Personal Experience Illusion of permanent self. Very painful experience.

Forum Regular
Joined
Oct 7, 2024
Messages
300
I was listening to songs and in a very subtle moment I began to see how identity is something that is fabricated from instant to instant giving the illusion of a permanent being that is not really there. It was one of the most brutal experiences I've ever had because it felt like witnessing your own death. I was crying and screaming. Brutal.

Everything, absolutely all the information the senses receive manufactures the illusion of a permanent self. Emotions, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, all of these things freeze with time creeping in, giving the illusion that it has always been the same person who has been experiencing life. When in reality death and life happen from instant to instant.

Actually at one point it occurred to me this duality that:

1 year seeing the illusion of a permanent self > 100 years not seeing the illusion of a permanent self.

But it's that in reality both are the same thing. Is this the Buddha nature, the one that is always present?

Tabula Rasa @Tabula Rasa Sovereign @Sovereign
 
The Prince Of İstanbul
Joined
Jan 9, 2025
Messages
323
I was listening to songs and in a very subtle moment I began to see how identity is something that is fabricated from instant to instant giving the illusion of a permanent being that is not really there. It was one of the most brutal experiences I've ever had because it felt like witnessing your own death. I was crying and screaming. Brutal.

Everything, absolutely all the information the senses receive manufactures the illusion of a permanent self. Emotions, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, all of these things freeze with time creeping in, giving the illusion that it has always been the same person who has been experiencing life. When in reality death and life happen from instant to instant.

Actually at one point it occurred to me this duality that:

1 year seeing the illusion of a permanent self > 100 years not seeing the illusion of a permanent self.

But it's that in reality both are the same thing. Is this the Buddha nature, the one that is always present?

Tabula Rasa @Tabula Rasa Sovereign @Sovereign
Schizo
 
Joined
Aug 20, 2024
Messages
105
It is you dulling the DMN through breathwork etc. that makes the brain strive for energy efficiency again, aka its metaheuristics is disabled (For the time being). Meaning conceptual labels are stripped away (Its not just yourself percieving "yourself" differently, you percieve everything you interact with differently aka your mode of cognition is no longer object oriented). As you can tell the brain wants to be in energy equilibrium and so if you stop doing these practicies you will once again go back to your notion of permanent self. This is just the neurochemical/ thermodynamic perspective of course. Buddhist doctrines on this aspect are as multifarious as their schools. I think it is enough to understand the utilty of such a mode of being rather than dwell too long on the metaphysics behind it, unless of course one is sufficiently compelled to do so.
 
Detach. Reroll the dice. Be Chad. Redraw reality.
Joined
May 20, 2025
Messages
456
Me, I, will be born to a handsome human body. One day. And you will cry. Rest assured of that.
 
Forum Regular
Joined
Oct 5, 2024
Messages
425
I was listening to songs and in a very subtle moment I began to see how identity is something that is fabricated from instant to instant giving the illusion of a permanent being that is not really there. It was one of the most brutal experiences I've ever had because it felt like witnessing your own death. I was crying and screaming. Brutal.

Everything, absolutely all the information the senses receive manufactures the illusion of a permanent self. Emotions, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, all of these things freeze with time creeping in, giving the illusion that it has always been the same person who has been experiencing life. When in reality death and life happen from instant to instant.

Actually at one point it occurred to me this duality that:

1 year seeing the illusion of a permanent self > 100 years not seeing the illusion of a permanent self.

But it's that in reality both are the same thing. Is this the Buddha nature, the one that is always present?

Tabula Rasa @Tabula Rasa Sovereign @Sovereign
Identity or permanence of yourself in the present is never constant, it is constantly being remanufactured subtly and overtime enormous alterings occur, there is an overwhelming sense of transience an almost unreal feeling to the present in relation to the past and future when scrutinised.

