•

Buddhist meditation is sometimes called a mystical form of enlightenment

•

William James

•

there are two hallmarks of a mystic experience

•

1. noetic

•

a sense that knowledge has been imparted, that some deep insight has been apprehended

•

2. ineffable

•

its hard to express what the experience was like

•

no adequate report of its contents can be given in words

•

the experience of not-self

•

not the modest version of not-self

•

"I don't have to identify with that feeling as myself"

•

but the full-on, extreme not-self

•

where the person becomes convinced that the is no self in there

•

this usually defies clear expression

•

an example explanation of this experience:

•

no contention

•

infinite stillness

•

no object that is counter to yourself, and self that is counter to an object

•

universal awareness

•

got the sense that awareness was a property of the universe

•

like the air around you, it doesn't apply any pressure

•

it is as if the air is awareness, it's everywhere

•

if feels like you are being surrounded internally and externally by something that is not self-generated

•

two themes in these reports

•

1. a sense that your awareness is not something that is owned by a self, i.e. ownerless consciousness

•

2. no sense of opposition, transcending the subject/object duality

•

another avenue to understand the experience of the non-self

•

what were the thoughts of people who have experienced this

•

exercise

•

imagine that every thought that is arising in your mind is coming from the person next to you

•

and notice if that would make a difference if in how you are relating to the thought

•

it can give you a sense that the identification with thought is extra

•

modular view of the mind

•

consciousness does not generate the thoughts

•

thoughts are generated by modules outside of the realm of consciousness

•

"It's a dog-eat-dog world going on in your brain with different systems competing to make it to the surface to win the prize of conscious recognition. Whichever notion you happen to be conscious of at any particular moment is the one that won, the one that came bubbling up, the one that's dominant."

•

normally we don't see a though enter the conscious realm

•

rather we identify with it immediately apparently and just think that the conscious mind generated the thought

•

meditation, by calming the mind and making the mind still, allows you to experience the thought come emerge in consciousness before you identify with it

•

while in an unreflective state we usually conceive of our ourselves as a self which generates thoughts, upon closer examination it seems to be more the case that thoughts arise and attempt to capture the consciousness

•

they come from somewhere in your body, somewhere in your brain, and the thoughts that come reach out and try to grab the consciousness and carry it with them

•

humans have a strong habit of mind to be identified with one's thoughts

•

this very strong habitual identification is how we have always lived our lives, and it takes practice to break that conditions, and this practice is called meditation, to be mindful of the thought rather to be lost in it

•

it's quite common that people report that during meditation, they feel that they are not the ones thinking their thoughts

•

one can understand that the modules are outside the realm of consciousness

•

thoughts are actors in our consciousness and we have the habit of going along with them and getting caught up in the mind's drama of them, but that's not necessary

•

thoughts have an affective quality, a feeling tone associated with them

•

the feeling tone of a thought becomes a kind of cement, which allows you to own it

•

in our everyday lives, we own our thoughts, and in a sense become our thoughts

•

in meditation, the goal is to detach yourself from your thoughts

•

to do this, you can begin by detaching the feelings from your thoughts, allow them to simply be thoughts without any feeling attached

•

as feelings become detached from your thoughts, you find that you no longer own them, and you can allow them to float by

•

the more modest version of not-self

•

there are thoughts that I don't have to own

•

don't really let go of the concept of the self

•

extreme version of the not-self

•

not owning any of your thoughts

•

you eventually lose the concept of the self

•

it's not so much a distance from the self, but a non-identification with the self

•

all of the experiences of consciousness and all of the thoughts are still there scattered around, but they simply aren't necessarily connected to a self per se

•

there's the experience without being identified with those experiences

•

the theme is one of ownerless consciousness

•

this brings up the puzzle: when you are seeing not-self, don't you have to be seeing it from some perspective, and the answer is simply no, you don't, as the self is just another one of those ideas that floats by