Who are you? (hell, experience, POV, verse, Zen)

[mr.guy]

Originally Posted by Somkid

No, a simple truth, sometimes it is the finger not the moon

Ahh...well, one always gets points for a Bruce Lee reference.

[doppelgänger]

Originally Posted by Somkid

Only you can know who is I, if I=self.

Oh, well in that case, I am the illusion of continuity around which reality is ordered.

[Scarlett Wampus]

Originally Posted by Somkid

Any thoughts going through your head are happening as post scripts. They are not the experience of NOW, they're the story you tell yourself after the fact. Do you see the illusion? If not, think about it - find somewhere quiet and really think about it.

Although thinking about it makes it understandable as an idea - that we have bodies, histories, memories, etc. but there is nothing specific you could point to in all that and say, "this is me" - non-self is still likely to be counter intuitive to someone's own sense of themselves regardless of understanding the idea in principle.

The mind itself takes all sorts of things and makes patterns out of them to make up a meaningful narrative, including how the idea of non-self makes sense. Having a sense of centralised consciousness is part of this and it becomes a kind of "subject" to all the "objects" of the mind. The mind attempts to make these narratives ceaselessly. Repeatedly entering meditation can slowly but fundamentally change the way the mind works, including the way it presents narratives, but unless meditation is kept up non-self can become just another idea rather than something understood implicitly & deeply.

Example: I can think in terms of all things ultimately being one. This could be part of my metaphysical views on the world. Perhaps they could be a consequence of Buddhist practice or other. However, unless there is a regular experience of my separate "self" ceasing, and instead awareness of extension filling endless time & space - everything flooding into what was me as if I was it and it was me without any vital difference, then everything is only "one" as a pleasant idea.

[Somkid]

Originally Posted by mr.guy

Ahh...well, one always gets points for a Bruce Lee reference.

Bruce Lee??? LOL...
The teachings are Upaya, which means skillful means or expedient method. It is fingers pointing at the moon - don't confuse the finger for the moon. ... This teaching is around 2,600 years old I don't think Bruce Lee had much to do with it but perhaps he did study it.

[zenzero]

Friend somkid,
Here if you created an opportunity to put down what I am.
One could feel differently but the following are my feeelings.
I am that which has no past or future.
I am that whom the wind blows the breeze sways. The rain wets and drenches.
Am one that floates on water and takes me with its current.
Am that which the sun warms and sometimes burns.
am one that melts with a child's smile.
am that sings with the birds, roars with the lions.

AND many such things. simply put am just another being moving towards nothingness.
Please note that presently am trying to flow with these feelings. maybe a long way but never is time a consideration.
Love & rgds