How Do I Self Inquire Past Concepts?

[Viking]

ive had a few breakthroughs recently (if you can call them that) and im pretty confident im not the body nor the person thats sitting inside my head, so a problem arose- how do i continue from there? i still think i exist, because im aware of stuff, but not as a person (or i just think im not).

i've beaten the "im not my thoughts" dog to death, when i ask "who is aware?, who is feeling?, who am i?" i just dont get responses because i auto decline already what i thought about a shitton of times.

i still feel the sense of self (i guess even enlightened people sense it if they want to[maybe]) but im aware its just a facet of presence.

[Privet]

1 hour ago, Ilya said:

i still feel the sense of self

Who feels?

1 hour ago, Ilya said:

im aware its just a facet of presence

Who is aware?

[Viking]

@Privet

1 hour ago, Ilya said:

i've beaten the "im not my thoughts" dog to death, when i ask "who is aware?, who is feeling?, who am i?" i just dont get responses because i auto decline already what i thought about a shitton of times.

 

[Privet]

@Ilya good! Continue! Who is aware of the voice that is reading this text in your head? Who declines answers?

After couple 100s of hours of this brutal grueling confusion you just start to warm up. 

Edited August 22, 2017 by Privet

[Viking]

@Privet lol but then it just goes in a loop, it's all just happening.

[Privet]

@Ilya if it goes in a loop you are just mechanically thinking, it is not self inquiry. Try to practice minfulness to not get lost in thinking. Then you will be able to really wonder who you are instead of trying to get conceptual answer.

It may take couple of years to only understand how to do it right.

Edited August 22, 2017 by Privet

[Ananta]

6 hours ago, Ilya said:

i've beaten the "im not my thoughts" dog to death, when i ask "who is aware?, who is feeling?, who am i?" i just dont get responses because i auto decline already what i thought about a shitton of times.

For beginners, after those questions are asked, a thought usually arises that says, "me". Then, one asks who is "me"?... Silence is a typical response.

The silence is a pointer. What witnesses the silence. Inquire into that, but not by asking more questions.

[Viking]

@Anna1 wow, good one, thanks

[Ananta]

6 minutes ago, Ilya said:

@Anna1 wow, good one, thanks

You're welcome.

[Joseph Maynor]

Notice when you meditate there are moments when the mind disappears.  Really take note of that WITH YOUR BEING not with your conceptual mind.  Really start to see that the mind is not you.  See and feel and be that very profoundly.  Start to be able to distance yourself from the mind like a bird-watcher watching a bird through binoculars.  Don't try to force anything.  Just be aware of things.  Let the monkey-mind chatter away in your ear like an ornery little brother that you will eventually learn to half-ignore.  It's like yeah yeah yeah, what?  So sorry, I wasn't listening.  Haha.  It really becomes like that.  It's not that you kill the mind it's just that you change the way that you relate to it.  Like instead of kicking somebody's ass you just learn how to ignore them.  But don't take any of these stories literally, they're just intuition-pumps for you to chew-on before you do your Self-Inquiry work and take a look for real by being the Truth.  What is the mind?  How does the ego want to cling to the mind?  Am I the mind?  What is the difference between the mind and awareness?  What is the difference between thoughts and the mind?  What is the difference between beliefs and thoughts?  What are thoughts?  What are sounds?  Do sounds occur in space and time?  Etc.  See?  All fascinating Self-Inquiry questions to explore.

Here's some more:  What is the ego?  Am I my body and/or brain?  Do I have an identity?  Does that identity have stable properties?  What is this identity?  What are these properties?  Do I have a stable personality?  Could I completely change my personality?  What is stopping me from completely changing my personality?  What is holding me back in life from doing what my higher-self knows is the right thing to do?  Are these obstacles fixed or can they be removed?  What are these obstacles really and what are they made of?  What is a limiting-belief?  How does a limiting-belief gain its traction?  How do thoughts limit me?  What is permitting thoughts to limit me?  How can I unhook limiting-beliefs from me?  What is asking these questions?  What is aware of all of this?  Is that awareness something inside me or outside me?  What is a conceptual distinction?  How does a conceptual distinction relate to awareness?  How does a theory relate to the subject matter or the result that the theory pertains to?  Can the ego be destroyed?  Do I die when the body and brain die?  Does awareness die when the body and brain die?  Does the mind die when the body and brain die?  What is the relation between awareness and the mind, the relation between awareness and the body, and the relation between awareness and the brain?  What is the relation between awareness and you?  What is a relation?  What is a question?  What am I?  And so on and on.  

