Liberation Unleashed Best Pointers, a Collection

A simple message.  For YOU. 

From the Guides at LiberationUnleashed.com

 

 

 

 

There is no you. Look.

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...

Look at a chair. Do you see the chair?Look at your self. Do you see a self?

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STOP THINKING!

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Don't think, look.

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When there is no thought, where are you?

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Is there someone investigating this or is investigating happening?

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We're looking to see if there's anything real behind the fear. And if there's really a 'you' there. A real one. Is there one you can really find?LOOK!

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Hear the sound of the traffic. Can you hear the self in the same way?Feel your feet touching the ground. Can you feel the self in the same way?Notice that internal picture. Is it "you" or just a picture?

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Look at a table, look at the components, imagine the table taken apart, where is the table? Is there really such a thing? Could this be the same for a me? If arms and legs are gone is there less of you?

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Close your eyes, think of eating an apple, imagine color shape and size, how it feels holding it, really imagine it as realistic as possible, take a big bite, taste the skin, juices and pulp...............
Now open your eyes, where did your apple go? *poof*
So could it be the same with “I” ?

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"Next, as you move around in your normal activities, check and see if you can find a self moving the body around.Walking, driving, typing, dressing yourself, etc. Is there a WHO living your life? Or are there just thoughts about everything, including a self, seeming to live your life? Big difference. Just look at the evidence. In your daily life, in all your actions, keep returning to this focus on the thoughts as you move around. Keep checking if there is something real, besides a thought, that owns and directs the body."

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your story isn't important in this process. it's not that there's anything wrong with a story, and I am even interested to hear it sometime, but for now it will not be productive

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Nope. You can't get there (to seeing through the illusion of self) from here (logical understanding). If you could, you would be there already.

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There are no words to adequately describe how to see, no maps of how to get there; all I can do is Point to where you should look. This is not a mental exercise; all the thinking you can ever do will never get you there. I will give you clue, because I was also a Thinker. Just before I saw it, I suddenly realised that my guide was telling me to LOOK, not to Think. When I looked, I saw it.What is Looking? It is focusing on your Direct Experience. Seeing with the eyes, hearing with the ears, feeling with the skin, smelling with the nose, tasting with the tongue. Sensation, before it is judged and labeled, is direct experience.

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to get to Direct Experience of it, you will have to step away from Thinking About everything and begin to use your senses.

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Those of us who live in a mental world have much the hardest time letting go of the idea that there is something more to be understood. There isn't. You understand it all; now you just need to shift focus from thinking to directly experiencing.

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You may ask what makes direct experience more effective than intellectualization? Two things, at least: first it takes us out of our Story about what is happening and gets us in touch with what is actually happening; and second it is a peaceful quiet "place" which is always available merely by shifting focus away from thinking and to sensation. It really is a peace which passeth understanding, understanding being stuck in thought.

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There is no goal here. I just point to the fact that there is no actual entity self/I/me, and if you genuinely search for one everywhere in your direct experience, you will SEE that it is an illusion created by language and supported by nearly everyone around you. I cannot give this experience to you; you will have to SEE it for yourself.

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I have recently experienced ear infections that left me deaf as a post. My husband heard the door buzzer, the microwave beep, the noisy football supporters celebrating in the street. But those sounds were unheard by me, and so do not make up part of my direct experience.

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Beware of any sentence with a therefore in it; it is probably a deduction rather than an observation.

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If you wanted to SEE the Eiffel Tower with the eyes in your head, I would direct you to Paris, not to a picture-postcard stand. Same here. If you want to SEE through the illusion that you are or have a separate self that has some control over an individual slice of Life, you must go to direct experience, for that is where this can be SEEN.

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Try not to Think this all through so much. It only makes thought tangles that prevent you from experiencing directly the fact of the matter: "I" is a label. There is no "I" outside of thought/language. No hypothetical I can ever assist you in directly experiencing the fact of the non-existence of an actual entity "I".

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Write for me what you are experiencing right now using the words I and me. Get right to the point, no past or future fantasy, just plain description of here now. Like this: I am lying in bed. I am hearing rain. I am typing these words. Do this for 10 minutes. Watch the body; what physical sensations are happening? Then for the next 10 minutes write what you are experiencing without the words I and me. Just describe the experience as it is happening in the moment, using verbs: Waiting for next thought, typing, breathing, blinking, hearing rain. Again watch what is happening in the body. Now compare these two ways to label experience. What do you notice?

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Stop playing with "no self" as a concept! You've seen the illusion mechanism but now you're indulging in thinking about it.

Take it inside! Let it really sink in. Absorb the implications!

There is no you.
Is it true?
LOOK!
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"Liberation is not a thought, a feeling or a state.
Its really so ordinary that we have almost totally missed it.
I can't convince you of it, in fact the only way I can help is to point you
in the right direction to look so you can see it for yourself.
You have to do the seeing. We call it LOOKING.
it is through direct experience that it is seen.
Its like we want you to look with fresh eyes at the truth of common everyday experience.
Like a child sees... without any bias.
Its not hidden. Its just a shift in perspective.
Do not expect fireworks. they may not happen. Each person is different.
Our life situation does not magically turn to constant bliss.
All of the emotions we have had in the past are still here..
it just seems there is much less stickiness to them."

 

Self Phone Logic

If I asked about the whereabouts of your cell phone, you'd mentally check your pocket or purse and give a response based upon experience.  If you weren't so confident as to your phone's location, you'd place a hand to your pocket, or maybe root around in your handbag, then likely feel a sense of assurance once the phone had been safely located. 

When I ask that you check reality for a self, I'm asking that you look for it as you would a cell phone.  And if your search ends without that self turning up, I'd tell you that the reason it's not there is not because it's some nebulous thing with the ability to hide better than anything ever hidden itself in the history of mankind.  (I DO mean history of all mankind, too.  There's not one individual whose been able to check for a self and present one).

