Deeper in to letting go of "self"

[Spirit of Light]

Maybe the text here will not give you anything and that is fine, but if you find it useful it maybe will give a similar experience that Amanaki had. Just remember this is not meant as teaching, only expression of an experience

A lot of thinking happens in Amanaki`s life these days, and one thing that occurred this morning was.

When you become aware that what you see as “You, Me, Mine ” or “self” is not the true being, everything in life changes. How come that in the 42 years the “I”(Amanaki) have been living and yet still it is not “Me” have been thinking this is mine, I am me? And even for more than 20 years, the teaching told the “me” that you are not what you think you are… hmm, this sounds kind of strange? But when understanding arises that body is not self, thought is not self, Anger and despair are not-self. It has always been the attachments to what humans look at as a self, The body. But the body is only a “container” that makes it possible to feel suffering as long humans cling to it. As soon a person let go of clinging to the body, the body does no longer belongs to the “self” and suffering will cease to be a part of the “self”. The body becomes foreign but is “needed” to stay in the physical world that human beings have been put into. If the body is let go of fully the life that is portrayed as “person” will end and the body dies. But even the body dies that is not the end. That is when real life is realized.

Anger toward situations or people is the same, As soon one let go of the attachments to what makes anger arise, anger cease to exist. And one is no longer bound to what others do or say. But one becomes aware of the suffering they experience and what leads them to do wrongdoings, this is when compassion arises and the willing to help even they would harm the helper.

Life is always changing and we do not live in the past nor in the future, but only at the moment, we experience right now. But and it`s a big but, What we said and did yesterday will affect us right now. So being aware of the words, thoughts, and action every moment of our experience become the guideline to how to end suffering.

So when we make a critique of others because they do not do what we want them to do, is it them who suffer or is it the “Ego/Self” that humans experiences that suffers?
Same can be seen when someone is Afraid or jealous, greedy, lazy, mad, and so on, it boilds down to that it is the ego that speaks and it makes it difficult to see the truth as it actually is (difficult to see what is behind the situation)

When becoming aware that the only way to know for sure is to let go of the self, and become selfless when one understands the suffering the “ego” put on us.


Self is our own worst enemy.

 

[Sirona]

Hi @Amanaki,

As in terms of whether the self exists, I'd say I am more into "the glass is half full" than into "the glass is half empty", but as for the rest I mostly agree with you. While reading your post, I suddenly remembereda verse from the Bhagavad Gita (6.6)

"For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy."

Do you equate self and ego?

Maybe, in order to conquer the mind we could meditate about the "glass" which is neither "half full" nor "half empty" but has it own state beyond duality.

Just my thoughts.

Take care.

 

[Spirit of Light]

Hi @Amanaki,

As in terms of whether the self exists, I'd say I am more into "the glass is half full" than into "the glass is half empty", but as for the rest I mostly agree with you. While reading your post, I suddenly remembereda verse from the Bhagavad Gita (6.6)

"For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy."

Do you equate self and ego?

Maybe, in order to conquer the mind we could meditate about the "glass" which is neither "half full" nor "half empty" but has it own state beyond duality.

Just my thoughts.

Take care.

Thank you for your reply
Yes, self arises from the ego. And ego is the attachments to the body, I, Me, Mine and so on. But nothing in this world is "Mine, Yours, Ours," it just is an experience

 

[Twilight Hue]

No doubt that self is certainly overrated.

Sort of like the song , "Life is a boat".

 

[Sirona]

I don't know which religious box this fits in, but in my eyes you might benefit from developing a self-compassionate attitude. I believe it's very difficult to give advice to a person one doesn't know, but you seem to be in a treadmill of always making it up to standards set by others. This an odd thing to do because who do you want to please if you, as you say, have no self?

 

[Spirit of Light]

I don't know which religious box this fits in, but in my eyes you might benefit from developing a self-compassionate attitude. I believe it's very difficult to give advice to a person one doesn't know, but you seem to be in a treadmill of always making it up to standards set by others. This an odd thing to do because who do you want to please if you, as you say, have no self?

I have no need to please "my self" because I see no self there to be pleased The word "I" that we use in written language is only to differentiate between what we see as individual people, but it is not the self. Our thoughts are not-self. I chose not to write "Amanaki says" because I know it would make some strange comments here And the name Amanaki is just that, only a name. Even it is a part of the real name I carry in this life.
About the "standard" there is always something within Morality, ethics and striving to end the suffering in this life by in my case following Buddha Sakyamuni`s teaching.
So what do Amanaki look for in the practice? To get free from every bound that attachments give letting go of everything and become nothing or even further than that. Is it possible, Maybe

 

[Spirit of Light]

I have no need to please "my self" because I see no self there to be pleased The word "I" that we use in written language is only to differentiate between what we see as individual people, but it is not the self. Our thoughts are not-self. I chose not to write "Amanaki says" because I know it would make some strange comments here And the name Amanaki is just that, only a name. Even it is a part of the real name I carry in this life.
About the "standard" there is always something within Morality, ethics and striving to end the suffering in this life by in my case following Buddha Sakyamuni`s teaching.
So what do Amanaki look for in the practice? To get free from every bound that attachments give letting go of everything and become nothing or even further than that. Is it possible, Maybe

A reason people suffer in the world today is that they cling to their ego, that This is mine, This is me, I was first, And so on. and let go of all this to see that ending the identification of the person and belonging. When this body dies we can not bring any physical objects with us, so why go through all this suffering of attaching to physical objects that come into our life? Enjoy the objects when they are there, then if they disappear just let them go

 

[Sirona]

A reason people suffer in the world today is that they cling to their ego, that This is mine, This is me, I was first, And so on. and let go of all this to see that ending the identification of the person and belonging. When this body dies we can not bring any physical objects with us, so why go through all this suffering of attaching to physical objects that come into our life? Enjoy the objects when they are there, then if they disappear just let them go

In my eyes, the experience that there is no self is a consequence of Buddhist practice, a joyful experience spontaneously lighting up in the mind. I don‘t think it is meant to be as a resolution to be made up every morning. "Now, today I‘m going to start eating healthily and giving up my self". I’d also say, in case something hurts, that the practice of mindfulness requires first to acknowledge it, and then to let it go. Call it self-compassion or call it as you please. You‘re the expert on Buddhism, not me.

 

[Spirit of Light]

In my eyes, the experience that there is no self is a consequence of Buddhist practice, a joyful experience spontaneously lighting up in the mind. I don‘t think it is meant to be as a resolution to be made up every morning. "Now, today I‘m going to start eating healthily and giving up my self". I’d also say, in case something hurts, that the practice of mindfulness requires first to acknowledge it, and then to let it go. Call it self-compassion or call it as you please. You‘re the expert on Buddhism, not me.

Yes, in the case of pain, see it for what it is, Pain, why did it arise? when you understand why then let it go. To say now I not going to feel self or anything else, that is a wrong way to do it
It has taken me more than 20 years of practice, and still, there is situations where letting go still is a struggle

What you call Self-Compassion arise of its own when we letting go, we see what we truly are and we gain deep compassion for all beings including the being we are in human body