Sam Harris: Why identification with the self creates suffering

I need to know why is it or I want it said why is it that the identification with the eye or the these never-ending thoughts why do they create suffering well it's just the ego is at bottom it is itself a kind of contraction I mean when you look at what you you're this feeling of self is right so mid let's just talk about what the the sense of self is the sense of self for most of us is not a feeling that were identical with our bodies most people don't feel identical with their physical bodies they feel like they're passengers inside their bodies right they think like my body's down here like these are my hands these are my legs you know I obviously care about these things you know if you know I you know this is these were my pains and pleasures are coming from but I'm up here in the head and I'm a kind of passenger I'm a witness of this and if you look I mean most people when they try to pay attention they try to find themselves they try to you know they they try to meditate they feel that they are a locus of attention in the head behind their face behind their eyes you know looking out at the world and the world is not self you know you or you're over there I'm looking across space at you I'm here behind my face and my face is a kind of mask really I mean it's like I'm not I'm not identical to my face I mean I it's it's states matter to me like if I have some weird expression on my face you know like someone said like let's go can we take a picture of you and you can't figure out how to smile and you feel uptight like you're reading the state of your face as in your emotions are playing on your on your face right the signature of the emotion you're feeling it has a lot to do with what you feel in your face and it feeds back into your mind or if you force yourself to smile you you can you actually feel a date of happiness coming in your in your mind but people feel like they're behind their face in their head right and so that you know kind of homunculus that that that person in the head which we know doesn't make any sense neurologically there's no place in the brain where they could be a little you know consciousness that is one thing that is this stable self that's looking out through the eyes right there's a flow of experience and you know it's it is invoking you know many regions of the brain at all times and there is no you you are identical to this flow of experience this the stream of consciousness is what you are as a matter of subjectivity right I'm not I'm not saying that it's not arising in the brain or that bodies aren't real or that there's no physical universe I'm saying as a matter of experience there is just this flow of consciousness and its contents and yet we seem to put this unchanging center to it and that is a the what what that is you know what the what is giving us that feeling that there is an unchanging center to this flow is this sort of this contracted identification with thought it is a kind of thought it is just each moment of you know if I'm saying something and it doesn't make sense or it sounds like that part of it that part that the experience in you which says oh that's not right right that feels like you right I mean you're not you're not witnessing it as an object in consciousness just arise and pass away it sort of has come up from behind and it just feels like that's me right and but that thing is always happening that that's me feeling is always happening and so you just feel like you're in your head behind your face right for two reasons there's two sides of this coin so much of our of what we're thinking is making us miserable right so much of it is unpleasant so much of it is causing anxiety we got you look at your to-do list you got 50 things on it you just feel like oh my there's just the day's not long enough right this is you know the state and that's a good you know that's a you know a high-class problem to have right there many of you know their worst problems this is the state we're in and the obverse of that is when we're really just connecting with life in a joyful creative beautiful way like when you look out the window and it's the most beautiful sunset ever and you are just looking at the sunset right you're not yet like you're fully connected with its beauty those are all moments where you're losing this sense of self but the difference between meditation in those moments is that you're not really aware of losing the sense of self in those moments you're not really aware of what is freeing about those moments and you can't do it in other circumstances like you can't like you know I need that I need the beautiful sunset just looking at your shoe isn't good enough for me right but with meditation I can actually look at your shoe in the same way that I look at the sunset all right so that's the like what's what's happening for people most people is that they're waiting for the world to give them a good enough reason to just be present and to be present so fully that they lose their sense of self right they're no longer behind their face you know just waiting for something good to happen right or figuring out how to change the experience enough so that again they can start there they're no longer at war I mean we're to a greater or lesser degree we're always at war and then we're always fighting something you know there's always it's like you know you're always noticing something wrong you're feeling uncomfortable in your body you're reacting to something that somebody did or you thought they did you're navigating a social encounter that seems off kilter you know it's awkward and like you're trying to figure out some what to say and that would that sounded stupid and like you're you're you're just being blown around and the moments where you really feel good or moments where you can you or that there isn't a coming to rest right where it's not about the past or future you know it's not even about it's not about half a second ago it's not about half a second from now and the ultimate version of that is to jut entails the dropping of this this sense of self

Channel: wonkmonk

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Id: ZX8vf4bdmm0

Length: 6min 17sec (377 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 06 2020