How to Focus During Self inquiry

[Wisebaxter]

I'm still a little unsure how to know exactly when I've managed to focus in on awareness, especially as I hear it's comprised of nothingness. Leo said to become aware that you are aware, but when I do that I worry I'm just focusing on the concept of 'I am aware.' Or do I just follow my awareness and watch what it does, a bit like Adyashanti's True Meditation? I still can't work out if he's basically describing self inquiry with that technique. Should I perhaps be focusing on 'no thought,' or 'the void,' as essentially that's awareness, isn't it? Focusing on the quietness? Any tips would be awesome. Help a poor monkey out

Edited February 24, 2019 by Wisebaxter

[Truth Addict]

@Wisebaxter

Throw away all of these concepts from your inquiry: "focusing, awareness, nothingness, Adyashanti, meditation, technique, 'no thought', void, quietness, etc..."

Consider that the inquiry is like a radio interview, or a TV show.

Who is watching?

Edited February 24, 2019 by Truth Addict

[Wisebaxter]

1 hour ago, Truth Addict said:

@Wisebaxter

Throw away all of these concepts from your inquiry: "focusing, awareness, nothingness, Adyashanti, meditation, technique, 'no thought', void, quietness, etc..."

Consider that the inquiry is like a radio interview, or a TV show.

Who is watching?

@Truth Addict That's a good point for sure, that there is no 'watcher.' I'll keep this in mind whilst I inquire

Edited February 24, 2019 by Wisebaxter

[Truth Addict]

4 hours ago, Wisebaxter said:

@Truth Addict That's a good point for sure, that there is no 'watcher.' I'll keep this in mind whilst I inquire

Throw away this belief that there is no watcher, and look for actuality, what is actually going on?

Example:

- Who am I?

- the answer will be some kind of object, this or that, everything or nothing, blah blah blah...

None of them is you, you are not the answer, you are the one who is perceiving the question and the answer.

There will be a realisation that every answer you land on is not you, because the answer is an object, but you're not. You are what's made the inquiry possible in the first place.

Also notice, the nature of the answer is merely a thought.

Are you a thought? Yes or no? Either way, it's not you, because that's just another thought. You see how this works? You are the thing that is watching (perceiving) the thoughts, not a thought of it. You are it, but you don't know it yet.

I hope that helps.

Edited February 24, 2019 by Truth Addict

[Wisebaxter]

@Truth Addict Yeah I did start to do Neti Neti but after Leo's video on how to do self inquiry I've now gone straight to just observing awareness as he says that's what all the questions are leading you to anyway, this sense of 'I am-ness.'

One other question is, you mentioned there is no watcher. But can God not watch itself, if awareness is watching awareness, isn't that what's hapenning? To me it seems like the whole essence of being is God marvelling in it's own creation. 

[Truth Addict]

32 minutes ago, Wisebaxter said:

@Truth Addict

One other question is, you mentioned there is no watcher. But can God not watch itself, if awareness is watching awareness, isn't that what's hapenning? To me it seems like the whole essence of being is God marvelling in it's own creation. 

I don't recall saying that there is no watcher.

You can't become aware of the awareness, because you are it. That's the end of the inquiry.

You are simply aware.

[Wisebaxter]

@Truth Addict Ah I misunderstood you. When you said who is watching I thought you meant there's no watcher. All these concepts eh? This is my main barrier, the mind. I still feel the need to ask questions though. Thanks for your help on this one 

Edited February 24, 2019 by Wisebaxter

[Wisebaxter]

Just seen this from @Nahm

So I'm done with these questions now. They only confuse me more. I'm going full Ralston on this...full inquiry mode. I'm going to evolve from a monkey into a hawk 

Edited February 25, 2019 by Wisebaxter

[Nahm]

@Wisebaxter ha! Right on. Perhaps monk is hidden just behind that key. 

[Zigzag Idiot]

On 2/23/2019 at 4:40 PM, Wisebaxter said:

I'm still a little unsure how to know exactly when I've managed to focus in on awareness, especially as I hear it's comprised of nothingness. Leo said to become aware that you are aware, but when I do that I worry I'm just focusing on the concept of 'I am aware.' Or do I just follow my awareness and watch what it does, a bit like Adyashanti's True Meditation? I still can't work out if he's basically describing self inquiry with that technique. Should I perhaps be focusing on 'no thought,' or 'the void,' as essentially that's awareness, isn't it? Focusing on the quietness? Any tips would be awesome. Help a poor monkey out

It's not until we have inner quiet that we can really observe our awareness.

If you can watch your thoughts and emotions with detachment. That's being the Watcher or the witness. How about the quality of 'attention'? Can you direct all your attention on one thing?  Or Is the attention dispersed some? Periodic daydreaming? A third category  is drawn attention. Feelings tend to draw attention out from under our conscious control. 

The most important one I think is negative emotion. It's more difficult to maintain objectivity about. We identify with the emotional suffering and start becoming reactive usually. We identify when there is distress,,,,,, understandably, but it's re-entry back into hard duality of good and bad. Being the Watcher has a taste of nonduality, actually, in the sense that one is experiencing a greater feeling of being impartial and of spaciousness or 'oceanic' quality of experience. Experiencing inner quiet and being the detached watcher of thoughts and emotions continuously, usually takes a quite a bit of inquiry to build up the capacity to not get knocked out by life's random shocks. 

The watcher or the witness is called 'Observing I' in the fourth way which leads to a deeper experience called the 'Permanent Witness.'

Ted Nottingham really explains it good.

Hope this was some help.