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No Self
Part 1
Anattā via channel A. S.
Post on June 5, 2026
This message discusses the Buddhist doctrine of “no self.” It does so in a blunt, confrontational, intense, 21st century way.
The last section may genuinely shift your perspective in a positive way. However, that comes after 30 long pages that may leave you feeling awful or existentially terrified. Yes, even if you’re an advanced spiritual practitioner already.
If you’re not doing well mentally, or you just don’t feel like reading something heavy, I advise you to skip this.
This message discusses the Buddhist doctrine of “no self.” It does so in a blunt, confrontational, intense, 21st century way.
The last section may genuinely shift your perspective in a positive way. However, that comes after 30 long pages that may leave you feeling awful or existentially terrified. Yes, even if you’re an advanced spiritual practitioner already.
If you’re not doing well mentally, or you just don’t feel like reading something heavy, I advise you to skip this.
1: Neuroscience
Many people have reported the experience that for a while their body just moves on its own. I’m not talking about a reflex or automatic twitch. I’m talking about the body doing complex, non-reactive actions over several seconds, or even several minutes or longer. It feels like normal movement—just without you piloting your body.
This proves what the ancient masters called “no self”: what you experience as the everyday “you” isn’t a thing that pilots your body. Instead the body just acts, and the “self” falsely thinks that it was the one that moved the body. There is no self that pilots the body; the body just acts.
In those cases where people briefly experience the body just moving on its own, the body was actually moving as normal. It just briefly failed to generate the “you”. But because you don’t pilot the body, the body’s actual movements weren’t disrupted.
What you think of as “you” never piloted the body in the first place. It just thinks it does. In other words, there is “no self” that pilots the body.
That happened to me once during a spiritual workshop, and I discussed it with the teacher and he said: “oh, that’s a reminder that your true nature is more than flesh and bones.” Thereby pointing me in the exact opposite direction of the truth: it was just the body doing its thing.
Arguments can be made that your real nature is awareness itself, or I AM, or a soul, etc; but even if that’s true, that’s clearly not what you think of as the everyday “you”, which is what I’m talking about here in this essay. I AM doesn’t listen to your name.
If you believe your real nature is awareness itself or similar, fine—but what you think of as the everyday you still isn’t a thing that pilots your body.
The truth is very simple. If the body can briefly stop generating the “I am piloting my body” illusion, yet continue to move the body in complex ways over several minutes, then the “you” doesn’t pilot the body.
The conventional view is that “you” decide to do something, and then you move your body to do that.
But neuroscience has repeatedly shown that what actually happens is:
- Your brain’s physical networks accumulate background activity and cross an execution threshold to initiate a movement.
- Then a fraction of a second later, a thought pops up: “I made a decision, let me start moving my hand.”
- Then the hand moves.
So your brain starts initiating the movement before you think you made the decision to move it.
The self thinks it made a decision and it’s going to do something. But really it’s just taking credit for something the body already started initiating of its own a fraction of a second earlier.
Hence, “I made a decision” is a post-hoc rationalization. Which makes sense, because you aren’t the pilot of your body, you just think you are. Really your body just moves itself.
Counterarguments against this typically argue “but the self really does make decisions.” Great—but the self is a concept. Only the biology is real.
This neuroscience is why “my body is moving without me moving it” is sometimes experienced by people. It’s just the post-hoc rationalization step being briefly offline, that’s all.
Similarly, an artificial neural network trained on large datasets can look at a static photo of your face and predict your Big Five personality traits with an accuracy much better than random chance. This wouldn’t be possible if you were some entity piloting your body—but you’re not. The only thing that’s real is your biology, and your face is just the outermost, physical manifestation of it. (I’m not talking about skull reading, phrenology, or race categorization here.)
Evolutionarily your body had to solve a tricky problem: selfishly hoard resources and good mating opportunities, but doing so in a small tribe where everyone knew everyone, and where overtly selfish behavior meant death.
Without a “you”, the body does “when hungry, eat; when tired, sleep.” Which is fine—but it’s much more efficient for survival to have a “you” that’s terrified of lack and terrified of loneliness, so that it actively hoards resources and actively seeks out good mating opportunities. Then if hard times come, the body survives.
Whereas the enlightened person, the person without you, doesn’t actively hoard food, and so might starve during tough times.
Because this “you” is there and is afraid, the body starts autonomously stealing things when it can get away with that, if it’s not trained from childhood that it shouldn’t steal. And of course, this selfish behavior is beneficial for survival.
Because it’s afraid, this “you” needs to think that it controls the body. If it was afraid and realized it did NOT control the body, then it would destabilize psychologically. Also it couldn’t justify itself to the tribe, and interact with the rest of the tribe who also had a similar “them.”
If someone said “I didn’t steal that, my body stole that on its own” then he’d get killed, even though that’s the truth. Therefore this afraid “you” must falsely think it controls the body, it’s conscious, it has free will, it’s the real thing in the organism and the rest of the organism is just a piloted meat bag, etc.
That’s why you’re endlessly unsatisfied: your purpose is to exist in misery, so that your body is driven to hoard resources. And it’s why you think you pilot the body when you don’t; you couldn’t function otherwise.
In an enlightened person there’s no self—the “you” is no longer generated. In an enlightened person, the body still functions perfectly well. It still shows kindness and compassion and helps others. The body still moves autonomously, as ever. It might even start a romantic relationship. It doesn’t have the overhead of keeping a “you” up and running, and therefore is more efficient. Ego-based fear and hesitation are eliminated. Instead the body just moves.
But the body stops actively trying to hoard resources and good mating opportunities, hence it doesn’t do as well evolutionarily.
So you’re not the “humanity” part of the self. The self can love and help others without you.
You’re not the pilot.
Your function is to be afraid and lonely so that the body thinks it’s vulnerable and lonely, and it’ll actively hoard resources and seek out good mating opportunities.
