Self-exploration meditation on There are no personas

[00:00:00] Let's do a self exploration on

[00:00:54] Let's sit comfortably, let's close our eyes.

[00:01:11] Let's ask yourself the question, when I think of a person, what is it that I mean by

[00:01:25] a person? What is a person?

[00:01:41] The false sense of I AM the body, which has a small mind inside the brain, which is conscious

[00:01:54] is called a person. The false sense of I AM the body, which has a small mind inside the brain

[00:02:13] that is conscious is called a person.

[00:02:34] Do you recognize that the sense of I AM the body is a false sense?

[00:02:46] Do you recognize that the body having a small mind inside it is a false idea?

[00:03:01] Do you recognize that the brain having consciousness within it is nothing but a false conditioning?

[00:03:27] The reason for a strong feeling of personhood is the experience of feelings, thoughts, sensations and perceptions bundled all together.

[00:03:55] The reason for a strong feeling of personhood is the experience of feelings, thoughts, sensations and perceptions bundled all together.

[00:04:25] Let's examine this personhood in depth.

[00:04:43] Notice that my words repeat in your mind, that is nothing but a thought.

[00:04:56] These words evoke a feeling.

[00:05:11] Feeling plus thought has been labeled as the mind.

[00:05:28] Feeling appears and disappears.

[00:05:58] How can that which appear and disappear be real?

[00:06:16] A mirage in the desert appears and disappears.

[00:06:24] Do we call it real?

[00:06:31] The blue color of the sky appears and disappears.

[00:06:41] Don't we call that an illusion?

[00:06:50] How can feelings that appear and disappear be real?

[00:07:17] Aren't they like images on a screen?

[00:07:32] Why? Because the hero and the villain appear for a little while and disappear.

[00:07:52] Check if your thoughts are really permanent.

[00:07:59] Is there any thought that has lasted forever?

[00:08:14] Check if any of your feelings are permanent.

[00:08:24] Has any feeling lasted forever?

[00:08:32] Consistently being the same throughout?

[00:08:38] Without changing at all, can you locate a permanent feeling?

[00:08:58] No, this means that the mind is impermanent.

[00:09:06] The mind is constantly changing.

[00:09:21] If I consider myself as the mind, it means I constantly appear and disappear.

[00:09:35] Is that really your experience?

[00:09:41] Do you constantly appear and disappear or is your experience that you are permanent?

[00:09:59] Examine closely about how you actually sense your true self.

[00:10:11] Do you really see yourself constantly appear and disappear?

[00:10:21] No, you will notice that you have a constant sense of permanence within.

[00:10:30] Naturally, you have a constant sense of changelessness within.

[00:10:43] Naturally, that is why when an old friend says that you have changed something within you feels that you are the same.

[00:11:04] You do not feel different at all.

[00:11:20] However, mature the ideas of the mind get.

[00:11:35] You still sense the same changelessness and permanence within.

[00:12:05] The same truth applies to the body.

[00:12:20] Consistency has been labelled as the body.

[00:12:35] Consistency appears and disappears.

[00:13:05] How can that which appears and disappears be real?

[00:13:26] They are just like images on a screen.

[00:13:35] You don't consider the image of the hero and the image of the villain as real.

[00:13:55] Open your eyes and look at the image of your own body.

[00:14:05] You can see that this image is more real than the image of the hero or the image of the villain in a film on a TV screen.

[00:14:36] Just like the images in a film appear and disappear on a background screen.

[00:14:51] Doesn't the image of this physical body also appear and disappear on the background screen of awareness?

[00:15:10] How can that which appears and disappears be real?

[00:15:25] Close your eyes and notice any sensations that are arising and falling.

[00:15:43] Pain, tingling, numbness, crawling, vibrating, throbbing, beating, comfortable or uncomfortable.

[00:16:08] Whatever sensation is there.

[00:16:39] Don't similar sensations arise in dream.

[00:16:56] Do you consider the dream sensations as real?

[00:17:11] Simply because they appear and then they disappear.

[00:17:41] Are these sensations more permanent than the dream sensations?

[00:17:54] Is there any sensation that has lasted forever?

[00:18:24] Is there any sensation that has lasted forever?

[00:18:34] Doesn't the perception of sight of the body disappear every night in deep sleep?

[00:18:59] This means that perception of sight of the body and sensations both are impermanent.

[00:19:17] That is what has been labeled as the physical body.

[00:19:29] The body is constantly changing.

[00:19:50] If I consider myself as the body, it means I constantly appear and disappear.

[00:20:21] Is that true? Do you constantly appear and disappear?

[00:20:30] Examine closely about how you actually sense your true self.

[00:20:44] You will notice that you have a constant sense of permanence within.

[00:20:54] Naturally.

[00:21:05] You will notice that you have a constant sense of changelessness within.

[00:21:14] Naturally.

[00:21:21] That is why when an old friend says that you have aged, you look old, you look different.

[00:21:33] You do not feel the same way.

[00:21:43] You do not feel different.

[00:21:46] However, mature the body looks.

[00:21:50] However, aged the face looks.

[00:21:57] However, the breath becomes.

[00:22:04] However weak the muscles.

[00:22:09] However, diseased the body.

[00:22:14] You still have the same sense of changelessness.

[00:22:23] You still have the same sense of permanence within.

[00:22:41] Have you ever inquired why?

[00:22:47] Why this is so?

[00:22:51] Why do I feel a sense of changelessness and impermanence?

[00:23:07] If I am the person, it means I am the body plus the mind.

[00:23:17] Then I should sense myself appearing and disappearing because the body and the mind appear and disappear.

[00:23:35] Why do I not feel like that about myself?

[00:23:43] Why is my own inner experience not congruent with my own belief of being the person?

[00:24:14] It means clearly that I am something beyond.

[00:24:22] I am not the person.

[00:24:29] The person appears and disappears constantly.

[00:24:36] How can the so-called person be real?

[00:24:40] Because real means permanent.

[00:24:50] How can the so-called person be called real?

[00:24:55] Because real means permanent.

[00:25:01] My own inner experience about myself is permanence.

[00:25:10] That clearly means I am not the person.

[00:25:22] The person does not exist.

[00:25:30] How can that which appears and disappears?

[00:25:35] Be even called to exist.

[00:25:41] There is no person.

[00:25:55] So what about all the people around me in my personal world?

[00:26:04] Do they exist?

[00:26:10] Don't they appear and disappear constantly?

[00:26:17] How can that which appears and disappears constantly be real?

[00:26:27] Only that is real, which is permanent.

[00:26:36] All these persons in my life appear and disappear constantly.

[00:26:54] There are no persons.

[00:27:03] The person is only an idea and illusion.

[00:27:14] There are no persons.

[00:27:33] There are no persons.

[00:28:03] There are no persons.