Self-Inquiry - Additional tips to find the real emptiness?

[Yarco]

After watching today's video, I'm worried that I'm intellectualizing the idea of awareness, emptiness, true self, etc and that I'm going to do it wrong for a decade before I realize. I'm concerned my mind is making false sensations or images of the emptiness, and I can't seem to get past the tricks of my mind.

When I try to sense the emptiness inside my head, I go inside and try to see what the "perceiver" is that links at the deepest level to my senses like sight, hearing, and smell, and the general idea of being "concious". It gives me a weird feeling like there's a vacuum or negative pressure inside my head that's sucking my head and ear canals in on itself. That's a sensation so I know that definitely can't be it. 

When I try to sense the emptiness outside of myself, it's still just a single point of "nothingness" I'm imagining in space in front of me, as opposed so something that permeates everything.

Even if I think I'm feeling pure awareness or stillness, it still seems like there's a physical sensation associated with that.

How do I know for sure that I'm finding true emptiness / awareness / true self, instead of it just being my mind tricking me?

Am I supposed to be able to find it? Or is this some neti neti thing where I'm supposed to struggle to find it for hundreds of hours, and then it will just suddenly click?

[Leo Gura]

Yeah, this is the whole trick with self-inquiry: the mind refuses to stay with the emptiness because it needs some image to grasp.

Everything you wrote is the noise of the mind. Look past all that towards the emptiness and just try to observe it without worry or mind noise. This takes lots of practice, focus, and patience.

Yes, this is Neti Neti. The emptiness cannot be found in the conventional sense of finding a physical object. Something radically new must click.

What are you beneath all that mind noise and doubt? What is observing the noise? Stay on that with steadiness. Try to keep the mind very calm. You want to hit a silent observer state. Observe observation itself.

You are observation itself. But what is observation?? Don't think the answer -- observe!

You will definitely fall into the trap of intellectualizing emptiness over and over again thousands of times before you learn not to do that.

Remember this is like a live scientific experiment. You are working in the labrabory of your own mind.

[Matt8800]

34 minutes ago, Yarco said:

After watching today's video, I'm worried that I'm intellectualizing the idea of awareness, emptiness, true self, etc and that I'm going to do it wrong for a decade before I realize. I'm concerned my mind is making false sensations or images of the emptiness, and I can't seem to get past the tricks of my mind.

When I try to sense the emptiness inside my head, I go inside and try to see what the "perceiver" is that links at the deepest level to my senses like sight, hearing, and smell, and the general idea of being "concious". It gives me a weird feeling like there's a vacuum or negative pressure inside my head that's sucking my head and ear canals in on itself. That's a sensation so I know that definitely can't be it. 

When I try to sense the emptiness outside of myself, it's still just a single point of "nothingness" I'm imagining in space in front of me, as opposed so something that permeates everything.

Even if I think I'm feeling pure awareness or stillness, it still seems like there's a physical sensation associated with that.

How do I know for sure that I'm finding true emptiness / awareness / true self, instead of it just being my mind tricking me?

Am I supposed to be able to find it? Or is this some neti neti thing where I'm supposed to struggle to find it for hundreds of hours, and then it will just suddenly click?

You're on the right track. Keep going. 

You will not find the answer as to what awareness is. Just keep ruling it out what it isnt. You will gradually become acquainted with the truth about what you are.