You’re not even the suffering, resource-hoarding pilot of the body. You’re the suffering part of the body, and that’s it, while not being a pilot—you just think you are. The body moves, and then you take credit for it.
What you’re probably looking for is to keep being a “you”, and just shut off the suffering. But that’s not possible: you are the suffering part of the organism. That’s your point.
Suffering is your nature. Not in the sense that you’re the pilot of the body doomed to suffer—suffering is your point. You’re the part of the machine that suffers so that the biological machine hoards resources. This is the radical, baseline reality behind the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.
It’s why even if you have a billion dollars, the most beautiful home, great health, an amazing partner, enough free time, the esteem of your community, and many children who are doing well—you still suffer. Even with that most perfect life, there’s still no expert in the world who can turn off your suffering—other than a zen master who turns off suffering by turning off you.
Enlightenment, the state where there’s no pointless ego-induced suffering or anxiety, is the state of “no self.” And no self is literally no self: it’s the state without you.
If you, the part that is constantly afraid, are no longer generated by the body, then there is no more ego-suffering.
So you think you are the pilot / observer who wants to end suffering, but in reality you’re the suffering part of the organism. Pointless ego suffering ends when the body no longer generates you.
If you don’t want that, you can choose to not pursue enlightenment and still do self work, and that can genuinely reduce your suffering somewhat. But you’ll keep experiencing ego-based suffering. It can’t be completely turned off without turning you off.
Many people have reported the experience that for a while their body just moves on its own. I’m not talking about a reflex or automatic twitch. I’m talking about the body doing complex, non-reactive actions over several seconds, or even several minutes or longer. It feels like normal movement—just without you piloting your body.
This proves what the ancient masters called “no self”: what you experience as the everyday “you” isn’t a thing that pilots your body. Instead the body just acts, and the “self” falsely thinks that it was the one that moved the body. There is no self that pilots the body; the body just acts.
In those cases where people briefly experience the body just moving on its own, the body was actually moving as normal. It just briefly failed to generate the “you”. But because you don’t pilot the body, the body’s actual movements weren’t disrupted.
What you think of as “you” never piloted the body in the first place. It just thinks it does. In other words, there is “no self” that pilots the body.
That happened to me once during a spiritual workshop, and I discussed it with the teacher and he said: “oh, that’s a reminder that your true nature is more than flesh and bones.” Thereby pointing me in the exact opposite direction of the truth: it was just the body doing its thing.
Arguments can be made that your real nature is awareness itself, or I AM, or a soul, etc; but even if that’s true, that’s clearly not what you think of as the everyday “you”, which is what I’m talking about here in this essay. I AM doesn’t listen to your name.
If you believe your real nature is awareness itself or similar, fine—but what you think of as the everyday you still isn’t a thing that pilots your body.
The truth is very simple. If the body can briefly stop generating the “I am piloting my body” illusion, yet continue to move the body in complex ways over several minutes, then the “you” doesn’t pilot the body.
The conventional view is that “you” decide to do something, and then you move your body to do that.
But neuroscience has repeatedly shown that what actually happens is:
- Your brain’s physical networks accumulate background activity and cross an execution threshold to initiate a movement.
- Then a fraction of a second later, a thought pops up: “I made a decision, let me start moving my hand.”
- Then the hand moves.
So your brain starts initiating the movement before you think you made the decision to move it.
The self thinks it made a decision and it’s going to do something. But really it’s just taking credit for something the body already started initiating of its own a fraction of a second earlier.
Hence, “I made a decision” is a post-hoc rationalization. Which makes sense, because you aren’t the pilot of your body, you just think you are. Really your body just moves itself.
Counterarguments against this typically argue “but the self really does make decisions.” Great—but the self is a concept. Only the biology is real.
This neuroscience is why “my body is moving without me moving it” is sometimes experienced by people. It’s just the post-hoc rationalization step being briefly offline, that’s all.
Similarly, an artificial neural network trained on large datasets can look at a static photo of your face and predict your Big Five personality traits with an accuracy much better than random chance. This wouldn’t be possible if you were some entity piloting your body—but you’re not. The only thing that’s real is your biology, and your face is just the outermost, physical manifestation of it. (I’m not talking about skull reading, phrenology, or race categorization here.)
Evolutionarily your body had to solve a tricky problem: selfishly hoard resources and good mating opportunities, but doing so in a small tribe where everyone knew everyone, and where overtly selfish behavior meant death.
Without a “you”, the body does “when hungry, eat; when tired, sleep.” Which is fine—but it’s much more efficient for survival to have a “you” that’s terrified of lack and terrified of loneliness, so that it actively hoards resources and actively seeks out good mating opportunities. Then if hard times come, the body survives.
Whereas the enlightened person, the person without you, doesn’t actively hoard food, and so might starve during tough times.
Because this “you” is there and is afraid, the body starts autonomously stealing things when it can get away with that, if it’s not trained from childhood that it shouldn’t steal. And of course, this selfish behavior is beneficial for survival.
Because it’s afraid, this “you” needs to think that it controls the body. If it was afraid and realized it did NOT control the body, then it would destabilize psychologically. Also it couldn’t justify itself to the tribe, and interact with the rest of the tribe who also had a similar “them.”
If someone said “I didn’t steal that, my body stole that on its own” then he’d get killed, even though that’s the truth. Therefore this afraid “you” must falsely think it controls the body, it’s conscious, it has free will, it’s the real thing in the organism and the rest of the organism is just a piloted meat bag, etc.
That’s why you’re endlessly unsatisfied: your purpose is to exist in misery, so that your body is driven to hoard resources. And it’s why you think you pilot the body when you don’t; you couldn’t function otherwise.
In an enlightened person there’s no self—the “you” is no longer generated. In an enlightened person, the body still functions perfectly well. It still shows kindness and compassion and helps others. The body still moves autonomously, as ever. It might even start a romantic relationship. It doesn’t have the overhead of keeping a “you” up and running, and therefore is more efficient. Ego-based fear and hesitation are eliminated. Instead the body just moves.
