It is amazing to think that just five seconds of honesty, is all it takes to look at the truth.
Just that tiny slither of honesty to see the truth, that is literally all it takes. Potentially, any body could be introduced to the idea and within two minutes, they could be free. In the same time it takes to listen to that annoying Craig David song, you could actually be free from your self imposed conceptual prison.
Within two minutes... free.
So why is it that everyone slithers before they look?
I was actually lucky, I had a read a book on non existence of self and a week later I discovered RT. I was actually really up for the challenge of looking in to it. Yet, it still took me two weeks to muster up the required five seconds of honesty.
So I did not slither but I was unable to muster up the required honesty for those two weeks. I think more than anything, I was tired of having the constant headache from thinking too hard, in some ways I think that the pattern of self became exhausted and when I smashed through the dishonesty to look in real life, it was actually fatigue of the patterns that reinforce self. I think that break allowed me to realise that I was not in fact being honest.
That was it... two weeks of fretting and all for the requisite five seconds of honesty to look at real life. That is how long it took me, when in reality five seconds is all that is required.
We have had various theories to why and I am not going to label a specific theory but I am going to lay down my direct observations. It is literally as though when this idea is presented, it is actually filtered out from their reality as something beneficial. Because it has been shoved in their face and they are repeatedly being hammered with “there is no you in real life, life lives itself, look”. Straight away they are mobilised on the attack, in order to defend their false self.
Almost immediately, everyone brings out the same stock arguments.
“If there is no you, then who is writing this post?”
“You are deluded because you believe you don't exist”
“If this is your way of avoiding responsibility it is pathetic”
“You are in denial of your self”
… and so on and so on. Of course, these people have not looked but they are able to tell you what you are doing without looking for themselves. Failing that, they ignore the delusion that has been pointed out to them and focus on anything else other than their own dishonesty, that has been clearly demonstrated to them.
In these cases they are always blind to their own dishonesty. Usually in every case I have witnessed, people can never actually spot their own dishonesty, even when it has been bundled in wrapping paper, had a giant pink bow on it and is addressed with a label clearly stating their name.
Of course we do not like to be proved wrong, there is of course evolutionary function for this but... people can never see it. It is not a case of they do not want to own up to it, it is literally like they are completely blind to it.
That is why half the time you have to use foul language to try and wake them up from their delusion. You have to illustrate glaringly that they have in fact been dishonest. Only when you have the sufficient threshold for it to become glaringly obvious that they are not talking sense, then they might look. Even then this is no guarantee. I am always stunned by the utter failure of people to witness their own dishonesty when it is pointed out to them. It is like all their mental resources are focused on the slithering and it has been pigeonholed as a threat.
The idea is ridiculous on face value....
Yes it is.
There is no you.
Logically it sounds invalid on the face of it.
In fact all you ever known since you can remember is that a separate “you” exists. Think back to your earliest memory, we think it is happening to “us” as a separate entity. This is how entrenched this belief is. I hate to quote ancient philosophy but Plato's cave provides an opportune metaphor that illustrates this well.
In that respect, the cave forms the attributes of a conceptual mesa reality. Once it is seen that this is not the totality of the spectrum of reality, then the brain updates its model to include what reality actually is. Once it is seen by the brain that it was living within the confines of a conceptual prison, it can not hold the belief that there is a self anymore.
Essentially this is liberation.
Here is the key to the lock that was never really there in the first place, you only believed it was there. You are already liberated but you do not yet know it. The gateless gate they call it in Zen. That is a good analogy because there is no gate to cross it is already here in your direct experience of reality, all it takes is five seconds of honesty to see if it is true or not.
For us outside, we get to see how powerful and real this imaginary prison seems, to the people caught inside of it. It has been a default core belief in every aspect of your existence since you were old enough to remember.
To put it simply, most people live in the confines of Plato's cave, they are unaware that their sense of self is illusory and they are subject to the mental turbulence that ensues from thought feeding back in to itself.
Whilst I will certainly not claim that everyone has problems with this, or that seeing no self is the end of all mental turbulence, it can be clearly observed that dysfunctional thought is neutered somewhat. Essentially, the core mechanism of human suffering relies on the illusion of self to perpetuate itself.
In seeing the self is illusory, you are able to witness thought complexes before they arise and snowball in to pre - occupations, obsessions and depressing negative thoughts about a non existent self image.
Also, you become non attached as the Buddhists call it. This simply means you do not identify or draw a sense of self from external objects or labels - That is very liberating.
However, communicating these benefits is largely ignored. What I am saying is inside this box, is liberation from your conceptual prison. If you don't believe me check it for yourself. Some people may not feel like they are living in a conceptual prison and if you are not, then good for you, really I mean that.
Just know that you will never truly be free and have the ability to see reality with open eyes, your perception of reality will always be skewed but maybe that is favourable for you. As the saying goes ignorance is bliss, I have come to understand this on a whole new level, except ignorance is not bliss for everyone.
But what can you do? We can dress up this insight in fancy packaging and give it a nice shiny image but why should the truth be repackaged as something more palatable? It just is a facet of existence, nothing more. We should no more deny that, than we should deny the sea is blue (brown if you live in Blackpool :)).
The problem in sugar coating this, is that it is easy to get embroiled in arguments about the merits of this, when in reality the objective is to get you to look in to the idea seriously. That is all it takes, looking to see if there is a self, not thinking about conceptual statements, not solving a logical puzzle and not even thinking at all.
Just the courage to undertake plain and simple looking at your direct experience of reality.
Just literally summoning the requisite five seconds of honesty.
That is all it really takes to look at the truth and see it in real life. It can be done in two minutes... so what are you waiting for?
There is no you in real life, you are an illusion, you don't exist.
Could it be true?
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