to put a lot of energy into this inquiry, it doesn’t require quiet time. We are just observing normal life, doing everyday activities.ere is nothing that needs to happen. Expecting some grand realization gets in the way of real seeing. Everything already is as it always is.rue nature” or “truth” is the simplest thing there PETIONS pointing to an observable fact: that there is no “you” in reality. e only place you will nd a “you” is in a story.othing that is untrue can withstand the true—it falls away.eality—truth—what is real—can never NOT be abiding. o matter what.is is all about seeing the truth. ow. ook for truth every moment. crutinize everything. nstead of planning and “doing” life, there is letting life unfold. ife invites you to a magnicent dance in every moment. is awesome. e dance of doing the laundry, the dance of washing dirty feet, the dance of watching the news on television, all without resistance to what is. ife itself is a beautiful dance partner and the only guru you need.f you’re interested, you can do this. ere is a way to look at “your self” from every angle until the inescapable conclusion is reached that the “self” is just an idea. t isn’t real and never was. nce you see this, it’s over for that belief. en your human energy and body and brain aren’t being consumed in the service of a lie. ife feels better and easier. And if you have a sincere interest in this, you can do it. 15 ness and with no resistance makes the whole experience of life a joyful ride, rather than the hard work in trying to control what is.You will learn to observe how thoughts “sculpt” a self. Watching this happen is a lot more fun than feeling “you” are “drowning in thoughts”!oughts cannot be owned. n fact, nothing can be owned, because there is no owner! e whole concept of ownership is a fallacy. e irony is that everyone behaves like an owner.e “” imagines it is the perceiver but we cannot locate this “” anywhere, because it is just a thought. essentially we realize that there is no separate perceiver, only perception itself. e illusion of separation between perception and perceiver is only an idea in the mind. ere is no “me.”is isn’t about making the sense of being alive stronger or more clearly experienced. t’s simply about seeing what is real.is is not deep. t is not a trick, where “looking” means something out of the ordinary. t is just looking directly in your experience to see if whether there is a “you” doing the experiencing or whether experience is just being experienced.Please don’t believe anything, but ruthlessly test it out for yourself. is is not about replacing one set of beliefs with another one. t is about checking out for yourself, in real life, what it is that actually exists.We are not looking for a new belief here. We are 14 become conscious and it must be examined in the light of reality in order for the truth to be seen.e brush cannot “own” the creation of the painting. And all the dierent “brushes” (humans) have their own unique ways: the thoughts they believe and the things they do. t brings such a beautiful palette or tone to the painting. ey are “choosing” the colors to paint with, so to speak, but simultaneously they have no choice in what’s been chosen.ere is no “me” in any shape or form, in reality. ere can be a thought-created “” in a story told about “me.” ut the thought-created “” doesn’t refer to anything at all. t’s just a thought.Without a “me,” there is no longer the possibility of being hooked into the story that the “me” thought is real. With no “” or “me,” there is peace and freedom.oughts build a small me, a grandiose me, a miserable me, an awakened me. e variations are endless. And it doesn’t stop. Just as optical illusions keep working, the imaginary self keeps getting built. ut that doesn’t make it real.ealizing no-self means regaining the innocence that was seemingly lost when falling into duality.ere is no self at all, already, and life is going on perfectly. othing is going to change here, because this is already the case.ife goes on. Everything arises and passes away. Without identication, emotions pass more quickly, since they are free. Meeting everything that comes up with open 13 now; hell is believing that the stories in the mind are real. elief from hell is seeing that there is no one here to take anything personally.e key to eliminating suering lies not in analyzing the contents of thoughts and feelings, nor in controlling, changing, or eliminating them. t is a matter of seeing through the belief in a separate self, which thinks it is having the experience in the rst place.eeing no-self is like suddenly looking at your glass of wine, your bag of cocaine, or your needle of heroin, and in a moment of clarity thinking, “Why on earth would want to do that? t’s not good for me,” then calmly putting down the intoxicant and walking away.reating an identity is a means to navigate in society, but it has no other purpose. o awaken is to realize that the stories we obsess over are a waste of energy.A sense of self, like a sense of balance, can be a useful tool. An organism can orient in relation to complex environments, mapping danger and opportunity.ere is a sense of self, but that is all it is. Aer awakening, that sense remains, but you ultimately see through it as mind-created illusion. t’s not you.Everything we are attempting to become and do, and all ways in which we relate to others and the world, assume there is a separate self. is false assumption is so deeply unconscious, and so central to our interpretation of everything that is happening to us, that we are able to speak from its viewpoint at great length and still not see that we believe something that is untrue. is assumption must 12 is illusion is at the core of who you think you are and how your world is. t’s a biggie! All the concepts you use every day and take for granted will be