mbattle78 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 3:34 pm
My problem with this is that { and forgive the seemingly juvenile question } while there is no 'self,' no 'me' here - why is it that whatever I am, { eternal vastness, consciousness, etc. } I am still 'separated' and experiencing 'reality' through this very specific perspective? Or simply, if there is no 'me' here, why is whatever 'I am' stuck in this particular human body, looking through this very specific set of eyes and not from anyone's else or everywhere else?
Can anyone explain this contradiction? This isn't about the illusion of the sense of self, but the concrete and matter-of-fact situation that we are experiencing reality through this particular physical vantage point / perspective - which is what makes the ego illusion incredibly effective.
If I am not 'me,' why and how is consciousness contained in this one specific body, looking through these specific eyes?
My perspective is the sense of self is really hard to shake off, it can still exist without the physical body. Take dreams, for example, one feels one exist without the physical body. The sense of self we believe as real is so overpowering that we created a dream body for the self to exist and created another false sense of eyes to interact in the dream world. In fact, the dream body feels even more real than real life as it does even stronger feel emotions (joy, sorrow, happiness etc). Worst still, we existed in dreams even without a memory of ourselves in waking life, and we have no problem believing it as real and take that as a permanent self.
I am not referring to daydreaming, I am referring to lucid dreaming where you "wake up" in deep sleep (REM) and suddenly realize that you are actually dreaming. In that state, one lost the feeling of physical body, can't even move the hands. In that state, I sometimes wonder about the sense of self, which is one is more real, dream or real life? I realize both do a have a strong sense of self with the exception the law of physics does not apply in dream life but Karma does since you can suffer more in dream life than real life or vice versa.
I have not come to the final conclusion that both are illusions of the mind as stated in books. If one propel to jhana states in real life or launch from lucid dream states, the entire sense of self collapsed and disappear into nothingness, with only a sense of pure awareness of nothingness, but there is still a sense of self there to witness the awareness of nothingness. I have also gone into unconscious states like a complete knock out from an accident. In that states, I do dream about another world or have flashes here and there - Still there is a sense of self LOL.
So I do join you in wanting to find out about this question, although I do believe what I read about non-self, but I do want to experience it to fully understand it.