Deprograming the Character

                                                                    June 2, 2019

While past practice related to DSI can impact how real your experience of your self in the world seems, it’s typical that we have never really had a rigorous and consistent investigation into the appearance of a separate self. So virtually all of your understanding about life is based on the core belief in “me”, an entity that in truth does not exist. Your character’s conditioning is much like the programming in a computer. Mental functions process information in relation to your identity as a separate self, and yet in reality there is no separate self. So how accurate or helpful can any of that information be? The programming must be rewritten to reflect the truth of existence more accurately, removing the screens that block awareness of how things actually are, and the possibilities of knowing reality as it is. Knowing your actual nature as awareness.

DSI serves to isolate the beliefs in a separate self within the context of many different life situations. The conditioned beliefs unique to each situation present variations on how “you” appear to exist in those situations, and also how to “value” and where to put emphasis on each situation. For example, let’s say you are talking with someone and the conversation becomes heated. They begin to get angry with something you are saying. They say things that are offensive, critical, or judgmental about you. If this feels like it is directed at you personally, the tendency of the typically identified character will be to react defensively to some degree, and perhaps to even begin a verbal offensive move. However imagine the same scenario where there is not self referencing going on due to prior self investigation, but more a sense of selfless recognition of the whole scenario. How might the interaction change?   

Seeing clearly that there is no self in one situation does not guarantee you will recognize this in the next one. Deep self investigation is something you must do again and again, remembering to look for the self in each new situation that arises, at different times during the day and on different days throughout the week. On the other hand, while you may need to see again the truth of “no self”, there is carryover and a cumulative effect. This cumulative effect has to do with seeing similarities in each new situation and more quickly recognizing the conditioned assumption about a “you”. The cumulative effect has to do with the fact that over time with serious practice, the finite amount of self related conditioning is rewritten and becomes less and less present in your experience.   

The process of exploring yourself using DSI could take several years, but my experience with the technique suggests awakening to your true nature as awareness will be the end result. This means however several years of very serious integration of this exploration into your daily life. The bottom line is, you are either rewriting your conditioning around “you”, dissolving the sense of self, or reinforcing it by continuing to reference life to an imaginary "you".                           

                                                       Discovering No Self and True Being

                                                                   February 21, 2018

Words fail here, but this is the best I can describe it. Once I realized fully that there is no separate self, no me inhabiting this body/mind, there was this sense of nothingness to being. The arising of sensation and thought continued but I was not that! I was nowhere. All that remained was vacancy where the imagination of myself at the center of this “person” use to be.  And while experience continued to unfold, life seemed empty and meaningless for a time.

There is a real truth to seeing this meaninglessness, because all prior beliefs, all mental framework about the importance, purpose and substantiality of life depends on me being at the center of it. And that identity as a person was gone.

In time, in the midst of existence seeming pointless, the obvious became apparent:  I exist. I am. Awareness continues. That was all I knew with certainty, and it was undeniable. There is consciousness, awareness present, and that was what I am. Anything beyond that was simply not true. 

Clearly seeing there is no separate me in the form of self-allowed the presence of simple awareness as being to be recognized, and it continues to be so.               

                                                                    Aging Awake

                                                                  October 1, 2018

Within the commonly accepted story of a person’s life, all people are growing into old age toward their end. As we pass 40, 60, 80 years of age, we may not be able to remember things as well as we use to, we lose our ability to perform complex problem solving, and we become physically slower, weaker, less coordinated. The face and body in the mirror gets grayer, wrinkled, and drifting away from societies model of attractiveness. Within this commonly accepted view of what our life is, it is just accepted that this gradual loss of these important personal characteristics are inevitable and to be accepted. What does that “acceptance” actually look like? 

At some point in youth and middle age we may shift from general disregard (“I’m young and old age and death are far away”), to growing concern. You realize it’s getting closer and the options are pretty bleak. The time line starts looking very real, a track you are on with no way out. As you move from the middle toward the later part of the life line, the options can seem quite discouraging. 

But here is the real problem with this common view that says mental and physical abilities are what is most important about who we are. It is not the inevitable decline of these functions, but rather that this view gives the highest meaning and importance to what are actually fairly superficial characteristics. Because if you look at it, what we all truly value the most in ourselves and others is being present, grounded, and giving/receiving love and attention. 

Consider this, what if we were to change our focus to emphasize the sense of presence/awareness in ourselves and others rather than our mental and physical abilities? Then the important things about us, what gives value and meaning, is how aware, awake and engaged in the present experience we are. Not only would this make for a richer and more fulfilling experience of ourselves and others, but it would also radically change the whole issue around aging. Because the wonderful thing about awareness or awake-ness is this: It doesn’t seem to change as we age! The awareness that saw things when you were 6 years old is the same awareness that sees things now, and will be the same awareness that sees things when you’re 90! Just take a look. Has the “seeing” faculty changed as your body and mind have changed over the years? 

You see, all bodies and minds are constantly aging. So the time to consider this alternate view of who you are and what is important and worth focusing on is right now, no matter how old you are. Shifting focus, seeing this living awareness (with all of it’s content) as it is, is of the greatest significance. But if it is to make a difference in “your life”, it needs to be practiced and explored until it becomes a “habit”, a natural resting in what is most real and essential in life. Then, what difference does it make how the body and mind change or decline? Because what you really are, and what is most important, is always available. And it never changes.           

