Emotions, feelings and sensations are neither personal nor impersonal - Jeff Foster

For the full interview please visit: www.scienceandnonduality.com/d...
This is an excerpt from the interview with Jeff Foster at the Science and Nonduality Conference 2011 featured in the 3DVD set "Science and Nonduality Anthology Vol.3".
Jeff Foster studied Astrophysics at Cambridge University. In his mid-twenties, after a long period of depression and illness, he became addicted to the idea of 'spiritual enlightenment' and embarked on an intensive spiritual quest for the ultimate truth of existence. The spiritual search came crashing down with the clear recognition of the non-dual nature of everything, and the discovery of the extraordinary in the ordinary. In the clarity of this seeing, life became what it always was: intimate, open, loving and spontaneous, and Jeff was left with a deep understanding of the root illusion behind all human suffering, and a love of the present moment. He presently holds meetings, retreats and private one-to-one sessions around the world, gently but directly pointing people back to the deep acceptance inherent in the present moment. www.lifewithoutacentre.com
music by: Matthew Schoening

[@phoenixrising1675]

He's doing the best he can with words. All words are dualistic. so when words, concepts are heard, mind judges and picks apart, thats what mind is, a judgement machine… just notice….

[@mohdshahnawaz3864]

Absolutely loved this video. Thank you so much for this valuable information mate. Lots of love from an Australian 🇦🇺❤

[@PaoloSubioli]

beautiful, thank you

[@ariseshine100]

This is a very liberating talk because now we are able to let ourselves rest ... and enjoy each moment of life for what it IS....Divine activity within and outside of us upholding and manifesting REALITY whether or nor we perceive it and regardless of how we perceive it to be. It is what it is.. ALIGN with this in love and anticipation of all good.

[@roshantulsiani7575]

Your really helping me. Thanks

[@phoenixrising1675]

Love you Jeff!

[@gabikarvak]

i often have no energy to get out of the bed, and i am sorry my child to see this, of course i want the best for him...i am totaly lost

[@lonelystupidwar]

thank you

[@atmannityananda-academia]

The blue sky is also an illusion but when there are no clouds we enjoy seeing the blue sky and this enjoyment is something that happens to us (although consciousness is universal, due to the individual mind the enjoyment is an experience of this specific mind). The same happens with emotions. Although energy is universal and consciousness is also universal, due to the individual mind each one experiences emotions personally. And when one dissolves the anger from his subconscious by spiritual practice, only his mind is free and not all minds on earth. This freedom from anger is also personal although at the same time it is an universal event, as anything that happens in the universe.

[@j.d.3875]

God will never give up on you, Jeff, hope that helps

[@MrAtomicDon]

😂😂🤣🤣

[@nimim.markomikkila1673]

@Dane Ecklund: "its about chemicals....thats causes every feeling. Even falling in love is a chemical reaction caused in order to increase the chance of you reproducing." Yes, living creatures have subjective experiences, which has also chemical correlates. Chemcial reactions happen also in dead matter, BUT stones don´t experience love. So, falling in love is NOT only chemicals, but it has chemical correlates. There´s an important distinction to be made.

[@gabikarvak]

yes, i am aware of that...

[@gabikarvak]

i have quit my job in July it was taking away lot of energy, i am struggling now in my new professoion, but at least i like it and i make ppl happy (doing nailarts). And i have no income, but this is what is for now :)) but thanks for your reply...

[@scienceandnonduality]

Gabi. This is not Jeff Foster site. we organize events in which he is usually one of our guests. Jeff can be found at the lifewithoutacentre site. Wishing you all the best in your effort. Love, m

[@antoinesauvetre869]

N'y a-t-il pas une bonne âme qui voudrait bien se charger, gentiment, de traduire les vidéos de Jeff Foster en français ? Merci beaucoup

[@ceciliacastro7962]

"Hey, here on my backyard"

[@atmannityananda-academia]

Doesn't matter if we label the anger personal, impersonal or universal. When anger is manifested it causes suffering. Doesn't matter also if we identify completely with anger or not, anger is suffering by its nature. Of course identification intensify and perpetuates the anger and thus increases the suffering. What we think or what we believe about emotions and ego it is not so important; As long as rajas and tamas gunas predominate in our mind idnetification, expression of negative emotions and suffering are inevitable. Moreover, since ego and anger (as well as all negative emotions and other tendencies, like greed, arrogance, pride, gluttony etc.) are the same energy, when anger is expressed ego or egoism is expressed also more intensively; viz. identification with the body and the mind-made identity is intensified. On the contrary when we are peacful, happy, joyful, etc. the ego subsides because these feelings has nothing to do with ego. The only way to avoid the suffering caused by negative emotions like, anger, fear,, guilty, is to dissolve this negative energy which is crystallized in our astral body and which are only modifications of lust and desire. The essential nature of ego is desire and all negative emotions and egoic tendencies are only modifications of desire. This dissolution is possible only by sincere,systematic regular practice for a long time and not by talking and listening. That's why Bhagavad Gita and great spiritual masters said that who is free from desire, anger and fear is a liberated one, and lives united -in Yoga- with God (consciousness, Brahman, Spirit etc.) in peace and Bliss eternal.