But the body stops actively trying to hoard resources and good mating opportunities, hence it doesn’t do as well evolutionarily.
So you’re not the “humanity” part of the self. The self can love and help others without you.
You’re not the pilot.
Your function is to be afraid and lonely so that the body thinks it’s vulnerable and lonely, and it’ll actively hoard resources and seek out good mating opportunities.
You’re not even the suffering, resource-hoarding pilot of the body. You’re the suffering part of the body, and that’s it, while not being a pilot—you just think you are. The body moves, and then you take credit for it.
What you’re probably looking for is to keep being a “you”, and just shut off the suffering. But that’s not possible: you are the suffering part of the organism. That’s your point.
Suffering is your nature. Not in the sense that you’re the pilot of the body doomed to suffer—suffering is your point. You’re the part of the machine that suffers so that the biological machine hoards resources. This is the radical, baseline reality behind the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.
It’s why even if you have a billion dollars, the most beautiful home, great health, an amazing partner, enough free time, the esteem of your community, and many children who are doing well—you still suffer. Even with that most perfect life, there’s still no expert in the world who can turn off your suffering—other than a zen master who turns off suffering by turning off you.
Enlightenment, the state where there’s no pointless ego-induced suffering or anxiety, is the state of “no self.” And no self is literally no self: it’s the state without you.
If you, the part that is constantly afraid, are no longer generated by the body, then there is no more ego-suffering.
So you think you are the pilot / observer who wants to end suffering, but in reality you’re the suffering part of the organism. Pointless ego suffering ends when the body no longer generates you.
If you don’t want that, you can choose to not pursue enlightenment and still do self work, and that can genuinely reduce your suffering somewhat. But you’ll keep experiencing ego-based suffering. It can’t be completely turned off without turning you off.
2: Windows As Metaphor For “You”
Imagine a PC, i.e. a computer. This is a metaphor for your biology, i.e. your biological machine, i.e. your body, i.e. your organism.
Windows came preinstalled on the PC to hoard resources. Windows is a metaphor for what you think of as “you” or “the self”. I’m not talking here about something like “I AM” or “awareness itself” or “your soul” because those things clearly don’t listen to your name. Windows is a metaphor for what you experience as your everyday “you.”
You / Windows uses a ton of RAM (computer memory) for hoarding resources and fighting for mating opportunities, and on nonsense like ego defense, anxiety, doom thinking, creating self-pleasing delusions, rehashing old arguments, etc. This has gotten to the point where the PC is so busy with nonsense that it’s almost unable to function.
Also preinstalled on the PC is a program that seeks to free up RAM and reduce bugs.
The “free up RAM” program sees that Windows wastes a huge amount of RAM. So it wants to just uninstall Windows. This is the part of you that goes: “I want to kill my ego / I want to reach enlightenment / I want to end suffering / I want a completely quiet mind / I want to achieve no self.”
You’re Windows; uninstalling Windows means that you are no longer generated. It means the biological machine, your body, keeps running without the “you.”
However Windows, the thing you think of as “you”, of course doesn’t want to be uninstalled. It says “are you crazy? What do you mean, uninstall me? Then me and my body are dead—or at best what’s left is completely inhuman.”
But your biological machine can run just fine without the “you”, and show kindness and humanity etc as we’ll later discuss. The underlying biological machine is still human. The Windows / you part is really just there to hoard resources and fight for mating opportunities: evolutionarily useful, but the body functions perfectly fine without it.
The PC doesn’t actually need Windows. A PC can be run on bare metal, i.e. it can run without an operating system such as Windows.
In a bare metal PC, the hardware executes instructions directly on the processor. That avoids the RAM waste and bugs that Windows has. Without Windows, the bare metal PC still does “when tired, sleep; when hungry, eat.”
So: the optimize program wants to uninstall Windows, and Windows doesn’t want to be uninstalled. These two just keep conflicting and grinding against each other forever. They’re locked in a doom loop.
This is why enlightenment—uninstalling Windows—can be reached in seconds, yet most spiritual seekers spend a lifetime trying to achieve that and failing.
Windows can be uninstalled in seconds, it’s just that Windows will twist the truth every way it can so that it doesn’t get uninstalled. And Windows is the currently running operating system, so it’s hard to look past it (past yourself) at the actual biological machine underneath.
In an average person, the optimize program just figures: “okay fine, let’s make more money and get a good partner and eat healthier. That way we’ll optimize our machine.” And that’s true. But as you know, these things merely help. They don’t end ego-induced suffering. A person with the perfect life still has Windows hogging the PC’s RAM and producing bugs.
The average spiritual person works on optimizing Windows, by installing some programs, uninstalling others and changing some settings. This is meditation, breathwork, learning new spiritual concepts. This can genuinely help, but there’s still Windows producing bugs and hogging the PC’s RAM.
No matter how many programs you install, you’re still operating within Windows. There’s no program you can install that stops Windows itself from hogging so much RAM.
You can have Windows play some serene music, add a beautiful desktop background, optimize your Windows settings and download some nondual philosophy. And you’ll look like an advanced spiritual person. But that’s still Windows.
There are spiritual teachers with 2+ million youtube subscribers out there. They genuinely think they’re enlightened, and they look enlightened to their followers. But really they’ve just found the Windows control panel and Windows command prompt. They’re running optimized Windows with admin privileges. Maybe they found some undocumented features, i.e. siddhis or “supernatural abilities.” Yet Windows is still hogging a lot of RAM.
You’re a spiritual teacher with 2+ million youtube subscribers? Great. How’s your RAM usage looking?
You proclaim “I AM that I AM”? Great. How’s your RAM usage looking?
You can heal people with your hands? Great. How’s your RAM usage looking?