                                                                      Just What's There

                                                                          April 13, 2014

One way to look at existence is to see it like a self-creating, living organism. A single organism.   (This is not a new idea). And this organism, “Life”, “This”, is playing at having people and things present, moving about and interacting. But at the same time, all value, judgement, meaning, is non existent “in” anything. There is no actual extra importance within any of these things or people. They are only what they appear to be and have no “better or worse” significance residing below surface features. I’m not talking about the wonderful, intricate, complex nature of what is, or the universal substance of things as consciousness (or what ever all this is ultimately made of). This point doesn’t detract from any of that. I’m only referring to the imagined “contents”, meaning and essences that can be presumed to inhabit  things. What Is (Consciousness, Existence, Big Mind, God),  what ever name given this Organism, may give actuality to things, but it does not actually invest in them meaning or value. It does create the illusion of meaning or value. But ultimately these impressions of value are  characteristics “outside” a thing, other objects, and flimsy ones at that! Just take a look at the sense of “importance” something seems to have, like it’s a separate thing alongside the thing “of importance”. What happens when objects are seen this way?                       

                                                                    Life is Complete                            

                                                                 September 13, 2014

Consider looking at the simplicity of what is going on in your present experience. Not what you think about it, but what your perceptions tell you is happening; what you see, hear, etc. Just this “now experience”. You might recognize that this actual experience is always complete as it is. This is not a lofty mystical vision, it’s self evident, right before you now. And in this recognition, it is seen that thought is only a secondary “color commentary” about what is. Seen clearly, we can be left with the simplicity and completeness of what life IS, just this experience. Perfect balance, requiring nothing, all at peace. 

                                                                           What Mind

                                                                          June 9th 2013  

Some sources talk about “the mind” in regards to the creation of the sense of self, the appearances of subject and objects, and so on. From here it appears there is no mind anymore than there is anything else of substance other than Aware Presence or “Existing”. If this is all like a dream or hologram, both good models for describing experience, than there is no need for the idea of a “mind” to explain how things are created. They just occur like everything else does. Arising spontaneously out of experience. And all appearances are on an equal level of significance.

In a dream, how is the sense of a separate “you” character in the dream created? It just arises out of the dream fabric itself. The idea of a mind that has some special function within existence seems to be just a remnant idea coming from conventional thought around the illusion of a separate self, a body with a brain that sees and interprets the world. What appears to be the case is that everything is simply created out of the ground of experience.  The “aware what is”. The exact mechanism of that creating process can be speculated about, but appears beyond knowing. And really, what does it matter                 

                                              A Conversation Between Dream Characters

                                                                           June 25, 2013

The dream character “Dan” manifesting the presence/awareness says, “I don’t feel any more like this body is mine (pointing at his leg) then that body is mine (pointing to “her” arm). There is no sense of being in either one, only of them as objects in awareness.  (Words are awkward and inaccurate).”

“The truth of this is seen at any time. And “proof” of identity, which used to suggest ‘me’ as a body, location and thoughts about me, are now recognized as just other appearances in awareness. Not proof of what I am. So they tend not to come up any more.”

The “Victoria” dream character says, “I don’t see that. If that is true, why is it that you act the way you usually do, get angry, have preferences, etc.? You’ve changed but you don’t seem that different.”

“Well, remember the dream you told me about this morning? The cattle, your dad telling you to jump to avoid their hooves stepping on your feet. And the cats with fuzzy sweaters?”

She smiles, then laughs, “yes”, begins to tell the dream character Emma (who has entered the room) about the dream. Then stops to come back to the conversation. “Imagine you’re in a dream and your talking to your father, and then you wake up in the dream, but the dream continues. How would you feel about the dream character “Victoria”? What would your character in the dream be doing?” He pauses for her to consider it. “Carrying on as usual, though perhaps influenced by the dreamer’s (your) perspective?”

“Ahh, I get it now”, she says, and smiles.

                                                                      Present Evidence 

                                                                     September 3, 2013

Real investigation and seeing of reality, inquiry and understanding, must be based on “present evidence”. Present evidence means:  what is observed or perceived with little or no interpretation or re-presenting through concepts.  Awareness “delivers” present evidence all the time, but then concepts rush in and create overlays on that bare reality. Reliance on present evidence for information about what is going on, what is in reality, opens the doors of experience beyond conventional ways of thinking to reveal bare reality. Bare reality presents life in it’s true form, where anything is possible, and “no thing” is fixed or concrete . And realize, if you rely on beliefs about life, then what you believe about reality is interpretation and assumption in the form of concepts:  projected thought which obscures what is. In the movement toward bare experience through present evidence, be prepared to have your views shaken up and turned over to reveal the naked truth of existence.   

                                                                        You Will Not Awaken                                                             

                                                                         September 4, 2013

You do not have an awakening.

The self does not wake up.

Words are not very accurate in describing it,

but what appears to happen is,

what you are wakes up from the appearance of self, 

and realizes it is aware-presence.    

                                                                 The Simple Truth

                                                                  October 30, 2013

Simply stated, I don’t believe in a self any longer.

There is no I, no me. That’s it. There’s not much more to write about that.

However, nothing written is really that accurate.

Words are as alien to “what is” as a photograph of a dog is different from the living, breathing, jumping, joyful animal it represents.

But, if we use words lightly, then the truth drifts through them.

It’s true that I don’t believe in, I don’t see anything substantial in, I cannot find, a self.

There is simply no self here, or anywhere for that matter.

This is glaringly obvious.

And that, of course, goes for the “me” that writes this.

Dan absolutely and positively is not writing this,
because there is no actual entity called “Dan”.

What is termed “writing” is happening, but it is absurd to suggest a separate entity is doing it.

Really, it’s hardly worth mentioning.