How Can You Be Your Authentic Self If There Is No Self?

[BobbyLowell]

How can you be your authentic self if there is no self?

[Thomas Razzeto]

[All of this is just my opinion and I celebrate the fact that everyOne gets to choose what they want to believe and how they want to live their life. Hooray for that!]

Hi Bobby,

The translation of the word “anatta” as “no self” has caused, in my opinion, a fair amount of confusion and this has been going on for a very long time, perhaps over two thousand years! For example, you sometimes hear people say that “you do not exist” or that “the person does not exist.” But if you consider “anatta” in its original context of the process of disidentification from the five "skandhas" – the five components of the person or personality – and translate it as “not self,” you have a much clearer idea of the wisdom being offered. And most importantly, the process of reidentificaion as everyOne should not be overlooked since this is what opens up the loving heart of enlightenment.

You can read more here in one of my essays:

Anatta – “Not Self” Rather Than “No Self”
https://infinitelymystical.com/essays/anatta.html

I hope this helps clarify a few things for you. Have a great day!

In truth, I honor your divine nature, Thomas Razzeto

[Nahm]

@BobbyLowell references to two different places in the processes and practices. Authentic self is to be mindful and free of low consciousness behavior, no self is an enlightening experience. 

[Thomas Razzeto]

@BobbyLowell 

Say, Bobby, perhaps I can say a little more about this phrase “the authentic self.” This is a phrase that is commonly used by people when they are helping others with their personal development. The authentic self is kind, compassionate, and reasonably happy and peaceful most of the time. The authentic self is not fearful or constantly stressed out. The authentic self has the ability to give to and receive from loved ones, friends, coworkers and society in a way that is most beneficial for everyOne.

So the phrase “the authentic self” refers to the person rather than to what a nondual teacher refers to when they talk about your True Self. More about your True Self in a minute.

Now, let’s briefly talk about the person. I call the person your “functional self,” or your “functional identity,” since that is what it seems like. When the person is behaving in a way that brings out the best that it can, well, then it is being its “authentic self.” These words are merely describing what it looks like from the perspective of our ordinary world. Yet even that can be very helpful since it is a practical perspective and I like to be practical.

Your True Self cannot be experienced since it is completely imperceptible in every way. Instead, it is the open capacity for experience; it is the power of sentient. It is also the Source of all of creation, which is why my mentor, Timothy Conway, and I call it Source-Awareness (God). Source-Awareness exists before time and outside of space. It is not a thing or an object and it therefore cannot change in any way. This is what you have always been. You will not become your True Self nor will your True Self develop as time goes on. It is the person that will have new beliefs about this subject integrated into its personal consciousness. It is the personal consciousness (soul) that changes and develops. But this does not happen by the will and power of the person since the person does not have any will or power of its own. What appears to be the will and power of the person is really the will and power of God. (Similarly, what appears to be the will and power of the character is really the will and power of the actor.) This is why the ancient texts talk about God polishing up everyOne’s soul.

And this is why I like to say:

Your fundamental identity is Source-Awareness, the one, uncreated, formless Divine Essence. Your nonfundamental identity is the totality of created reality. This is what you are through the process of creation. And your functional identity is the person you appear to be. All of this is thoroughly divine. God is infinitely intimate with all of creation.

It is God who is arising as everyOne and it is God who is doing everything. How wondrous!

Edited October 30, 2017 by Thomas Razzeto
I added clarifying ideas to almost every paragraph in this post.

[Dodo]

8 hours ago, Nahm said:

@BobbyLowell references to two different places in the processes and practices. Authentic self is to be mindful and free of low consciousness behavior, no self is an enlightening experience. 

But I have a question here, what if someone is authentically low conscious? 

[Nahm]

@Dodo that could mean whatever to whoever. It’s qualia. In my current connotations, there is no such thing. I have only to be mindful of my consciousness. To me, a low consciousness person is ignoring spirituality and stubborn to consider they are creating their own suffering. So, to me, there is no such thing as authentic low consciousness. 

[BobbyLowell]

@Thomas Razzeto Leo refers to finding your authentic style though, and that everyone has a unique one. Doesn't this mean everyone is different? 

@Nahmisn't enlightenment the truth- that there is no self, not a state? And if being authentic is just engaging in higher consciousness activities, why does everyone have their own unique authentic style as Leo says in one of his videos?

[Nahm]

@BobbyLowell because we are all the absolute experiencing relativity. 

