I asked Claude.ai (after training him a bit) to summarize for a blog post my recent live video called "Free Fall"...and he kinda said it better than I ever could š š
The Absolute Free Fall of THIS
A reflection on the dissolution of self and the nature of experience
What is Free Fall?
Free fall is perhaps the most accurate metaphor I can offer for what happens when the constructed sense of āmeā temporarily or permanently relaxes. Itās not awakeningāthereās no one there to awaken. Itās not enlightenmentāthereās no one there to become enlightened. Itās simply the falling away of the center that we believe ourselves to be, leaving only pure, centerless experience.
Imagine an infant born into the world with no sense of selfājust pure thisness, where every moment is refreshed, brand new. Some of us remember glimpses of this from early childhood, before the sense of self became such a convincing illusion that it colored everything we experienced. This is the human condition before the human condition really takes hold: centerless wonder with no one having it, no separation from it.
The Mindās Compulsive Story-Making
The mind creates elaborate narratives about this free fall. It constructs time, space, history, and most convincingly, an identity called āmeā that supposedly owns all these experiences. But what happens when that apparent identity simply stops? Like leaving a roomāwhen youāre gone, the room is no longer there for you. When the āmeā relaxes or disappears, thereās just this, without anyone experiencing it.
Whatās experiencing it then? Nothing. Itās self-experiencing, though even that description is the mind making something out of nothing, which is what mind doesāit makes things out of no-things.
Flow States and the Dropping of Self
We catch glimpses of this in flow states, when weāre so absorbed in an activity that the sense of āIām doing thisā drops away, and thereās just the doing. No doer, just pure activity. This is why itās called flowāit just flows without a center directing it.
The sense of āmeā spends enormous amounts of energetic time creating and maintaining itself. It can only exist in time because āmeā happens in timeāI have a past, Iāll have a future, I was born, I will die. But when that constructed self relaxes, time stops. When you stop, time stops.
The Spirituality Trap
Much of what passes for spiritual teaching is actually a story told from the perspective of this illusory āme.ā Teachers speak of awakening, liberation, freedom, blissābut all of this is the āmeā trying to make sense of something that cannot be made sense of. There is no awakening because thereās no one to awaken. There is no freedom because thereās no one to be free.
When spiritual teachers use concepts like āaware spaceā or āground of being,ā theyāre creating more stories for the seeking mind to chase. These become new objects of spiritual seeking, perpetuating the very illusion they claim to dissolve. The seeker seeks the aware space, seeks the ground of beingābut the very act of seeking is the mechanism that maintains the illusion of separation.
The Great Defeat
For this particular body-mind, clarity came through what I call āthe great defeat.ā No matter what was accomplishedāsuccessful career, recognition, family, meaning-making projectsāthere remained a deep, persistent dissatisfaction. The seeking mind constantly wanted the next thing, always trying to finally feel whole and permanently happy.
The defeat came through recognizing that this seeking mechanism would never get what it wanted. Through sitting still, through watching the mind and emotions, through seeing how past conditioning shapes everything, it became clear that weāre essentially sophisticated robots acting out programming. The mind is part of that algorithmic mechanism, constantly trying to solve problems it creates.
When this was fully seen, the seeking stoppedāeven if just for a glimpse. And what was revealed couldnāt be unseen: this perfect, eternal, timeless expression without anyone there to experience it. The great defeat of the seeking self was the greatest victory for the falling away of the illusion that was always creating the very problem it was trying to solve.
Beyond Free Will and Determinism
Even philosophical questions about free will and determinism fall away in this recognition. When causality, time, and space are seen as mental constructions, the entire framework for such questions dissolves. Thereās nobody making decisions because thereās nobody. Thereās just life, and itās a total mystery that canāt be grasped because thereās nothing there to grasp it.
The Natural Mellowing of Age
Interestingly, age seems to naturally exhaust the seeking energy. People often report increased happiness after 60āwhether because theyāve āgot their shit sortedā or simply gave up trying so hard. Life beats the āmeā energy out of you after a while. You try all the things that are supposed to make you happy and realize they donāt work permanently. What does work? Sitting right here and chilling out.