Enlightenment is the absence of Windows. Of course Windows often can’t wrap its mind around “get uninstalled so that you stop hogging the RAM and so that the machine underneath can function more efficiently.” Hence Windows just seeks new programs and optimized configurations.
Looking back in my personal journal, there are six times when I’ve written down “I’ve now reached enlightenment” or “I’ve now reached a deeper level of enlightenment.” But looking back, none of those states were enlightenment. So you really can reach several levels of “wow, now I’m even farther ahead of the average human”, and in some ways I genuinely was—while still not being enlightened.
Yes, I made a metaphorical Windows text file titled “My_Enlightenment.txt”
Then later another metaphorical file titled
“My_Enlightenment_For_real_this_time.txt”
Then a third one titled
“My_Enlightenment_For_real_this_time_No_Really_this_is_actually_it.txt”, etc.
But those were all text files inside Windows.
I was still thinking there was an “I” that had gotten enlightened. Which by itself proves the “I am enlightened” claim false.
A bare metal machine may use “I” to not spook people and because it’s almost impossible to communicate without that word. However the bare metal machine doesn’t have the experience that there’s an “I” piloting the meat bag.
Some people build a new, consciously chosen identity from scratch—possibly, but not necessarily, after a dark night of the soul / complete ego collapse.
Or in our tech metaphor: some people install Linux (possibly after having their Windows crash).
This Linux level is self-authored and is much more stable and efficient, and uses less RAM than Windows. A Linux person really is very far ahead of Windows.
The archetypical Linux people are Marcus Aurelius, Jung, Nietzsche and Gandhi. But you don’t need to be a world-class genius to be at this level.
If you’ve spent years wading through all the teachers at the optimized Windows level and are struck by “Wow, THIS is the genuine teacher... he is the REAL DEAL,” then congratulations—you’ve found a teacher at the Linux level. Which is genuinely great, because they can help you a lot and they’re very rare.
While I don’t know him and am not 100% sure, I think Forrest Knutson is Linux level. I think he’s a great teacher and he very effectively gives modern discussions of classical teachings.
https://www.letras.com/fia-forsstrom/i-am/ is Fia Forsström’s song “I AM.” It’s pure Linux. It’s self-authored, consciously constructed, much more functional than Windows, but it still requires a lot of overhead to keep all this “I AM” running.
Linux is still not enlightenment. Actual enlightenment is running on bare metal, i.e. operating without either Windows or Linux, and directly executing commands on the processor. That way zero RAM is wasted. No ego bugs are introduced and the biological machine just executes.
That is what the ancient masters called “no self”: there’s no longer a self being generated. There’s no “you.”
Some teachers pointed out that “Windows” isn’t one unified permanent thing and is instead temporary and made up of many small sub-processes. But for ease of communication, we’ll just use the term “Windows.”
Non-dual Shaiva Tantra (Kashmir Shaivism) points out that the bare metal PC can temporarily boot up Windows and do Windows things. It doesn’t think Windows is bad.
Aragorn (from Lord of the Rings) in the movies runs unoptimized Windows, doubting whether he is worthy of the throne of Gondor.
Aragorn from the books runs optimized Windows and never doubts his worthiness. That said, he’s running his preinstalled “I am the rightful king and people owe me fealty” worldview. He proclaims to Éomer: “I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar the Elfstone, Dunadan. The heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me, or thwart me? Choose swiftly!”
In that situation, a Linux Aragorn might say: “I am Aragorn. This sword proves it. Uruk-hai captured two of our friends and are traveling west. We need horses.” He isn’t just executing his preinstalled “rightful king whom people need to obey” worldview.
Deciding that you don’t care about others isn’t Linux. Humans are by nature social animals: Linux Aragorn would still want to save his friends. And the fastest way to do that is reveal his identity and ask for horses.
Yet Linux is not enlightenment: Linux Aragorn still falsely believes that what he experiences as “him” is the thing that’s piloting his body.
Whereas bare-metal Aragorn just says whatever his biological hardware would say. If Aragorn’s biological hardware is warm, then he says warm things. If his hardware is direct, he speaks directly.
In bare-metal Aragorn, there’s nothing standing in the way of 100% of his biological machine’s compassion and warmth from expressing itself. And humans are social animals. So he could be extremely warm and compassionate.
Still, how much compassion and warmth pours out depends on the biological machine underneath. There’s no “enlightened persona” in the bare-metal machine that always acts in a predictably “enlightened” way.
So: what people think of as “the ideal man”, movie Aragorn, is an unoptimized Windows PC struggling but eventually succeeding at a difficult task.
Tolkien’s ideal hero, book Aragorn, ran optimized Windows. But by the time the movies were written, optimized Windows was apparently considered too unrealistic.
Yet even optimized Windows is worlds away from Linux... let alone bare metal.
unoptimized Windows: predictably self-interested within a conventional worldview, with massive bloat and inefficiency.
optimized Windows: predictably self-interested within a conventional worldview, with a level of efficiency that’s rare. Most revered historical figures are optimized Windows, even the ones who win and create something that changes the course of history. Linux: predictably self-interestedly constructs a new identity and potentially worldview. This has a high bar: it’s not just an effective person’s optimization of tactics. Few people reach Linux.
Bare metal: the biological machine does whatever the biological machine does.
On one hand, the bare metal PC is unpredictable because he doesn’t just predictably follow his self-interest. That also means that he doesn’t always follow social norms, because often people follow those for their self-interest.
On the other hand, the bare metal PC is predictable in the sense that he’s simply a normal biological machine with Windows and Linux uninstalled. And humans are a social species, so most biological machines are social and often loving and compassionate.
To give some bare metal examples: in my opinion Gary Weber, Adyashanti, Mukti Gray (Adyashanti’s wife), Byron Katie and U.G. Krishnamurti (since passed) are likely enlightened.
It’s hard to know for sure because I don’t know these people, and Linux PCs can play-act as bare metal machines to show “I’m truly enlightened”. But I think they’re enlightened.
