No self to pursue goals

[okulele]

Lately the realization of no self has been dawning on me quite a bit. This is in one way great, in another it's trouble. Basically most of my life is falling away. My hunger for personal development, my ambitions towards pursuing my "life purpose", motivation for being a strategic motherfucker.  Basically my life is quite empty and I can just sit all day being content.

How do I achieve anything if not by the ego-self? There is no real drive to do much of my old stuff. Is this just a phase and should I just sit through it? There doesn't seem to be much more I can do honestly...

[Joseph Maynor]

Notice that even when there's no self there's still self.  Notice that when there's self, there's also no self.  And then the third thing would be notice your self considering these ideas.  Notice the difference between your self and the ideas.  Who's doing who -- are the ideas doing the self or is the self doing the ideas?  Where are these ideas coming from?

Edited December 15, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Shadowraix]

The ego is an illusion, as is everything. You still experience ego and that will persist for as long as the body functions. We are in this illusion, so why not play it?

Its good that you are content, but that doesn't mean to do nothing, it also doesn't mean to do something. Follow your desires. You can be content doing nothing, but do you want to do that? 

[tsuki]

43 minutes ago, okulele said:

Basically my life is quite empty and I can just sit all day being content.

Is it really a problem? 
If it is a problem, then can you really sit all day being content?

[okulele]

@Joseph Maynor that's a lot to take in

@Shadowraix @tsuki I am actually happy with the way I am. There is just this belief "I should be doing something more" coming up consistently, and that motivated me to start this topic.

[tsuki]

4 hours ago, okulele said:

How do I achieve anything if not by the ego-self?

There is nothing to be achieved.

The more ambitious goals you have, the more you suffer for your inadequacy.
The more you suffer for your inadequacy, the bigger the drive to develop yourself.
The bigger the drive to develop yourself, the more work you put in.
The more work you put in, the greater and greater trophies you collect.

Any achievements you put into your trophy-box fuel your imagination and your mind comes up with more goals.
Ad nauseam.

But you probably know that. In that case - just a reminder.

2 hours ago, okulele said:

There is just this belief "I should be doing something more" coming up consistently, and that motivated me to start this topic.

Cultivate a peaceful mind.

[okulele]

56 minutes ago, tsuki said:

There is nothing to be achieved.

The more ambitious goals you have, the more you suffer for your inadequacy.
The more you suffer for your inadequacy, the bigger the drive to develop yourself.
The bigger the drive to develop yourself, the more work you put in.
The more work you put in, the greater and greater trophies you collect.

Any achievements you put into your trophy-box fuel your imagination and your mind comes up with more goals.
Ad nauseam.

But you probably know that. In that case - just a reminder.

Cultivate a peaceful mind.

Thanks. This was very helpful.

[Leo Gura]

@okulele It's a phase. I'm going through that too.

Old motivations must die and then new ones will arise. But not necessarily immediately.

You must give yourself time to be rudderless and trust that a new sense of purpose will emerge from that.

[Joseph Maynor]

10 hours ago, okulele said:

@Joseph Maynor that's a lot to take in

@Shadowraix @tsuki I am actually happy with the way I am. There is just this belief "I should be doing something more" coming up consistently, and that motivated me to start this topic.

Totally, I get it.  Enlightenment Work has a lot to it.  You wouldn't expect someone to be able to give you the principles of Physics in the palm of your hand.  Somehow we expect Enlightenment truths to be given in the palm of our hand.  The assumption is that Enlightenment is simple.  It's a paradox, on the one hand Enlightenment is simple but on the other hand it's complex as well, and you gotta work a both ends of that paradox.

Edited December 15, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Angelite]

@okulele the moment you think you've known everything, that's when u lose

My guru says....the seven skies and the seven layers of earth altogether, compared to what's real  is like a ring in a desert~

[Solace]

You are a drop in the ocean of the no self.

If you are the no self, the question will not arise, so until then keep being present, without thought, centered in your heart in a sea of awareness. 

The mind, body and emotions all have desires you can choose to follow. The Soul also has desires. So whatever’s happens you are always creating, creating the experience of the no self.

And who creates that? You. Who’s you? When you ask this, does not a feeling of warmth arise in your heart? When you ask, who am I?, your question is always answered by that sensation. Ask and he shall receive. Seek and use shall find.

You are love.

