Self-Illusion / First Fetter

Stream Entry – What Does It Mean?

What does stream entry mean? In Buddhism, it describes the falling away of the first three fetters: self, doubt and attachment to rules and rituals.

The Illusion of Self – My Dialogue

What happens when you actually look for the “I” that seems to think, decide and control?

This is the original dialogue in which I investigated the self illusion and eventually saw through the First Fetter.

Rites and Rituals – The Third Fetter

The third fetter is attachment to rules, rites and rituals. The ritual itself is not the problem. What is interesting is how we identify with what we do and don’t do – and how this supports the idea of a separate self.

Doubt and Perplexity – The Second Fetter

The second fetter is doubt and perplexity – the apparent ability to resist or deflect what challenges our idea of who we are. It falls away together with the first and third fetters when the self illusion is seen through.

Seeing through the self illusion

Seeing through the self illusion means looking directly at present experience and discovering that no separate thinker, chooser or doer can be found. Nothing mystical happens. Life continues, but the assumption of a central “me” begins to fall away.

My Shift: When I Realized There Is No Self

In the autumn of 2017, I saw through the illusion of self.
This is the story of that investigation.
It describes the path from the first doubt to the moment when it became clear:
The self that I had taken for granted my entire life does not exist.

Jim Carrey on a Shift

Jim Carrey describes something in one short sentence that many people recognize from direct investigation:

A shift.
A sudden change in perspective.

Before, it feels as if “someone” is experiencing life.
Then this solid center starts to become unclear.

What is actually happening there?

Who are you?

Who are you, really? Most answers are stories. Name, job, past. But what is actually here, right now?