Nibbana tangent parts 1 & 2 (Agnosticism)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Friday, May 24, 2024, 02:01 (182 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: You may be surprised to hear that I’ve had similar experiences: a fleeting oneness with everything, totally unconnected with the senses, entirely the product of the mind. But “I” am fully aware of it, and love it, and when I return to “normality”, I hug the experience inwardly. It is joyful and a PART of myself, not extraneous to myself.

Turell: And you let the characters of your stories control and tell the story, as if your consciousness disappears.

This is it right here, this example. When experiencing emotions of whatever stripe, avoid falling in to become a character in the story. That's what it means "to be consumed" by an emotion. You're a genius!

And yes, the "selfless" idea I'm trying to communicate would also be just like removing yourself from the story so that the characters play out under their own logics. Maybe you meant to (and I'm inclined to think so) say it like this, but this is a very good metaphor for what I'm aiming at. When I do meditations like what I was describing here, I'm more 'myself' than ever, and part of that reason is because I've escaped the skin of my day-to-day self and am just experiencing the moment. I'm light, free, without baggage.

The other stuff, the deeper Buddhist stuff, not as important right now, but the "better" or "deeper" concept of myself is as this person in the here and now, capable of treading water on the river of my mind and myself, and when meditating, I dive under the water but instead of swimming against the current in the middle of the stream, I zigzag diagonals while avoiding all of the errant thoughts or pushes of ego to try and break through the experience.

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"