The feeling of a separate self persists all the time.
If the feeling of a separate self is persistent all the time, then you should have no problem with describing to me this feeling. This should be super easy :)
So, please describe me the FEELING of a separate self a precisely as you can.
But make sure that you don’t go to theories, rather the write about the raw feeling itself.
Hehe =) Yes, the feeling is that I am creating the thoughts even if I know I am not, and moving around as an independent person. It's quite simple really: when I do the investigation, I can see that everything happens, including my thoughts. When I stop investigating, I stop seeing that.
I read un unrelated example somewhere that comes handy: we know the sunset is not really a sunset, it is just the earth rotating. However, the experience is as if the sun moves down. This is what happens here: when I examine I clearly feel that nobody's here and everything happens. Then the body moves to the next task and stops investigating, which makes me forget how things "really" are.
But HOW do you FEEL that you are a separate self? Which FEELING exactly is the feeling of being a separate self?
And how do you know that feeling is a feeling of separation and not something else, like a muscle contraction?
It feels clearly on the body, of course. Yes, muscular contraction. This body feels this muscles and not other muscles. There's a separation from this body and other bodies. Also, this body receives input which is apparently private, like the thoughts. For example, the senses are mosly shared (sight, sounds) but these thoughts makes this body believe it is separate, yes. Well, I can say that there's a thought claiming the privacy of every thought.
What are you separate from? What is the border between me and not-me?
I'm separate from everything that's outside of this skin.
What makes the body into an I? Isn’t the body just a body?
A thought. "I want to drink water" for example. "I" points to this body. Why not using the "I" by the way? Hahah =)
The body is just a body, yes, but when it has a need, like water, it moves to the refrig while generally a thought of "I want water" appears. So the thought is no more than a thought at that point, but that does not change anything. The thought happens exclusively to this body, otherwise we will be all together making a line to open the refrig, and that is not happening =)
And what is the EXPERIENCE of a manager being inside the scull?
It's quite simple really. For example, right now I decide the rebel against your question so I TYPE WITH CAPS LOCKS, but now I prefer to simply go back to normal fonts. NoW I wIlL aLtErNaTe EaCh ChArAcTeR. See? This is how it feels haha =) It feels the power to choose and act depending on what happens in the environment including this body.
HOW do you know that the manager is inside the scull? Why not in your little finger on your left foot? Or why not at the back of your right knee?
I've seen other bodies without legs and arms functioning perfectly well. And I've seen bodies that had impact in their skulls with tremendous consequences. That's how I know.
And HOW do you know that there is a manager at all? Where is the proof for a manager in this very moment? – not theoretically, but right here, right now?
Here I completely agree with you: I can't know that. I said it FEELS that way even knowing (while doing the exercises) there's none. The problem in the mind arises when it remembers that it forgotten there was no manager. The feeling while not doing the exercises is as if there's somebody doing the stuff. When doing the exercises, at that precise moment the feeling is different and it seems clear FOR MOMENTS that no manager exists.
Thanks a lot, Vivien! It feels as if I'm going back a few squares. Of course, assuming that that is possible.