There's a reason for this absence.

Someone once told me that though they couldn't locate a self, they weren't yet convinced that one didn't exist somewhere out there. Maybe in another dimension.  That they hadn't yet found it wasn't proof that it didn't exist.

Let's test that.

If it's located somewhere out there, it's obviously completely disconnected from experience because otherwise it would easily be located.  If it's disconnected, how is it a YOU? 

And if you insist that this entity IS experienced through emotion or just plain feeling, to WHOM would that experience happen?

That last bit of circular logic usually goes undetected.  It also the source of the confusion.


photo credit:  Empty Pocket I by boproductions on deviantArt

Magical Disappearing Act

If there's a Me/ a Self/ an I, seeing the words in this post, where is that I right now?  Where?  In the eyes?  In the head?  The Body?

If there's a Me/ a Self/ an I, hearing the voice in the head speaking these words, where is that I? In the ears?  In the head? The Body?

What about the Me/ Self/ I that feels the keyboard?  Is it located in the fingers?  The whole hand?  The body?  The mind?

But you still feel a self?  Where?  In the body?  Which part would you remove in order to show me the self?  The heart?  If you need a heart transplant, do you then get a new self?

Is it in the mind then?  Yes?  Where is the mind?

In the brain?

Good.

Then reach into the brain and grab your self.




photo credit:  Your brain is in my hands, by Bianca0323 on DeviantArt

And I Feel Fine....

 

 

I'll be honest and say that I'm not sure how Liberation Unleashed guides continue to conjure up the energy and momentum it takes to repeatedly analyze and counter concepts seeker use in weaving a sustained entity called a self.  If guiding is done well, the sessions become a tango during which guide has to be willing to stay at least two steps ahead of the seeker.  This little dance becomes an even bigger challenge when the seeker has brought along preconceived notions of what this seeing will look like.  When that happens, they will want to lead even while holding their baggage.  Conversely, when they believe it's all about following the guide in order to earn enlightenment, they will want to go limp so that they can be dragged around the floor even while holding their baggage.


Tip:  Seeing through the illusion can't look any different than it does now.  That there is no inherent you is already the case.


I've done this dance for a while and find that I've recently begun to slow down.  As a guide, I've taken a sort of sabbatical.  While I still work with a few individuals here and there, I feel that for some, interest in learning the steps has waned.  And since it's a dance, I often end up feeling as though I'm the only one left on the floor.  Oddly, I'm beginning to prefer to be left just standing there for a while.

Why?

The further you get into this, the more it becomes evident that working to convince anyone of an idea or concept is not the endgame.  There's just no real point in injecting new thoughts in an effort to replace old ones.  On the other hand, I'll say that if someone is willing to work hard and throw caution to the wind, this process can often turn out really well.  But in those cases there isn't a 'me' trying to convince a 'you' of some new idea. 

It's actually 'you' trying to wrestle with yourself. 

Now...


Here's the bad news, (although you might just enjoy hearing it):   If the inquiry is done right, you won't win.  Neither will I.  We end up just sort of walking away from each other after a handshake and some well wishes.  We'll likely never speak to each other again.  You might contact me again if you've scurried along, content in thinking that the self will never ever return, only to become disillusioned when you later find that that sense of self is still there.

Another tip:  The sense of self, or Conventional Self, is not a problem.  If it's bothersome, it's because you're still standing on 'the wrong side of the gateless gate'.

As for my being left standing on the floor, it's understandable.  There are lots of people who believe they want to see through this illusion as a means to relieve personal suffering, but what they haven't yet bargained for are the implications of it.  Because if there's no You, then what do you suppose that'll mean for your ideas about those you love?  What does it mean for every other self you assume is there and has always been there? 

Before engaging in this inquiry, consider those two questions first.  Are you ready for the world as you know it to disappear? 

Why?


(And if you're one of the folks still working with me, you'll know this post isn't meant for you.  With a willing partner, I do love the dance.)



photo credit:  Gosh, My World by ahmedwkhan on DeviantArt

Point of No Return

I have had a twitter account.  Or two. 

The strangest thing about the discovery that Delma is a character within a story is in trying to reconcile the pre-NotSelf online life with the post-NotSelf accounts.  Over the years, a few blogs and even online journals have been created out there, but now there's no desire to go back to those old web spaces. It's very clear that they were thought-based constructions through which "I" friended or followed lots of people in order to help sustain a certain identity.

And now, there's no returning.  

Once seen, this cannot be unseen, they say.  It's a Dharma Seal.

Seems about right.




photo credit:  Twitter by Light-Schizophrenia on DeviantArt

Bridge of No Crossing

Find the direct experience of the place, the thing, the entity,

where sensory experience bridges.  Where it crosses over.  Meets.

Can anything other than the body be pointed to?

And within that body, find the direct experience of an exact location you call "The Crossroads", the single point at which all of the senses connect.  When and if you do find it, then...

Taste.  Can that taste be felt?

Smell.  Can that scent be heard?

Sound.  Can that sound be seen?

Why not?


photo credit:  Beyond The Senses by TheresaHelmer on DeviantArt

Indra's Internet

Why is the internet one of the richest places to seek enlightenment?  With all of the readers connected by way of this web, I can't think of a better illustration of one of the most basic metaphors for the nature of reality: Indra's Net of Jewels.

Oh, and hi there.  Welcome to this node, Jewel.



Francis Harold Cook describes the metaphor of Indra's net from the perspective of the Huayan school in the book Hua-Yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra:


“Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each "eye" of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering like stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring."



photo credit:  Spider web by JimmyDick on DeviantArt