Awakening | Self Inquiry Tips
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ต.ค. 2021
- A short video that clears up a few common misconceptions about self inquiry. It is sometimes believed that self inquiry is designed to lead to a conclusion that there is no self. This can be a very misleading belief. Furthermore, it is commonly misunderstood what one is actually looking for or even the reason for doing the inquiry in the first place.
Book: Awake: It's Your Turn (Amazon)
Here is the video I was referencing: m.th-cam.com/video/YWwe8HzUJu8/w-d-xo.html
_"I'll have what she's having."_ 😉
On a related note, it's interesting how many people in the comments of that video are expressing a desire to contact that woman, as if she's now got the secret sauce that they're still lacking... which kinda misses the point of the video.
It reminds me of an incident a friend related to me once: someone at a retreat was telling a group of seekers about how his awakening happened while he was shopping at Walmart, whereupon one of the seekers asked, "which Walmart?" 🤣
@@_PL_ that’s a riot 😂
@@_PL_
It’s the same with the Bodhi tree where Buddha got enlightened.
Many Buddhists made yearly pilgrimage to that tree in Bodh Gaya in order to sit next to it. 😂
2 years post awakening and been going through it lately. Great video, I watched the Papaji video too and well it took me there. I was crying and laughing along with the questioner. I really needed the reminder. It’s still there, it’s always there.
Always Here :))))
Your explanation of everything happening within the self and it being untouched reminded me of that line from a course in miracles :Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists.
Great video, thank you. The background reminds me of Giants Causeway, from my home town in Ireland ☘
Thanks :)
By far the most helpful video of yours I have seen. I was so close before. I get it now. Immense gratitude bro
Edit: Dude it's so silly. Seriously. It feels like I wasted so much time for nothing. But like in a good way. Lol
"I hope this was helpful." I'm laughing so hard. What an underwhelming way to downplay the most helpful pointing I've ever heard 😁
I was doing self-inquiry by trying to see that there was actually no self! Thank you so much for this pointer, I think it will really help me. :)
Welcome! When we have an agenda or expectation it’s like we’re looking for something specific to happen (and ultimately it will be a concept), this results in ongoing doubt. When we look for the location of the SENSE of I or what you are that’s doing the looking in experience, discarding all conclusions or expectations, then we’re doing proper inquiry. It begins to feel very open ended, expansive, then just looking / seeing / Being!
Yeah now that I think back it is interesting. Sometimes I would get the sense that I was seeing that there was no center to experience. When this would happen it would seem significant. But then I"d often feel like there was still some light sense of a looker in there, so that there was still the sense that something was looking and seeing that there was nothing. Which meant it wasn't truly having an experience of no-self, which was frustrating. Pretty subtle stuff, but I think it made the practise a lot less effective then it could have been. Although it certainly helped me in the beginning to see that I was not certain sensations in my face that I identified with.
The best part about Buddhism is that the truth is there is only self.
This is so good. I was stuck because I've read a little too much regarding Anatta. Thanks dude!
it can be tricky with that bc anatta is such a subtle thing and it actually proceeds from a clear instinctual realization of unbound consciousness, even though that seems paradoxical. Sort of where JT described the I-les I. or in my book I talk about it in the pond analogy where you start to recognize there is something fundamental to wholeness of the reflection on the surface, which is the reflectivity itself. then investigating that reflectivity one starts to recognize what is actually being reflected, and we have to look into the senses for that. But we have to be able to look in an equanimous way as with resting oin consciousness to finally attune to the subtlety... or at least it helps a whole lot.
Thanks for sharing the love of truth
Sense Of Self With A Big S 🙏🙏🙏
Nice !
Love the background.
thanks!
Great pointers! Thanks 🙏🏻
Thanks for watching
These pointers are SO helpful…deeply grateful
You're Welcome
That Papaji video was really cool. Wow, so it all it took was just one really good look. Powerful stuff
This is the first time I’ve seen Papaji and what a sweetheart 💕 - so funny too “...can you get there with a ship? Do you want to take a plane?...” I laughed hard at that one 😂😂 and it’s so beautiful to see pure laughter 😆 Is this the laughter of the absurdity of it all lol? Like a Benny Hill charade or a Monty Python skit 😂 ...
@@ann337 ship or a plane.. lol that made be bust out too haha
One good look is all it takes. :))))))
He's wonderful
Laughter at the absurdity of feeling like there is somewhere to go "out there" to find oneself, satisfaction, or anything for that matter ;) Also it's simply a tremendous emotional release :)
I think the reason or one of the reasons people including me use this is because they are concepts that are easier to follow. While I love your vids some are way to woo woo and out there full of jargon that can’t be comprehended like one hand claps or what’s your face before your parents were born or other lingo that can’t be grasped at
That was powerful
Hi Angelo. Thanks so much for this pointer. Its so helpful!
So Im one of those people who read a bit too much on anatta too but I was always much more interested in the nature of experience and manifestations. Not " what am i" ? And my interest took me to lovely experiences of vivid, luminious and very "alive" Isness sort of experiences of the world after vipassana meditations. And also I would do these experiments of picking an object, looking at it without any labels, and without the knowing faculty of mind to tell me what it is. And there is just this pure mystery, awe. So Im a bit confused now on how to proceed as realization as ones being as unbound consciousness seems to be absolute step n1 that cannot be skipped. My dilemma is how do I forget all about investigations into pure experience? And ignite my interests in what am I? . I signed up for your retreat in July. Looking forward.
