Mason Riggle

'You' are a pattern of thoughts being produced by an organism, which is being produced by it's environment. You are a manifestation of the Universe the way a whirlpool is a manifestation of the Universe. Could you show me a whirlpool without showing me that which is not the whirlpool? What is a whirlpool? Is there really a 'whirlpool' somewhere in the river, separate from the river? Where does the whirlpool go when the river dries up?

It can be realized that there's nothing to do because.. There is no 'you' inside your organism that does things. There are organisms that behave how they do, the same way trees behave how they do. Asking, 'who is thinking my thoughts?' is like a tree asking, 'who is growing my leaves?'. Human organisms thinks thoughts. Trees grow leaves. Consider: your organism is growing hair. Are you 'doing' that? Can you stop? Are you thinking your thoughts? Can you stop? You can't stop 'being your organism' because there's no 'you' who's doing it. Your organism is 'happening', it's growing hair, it's thinking thoughts, but there's no separate 'you' who's doing it. The 'you' that your organism thinks is 'authoring and noticing thoughts, and feeling emotions and sensations' doesn't exist. (Where inside your organism is this you?) "What you (your organism) mistake to be the thinker of thoughts, is just more thought." - Sam Harris This imagined 'you' is something that is happening, not something that 'does things'. A useful analogy (useful to human organisms) is that of a whirlpool in a river. 'You' are like the whirlpool. It's something the river is creating in each new moment, but if I asked you to take the whirlpool out of the river and show it to me, you couldn't, because there is no 'whirlpool' in the river. Whirlpools don't 'do' anything.. Rivers do whirlpools, and landscapes do rivers.. but these things are 'happening' without anyone who 'does them'. There is just 'what is happening', and 'you' are part of what's happening.. not something that 'does' things. Sure, thoughts are arising, and brains are aware of them.. but 'you' aren't 'doing' that. There is no you. Nothing to do. Consider: how hard are you trying to 'be you' right now? Not at all. You can't stop 'being you'. 'You' don't think. 'You' don't make choices. 'You' don't do things. Organisms think. Organisms make choices. Organisms do things. Consider: Trying 'to be like yourself' and 'trying not to be like yourself' are the same exact thing. They are both 'what you are doing', which is 'being you', and you're always doing it, effortlessly. Consider: if you were me, you'd be doing exactly what I'm doing, because you would be me, being me.

There is one thing we can know for sure, and that is that 'it's like something' right now. Our own experience is 'self evident' even if we are totally confused about the contents of experience. If I'm confused about the contents of my experience (perhaps this is all a dream, or a hallucination, or illusion) then I can't even trust that this sentence, or this forum, or Leo's videos, etc. 'mean' anything... Assuming that this conversation is meaningful, is all I need to keep having it. Similarly, I don't know for sure that my car is outside in my driveway. Maybe I'm fooling myself. I also don't know that there aren't dragons flying around outside, waiting to eat me... The only recourse to this is to behave in terms of degrees of certainty. I'm fairly certain my car is in my driveway. I'm fairly certain I'm writing this sentence in this forum. I'm pretty sure there aren't dragons outside. Consider- The statement, 'we can't know anything.', can only be known to be true, if it's false.

It was useful for me to understand that 'nothing' and 'everything' are the same thing. Nothing (which is form-less, shape-less, size-less, etc. quality-less, limit-less) has 'no limits'.. in dualistic terms 'nothing' is the space in which 'Everything' is possible. Nothing/Everything doesn't seem like 'something' (because nothing/everything is just that.. nothing and everything.. how could that ever seem like a finite 'something'?) And so.. depending on the language (map) you want to use to describe reality (the territory).. 'Somethingness' is 'created' (realized, made real, seemed like something) through 'imagined' (pretended, illusioned, dreamed) duality (limits, qualities, distinctions, etc.).

There once was a boy who said though, it seems that I know that I know. But what I'd like to see, is the I that knows me, when I know that I know that I know. - Alan Watts

“You are an incredible mystery that you will never figure out. To be this mystery consciously is the greatest joy.” — Adyashanti

Nice.

What is often considered to be 'me', is actually Everything that is typically considered 'not me'.

@Chives99 I can absolutely relate to what you're experiencing. It's a lot like being the only sober person at a bar full of wasted people. It's not that much fun. Seek out other sober people.