A very wise man once said “And I wonder, when I sing along with you, if anything could ever feel this real forever, if anything could ever be this good again.”

I’m never, ever, ever, going to say when. 

Ever.

 

[cetus]

46 minutes ago, Nahm said:

A very wise man once said “And I wonder, when I sing along with you, if anything could ever feel this real forever, if anything could ever be this good again.”

@Nahm Foo's fan?

[Nahm]

@cetus56 aren’t we all! ?

[Nahm]

@cetus56 surely not a coincidence, the day I learned, a band I’ve loved for years, named themselves after some of the first recorded sighting of ufo’s. Weird af but surely not a coincidence. 

[cetus]

13 hours ago, BobbyLowell said:

How can you be your authentic self if there is no self?

@BobbyLowell'Authentic' self is the witness to everything. The one who sees it all. It witnesses the you as a physical entity of thoughts and memories (the self) that exists within reality/space/time. And it witnesses what is you as the absolute.  As a very wise man once referred to it "Eyes without a Face".

[Leo Gura]

The authentic self is just being closer and closer to no-self.

The more ego you purge, the more authentic you'll feel.

There's no conflict here at all.

No ego = full flowering of one's innate personality without cultural conditioning and other learned nonsense.

There is no self, but there is a personality.

[Highest]

The Self is really just another name for the Soul, which is the absolute real. I disagree with the Anatta teaching that there is no self, it goes against other Buddhist teachings and is fallacious. If there's no self, what's the purpose of a spiritual life? What about people who have experienced a self/soul? What about the after life, if there is no soul/self, what lives on? This interpretation contradicts teachings on reincarnation and goes against the Buddha’s admonitions against materialism.

[Thomas Razzeto]

@Highest 

Your personal consciousness is your soul. I learned the phrase “personal consciousness” from my mentor, Timothy Conway, who is an expert in Buddhism and other nondual religions and philosophies. He offers the idea that the ancient word “jiva” means soul or personal consciousness.

Most people equate the words “consciousness” and “awareness” but it is very importantly to make a distinction between them. There are many personal consciousnesses, many souls, but only One Awareness. Only this Awareness is sentient. This One Awareness looks through the window of each personal consciousness. This is how many personal experiences are presented to the One Awareness, which is your True Self.

Each personal consciousness is ever-changing yet Source-Awareness is this unchanging capacity for experience which also has the capacity to create what it experiences, hence the name.

[Thomas Razzeto]

@BobbyLowell 

Yes, each and every person is a unique expression of the One Essence, this One Source-Awareness. That expression is in our world of form. Just think of the actor and the character. We make a distinction between the actor and the character because the actor is the transcendent source of the character while the character is the dependent construction. And yet, when the actor comes forward as the character, they are one. Source-Awareness is the One invisible Actor who is arising as each and every character, as each and every person.

This is why I like to say: In form, we are many; in essence, we are One.

There is both the One and (in this world of form), the many. This is why we use the word “nondual” rather than “oneness.” We acknowledge both the one actor and the many characters.

The actor arises as the character through the act of pretending. The character is real as an act of pretending. (If it was not real for us as an experience, we could not watch the play.) But it is not fundamentally who the actor really is.

Similarly, Source-Awareness arises as all of creation through the mysterious process of creation. (This will never be explained. We can only offer a sliver of a description.) All of creation is real as a construction which uses Source-Awareness as its One Essence. Creation is real as that which can be experienced. But all of creation is not fundamentally what Source-Awareness is. This is why I said what I said at the end of my second post on this thread. And I have expanded on all of this in other posts in this forum and also on my website. If you are inspired, you can check it out.

Edited October 30, 2017 by Thomas Razzeto

[Key Elements]

21 hours ago, BobbyLowell said:

How can you be your authentic self if there is no self?

Good question. When you are in the present moment, you may become aware of two things -- what to do next (authentic self) or no-self. If you are lucky enough to experience the full-fledged no-self (formlessness/nothingness), that's awesome. No-self is always present. However, when you're fully in the present moment, with very little thinking and analyzing of the past or future, with very little stories in your mind (monkey-mind) because you dropped them, you will be able to clearly do your next step. That is your authentic self. Examples -

"It's time to exercise." 

"It's time to go to my backpack and work on my life purpose."

"It's time to cook something healthy."

"It's time to clean out that box in the corner."

"It's time to meditate."

Etc., etc., etc.