Fall in love with Self-Inquiry if you wanna make progress with enlightenment.  In enlightenment, theory is just scaffolding, pointers to do the Self-Inquiry work.  Enlightenment is not a theory.  Enlightenment is transformation.  The ego wants beliefs and theories, but that's not what you want.  You want transformation. Clinging too much to the theory-scaffolding is a huge trap.  All beliefs and all theories are existentially false,  But only use this as a guide.  Don't even cling to this as a belief.  The way you look at thoughts will dramatically change from the way you look at them now with enlightenment.  If you're stuck in the Rationalist Paradigm, you're not gonna get this.  It's just gonna sound wrong to you.  Watch all the videos I attached below.

Separate yourself from the Mind-Matrix.  It will still be there, but your awareness of the Truth will change how you attach to things at the being level (I'm not talking about attachment to beliefs or thoughts here).  Remember, this is about being differently not about thinking differently.  This should change how you BE, how you are.  You are looking for a being-transformation not a belief-transformation.  These words are just scaffolding to get you to be differently.  And that's why you just need to get in there, open up the hood, don't be afraid to get your hands dirty, and tinker-around inside your being.  That's what Self-Inquiry is all about.  Everything else is just pre-algebra compared to Self-Inquiry.  This is so hard to explain too because we operate on the "knowing = belief" paradigm.  Here we need to change that paradigm to the "knowing = being" paradigm for enlightenment work.  You gotta literally jump from one paradigm to another one here, from one bubble to another bubble.  And there's no easy, primrose path to do this.  You gotta grab your druthers and make that discontinuous flyin'-leap from one paradigm to the next one!  How many people can actually do this?  How many people will do this? 

Videos on point to watch:

 

Edited August 23, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Leo Gura]

@Ilya You are not even 1% of the way to enlightenment. You are still stuck at the level of ideas and intellect.

Drop everything and start from scratch.

Back to the self-inquiry salt mines!

[Aware]

@Ilya Why do you not start studying the science of self-realization?

A.C Swami Prabhupada wrote so much about this science.

At Some point you must if you want to become self-realized involve all senses including the mind in service of One. (Its a science)

Without involving all senses one always falls back in the material pool of existence being corrupted due to instable intellect and lost memory of One.

The living One is seated in all hearts although can remain hidden when consciousness remains poluted due to continuation of sense entanglement to physical and mental objects. Like the  sun is not always clearly visable on a clouded day.

Only by devotional service as Yoga one will attain and understand the supreme One That is seated in all hearts as One. And by attaining Him- one never will have to fall back in the sea of causality.

those fully in knowledge of One, are never lost to One, and One never is lost to them.

Take my advice and start explore the science of self-realization. Its direct, clear and certain.

And seek a qualified teacher when struggling with Yoga.

[John Iverson]

On 8/23/2017 at 0:01 AM, Ilya said:

ive had a few breakthroughs recently (if you can call them that) and im pretty confident im not the body nor the person thats sitting inside my head, so a problem arose- how do i continue from there? i still think i exist, because im aware of stuff, but not as a person (or i just think im not).

i've beaten the "im not my thoughts" dog to death, when i ask "who is aware?, who is feeling?, who am i?" i just dont get responses because i auto decline already what i thought about a shitton of times.

i still feel the sense of self (i guess even enlightened people sense it if they want to[maybe]) but im aware its just a facet of presence.

Confirm, who saw that? Who saw what you saw ?? If you see you are conscious who saw it?? If you see that you are not aware who saw that?That even conscious is not basically you.. what is that ? If you contemplate you will see that you are contemplating... hahahaha let question come don't cling.. that even you feel like space you can see that also.. hahahahaha all of those is not who you really are.. 

[orroz]

On 08/23/2017 at 4:16 AM, Leo Gura said:

@Ilya You are not even 1% of the way to enlightenment. You are still stuck at the level of ideas and intellect.

Drop everything and start from scratch.

Back to the self-inquiry salt mines!

percentagize his way ,

it seems to me a bit drastic...

 

Ilya

you are not so far as it could seem.

Instead of feeding tirelessly the intellect with "ask-answer" (who is aware?, who is feeling?, who am i?), use your eyes.

Is a more rapid way to stop the "I"-cycle.

Right here, right now, look at the "I". Could you find it?

Is a yes or no question. there is no maybe.

If no, done!

Just stop searching for a non-existent thing.

Stay in the absence of "I" as long as possible. Don't worry of what your cognitive system thinks about it.

Edited August 27, 2017 by orroz