Enlightenment can be very counterintuitive. Desiring enlightenment only moves you further from it. Everything is always (already) exactly as it should be. “Whether we like it or not, change comes, and the greater the resistance, the greater the pain. Buddhism perceives the beauty of change, for life is like music in this: if any note or phrase is held for longer than its appointed time, the melody is lost. Thus Buddhism may be summed up in two phrases: “Let go!” and “Walk on!” Drop the craving for self, for permanence, for particular circumstances, and go straight ahead with the movement of life.” — Alan W. Watts

Correct.. a 'state of nothing' can never be. Consider.. Where were 'you' before you were born? When there was no 'you'.. that is completely different from a 'you' who is is unconscious.

@Chives99 have you checked out Leo's video series on Spiral Dynamics? Sounds like 'moving up the spiral' to me.

“Little by little, or maybe all at once, everything comes to mean its opposite; unreason argues itself into reason, and vice versa, and we cannot see the seams.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing." - Clive James

@Godishere "Am I doing this, or is this doing me?" - Alan Watts "You are not controlling the storm, and you are not lost in it.. you ARE the storm" - Sam Harris

"Those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand." - Kurt Vonnegut

@This it can also be recognized that there is no 'you' that exists separate from 'that which is not you' Consider that your hair is growing right now. Are 'you' doing that? Can you stop? The 'you' that most organisms think they are, is actually everything that is not typically considered 'you'. Your orgamism is growing hair. Your orgamism is thinking thoughts (are you doing that? how hard are you trying to do those things?).. but it doesn't stop there.. 'You' are also all of the sounds you are hearing, and sights you're seeing. Are you 'doing that'? Well, if you consider that you are everything other than a separate 'self', then you are, even if you don't know how you are doing it. Everything that is occurring, is what you are doing, which is 'being you'.. Everything is who you are.

'doing' is an illusion. There is just 'what is occurring'. The only thing you ever 'do' is 'be yourself', and you're always 'being yourself'. Recognize that 'trying to be like yourself' and 'trying not to be like yourself' are the same thing.. they are both 'what you are doing' which is 'being yourself', and you never have to try to 'be yourself'.. because you just 'are yourself', at all times, without trying.

God = Everything/Nothing (God can not be 'known' in relative/rational/logical/dual terms... 'it' has no limits, no qualities, no 'somethingness') For 'Everything/Nothing' to 'seem like something'.. introducing... 'imaginary duality'. (by 'pretending/imagining' that 'Everything/Nothing' is not what it is (is separate from itself).. Something 'appears' (seems to be)) All 'duality/limits/qualities/description' is 'imaginary'.. and this is what 'Creation' is... the 'mechanism by which Everything/Nothing 'knows/imagines/creates' itself (Somethingness, rather than 'Everythingness/Nothingness') The Map (imagined duality/separateness) is not, and can never be 'The Territory' (non-duality/oneness), and at the same time.. it IS the territory (you, me, everything there 'is').

'If you think you got it, you don't got it.'- Leo Gura If you really understood what you think Sam isn't getting, it would not matter to you what Sam Harris thinks. Again, this whole conversation is like having a dream where you are trying to tell one character in the dream, that some other character in the dream doesn't understand that they are a character in a dream. To even have that conversation, is to be lost in the dream.. the very thing you think the character in the dream doesn't realize.

I am necessarily 'confused'. 'I' can only seem like me (as opposed to that which is not me), by forgetting/pretending/imagining duality, which means I/God/Everything/Nothing is confused about what it is. I'm glad this is the case, because to fully wake up from the illusion of 'somethingness' isn't like anything.. I prefer seeming like something to be me, otherwise I wouldn't. ?

@Mannyb who or what would be aware of awareness? More awareness? There once was a boy who said, though it seems that I know that I know. But what I'd like to see, is the I who knows me, when I know that I know that I know. -Alan Watts

@Mannyb what even is 'material' from a non-dual paradigm? (material/immaterial, real/imaginary, this/that.. all duality) I use 'material' 'real' 'physical' etc interchangeably.. they are all imaginary duality, which must be, for any of those 'qualities' or 'limits' to mean anything. Were 'I' to be fully awake to the 'nothingness/everythingness/formlessness/infiniteness' of 'reality', there would be no 'me' who knew it.

@Mannyb I've only repeatedly stated that to think about Sam Harris separate from 'that which is not Sam Harris', is to be lost in duality (which is his point). Even having this discussion is to be lost in duality. To experience 'oneness/formlessness' is to experience Harris, his paradigm, this conversation, as You/God/Everything/nothing, in which case there is no separate 'Sam Harris'.