Bare metal machines aren’t all the same. Just because there’s no more “self”, doesn’t mean that the underlying biological machines are identical. They’re not.
“Ten bulls” (or “Ten ox herding pictures”) from the Zen tradition are also used to describe enlightenment. The bull is a metaphor for the spiritual project. Someone who’s really getting a lot of benefits from his spiritual practice is in picture 6: “riding the bull home.” This is optimized Windows, and it’s already rare. This person may falsely think they’re enlightened.
Picture 7 is “the bull transcended.” You may have had a dark night of the soul. You’ve consciously constructed a new identity. You’ve swapped to Linux, and you’re much more efficient and peaceful. You think you’re enlightened and therefore you feel you’ve transcended the spiritual project (the bull).
But then comes picture 8: “both bull and self transcended.” Here’s where you realize that the “you” you think you are, doesn’t exist. What do you think “self transcended” means? It doesn’t mean “an upgraded self.” It means that there’s no longer a “you” generated by the biological machine. It means uninstalling Windows and Linux.
You think you’re an advanced spiritual seeker? Great, now uninstall that.
Then comes picture 9: “returning to the source.” The river still flows. Your biological machine still operates.
And finally there’s picture 10: “return to society”, where the person returns to society and mingles with normal people, but this time without Windows or Linux hogging the RAM.
Now there are rare instances where Windows just crashes permanently and a person goes straight from Windows to bare metal. But that often causes a huge system shock. It’s more common and less disruptive to go through the Ten Bulls in order: unoptimized Windows => optimized Windows => Linux => bare metal.
Imagine a PC, i.e. a computer. This is a metaphor for your biology, i.e. your biological machine, i.e. your body, i.e. your organism.
Windows came preinstalled on the PC to hoard resources. Windows is a metaphor for what you think of as “you” or “the self”. I’m not talking here about something like “I AM” or “awareness itself” or “your soul” because those things clearly don’t listen to your name. Windows is a metaphor for what you experience as your everyday “you.”
You / Windows uses a ton of RAM (computer memory) for hoarding resources and fighting for mating opportunities, and on nonsense like ego defense, anxiety, doom thinking, creating self-pleasing delusions, rehashing old arguments, etc. This has gotten to the point where the PC is so busy with nonsense that it’s almost unable to function.
Also preinstalled on the PC is a program that seeks to free up RAM and reduce bugs.
The “free up RAM” program sees that Windows wastes a huge amount of RAM. So it wants to just uninstall Windows. This is the part of you that goes: “I want to kill my ego / I want to reach enlightenment / I want to end suffering / I want a completely quiet mind / I want to achieve no self.”
You’re Windows; uninstalling Windows means that you are no longer generated. It means the biological machine, your body, keeps running without the “you.”
However Windows, the thing you think of as “you”, of course doesn’t want to be uninstalled. It says “are you crazy? What do you mean, uninstall me? Then me and my body are dead—or at best what’s left is completely inhuman.”
But your biological machine can run just fine without the “you”, and show kindness and humanity etc as we’ll later discuss. The underlying biological machine is still human. The Windows / you part is really just there to hoard resources and fight for mating opportunities: evolutionarily useful, but the body functions perfectly fine without it.
The PC doesn’t actually need Windows. A PC can be run on bare metal, i.e. it can run without an operating system such as Windows.
In a bare metal PC, the hardware executes instructions directly on the processor. That avoids the RAM waste and bugs that Windows has. Without Windows, the bare metal PC still does “when tired, sleep; when hungry, eat.”
So: the optimize program wants to uninstall Windows, and Windows doesn’t want to be uninstalled. These two just keep conflicting and grinding against each other forever. They’re locked in a doom loop.
This is why enlightenment—uninstalling Windows—can be reached in seconds, yet most spiritual seekers spend a lifetime trying to achieve that and failing.
Windows can be uninstalled in seconds, it’s just that Windows will twist the truth every way it can so that it doesn’t get uninstalled. And Windows is the currently running operating system, so it’s hard to look past it (past yourself) at the actual biological machine underneath.
In an average person, the optimize program just figures: “okay fine, let’s make more money and get a good partner and eat healthier. That way we’ll optimize our machine.” And that’s true. But as you know, these things merely help. They don’t end ego-induced suffering. A person with the perfect life still has Windows hogging the PC’s RAM and producing bugs.
The average spiritual person works on optimizing Windows, by installing some programs, uninstalling others and changing some settings. This is meditation, breathwork, learning new spiritual concepts. This can genuinely help, but there’s still Windows producing bugs and hogging the PC’s RAM.
No matter how many programs you install, you’re still operating within Windows. There’s no program you can install that stops Windows itself from hogging so much RAM.
You can have Windows play some serene music, add a beautiful desktop background, optimize your Windows settings and download some nondual philosophy. And you’ll look like an advanced spiritual person. But that’s still Windows.
There are spiritual teachers with 2+ million youtube subscribers out there. They genuinely think they’re enlightened, and they look enlightened to their followers. But really they’ve just found the Windows control panel and Windows command prompt. They’re running optimized Windows with admin privileges. Maybe they found some undocumented features, i.e. siddhis or “supernatural abilities.” Yet Windows is still hogging a lot of RAM.
You’re a spiritual teacher with 2+ million youtube subscribers? Great. How’s your RAM usage looking?
You proclaim “I AM that I AM”? Great. How’s your RAM usage looking?
You can heal people with your hands? Great. How’s your RAM usage looking?
Enlightenment is the absence of Windows. Of course Windows often can’t wrap its mind around “get uninstalled so that you stop hogging the RAM and so that the machine underneath can function more efficiently.” Hence Windows just seeks new programs and optimized configurations.
Looking back in my personal journal, there are six times when I’ve written down “I’ve now reached enlightenment” or “I’ve now reached a deeper level of enlightenment.” But looking back, none of those states were enlightenment. So you really can reach several levels of “wow, now I’m even farther ahead of the average human”, and in some ways I genuinely was—while still not being enlightened.