[aurum]

@okulele

Could be a phase. Ultimately if you don't have drive, you've still got work to do.

[Vingger]

 

[XYZ]

I can understand how ego and non-ego can coexist, as they are part of one another. But it still seems like if you lacked a stable sense of self-identity to begin with and have a wishy-washy undeveloped personality like I do, can't build up the ego anymore once you realize it's an illusion, and you're left with that empty persona, prone to indecision, lack of life goals and unable to relate to other people.

[okulele]

11 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Old motivations must die and then new ones will arise. But not necessarily immediately.

Yes, that's exactly what it is. Blank space where my motivations had been. Nothing to replace them yet.

11 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

It's a paradox, on the one hand Enlightenment is simple but on the other hand it's complex as well

I love this. In a sense it's all done, in a sense it's just started and there is so much to learn.

@Angelite Cool

10 hours ago, Solace said:

If you are the no self, the question will not arise

I recognize I am not the self, but at the same time I feel like I am the self also. Hence the confusion. But as you say, I am keeping up the practice and trusting that clarity will come out of that.

@aurum Sure, I am still alive and stuff happens. Just the psychological life is falling apart.

@XYZ Actually I think that my personality is quite strong and developed, it's just that it is kind of crumbling down. (at least a lot of aspects of it, I am still perfectly recognizable on the outside)

[okulele]

Sometimes this is too much.

I don't know how to live. I can't trust my mind. I can't trust books. I can't trust gurus. I can't trust teachers. I can't trust you. What do I do?

Through all of this, I am peaceful. I am good. Yet I am thinking, can it really go on like this? Can I survive or amount to anything in life like this?

 

How do you even live awakening? Can you make plans? Any life strategy I try to adopt just gets thrown out the window in a couple of moments. I can't hold onto any personality really. What the fuck??

[Richard Alpert]

9 minutes ago, okulele said:

Sometimes this is too much.

I don't know how to live. I can't trust my mind. I can't trust books. I can't trust gurus. I can't trust teachers. I can't trust you. What do I do?

Through all of this, I am peaceful. I am good. Yet I am thinking, can it really go on like this? Can I survive or amount to anything in life like this?

 

How do you even live awakening? Can you make plans? Any life strategy I try to adopt just gets thrown out the window in a couple of moments. I can't hold onto any personality really. What the fuck??

Sounds like you are in perfect spot. You are becoming intelligent. what you thought (mind,books,gurus,teachers) would bring satisfaction and happiness wont workout.

[DrewNows]

@okuleleyou are not there yet my friend. The good news is, “you” will never get there. It’s useless to keep resisting yourself. ‘No self’ will come with the ending of time, which is something you can play no part in

Seems counterintuitive to get back into your ego right? Well that’s exactly how you will transcend it. Knowingly live your ego until control is surrendered  

dont forget to be your best self mate! Cheers 

 

[Joseph Maynor]

I think a good inquiry that a lot of people half-ass is the inquiry -- "What do I need?"

Edited January 30, 2019 by Joseph Maynor

[Juan Cruz Giusto]

@okulele The best way to resolve this is to check different Enlightened Masters. Look at Buddha or Jesus, supposedly very enlightened but huge revolutionaries. Look at Sadhguru, Peter Ralston or Ken Wilber. Actually, an article Wilber wrote says the following:

"But 'egoless' does not mean 'less than personal'; it means 'more than personal.'  Not personal minus, but personal plus - all the normal personal qualities, plus some transpersonal ones.  Think of the great yogis, saints and sages - from Moses to Christ to Padmasambhava.  They were not feeble-mannered milquetoasts, but fierce movers and shakers - from bullwhips in the Temple to subduing entire countries.  They rattled the world on its own terms, not in some pie-in-the-sky piety; many of them instigated massive social revolutions that have continued for thousands of years.   And they did so, not because they avoided the physical, emotional and mental dimensions of humanness, and the ego that is their vehicle, but because they engaged them with a drive and intensity that shook the world to its very foundations.  No doubt, they were also plugged into the soul (deeper psychic) and spirit (formless Self) - the ultimate source of their power - but they expressed that power and gave it concrete results, precisely because they dramatically engaged the lower dimensions through which that power could speak in terms that could be heard by all."

You can read the whole article here: https://www.lionsroar.com/egoless-means-more/