The sense of self is like Jupiterās Great Red Spotāa massive, persistent storm made up of various weather patterns, conditioning, and responses to different types of turbulence. Most people live their entire lives as that storm, never having it relax enough to see the blue sky underneath. But sometimes it can relax, and then thereās the obvious expression that you were never separate, never a āyouā at allājust life living, birds birding, trees treeing.
The Impossibility of Description
Using words to point to this is a losing game. You canāt use words to describe what isnāt a thing, what has no center, no direction, no meaning. Itās like trying to describe color to someone whoās never seen. Every word creates separation, makes something out of nothing.
And yet, sometimes hearing something said in a particular way can cause something to apparently drop, even for a moment. Thereās no purpose or point to these attempts at description, and most people will be confused or misinterpretāand thatās perfectly fine too, because confusion is also this perfect expression.
The Perfection of What Is
When the āmeā that would be okay or not okay relaxes, thereās just thisāand itās all perfect because itās exactly what it is. You canāt be more okay than the perfection of everything exactly as it appears. Even the sense of self, when it returns, is perfect as another appearance in this centerless display.
Nothing matters, and yet paradoxically, if youāre constantly afraid, suffering, worried about past and future, this recognition can reveal whatās always been here: radiant, eternal thisness. Not that anyone sees itāthereās just seeing. And then the next thing that arises might be a self that wants to own the experience, or annoyance at someone whoās bothering you. Itās all the same radiant appearance, by no one, for no one.
The Cosmic Joke
From this perspective, watching the spiritual āmeā desperately seeking its own end becomes almost comical. Itās like a mirage being upset that itās dying. The cosmic joke is that what weāre seeking was never hidden, never absent. The seeker is the very thing that obscures what it seeks.
Thereās no hope for the āmeāāabandon hope completely. It cannot will itself out of existence because the very act of willing is the āme.ā This is why thereās nothing you can do to make this happen. The doer seeking non-doing is still doing.
Just This
In the end, there are no profound insights, no special states, no attainments. Thereās just this eternal free fallāno meaning, no direction, no purpose. Beautiful for no one, freedom for no one. Colors, sounds, sensations, thoughts, confusion, clarityāeverything, with nothing excluded.
The obvious response? Silence. And even in speaking, itās speaking from silenceāthe free fall continuing to free fall, falling and falling eternally out of time, with nowhere to come from and nowhere to go.
Itās just this. Thatās it.
While immersed in Flushing NY's seriously Chinese vibes, my kids bought a shit-ton of weird-ass snacks and then tried to recreate some random Chinese TikTok video they are obsessed with: https://www.tiktok.com/@gildrtsy/video/7405511542667545861?_r=1&_t=ZP-8y7QlZyNCxz
The result? This š
Hanging in a traditional Japanese (traditional) machiya house, very roomy (by hotel room comparison), traditional futon beds, pour coffee. A super cool experience! Even sporting the Z-Merch! (pics in comments)
From Sunday Zen on YouTube! Enjoy ā¤ļø
Let's dive deep into the themes of trust, surrender, and the Threads of Awakening model introduced by Dr. Pierce Salguero in this live episode of Sunday Zen.
I've been reflecting on how traditional spiritual models can leave us feeling lost, stuck, or even scared, and how Pierce's approach offers a more inclusive framework that resonates with my own experiences.
We share insights on the different threadsāemptiness, energy, unity, and psycheāand how they manifest in our lives. We discuss the challenges of spiritual ego, which I've grappled with myself, and discuss the role of psychedelics in opening new pathways of understanding. And we touch on the importance of embracing the unknown as the true entry point to the nature of reality.
Topics covered include:
The Threads of Awakening model and its impact
Trust and surrender in the spiritual journey
Navigating spiritual ego and its pitfalls
Psychedelics as tools
Embracing the unknown and the ...
A mystery buyer in California? Hmmm Doc Vader buying back his own lightsaber I think š¤
Star Wars: Darth Vader's lightsaber sells for £2.7m at LA auction - BBC News https://share.google/tnCQmH5pSZsITw9kW