Sane interpretation of no-self: the self is an illusion, so I don't have to believe thoughts derived from having one.
Real-world interpretation of no-self: the self is an illusion, so if you use personal pronouns or have personal preferences, this means you are not awakened.
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Most of the Western takes on no-self are about as enlightened as stating that because a film, really, is just a collection of still images with an audio track, you'd be deluded to enjoy it.
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Luckily for me, I've long since stopped caring about anyone's half-baked reading of canon and even-less-cultivated real-world ideas of practice.
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"Then why mention them at all?"
Because I enjoy talking shit. It's fun, and they have it coming. :)
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I need a highly offensive version of the western reading of "Namaste", ie: "the ultimate in me tells the ultimate in you to go fuck itself".
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"Master, should we not show compassion and-"
"Fuck off."
"But what about."
"No, really - fuck off."
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Don't worry, I'm sure they'd just call it "crazy wisdom".
Or maybe that is good cause to worry. Humans, eh?
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In all seriousness, I've often been a good teacher at basic stuff, since I had to learn it in detail.
But as has pointed out to me, I'd quite possibly make a terrible meditation teacher - because I have no idea what I'm doing, but somehow manage very well regardless.
I'm convinced if I ever have an awakening that lasts, it will be the result of some really prosaic, utterly banal and completely stupid stray thought.
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Yeah. I kinda have a complementary issue, in that I'm okay at developing intuitions for things, but terrible at knowing how to convey any of that usefully.
But I guess that at some point meditation teaching is a bit "now draw the rest of the owl".
Eh, I also said you could be great because your insight into people. You just need to understand what does what and thus is appropriate based on your insight.
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the real problem is figuring out what works for each individual when. Cookie cutter stuff doesn't work well for a lot of Westerners. We're too fucked up psychologically.
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