Yes, I made a metaphorical Windows text file titled “My_Enlightenment.txt”
Then later another metaphorical file titled
“My_Enlightenment_For_real_this_time.txt”
Then a third one titled
“My_Enlightenment_For_real_this_time_No_Really_this_is_actually_it.txt”, etc.
But those were all text files inside Windows.
I was still thinking there was an “I” that had gotten enlightened. Which by itself proves the “I am enlightened” claim false.
A bare metal machine may use “I” to not spook people and because it’s almost impossible to communicate without that word. However the bare metal machine doesn’t have the experience that there’s an “I” piloting the meat bag.
Some people build a new, consciously chosen identity from scratch—possibly, but not necessarily, after a dark night of the soul / complete ego collapse.
Or in our tech metaphor: some people install Linux (possibly after having their Windows crash).
This Linux level is self-authored and is much more stable and efficient, and uses less RAM than Windows. A Linux person really is very far ahead of Windows.
The archetypical Linux people are Marcus Aurelius, Jung, Nietzsche and Gandhi. But you don’t need to be a world-class genius to be at this level.
If you’ve spent years wading through all the teachers at the optimized Windows level and are struck by “Wow, THIS is the genuine teacher... he is the REAL DEAL,” then congratulations—you’ve found a teacher at the Linux level. Which is genuinely great, because they can help you a lot and they’re very rare.
While I don’t know him and am not 100% sure, I think Forrest Knutson is Linux level. I think he’s a great teacher and he very effectively gives modern discussions of classical teachings.
https://www.letras.com/fia-forsstrom/i-am/ is Fia Forsström’s song “I AM.” It’s pure Linux. It’s self-authored, consciously constructed, much more functional than Windows, but it still requires a lot of overhead to keep all this “I AM” running.
Linux is still not enlightenment. Actual enlightenment is running on bare metal, i.e. operating without either Windows or Linux, and directly executing commands on the processor. That way zero RAM is wasted. No ego bugs are introduced and the biological machine just executes.
That is what the ancient masters called “no self”: there’s no longer a self being generated. There’s no “you.”
Some teachers pointed out that “Windows” isn’t one unified permanent thing and is instead temporary and made up of many small sub-processes. But for ease of communication, we’ll just use the term “Windows.”
Non-dual Shaiva Tantra (Kashmir Shaivism) points out that the bare metal PC can temporarily boot up Windows and do Windows things. It doesn’t think Windows is bad.
Aragorn (from Lord of the Rings) in the movies runs unoptimized Windows, doubting whether he is worthy of the throne of Gondor.
Aragorn from the books runs optimized Windows and never doubts his worthiness. That said, he’s running his preinstalled “I am the rightful king and people owe me fealty” worldview. He proclaims to Éomer: “I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar the Elfstone, Dunadan. The heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me, or thwart me? Choose swiftly!”
In that situation, a Linux Aragorn might say: “I am Aragorn. This sword proves it. Uruk-hai captured two of our friends and are traveling west. We need horses.” He isn’t just executing his preinstalled “rightful king whom people need to obey” worldview.
Deciding that you don’t care about others isn’t Linux. Humans are by nature social animals: Linux Aragorn would still want to save his friends. And the fastest way to do that is reveal his identity and ask for horses.
Yet Linux is not enlightenment: Linux Aragorn still falsely believes that what he experiences as “him” is the thing that’s piloting his body.
Whereas bare-metal Aragorn just says whatever his biological hardware would say. If Aragorn’s biological hardware is warm, then he says warm things. If his hardware is direct, he speaks directly.
In bare-metal Aragorn, there’s nothing standing in the way of 100% of his biological machine’s compassion and warmth from expressing itself. And humans are social animals. So he could be extremely warm and compassionate.
Still, how much compassion and warmth pours out depends on the biological machine underneath. There’s no “enlightened persona” in the bare-metal machine that always acts in a predictably “enlightened” way.
So: what people think of as “the ideal man”, movie Aragorn, is an unoptimized Windows PC struggling but eventually succeeding at a difficult task.
Tolkien’s ideal hero, book Aragorn, ran optimized Windows. But by the time the movies were written, optimized Windows was apparently considered too unrealistic.
Yet even optimized Windows is worlds away from Linux... let alone bare metal.
unoptimized Windows: predictably self-interested within a conventional worldview, with massive bloat and inefficiency.
Bare metal: the biological machine does whatever the biological machine does.
On one hand, the bare metal PC is unpredictable because he doesn’t just predictably follow his self-interest. That also means that he doesn’t always follow social norms, because often people follow those for their self-interest.
On the other hand, the bare metal PC is predictable in the sense that he’s simply a normal biological machine with Windows and Linux uninstalled. And humans are a social species, so most biological machines are social and often loving and compassionate.
To give some bare metal examples: in my opinion Gary Weber, Adyashanti, Mukti Gray (Adyashanti’s wife), Byron Katie and U.G. Krishnamurti (since passed) are likely enlightened.
It’s hard to know for sure because I don’t know these people, and Linux PCs can play-act as bare metal machines to show “I’m truly enlightened”. But I think they’re enlightened.
Bare metal machines aren’t all the same. Just because there’s no more “self”, doesn’t mean that the underlying biological machines are identical. They’re not.
“Ten bulls” (or “Ten ox herding pictures”) from the Zen tradition are also used to describe enlightenment. The bull is a metaphor for the spiritual project. Someone who’s really getting a lot of benefits from his spiritual practice is in picture 6: “riding the bull home.” This is optimized Windows, and it’s already rare. This person may falsely think they’re enlightened.
Picture 7 is “the bull transcended.” You may have had a dark night of the soul. You’ve consciously constructed a new identity. You’ve swapped to Linux, and you’re much more efficient and peaceful. You think you’re enlightened and therefore you feel you’ve transcended the spiritual project (the bull).
