winterknight

All right, well, to be honest my instinct says that there's some intellectualizing going on. But in the end it doesn't really matter what I say. There only real test is this: see if there is unconditional peace over the coming weeks and months. And if there isn't, inquire. And as I said, if there are more questions and doubts, feel free to ask.

So is the Self then something that can be recognized and located?

What practice are you following?

So if there is no individual "i" in self inquiry, then who has located the Self?

Who is the "I" that is counting the story of the character as form, though?

Whose character is it, though? Who is the "my" of that sentence?

Ok. Well, see what happens over the next few weeks, and if you have further questions, feel free to ask.

And what about when you said "i am just in a constant state of witnessing" -- who is the "I" there?

Who is in the process of holding on to it? Who is learning to surrender to "it"?

And what is life like now?

If there is no localized I, who are you? You cannot "passively" hold the true I. You can hold only some idea of the I. I don't know enough about N's search to comment, but if you struggle to hold the I, that is fine. Just examine every now and then just what it is you think you're holding.

My Valmiki will have to give that name to my collected works Nope. But that's not going to make a lot of sense unless you see it for yourself.

Who finished it? Yes, what you're calling the "realisation here that there was no I" -- if it doesn't result in profound peace -- then it is merely an intellectual idea. That's not a bad start, but it is not enough. If you want to go deeper, follow the path.

I answered this in the post directly below the one you quote. I wrote: ”Oh, very good question. Is there something? Who says that there is something?” If you want to understand more deeply than this, you’ll have to follow the path of self-inquiry. The truth about these issues cannot really be stated in words.

Yup.

Music is a beautiful art form. If you want to become one with music, immerse yourself in it. Study it deeply. Hang around great musicians -- both teachers and peers -- as much as you possibly can. Learn, practice, perform, and experiment. The more time, effort, attention, and dedication you lavish on it, the closer you will become to it. It is not core to enlightenment, except that with it you might be able to obtain some glimpses of the spiritual truth which will motivate you. Oh, and it can be a wonderful way of expressing your feelings and in so doing quieting your mind, which is also helpful for the spiritual journey. Finally if you really deeply care about music, it is important that you are honest with yourself about this fact and pursue it. But if you think you are, but find yourself not investing consistent time, energy, effort, and attention on it... then you might be mistaken. You might be telling yourself you care a lot about it when you don't. Watch what you actually do. Overall, becoming one with music is not really my area of expertise, though. Perhaps you should ask a great musician this question.

You can start with consciously performing actions while mentally attempting to let go of the results -- have the attitude "whatever happens, happens." This is called karma yoga in Hinduism. Over time, give up desire more and more. Give up the desires for pleasure, for fame, for reward, for other people to be different, for yourself to be different, for your feelings and thoughts to be different. If you are unable to give up something, give up the desire to change that. Just let it be. Ultimately you should give up thinking. Stop putting in any effort to think. Go slack. Utterly relax. You won't be able to, but do as much and as well as you can. In the end, you will have to give up your idea of "practicality." That will have to be surrendered. Can't have your cake and eat it too. Can't give up control and insist that things stay comfortable. Don't worry, though. You will still do what you need to do, but what you need to do may be different than what you think you need to do.

I'm sending this post to the offensiveness police

Ok, so technically one cannot be aware of awareness. This is just being aware of the thought "I am aware." Not quite the same thing. You are awareness; you cannot be aware of it. "Abiding in awareness" as you describe it is not a bad thing -- it can be a useful practice to concentrate the mind -- but it is not the same as self-inquiry or surrender. Those are the only "practices" that effectively clear away ignorance, since they go deeper and deeper and eventually destroy even themselves.

What precisely do you mean by abiding as awareness? The moment of self-realization is a very misleading way to think about things, but I'll give you a tiny summary. The lights had been flickering on and off for a long time. There are little self-realizations and then one seems to forget them. And then one goes back. Over and over. At one point after intense struggle it just became clear that they weren't going to flicker off anymore.

I'm reporting you to the time police, of course

This is very normal. You have to start taking the mode of surrender which works by yourself and consciously attempt to surrender -- consciously give up your resistance to what's happening, give up your desire to change the situation or your thoughts or feelings -- in situations where there are other people, where there are social demands. This will take practice and time.

All time ideas and time words, including the word 'now,' are illusory concepts and do not fully express reality. But if we believe in the now, then we must believe in the future and past too. If we abandon the future and past, we also have to abandon the now.

Right, you parroted it without an actual realization -- only a superficial intellectual understanding -- then when your ego still seemed to suffer, you blamed the teaching rather than inadequate understanding and fell back on this thing called 'vasanas' to blame it on, and this quest called 'embodiment' to keep the ego going. And when I point it out now there is an aggressive need to lash out at me as lacking this or that, because if what I were saying was true, it would again hurt the ego.

Right, and I'm suggesting that these ideas come from an egoic way of thinking, an egoic mode of discourse. We can talk about it, nothing wrong with it per se. But there is a danger of believing it too much. Personality structures affect people -- but self-inquiry shows that there are no people. Latent tendencies are a concept, but all concepts are based on the "I" concept, and, that being seen to be false, none of the rest can be coherent. All language is in fact ultimately false. Obviously even those words are just pointing to something beyond experience. So we can talk this way about the failings of various people, etc. -- but we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously. It isn't the real truth. And importantly, it's a barrier to seekers, because it suggests an endless quest when the truth is simpler than that and is perfect right now.