For me, the thing that has the most obvious effect of creating the sense of a self is the sense of purpose or agency. The feeling of having and acting with will creates the sense of self.

If you observe the mind casually and you see a thought -> emotion -> impulse -> action  - we assume (feel like) we are an entity reacting by exercising will. 

But if you watch the mind more closely, you see that those events are the result of impersonal cause and effect (not intention) and are produced by unconscious processes before they rise into awareness. It tells you the idea of having conscious will is an assumption or an opinion that might not be correct (depending on how you define terms). (And the feeling of being an entity with will is just another feeling arising from unconscious processes.)

The feeling of being an observer is similar, it is an assumption we make things that arises to consciousness from unconscious processes. 

A better way to explain the self would be to say it is a collection of loosely connected unconscious processes interacting through cause and effect that sometimes work at cross purposes (for example craving rich food while being afraid of gaining weight). 

What we usually think of as the self, an entity observing and exercising will, is really just an image, a portrait of what we believe about our self ie the self-image. We mistake an image of a thing for the actual thing. Actually most people already know a lot about this they just don't connect the dots. We know we get distracted when we try to focus on something - we don't control our thoughts. We have unpleasant emotions we don't want - we don't control our emotions. We have impulses that are often unhelpful, we don't control our impulses or actions. Our sense of our role in life changes from situation to situation, student, child, parent, employee, supervisor. Our sense of our personal characteristics changes with our emotions: pride, shame, winner, loser, etc. The feeling of being changes with physical sensations - hot, cold, pleasure, pain, etc. The self image is constantly changing, coming into existence when we have thoughts of self, and vanishing when we are absorbed in external perception.

Quieting the mind, slowing down it's activity, through meditation - so you can see clearly what it is doing - will help you see this. Try to see how the sense of agency you feel arises from your assumptions about things happening through impersonal cause and effect. The sense of being a "self" is something that is caused by assumptions we make. It really is an opinion that isn't right or wrong - but you understand it in a very different way when you understand the assumptions you are making and why you make them.

Jim Smith
In a previous log I wrote about Michael Singer's analogy of mindfulness to lucid dreams that he discussed in his book "The Untethered Soul".

In a typical dream you think it is real, but in a lucid dream you know you are dreaming.

Mindfulness is like that in a way, when you are not mindful, you are caught up in thoughts, emotions, impulses, sensory experiences, and senses of self and no-self, like when you are watching a movie and so caught up in it you forget where you are. But when you are mindful, you are aware of all those elements of consciousness and you don't get carried away and forget yourself and become immersed in the reality they reflect, like when you know you are watching a movie. 

But you can also take the analogy further. If you consider that thoughts, emotions, impulses, sensory experiences, and sense of self and no-self, arise from unconscious processes, you don't consciously create, choose or control them. Then being lucid means you recognize from moment to moment that the reality those elements of consciousness is not you or yours.

​​​​​​​Each moment of consciousness is like a dream, it can be like a typical dream where you accept it implicitly as reality, or it can be like a lucid dream where you know thoughts, emotions, impulses, sensory experiences, and senses of self and no-self, are not you or yours - not something you created, chose, or controll.

Jim Smith
Mantra of the day:

"You can't have everything you want."

When dukkha arises, it is usually because we want something we don't have or don't like something we do have. We have the feeling that something is not right.

But if you remind yourself that you can't have everything you want, you change the sense of the situation from something going wrong to everything is the way it is supposed to be: you can't have everything you want.

I find it makes letting go much easier.

I have said nirvana is not something you find in the future it is something you find in the present moment. And I have also felt that looking for stages of insight and of awakening is an obstacle to making progress. I have also doubted the idea that awakening eliminates the need to work through emotional baggage.

I think Delson would agree with this. He says:

"What I believe now is that Liberation is possible in every moment and that people are already liberated. Underneath all of that the mind is already liberated. Underneath all the subconscious trauma underneath all the unconscious desires underneath all of underneath all the conscious beckoning and and chasing around and looking and seeking if the Mind were just to remain still for a moment all of that disappears. And in that moment the mind is liberated."

"Because to Define Awakening as anything creates conflict in the mind because now there's a goal to achieve."
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"I don't believe that Awakening just totally erases the shadows of the unconscious the traumas of the subconscious. I believe there's still work to be done there."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMwZWQo36cY&t=3006s

50:06
"I would redefine Awakening as a process of going through that Journey. Going through, you know, the pain and the sorrow. Maybe you start off with that. Going through the process of meditation going through the process of insight and understanding. And then there comes a point where all of that becomes your reality. But then there's a call back to home where you still have to deal with all of the inner stuff that might still be there in the subconscious.