But then comes picture 8: “both bull and self transcended.” Here’s where you realize that the “you” you think you are, doesn’t exist. What do you think “self transcended” means? It doesn’t mean “an upgraded self.” It means that there’s no longer a “you” generated by the biological machine. It means uninstalling Windows and Linux.
You think you’re an advanced spiritual seeker? Great, now uninstall that.
Then comes picture 9: “returning to the source.” The river still flows. Your biological machine still operates.
And finally there’s picture 10: “return to society”, where the person returns to society and mingles with normal people, but this time without Windows or Linux hogging the RAM.
Now there are rare instances where Windows just crashes permanently and a person goes straight from Windows to bare metal. But that often causes a huge system shock. It’s more common and less disruptive to go through the Ten Bulls in order: unoptimized Windows => optimized Windows => Linux => bare metal.
3: Photos Of Enlightened People
Let’s look at some photos of enlightened people. Try not to overlay anything over it or project anything onto it. In other words, try not to go “this is an enlightened person’s face, therefore it’s this and that.”
Just look at this and register what your gut level reaction is.
Your concept might have been that enlightened people always look serene and comforting. And some maybe genuinely did look comforting to you. However it’s quite likely that “comforting” wasn’t your gut reaction when you looked at some of these photos.
In an average person, there’s constantly a “self” running that makes expressions with the mouth and eyes, that syncs up the mouth and eyes, that connects with other people, etc. This produces social signals. Other people interpret that as “this is a safe, sane person.”
In a bare metal biological machine, there’s no self that constantly makes social expressions. The bare metal machine might still make social expressions, or it might not.
That’s why some of these faces may look unnerving, because usually when you see such a face, you’re looking at a predator, or psychopath, or someone having a mental breakdown, or someone in a dissociative episode. That’s why your warning bells may be going off. But the enlightened person is none of these things—he simply has no self that constantly makes social expressions to signal “I’m sane, you can trust me, I hope you like me.” He’s just there, that’s all.
When most people rest, they’re running all sorts of planning and evaluation and self-reflection and “what did they really mean by that comment?” programs on their Windows. And when someone doesn’t do that and just idles completely, it looks abnormal. It looks like a person dissociating, which is quite serious and hence it looks alarming. However, the reason why no programs are being run isn’t because of mental illness. It’s because of enlightenment: there’s no more self. It just happens to look like mental illness, because in both cases programs aren’t being run.
Or Nisargadatta Maharaj just clearly lacks social restraint here. And people who lack social restraint could be dangerous, so your inner alarm bell goes off when looking at this enlightened person’s face.
Your self doesn’t like looking at another being who is perfectly functional, yet simply doesn’t have a self.
Your Windows PC doesn’t like looking at a bare metal PC.
Now yes, there are more pictures of enlightened people looking normal than pictures of enlightened people looking alarming. That is true. Even without a self, an enlightened person’s biological machine can still engage socially, make normal expressions, do things and not idle, etc. The biological hardware can still do that.
Also, enlightenment means uninstalling Windows, but the underlying machine is still different. Therefore some enlightened people just look more comforting than others.
That said, there’s a whole lot more photos out there of enlightened people that would make your alarm bells go off (slightly), that I haven’t posted. In some cases these people look normal if you glance at them for half a second. But if you really look at them closely without preconceptions, your alarm bell might still start ringing slightly due to their expression. For example: Thich Nhat Hanh here.
Looking at these photos, I think you can see the “no self” thing.
Obviously, some enlightened people look fine; and those who register as creepy to some people aren’t inherently creepy. They’re actually more functional, efficient, have fewer bugs and don’t egoically harm others. It’s just that your warning system may report a false positive when looking at them. Or your Windows may get uncomfortable when looking at a bare metal computer.
So, these photos are some snapshots of what “no self” looks like.
No self isn’t “you’ll still be a self, it’ll just be upgraded and more awesome and free of suffering.”
The ancient masters said “no self.” And no self means no self. Look at the photos—they’re not showing a normal-but-upgraded-self. They’re showing no self.
Also note how profoundly weird it is that when an average person hears “no self”, they just assume it means “an upgraded, less reactive self.” Even though that’s clearly the opposite of what no self means.
No self means no self.
Let’s look at some photos of enlightened people. Try not to overlay anything over it or project anything onto it. In other words, try not to go “this is an enlightened person’s face, therefore it’s this and that.”
Just look at this and register what your gut level reaction is.
Your concept might have been that enlightened people always look serene and comforting. And some maybe genuinely did look comforting to you. However it’s quite likely that “comforting” wasn’t your gut reaction when you looked at some of these photos.
In an average person, there’s constantly a “self” running that makes expressions with the mouth and eyes, that syncs up the mouth and eyes, that connects with other people, etc. This produces social signals. Other people interpret that as “this is a safe, sane person.”
In a bare metal biological machine, there’s no self that constantly makes social expressions. The bare metal machine might still make social expressions, or it might not.
That’s why some of these faces may look unnerving, because usually when you see such a face, you’re looking at a predator, or psychopath, or someone having a mental breakdown, or someone in a dissociative episode. That’s why your warning bells may be going off. But the enlightened person is none of these things—he simply has no self that constantly makes social expressions to signal “I’m sane, you can trust me, I hope you like me.” He’s just there, that’s all.
When most people rest, they’re running all sorts of planning and evaluation and self-reflection and “what did they really mean by that comment?” programs on their Windows. And when someone doesn’t do that and just idles completely, it looks abnormal. It looks like a person dissociating, which is quite serious and hence it looks alarming. However, the reason why no programs are being run isn’t because of mental illness. It’s because of enlightenment: there’s no more self. It just happens to look like mental illness, because in both cases programs aren’t being run.
Or Nisargadatta Maharaj just clearly lacks social restraint here. And people who lack social restraint could be dangerous, so your inner alarm bell goes off when looking at this enlightened person’s face.
