Page 31 - Extinguishment of self, in search of dhamma
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the sense of self. Separate the physical phenomenon from the mental phenomenon. Separate our mind from our physical body—leaving only the sense of unburdeness, lightness. This is the way to contemplate natural conditions without the sense of self.
Once we have already elevated our mind into emptiness, we should try following these steps: Raise our mind into an empty space, spread out the empty and unburdened mind—make it more expansive than this room, more and more expansive until we feel that our physical body is situated in emptiness. This emptiness, if it is empty; we will feel the sense of unburdeness, airiness, unclutteredness, lightness. It is an emptiness that leads to the feeling of airiness, unclutteredness, lightness—not mere emptiness. This is not just freedom from thoughts, freedom from natural conditions; but freedom from self, freedom from the sense of us and them, freedom from attachments (upadana).
The mind that is free from attachments still does its duty as an experiencer. This is a very important point. In the practice of dhamma, in experiencing various natural conditions that emerge; we should experience with a sense of non-self, with a sense of unburdeness, with a sense of lightness, with a sense of airiness, with a sense of relaxation. Experiencing with a sense of non-self here, if we carefully consider, we will realize that even without a sense of self, the mindfulness is very clear. There is no
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