seen in a new light.or an illusory separate self, there is loneliness, loss and suering, as well as neediness and striving. o all our lives, from early childhood, we may be searching for the oneness we lost by falling under the illusion of being separate. We think that we are the thinker or the doer in our lives, not realizing that, like the rest of reality, we are simply life expressing itself. e mighty ego is not really in charge, or in control, or responsible for everything. e sages and teachers point the way, but in our delusion we misunderstand.ere is nothing wrong with you. e “you” that you think you are, you are not. What you are is nameless. You could call it “life itself” or “existence” or “presence” or “awareness” or nothing. You are already free. t is only a matter of seeing through the thought-illusion that makes you think you are in bondage. e bondage is not real. is just a story. And you are not a story.ere is so much pain in identifying with a separate self, in believing that the story of “you” and “your” life has any substance worth holding on to. is makes misery, not only in the mind, but also in the body, because they are not separate. ntrue beliefs (such as believing in the value of worrying about the past or future) contract the system, and the body pays the price with tension and pain. ell is not some place we might go when we die. ell is right 11 aware that these are our beliefs. ey are so deeply rooted that we take them for granted. “elf” is the rand Poobah of these beliefs, the one that reigns over all others. ut not for much longer. We are going to hold it up to the light and see it for what it really is.here is no “you” here right now. You never existed. ere is a body and a brain. at feeling of aliveness is not going to go away. ife will go on as it always has. e belief that there is a “you” that controls life can be seen as just that: simply a belief. Just as you no longer believe in anta, when it is seen that the self is a ctional character, there will no longer be the belief that it is a real entity.f you grew up with anta story, or some other magical story, do you remember how it was to realize the truth that the magical character did not exist in real life? at was seeing through illusion your parents made you believe. imilarly, this magical “” or “me” cannot be found, but people still believe in it. eeing the truth is simply dropping that belief. ife goes on as it always did, and no change is going to happen other than in the way life is perceived.ow big of a lie would it have to be, that billions of people throughout the ages would fail to see through it, even aer it has been hinted at by countless spiritual traditions? t would have to be the last thing we would ever question—an assumption we are so certain of that very few would have the nerve to question its certainty. o you want to know what the lie is? t’s “you.” “You” are the hypothesis that cannot withstand direct observation. 10 separate entity that controls and directs your life? is “you” cannot be found. ife just happens by itself. You don’t exist separate from life as a whole. ere is no loss experienced on seeing this.You have been living your whole life thinking that you are in control. e truth is that you are not in control. More exactly, there is no “you” to be in control. Every action your body has taken, and every thought that has arisen in your mind, has happened without anyone behind the curtains making it happen. Everything that is within your experience is entirely a product of past events. Just as your heart beats without anyone’s approval, so your mind thinks without anyone’s approval, and your body acts without anyone’s approval. ere is no “you” back there making it all happen. ere isn’t even a “you” back there watching it all happen. Awareness is simply arising because the conditions are in place for awareness to arise.e body and all physical objects exist in reality. ut “self” is not the body. t is not an object; it does not exist in reality. ere is no “self” separate from what’s happening, no little broken-o piece of life that is a special “me” that you own and can direct and control, separate from the whole.ere is no you at all—nothing and no one behind experience, but always only the experience. ere is no “you” out of which everything emanates. “You” have only ever been an idea, a notion, created out of nowhere.We hold beliefs we never even stop to think about or call into question. en this is because we are not even Welcome to Enlightening Quotes, from www.iberationnleashed.com.e whole thing is as simple as this: ere is no “.” ere is just what’s going on, here and now.e “” is not. t isn’t here. t’s absent. Zero, nada, zilch.Experience is happening. o no one. t just is.ere is no self and never was. ere is only life, arising or happening. You are not who you think you are (literally). “You” seem to exist because the thought “appears. en you believe it, then it has a life, and then all of “your” life gets created. ut that life is not you, and it is not who you really are. n reality, you are nothing and no one. ife is happening—and there is nothing outside of that. e illusion is that “you” are personal. othing can happen to “you” because there is no “you.” “You” can’t be harmed. e body can perish, but it’s not “your” body any more than a ower is “your” body—it’s the body of life.“You” are not your body. ot your brain. ot your mind. ot your thoughts.e mind is playing a great trick, in which it appears that the individual is the author of “their” life. ave you ever directly looked to nd this “you” that is supposedly a NTRODUCTION ONTNTSntroductionExpectationsearirect Experienceabeling and anguagetoryExercisesookingateAer ate Enlightening Quotes: A Sourcebook for Guidesopyright © 2012 iberation nleashedISBN ENLIGHTNING QUOTA OURCBOOK FOR TION SHORTH STONOUTH ROLIN ENLIGHTNING QUOT