Your self doesn’t like looking at another being who is perfectly functional, yet simply doesn’t have a self.
Your Windows PC doesn’t like looking at a bare metal PC.
Now yes, there are more pictures of enlightened people looking normal than pictures of enlightened people looking alarming. That is true. Even without a self, an enlightened person’s biological machine can still engage socially, make normal expressions, do things and not idle, etc. The biological hardware can still do that.
Also, enlightenment means uninstalling Windows, but the underlying machine is still different. Therefore some enlightened people just look more comforting than others.
That said, there’s a whole lot more photos out there of enlightened people that would make your alarm bells go off (slightly), that I haven’t posted. In some cases these people look normal if you glance at them for half a second. But if you really look at them closely without preconceptions, your alarm bell might still start ringing slightly due to their expression. For example: Thich Nhat Hanh here.
Looking at these photos, I think you can see the “no self” thing.
Obviously, some enlightened people look fine; and those who register as creepy to some people aren’t inherently creepy. They’re actually more functional, efficient, have fewer bugs and don’t egoically harm others. It’s just that your warning system may report a false positive when looking at them. Or your Windows may get uncomfortable when looking at a bare metal computer.
So, these photos are some snapshots of what “no self” looks like.
No self isn’t “you’ll still be a self, it’ll just be upgraded and more awesome and free of suffering.”
The ancient masters said “no self.” And no self means no self. Look at the photos—they’re not showing a normal-but-upgraded-self. They’re showing no self.
Also note how profoundly weird it is that when an average person hears “no self”, they just assume it means “an upgraded, less reactive self.” Even though that’s clearly the opposite of what no self means.
No self means no self.
Continues
- violetflame.biz.ly/ ~ Summary of daily posts and backup
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- violetflame.biz.ly/ ~ Summary of daily posts and backup
- https://purple-rays.blogspot.com/ ~ Channeled Messages; Spirituality; +
- https://violet-rays.blogspot.com/ ~ Natural Health; Healing; Intuition; +
- https://purpelligh.blogspot.com/ ~ Inspiration; Insights; Spirituality; +
- https://violet--flame.blogspot.com/ ~ Geopolitics; Leaks; Whistleblowers; Astrology & other studies *
* replacing rayviolet11.blogspot.com/** blocked on 2025/07/23 due post "RussiaGate, PedoGate, and Panic in D.C. - All Playing Now!", see back up: http://violetflame.biz.ly/cgi-bin/blog/view_post/1222363 (no problems of security from 2005)**Reactivated in December 2025
**********
My notes:
God the Source is unconditional love, not a zealous god of [some] dogmatic religions.
All articles are the responsibility of the respective authors.
My personal opinion: Nobody is more Anti-Semite then the Zionists.
Reminder discernment is recommended
from the heart, not from the mind
The Truth Within Us, Will Set Us Free. We Are ONE.
No Need of Dogmatic Religions, Political Parties, and Dogmatic Science, linked to a Dark Cabal that Divides to Reign.
Any investigation of a Genuine TRUTH will confirm IT.
TRUTH need no protection.
Question: Why the (fanatics) Zionists are so afraid of any Holocaust investigations?
Main Sites:
EN/PT http://violetflame.biz.ly/
PT/EN chamavioleta.blogs.sapo.pt/
Blogs:
EN https://purpelligh.blogspot.com/
https://violet-rays.blogspot.com/
https://purple-rays.blogspot.com/
https://violet--flame.blogspot.com/
EN/PT http://violetflame.biz.ly/cgi-bin/blog
PT https://aluzroxa.blogspot.com/
raioroxo.blogspot.com/
apoioachamavioleta.blogspot.com/
Social Media:
gab.com/active_me ,
minds.com/activated/ ,
https://x.com/lourtavar ,
https://x.com/violet556218 ,
https://www.facebook.com/mel.tavares.75 ,
https://www.facebook.com/lourenco.tavares.12935/
(email:nai@violetflame.biz.ly)
Google deleted my former blogs rayviolet.blogspot.com &
rayviolet2.blogspot.com just 10 hrs after I post Benjamin Fulford's
February 6, 2023 report, accusing me of posting child pornography.
(A Big Fat Lie)
**********
My notes:
God the Source is unconditional love, not a zealous god of [some] dogmatic religions.
All articles are the responsibility of the respective authors.
My personal opinion: Nobody is more Anti-Semite then the Zionists.
Reminder discernment is recommended
from the heart, not from the mind
The Truth Within Us, Will Set Us Free. We Are ONE.
No Need of Dogmatic Religions, Political Parties, and Dogmatic Science, linked to a Dark Cabal that Divides to Reign.
Any investigation of a Genuine TRUTH will confirm IT.
TRUTH need no protection.
Question: Why the (fanatics) Zionists are so afraid of any Holocaust investigations?
Main Sites:
EN/PT http://violetflame.biz.ly/
PT/EN chamavioleta.blogs.sapo.pt/
Blogs:
EN https://purpelligh.blogspot.com/
https://violet-rays.blogspot.com/
https://purple-rays.blogspot.com/
https://violet--flame.blogspot.com/
EN/PT http://violetflame.biz.ly/cgi-bin/blog
PT https://aluzroxa.blogspot.com/
raioroxo.blogspot.com/
apoioachamavioleta.blogspot.com/
Social Media:
gab.com/active_me ,
minds.com/activated/ ,
https://x.com/lourtavar ,
https://x.com/violet556218 ,
https://www.facebook.com/mel.tavares.75 ,
https://www.facebook.com/lourenco.tavares.12935/
(email:nai@violetflame.biz.ly)
Google deleted my former blogs rayviolet.blogspot.com &
rayviolet2.blogspot.com just 10 hrs after I post Benjamin Fulford's
February 6, 2023 report, accusing me of posting child pornography.
(A Big Fat Lie)
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