Identity is unusual, for instance brain tumours can change a man so can head injuries. To the afflicted they accept their current altered self and have no aggressive recoil to the change, the past them is dead. Its a weird curtain to look behind.

This concept is like a train ride where you dreamily look at the view from the window. On the train the future is guaranteed but you are stuck in the present enacting some fated line of actions to fulfil the future, the view in the present moment means something to you but it soon passes and looses much significance, the future is forced to happen and with it a new present and old present moment… I shall now pass the dutchie

I feel my stream of consciousness although heavily summarised tackles the concept of the present and time in a concrete way, a prelude.
 
Last edited:
Forum Regular
Joined
Oct 5, 2024
Messages
425
It is you dulling the DMN through breathwork etc. that makes the brain strive for energy efficiency again, aka its metaheuristics is disabled (For the time being). Meaning conceptual labels are stripped away (Its not just yourself percieving "yourself" differently, you percieve everything you interact with differently aka your mode of cognition is no longer object oriented). As you can tell the brain wants to be in energy equilibrium and so if you stop doing these practicies you will once again go back to your notion of permanent self. This is just the neurochemical/ thermodynamic perspective of course. Buddhist doctrines on this aspect are as multifarious as their schools. I think it is enough to understand the utilty of such a mode of being rather than dwell too long on the metaphysics behind it, unless of course one is sufficiently compelled to do so.
It all goes back to biology, brutal, can never let a man drift dreamily through meandering metaphysical concepts and think magically, it really is just neurochems and shit. Worth saying one could argue there is nothing outside of perception though.
 
Last edited:
Forum Regular
Joined
Oct 7, 2024
Messages
300
It all goes back to biology, brutal, can never let a man drift dreamily through meandering metaphysical concepts and think magically, it really is just neurochems and shit. Worth saying one could argue there is nothing outside of perception though.
Philosophical pessimism and non-duality posts I recommend reading:





Agree with Nietzsche on this:

Nietzsche fundamentally critiques traditional metaphysics, arguing it relies on a flawed notion of objective reality and a "will to truth" that masks a deeper, instinctual drive for power. He sees metaphysical systems as human constructions, not reflections of a true world, and views the pursuit of metaphysical truths as a form of self-deception.
 
Last edited:
Truth changeth not
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Feb 24, 2024
Messages
291
I was listening to songs and in a very subtle moment I began to see how identity is something that is fabricated from instant to instant giving the illusion of a permanent being that is not really there. It was one of the most brutal experiences I've ever had because it felt like witnessing your own death. I was crying and screaming. Brutal.

Everything, absolutely all the information the senses receive manufactures the illusion of a permanent self. Emotions, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, all of these things freeze with time creeping in, giving the illusion that it has always been the same person who has been experiencing life. When in reality death and life happen from instant to instant.

Actually at one point it occurred to me this duality that:

1 year seeing the illusion of a permanent self > 100 years not seeing the illusion of a permanent self.

But it's that in reality both are the same thing. Is this the Buddha nature, the one that is always present?

Tabula Rasa @Tabula Rasa Sovereign @Sovereign
Something I've come to realize, the world is like the ocean, it hold all forms of life and yet it remains, life above it is no different. To your post If we are on the same page I get what you mean; we are constantly being told who or what to be, crystalizing these odd concepts which in reality are abstracts. If you think about what we value for example is it really our own? For example, recently I watched a video about virginity and how it is perceived as a bad thing and yet is loaded with double standards. To put it simple, all of this is a product of a mind that created mechanism of control, a kind of control that stops us from being what we naturally are what we were always "spirit".
 