I don't believe that Awakening just totally erases the shadows of the unconscious the traumas of the subconscious. I believe there's still work to be done there. And even if, let's say in an Ideal World, somebody was to do that, does that mean that they're awakened? No that's not how I would Define Awakening. Because to Define Awakening as anything creates conflict in the mind because now there's a goal to achieve.
​​​​​​​
What I believe now is that Liberation is possible in every moment and that people are already liberated. Underneath all of that the mind is already liberated. Underneath all the subconscious trauma underneath all the unconscious desires underneath all of underneath all the conscious beckoning and and chasing around and looking and seeking if the Mind were just to remain still for a moment all of that disappears. And in that moment the mind is liberated. And I think then once that realization comes, the task at hand is to see that as much as one can see without without ignoring or trying to gloss over the darker aspects of the mind."

When you feel disappointment over things you want but don't have, or situations you don't like, consider that there is something more valuable than any earthly thing and that is the good qualities you carry in your own heart. If you feel that fate has dealt you a poor hand, remember the ultimate reward is not an earthly prize, the ultimate reward is spiritual, eternal. And your ability to cultivate spiritual qualities is within your own power, it does not depend on material goods, or social position, or the approval of anyone else.

Are you mindful or are you immersed? (1)

Are you aware or are you suppressing? (2)

Are you suffering or are not not suffering?

Is your ego involved or is your ego disengaged? (3)

Are you relaxed or are you tense?

Sakkaya-ditthi [identity view] is the fundamental conviction that there is an entity, a thing inside us called a self. That conviction goes away forever. However, being momentarily caught in one’s sense of self, that happens to enlightened people over and over again, but less and less as enlightenment deepens and matures.

Jim Smith
I am wondering if the way meditation and mindfulness is taught is deliberately inefficient to protect people from a sudden psychological shock that could damage mental health. For me, my current way of thinking seems very easy to understand....

Understanding anatta breaks the feedback loop that sustains emotions.

Most people already understand a lot about anatta.

People recognize that when they try to concentrate, they get distracted, they have stray thoughts, they don't control their mind, the don't control their thoughts.

They know they have unwanted emotions, they don't choose their emotions they don't control their emotions.

They have impulses, but where do the impulses come from, where do thoughts and emotions come from?

People have conflicting desires and impulses that work at cross purposes like wanting to lose weight while also wanting rich food.

So most people already understand much about annata.

Yet all the time they feel like they have free will and feel like they are thinking and doing things, they feel like they are in control.

But a person may also understand the feeling of agency is just another feeling that arises from unconscious process, like happiness, or the feeling of warm sunlight, or a sore back.

When you understand the feeling of agency is just like any other feeling, that it doesn't mean you actually have agency, then you know thoughts and emotions and impulses are not yours. You don't really choose them or deliberately create them, they just appear in consciousness from who knows where. And you don't choose your actions.

You know that psychological suffering (unpleasant emotions and cravings) is caused by thoughts but the thoughts are not yours and the suffering is not yours. You don't take them seriously, you don't buy into the story they are telling you about reality because they are not reality, they are just thoughts.

Emotions are sustained by feedback loops, when you know they are not yours, you don't engage in the thinking that sustains the emotions, the emotions just arise and fade without causing much trouble.

I suppose the hard part is accepting that the feeling of agency is just another feeling arising from unconscious processes and recognizing and accepting the implications of that. 

Right view is the first step in the eightfold path. I think meditation and mindfulness tend to be portrayed as more important than right view. It seems to me that right view is really the centerpiece and meditation and mindfulness are useful in support of right view. Meditation can calm the mind so that you can observe the truth of anatta, you can observe that you get distracted when you try to concentrate, that emotions and impulses arise into consciousness from unconscious processes unasked for and uninvited etc. Mindfulness in daily life is useful because it helps you actualize what you know about anatta, to see all day long that every thought, every emotion, every impulse, every action, every sensory experience, every sense of self or noself, is not "yours" it arises from unconscious processes.

Pañcavaggi Sutta: Five Brethren
(aka: Anatta-lakkhana Sutta: The Discourse on the Not-self Characteristic)
...

"And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: 'This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am'?"

"No, lord."

"Thus, monks, any form whatsoever that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: every form is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as: 'This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.'

"Any feeling whatsoever...

"Any perception whatsoever...

"Any fabrications whatsoever...

"Any consciousness whatsoever that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: every consciousness is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as: 'This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.'

"Seeing thus, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones grows disenchanted with form, disenchanted with feeling, disenchanted with perception, disenchanted with fabrications, disenchanted with consciousness. Disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is fully released. With full release, there is the knowledge, 'Fully released.' He discerns that 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.'"

Papa Che Dusko
I don't know that Im awakened and yet Im not Shinzen's student! 

I think you are gone sideways in all this "meditative stuff" and need to bring it back to the beginner's mind! "Don't know anything"  

​​​​​​​Best wishes Jim!