Think I'm starting to get identity/conditioning experientially and it feels really really important
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A lot of what I do I just do without thinking, without any clear reason, and it's not necessarily straightforwardly good. A lot of time it's mostly __not__ good, though there's probably always __something__ good about
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Conditioning feels like: X occurs, then Y feels "natural" or "just happens."
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Pausing conditioning and stepping outside it feels like: X occurred ... now what? Disorienting because the "meaning" of X is absent, and so I draw a blank about what to do. I'm probably relying on slower processes.
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Identity feels like an embodied "being of a particular person" or "being a particular way." These embodied "beings" have implications!
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Example identities that get triggered for me (it's all still a bit fuzzy):
- person-in-pain
- person-experiencing-discomfort
- guy-who's-good-at-circling
- awkward dude
- person-in-pain
- person-experiencing-discomfort
- guy-who's-good-at-circling
- awkward dude
Another one: guy who can't articulate the identities he's noticed (!!!!!)
(serious)
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(serious)
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Implications are like:
"Can't be happy til X"
"Have to stop talking."
"Have to get awkward now."
"Can't be happy til X"
"Have to stop talking."
"Have to get awkward now."
The way these are occurring to me now is that these auto-reactions and identity implications aren't really tracking my current values
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There is a way where a lot of them feel like "not me"
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Not sure yet if this means they're "unattached burdens" or something that I picked up from other people, or if they're more part-like or pattern-like from past traumas
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I also maybe feel a tiny bit closer to experientially "getting" Not-Self
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There is a way where it's not like the things I'm doing now in service of real actual values are more "me"
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I could be really confused about this
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Alt hypothesis is a lot of the goals/aspirations/projects I've taken on this year as I've got to know myself better are still at a pretty surface layer and there's way deeper stuff trying to come out
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That surface-depth model might be kinda broken, too, tho. Not sure.
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There is a way where there's just my experience unfolding, what I choose to do and not do, and this whole idea of the real me is a mirage
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And it's like: there's nothing outside of this, no ultimate foundation to find, maybe?
This feels suitably disappointing and anticlimactic, which honestly I'm more and more expecting any kind of awakening to be
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This feels suitably disappointing and anticlimactic, which honestly I'm more and more expecting any kind of awakening to be
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(at least in part. I dunno how any of this could lead to supramundane bliss but sign me up for that, too, pls)
I hesitate and "look deeper" because I somehow think I'm gonna find the choice that'll lead me to the greatest happiness
And it's also integrity: if I'm gonna, e.g., lead others, I NEED to know I'm "right"
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And it's also integrity: if I'm gonna, e.g., lead others, I NEED to know I'm "right"
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Lots here that's really important for me to allow to continue to develop, gradually, prioritizing engagement with the world over any kind of rumination or obsession over the details/concepts
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