There is a sense of I a recognition of Awareness as a facite of experience.There is no recognition I am not my thoughts though they are seen as objects and come and go
That's a great insight, when self inquiry drives a bit deeper that sense of thoughts being an object will dissolve as well. "Who or what are are those objects a thought to?"
Incredibly helpful!!
Glad it was helpful!
This should also be in the playlist) by the way... it would be very nice to have a "primer" video or two on inquiry. Maybe a guided meditation with more silence inbetween points. At least, that's what I've expected to find in the playlist when I first came to this channel after reading the book. Just to solidify. I understood that the playlist won't actually help me to start the practice only after a while)
1:41 "this sense of self with a big ass" - voice to text can occasionally make a blooper!
Omg I can't believe I understand what you're saying 😳 I see it 😳 I'm like this emoji now
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Interestingly this video makes zazen make way more sense. Usually they talk about having a silent mind being unnecessary and I never understood that. But the I Am is present through all of it (thoughts, feelings, whatever).. That's why it's so close and easily over looked. The I AM is happening now, all the time. Feels kinda paradoxical because, at the same time, it gets lost in conception about it?
What you said is right on, when that last sliver of belief that there is someTHING that can still get lost in conception is dissolved... BOOM!
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake O wow. Ima sit with this for a bit. I think it's hitting a note for me. Thank you.
@@VeritableVagabond welcome ☺️
Thanks a lot for this video Angelo. For a while now, I have been performing self inquiry with the objective of realising that there is no self.
I've been going like "yeah I see an unperturbed subjectivity that doesn't say I. Only thoughts do. Haven't I got that there isn't a 'person' in here? How much deeper should I look, to be thoroughly convinced that I don't exist?" This video pointed me towards a better direction.
But I do have a question: at times, I search the I feeling in a 'place' so to speak, either behind the chest or behind the face, based on where I feel I am at the time, and try to go "deep" as in "farther and farther inside" behind the chest and feel that the I is still frustratingly out of reach. I try to see the thought "okay how much further do I go now?" as just a thought but it feels so personal, so genuine since I'm identified with it.
I have tried looking for the one who is searching but it just leaves me clueless at times, with almost no location to look for it.
Is this the meaning of going deep, or have I misunderstood something here?
It sounds like you know the sense of I Am (without the label). It’s ok to rest there as a portion of practice and just notice if thoughts firm and dissipate in and as that pure sense.
Additionally this practice of going deeper sounds authentic to me. If you’re not pushing or forcing but inquiring and surrendering it’s all good. This practice and curiosity will bring you deeper into direct experience :)
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake Thank you very much Angelo, I'll keep doing it that way then :)
-Raam
If you inquire the nature of thoughts probably true nature is revealed as with looking beyond thoughts.
I watched the Papaji-student video and ❓❓❓I have absolutely no idea what this shift means 🙂
Same here, couldn't find the link so done a search. The one I found, I wasn't really sure what I was looking for.
“Spiritual awakening in 4 minutes” it’s on the end screen.
For a second I thought you said big aSS self hahaha. I guess it could be infinitely big if it wants to without limiting itself to thoughts and stuff lol
i noticed that in editing lol
Big a$$ Self is both the street name and the dharma name of a lesser known urban guru...
@@MirkkGoffe that’s hilarious 😆
"this sense of self with a big ass" - voice to text can occasionally make a blooper!
😂😂
I’ve been stumped on multiple occasions hearing multiple teachers when they say something along the lines of “it’s in the looking, and concretely not finding a self, when we exhaust this belief that there should be a self to find”. I’m hearing this as the teacher is expecting that my intuition is that I believe I can find a self and it’s in the ‘surprise’ of clearly not finding a concrete self that may trigger this shift. But I don’t feel like my intuition is that I expect to find a self. In fact I don’t expect to find one…I feel like I’d be more surprised to find something than not lol.
I still find the inquiry to take me to a place of stillness, but when I hear it said as above I feel like “is it gonna work if I’m not expecting to find a self to begin with “? I think I just don’t get the wording, I’m clearly identified with me myself and I, but don’t expect to find it when I look inside. What am I getting wrong here?
About a month ago I was driving to work listening to you interviewing Josh. I was driving out in the country and a fox ran across the road ahead of me. For some reason that struck me as funny and I started laughing and crying like the woman in the video with Papaji. I had a lot of emotions come up over the next couple of weeks. I also noticed I have fewer thoughts. I do self inquiry when sitting in the morning and through out my day. How would you proceed?
thx, Is awakening liberation from awareness? is there any other way of perceiving other than thinking and senses?
I would say liberation is liberation from any sense of discrete separate self. If there’s another experience aside from senses and consciousness/thinking, I don’t know what it would be. :)
What happens to the I am in no self realisation? I am familiar and have many tastes of the boundless I am sence that permeates all experience. But I have only recently come across the ideas of Anatta and I am find it slightly confusing and I have to admit that it brings up some fear for me!
It's more like you see more deeply into what you are calling the I Am sense and then things look very different. But it's a natural progression :).
Hey Angelo, I'm wondering if the sensations in the body seem makes it feel like a separate self looking out at something else, would you recommend to focus on the sensations more,at least at first,as opposed to the visual field?I hope the question is coherent, haha.
Sure, work with whatever feels relevant to you. However I would definitely look into the believe that it is sensations that make it appear there is a separate you in opposition to other things/people. What makes you think it;s in the sensations?
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake thanks for the reply 🙂
I am melting in Mee ,,inefabil and more,,,,,,,