In Another Worldline...
Joined
Aug 19, 2024
Messages
271
The ship of Theseus dilemma of the biological body only applies to the structural proteins. The main alteration to the self is aging which is your body trying to replicate increasingly damaged genomic templates. There are certain underlying patterns that remain stable through life, enough to constitute a solid identity. Nuclear somatic DNA (what is usually considered when one talks about 'genes') remains constant enough throughout life (beleaguered by cancer/mutation), but generally speaking your body is rebuilt according to the same template. Core brain patterns such as the Default Mode Network, Limbic System and Self-reference networks remain stable. Personality remains remarkably stable across a lifetime, as do attachment style and beliefs about the world. You can think of new information rebuffing the personality core, which is fundamentally evolutionary strategy. Ergo your 'self' is a pattern localized in your body, replicated with relative stability in your vessel until death, so it's not accurate to say that you are always changing on a fundamental level. It's more accurate to suggest that new information fortifies a pre-eminent self that is 'dressed up' with new beliefs appropriate for the current environment, as per plasticity.

The materialist perspective at least posits that you are a coalition of micro-organisms that have engaged in a symbiotic treaty. This 'United Nations' of your body presents a corpus to your mind, adopting a survival strategy that complements the physical features attributed to you through genetics.

Religion however is certainly a force for good. I always say that religion is physiological rather than ideological temperament because it can 'buffer' social defeat through belief in higher power, this has been demonstrated quite frequently in studies where religion boosts parietal, prefrontal, limbic and neuroplastic systems. Beliving in (really believing, understanding and digesting religious message as fundamental—vipassanā) can actualize brain changes, so it is truth! Believe hard enough in Buddhist teachings and you might just reach enlightenment.
 
Last edited:
Forum Regular
Joined
Oct 7, 2024
Messages
300
The ship of Theseus dilemma of the biological body only applies to the structural proteins. The main alteration to the self is aging which is your body trying to replicate increasingly damaged genomic templates. There are certain underlying patterns that remain stable through life, enough to constitute a solid identity. Nuclear somatic DNA (what is usually considered when one talks about 'genes') remains constant enough throughout life (beleaguered by cancer/mutation), but generally speaking your body is rebuilt according to the same template. Core brain patterns such as the Default Mode Network, Limbic System and Self-reference networks remain stable. Personality remains remarkably stable across a lifetime, as do attachment style and beliefs about the world. You can think of new information rebuffing the personality core, which is fundamentally evolutionary strategy. Ergo your 'self' is a pattern localized in your body, replicated with relative stability in your vessel until death, so it's not accurate to say that you are always changing on a fundamental level. It's more accurate to suggest that new information fortifies a pre-eminent self that is 'dressed up' with new beliefs appropriate for the current environment, as per plasticity.

The materialist perspective at least posits that you are a coalition of micro-organisms that have engaged in a symbiotic treaty. This 'United Nations' of your body presents a corpus to your mind, adopting a survival strategy that complements the physical features attributed to you through genetics.

Religion however is certainly a force for good. I always say that religion is physiological rather than ideological temperament because it can 'buffer' social defeat through belief in higher power, this has been demonstrated quite frequently in studies where religion boosts parietal, prefrontal, limbic and neuroplastic systems. Beliving in (really believing, understanding and digesting religious message as fundamental—vipassanā) can actualize brain changes, so it is truth! Believe hard enough in Buddhist teachings and you might just reach enlightenment.
It is not so much about a biological continuity, but a psychological one deeply base on subconsciously held beliefs about who I supposedly am, the role I have in this world, and the stories I tell myself about my experiences, trauma, and all of that. When I say it felt like dying it was because there was an emptiness to this—a lack of inherent existence—to all of these identities in the sense that there was no "I" in charge of aspiring these roles, but it was a multitude of conditions the ones who did it.

In other words, the lack or non-existence of a central self or soul behind this body. Obviously, biology and so on have designed us this way, but at the same time, not being able to be aware of this illusion brings tremendous psychological suffering sometimes.
 
Last edited:
DM
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Oct 16, 2024
Messages
1,652
@
Tabula Rasa
@Tabula Rasa @
Sovereign
@Sovereign
how these guys talk about users in private.

 
Activity
So far there's no one here
Top