I respect the intensity of that stuff, but I feel like it's missing the point. "There is no separate self" is, to me, quite clearly both correct and incorrect.
As an analogy, consider the statement, "there is no true New York." Surprisingly, there's a lot of truth to it – whatever we point at, we can't find "the essence of New York" or "t…
I respect the intensity of that stuff, but I feel like it's missing the point. "There is no separate self" is, to me, quite clearly both correct and incorrect.
As an analogy, consider the statement, "there is no true New York." Surprisingly, there's a lot of truth to it – whatever we point at, we can't find "the essence of New York" or "the central element of New York," and when we look for boundaries, none of them are exact. But... New York is still a real thing, it's just a thing with porous boundaries and definitional complexity.
I've had strong experiences of no-self, and it's a frame of mind I can pop into. But no matter how I experience the world as flow and non-separation, it sure does seem like there's a body here, with sounds coming out of it, and sensations clumping around it, and other people can refer to it as a "me" that's different from "you." Just like New York.
There is no problem with experiences of separation, in other words. They're not an illusion any more than anything else.
I respect the intensity of that stuff, but I feel like it's missing the point. "There is no separate self" is, to me, quite clearly both correct and incorrect.
As an analogy, consider the statement, "there is no true New York." Surprisingly, there's a lot of truth to it – whatever we point at, we can't find "the essence of New York" or "the central element of New York," and when we look for boundaries, none of them are exact. But... New York is still a real thing, it's just a thing with porous boundaries and definitional complexity.
I've had strong experiences of no-self, and it's a frame of mind I can pop into. But no matter how I experience the world as flow and non-separation, it sure does seem like there's a body here, with sounds coming out of it, and sensations clumping around it, and other people can refer to it as a "me" that's different from "you." Just like New York.
There is no problem with experiences of separation, in other words. They're not an illusion any more than anything else.