Self inquiry method

[Charlotte]

((If there has been a previous thread related to this, let me know and I'll hide))

Please share with me your personal favourite self inquiry method and why...

[Empty]

@Charlotte I like to ask the question " WHO "

 

When you close your eyes. Stay as the witness ( the witness of your thoughts, feelings, minds, body, and so on) 

then, start asking: 

who is aware of my mind? 

Who is the owner of the mind? where is the owner of the mind located? 

Who is feeling pain? 

......

......

......

You keep digging and digging and digging, to find nothing 

[Charlotte]

@Empty  Thanks for sharing. 

When you do get to nothing and as the witness you know there's nothing there, then what? I'm always getting to nothing and then... Nothing... I know there's nothing. I'm stuck at nothing ? I know I'm made up, I know I'm fiction, and before you say "who knows?" I know... NO ONE! ?

[Empty]

@Charlotte Then the challenge is to stay as nothing. The ego always comes back

[Charlotte]

It certainly does @Empty I try to stay as nothing as much as possible.

[Faceless]

Attention without the imposition of thought. To watch without any movement of thought accepting nor denying in order to secure itself. To observe without observer. Without choice, desire, a complulison to capture of maintain any sense of pleasure. Investigation not influenced by clinging to become psychologically secure. 

In this there is no imposition of thought/self. And if there is no movement of the thinker it is not a method. 

If there is no self/thinker what is the use of a method/path??‍♂️

This is the way I went about it. Of course the ending of psychological time made this a possiblity. 

Edited May 8, 2018 by Faceless

[Faceless]

Great topic @Charlotte

[Nahm]

5 g’s shroom tea. 

[zoey101]

@Nahm lol nice  

[InfinitePotential]

"Ignore everything".

I often liken awareness to a flashlight, shining light on objects (thoughts feelings perceptions, beliefs, filters, moods etc etc), I try to sort of "turn off" the flashlight. Not shine it on any particular object. Try to trace it back to its source... which of course is without qualities of any kind, for if it had a perceivable quality it would be an object you're shining your flashlight on.

This seems particularly effective after some time doing labeling meditation, moving my awareness to and from various objects to sort of a get a feel for the "muscles" involved. Or perhaps just anything that gets me really present.

I also love to ask "am I aware?" and actively check if I am. It helps a lot in appreciating that here and now, there is experience... something that is constantly overlooked.

[who chit]

The purpose of self inquiry is to realize the selfless nature of "things". Mind activity is just mind activity empty of any-thing or "self" driving it. It is memory activity giving rise to false imagination, false reasoning, and false discrimination. Mind construct is a construct of the mind basically, the discriminating intellect  that gives birth to dualistic thinking. Existence (being) or non existence (non being),names, concepts, ideas and beliefs,give rise to the notion of the existent/non existent nature of form and/or unborn "selfhood" to "things". Which are inherently empty and without any nature of selfhood.

When we come to nothing in self inquiry, it is to realize the emptiness, of the notion of individual selfhood in all things. If there is an investigation/inquiry into the who or what that is inquiring "who/what am I", it is seen that, that too is empty of selfhood The belief that there is still 'self" or "selfhood" related to the nature/activity of the mind, keeps the method of self inquiry going. There is still attachment in the belief of a self. This is all part and parcel of the journey. Where one is at a particular stage, is where they are. Even knowing there is no self through the practice of inquiry will not, all at once,completely stop the habit of attaching to mind activity. The depth of the impressions imprinted on memory and that is driving the activity, are (to use a quote from Buddhism) "fathomless" and/or "beginningless".

To this end, one should realize that mind habit and activity will continue,regulated or non regulated. Knowing there is no-thing, no self/individual, driving it's behavior, one can practice "turning away". Stop giving importance to it's activity and the habit of attachment. Allow without discriminating, grasping. The returning of attention to the state of non-attachment or Vairagya.

Edited May 9, 2018 by who chit

[Charlotte]

Thank you everyone for sharing. Very interesting read. ♥️

@Outer I totally understand your points but can we honestly live and be in this world without any thought whatsoever? My goal isn't to eradicate thoughts as a whole but to become completely aware and conscious of them all, be able to have complete distance from them, be the witness at all times. 

We cannot switch off thought. You take them with you wherever you go, it's the meaning you assign to them that is key. 

@Nahm I'm on it ?

Edited May 9, 2018 by Charlotte

[Solace]

My favorite method is admiring the one in me who asked, "Who am I?".

Edited May 9, 2018 by Solace

[okulele]

Noticing the nothingness where my face is supposed to be.

[Highest]

Close your eyes and feel your isness, just the feeling that you are here now. Open your eyes and realize that you are not anything you perceive, not your body, not the outside world, not even space. What we are cannot be directly seen, it can only be made aware of, the best way is to close your eyes. All you see now is darkness but you are not this empty darkness either, go deeper. You simply are, find that feeling, and you will realize what you are simply IS eternally and has no characteristics. 

Edited May 9, 2018 by Highest

[Faceless]

What is thought ?

[Solace]

Asks a thought.

[Faceless]

@Charlotte

I see it as very important to learn about the nature of thought if you want to self inquire. Since when you are self inquiring thought is utilized. 

Otherwise the inquiry will not run straight, coherent.

Edited May 9, 2018 by Faceless

[Maycol]

 

[tsuki]

My favorite self-inquiry method is spotting things that are obvious.