seeing through the illusory self

[Miss Hepburn]

You want to see yourself?...this is my input:
You have an inner mirror.
Sit in meditation and focus at the 3rd eye area.
Gently hold your eyes still...use your clean palms, your fingers on your eyelids...
use whatever is comfortable and easy.
Leaning your elbows on something helps.
The natural movement of the eyeballs interferes with your mind's laser like focus.
Use good earplugs...the waxy kind is best...not foam.
Sit for hours each day with a sincere focused heart on your Goal.
Have excellent hygiene.

Eat lightly, no heavy spices, beans, garlic, toxic things that could cause body changes, (tobacco,
pot, alcohol, caffeine )...nothing that would cause gas or belching...
that would distract you and make you 'body conscious'.

Sit for hours, relaxed, comfortable and straight so as not to doze off.
Make your mind and heart's intention clear..maybe with a prayer, a statement, a little ritual to
prepare yourself for each session of concentration and stilling the mind.
Turn all distractions off..pet's away someplace.

This is a successful, tried and true technique.
Google Sant Mat or Radha soami for inspiration.
If you'd like, learn Raja or Kriya Yogic meditation techniques.
If a teacher doesn't teach these, but only has inspiring words...find one who can...if
you go that route.
My take.

[Rabanne]

Originally Posted by God-Like

self awareness exists, how can it not?
x daz x

It doesn't exist If you are sleeping.

[Rabanne]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

[color=Black]You want to see yourself?

Yes I want to see myself but now, not in the future.

[Rabanne]

Originally Posted by neil

Well not many on this forum believe my beliefs, however the self is who you are as a person/being...a Soulbeing...you are not a human being, you are a SOUL being & connected to a non conscious, non intelligent, non sentient earth body, via the energetic silver cord...or so it is labeled that.

You are the self & you exist & you are not illusory.

The Earth body would simply fall to the ground & start decomposing, if you the Soul'self were disconnected from it.

You are reading my words via/through the vision of the earthly form/body...the eyes send what they receive, through to the brain & the brain converts the information into a different content & then sends that content through to the Soul'self/you.
You then have a reaction to that content which triggers a response by you & your response is sent back to the earthly body so that the non conscious etc earthly body opperates in a way, so that you can interact with the Earthly surroundings.

Although you are not the earthly body, you are however connected to it, AND as the Soul'self, you are also enmeshed within your earthly body.

The self is Soul & is in the image of the creator & is invisible.

The Soul, houses the information of the DNA of the earthly physical body, & in spirit the Soul'self emanates an exact duplicate of the earthly body, of which is called the spiritual body...however when you are disconnected from the earthly body & live on without the physical body, you are not the spiritual body either, as at that moment you are still the Soul'self which emanates the non conscious, non intelligent & non sentient spiritual body.

Both the earthly & spiritual bodies are merely a way for you to display a part of your identity & another part of your identity is your personality.

Have you seen all this happening?

[Rabanne]

Originally Posted by iamthat

Do you mean the self as personality? Or the Self as consciousness? or the SELF as Being?

Presuming you mean the self as personality, then its existence depends on our level of identification. If we identify with personality, then it seems real. When our level of identification shifts to the Self as consciousness, then we realise that the personal self is just a collection of habitual patterns through which consciousness expresses itself.

Peace.

Why identify at all?

[Rabanne]

Originally Posted by Altair

Your question is already loaded. Are you aware of this..?

What is ''illusion''...? Perhaps that is something we first need to agree upon in order to proceed any further..

Most people here would have you believe that things that change and are ''impermanent'' are illusion, but I disagree with that.
Just because something changes doesn't mean it's not real. So yes, you exist and even the temporary parts are part of you. Nothing is illusion..

Illusion is a concept about .......

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Rabanne

Yes I want to see myself but now, not in the future.

Good luck with that.

[Altair]

Originally Posted by Rabanne

Illusion is a concept about .......

Allow me to fill that in :)
Illusion is a concept about imagination, just like so many other spiritual abstract concepts..

There is no “illusion”. What we see, taste, smell is real. There is more, BUT that doesn’t make THIS reality any less real! If you jump off a tower you will die no matter how hard you believe you can fly. We don’t live in a matrix. I have heard of some people who believe this (usually on drugs) do such things and they end up dead..

[Moondance]

Originally Posted by Rabanne

Hi everybody,

does the self exist or is it just an illusion?

How can one see it?

best regards
Rabanne

Hi Rabanne. Welcome to the forum.

It depends on what is meant by self.

1. Self = a synonym for ‘me’, myself or person/persona.

2. Self = essential, immutable, independent inner nature which is the thinker of thoughts, feeler of feelings, doer of doings etc.

3. Self = a placeholder for the inexplicable source, 'stuff' and totality of things.

Often the designation ‘self’ is used alongside ‘me’ or ‘person’ to mean a specific body-mind-system. In this usage the self does (obviously) have an ontology - but it’s not an entity, it is a temporal, ever-shifting dependently-arisen matrix - it’s an activity not a thing.

If self is used to imply a separate, immutable, independent inner-essence (or soul) then this is a misapprehension (or illusion if you like) since no such thing can be found.

The third use is the Self (capital S) of Advaita. A synonym for the ineffable Source, Reality, Life, Totality, Being, Tao, God etc. How to not see it? It’s THIS… right now… before you take your next breath.

[Miss Hepburn]

Illusion? It must be experienced personally.
Otherwise, it is a word you've heard thrown around that means nothing.
Understandable and no fault to the person, at all.

Btw, I experienced the world was a dream, made of dreamstuff, an illusion, unreal at 8 yrs old ...
in a stunning couple of moments in the country in central NY one summer day...and many more times (with NO drugs, lol).
Why, how? Beats me.
But, I can tell you...I know the sound of one hand clapping!!!
I know that every single second is absolute perfection and meant to be;
And the meaning of every word Lao Tzu spoke of...I should by now!!
I'm old enough.
And, I know, now, how to break the cycle of me coming back here again and again!!! Yay!

That's just the way it is..no bravado here, but a lot of gratitude and awe, I'll tellya!!
And I'm here ready to aid anyone I can that asks.

First, I'd say, read, 'The Disappearance of the Universe', to open a person to some new concepts
about creation that are not spoken of everyday...a bit esoteric.
Then, move on to 'The Way of Mastery';
For those adults tired of the child's play of questioning others.
And the neat thing is, It's all self study!..no groups, no donations, and none of that awful
singing for 20 min on a Sunday morning.