[@etoilefelante8994]

Anger is suffering? I quiet enjoy my anger when it arises and express it wisely. Doesn't mean I have to act on it.

[@etoilefelante8994]

@@atmannityananda-podcasts Just hug a friend, pet a cute dog and fart a little more. Life is beautiful as it is! Pain is beautiful beyond belief. So is love. We live in a world of our own creation. Everything changes in an instant. Nothing is and everything is becoming exactly what it's supposed to be at all times. There's nothing wrong with any of us.

[@etoilefelante8994]

@@atmannityananda-podcasts you have quiet the spiritual ego

[@etoilefelante8994]

@@atmannityananda-podcasts I hear you. What do you think makes anger uncontrollable? Is it conscious expression or is it surpressing and "trying to get rid of it"? Our consciousness lives in a body that is mortal and that is very vulnerable at times. Anger is the emotion that helps us protect our personal boundaries and our loved ones. It helps us stand up against injustice, it helps us to distance ourselves from hopelessness and take action. It's a force of destruction and sometimes that's what's needed. In Hinduism, Shiva is the expression of destruction and rebirth, because the one cannot exist without the other. Anger is not the same as violence. Violence occurs when we deny ourselves healthy and constructive impulses of anger. Anger helps people get out of toxic relationships, anger helps us defend people who are innocent and need protection. Anger helps us stand up against violence in a peaceful way when expressed consciously. You are allowed to be angry when people don't respect your boundaries. It's not evil, it's not bad, it doesn't make you less spiritual. It just makes you human. I definitely understand your resistance though, I'm scared of anger too sometimes because I saw often what it can do to people. But that was always anger that was not allowed to be expressed healthily.

[@atmannityananda-autognosia]

@@etoilefelante8994 There is nothing wrong with you. What is needed is to clean the mind from anger and other low vibration energies. That's all. Of course, if you want freedom more than your Ego.

[@ferdinandalexander8053]

Lost in a web of semantics. He says, "no one knows". How then did he find out? He also calls it energy. Who says it's energy. Just words and more words digging a deeper hole to nowhere.

[@gabikarvak]

i even started smoking again....:(

[@sammmahhh]

I disagree with Jeff's statement that you cannot move from pain "reality" to no pain because he states this is "non-reality:". Am I missing something?

[@nemnoton]

"it is only pain appearing". Then all sense impressions must be illusions, including sight. It is only vision "appearing". But it only "appears" to me when it appears. No one else experience this "appearance". So it is personal. I don't think feelings are illusions. You feel pain when you are injured, and the injury is not an illusion. The sensation is proportional to the injury. What about taste sensations, when we compare two food experiences and say one thing tasted better than the other, are we comparing illusions? But a badly cooked dish tastes bad?

[@TreblemakerandGoomba]

you cant have personal feelings without making up your idea of self, because you can only PERCEIVE your feelings. you are assosciating the things that have conditioned you in your life with these feelings, and then the feelings give rise to thought and mental formations/memories based off the feelings. when we say food taste bad, it is assosciation. what tastes bad to you can be god nectar to another kind of organism, so its subjective and the feelings arent absolute or permanent, with any true meaning to them. they are NOT self existing. sight is an illusion, we see sight, we do not SEE. we experience sight. we dont see directly. all our senses are subject to scrutiny because we as humans are so limited, yet aware. remember, illusions dont mean its not there. it doesnt mean its not real. it doesnt mean its not happening. it just means it is definitely NOT what it seems. all the things we think about our emotions are really just our perceptions of them, yet we give that perception certainty, and we react and feel more feelings because of those perceptions..

[@nemnoton3594]

Evan Rabinowitz Jeff Foster claims that sensory perception is not personal. How do you explain that pain goes along with injury. If I hurt myself, I feel pain, and I find that I (only me) have been injured. If pain is not personal, then injury is not personal either. But the injury is undeniably personal. And pain corresponds with injury, as well as nausea corresponds with sickness, etcetera. It is cause and effect. This idea is not explained well. Also, if "pain is not suffering", then suffering alltogether can hardly exist. Yet he attempts to explain what suffering really is....indicating that pain indeed is suffering - his interpretation of suffering. It is very vague, I'm afraid.

[@TreblemakerandGoomba]

nemnoton if you identify your sense of self purely with your body then it is personal for your body. are you solely your body? the pain will be personal in the way that only you can experience it. its neither personal or in personal in reality because there is not one to feel the pain, but there is the experience of pain. the pain is there and real, but its also an illusion. if the brain was in a situation where neural connections could not be made, you could break limbs without the physical experience and identification with the pain. sensory perception is not personal in this way because it is a causal chain of impulses and reactions imo. FOR EXAMPLE: think of monks who meditate and enter deep jhanas while self immolating in protest. they are completely still and unreactive. how can we explain what they are feeling? anyone who is not concentrated in the mind would not only be in pain but would be ALL OVER THE PLACE, screaming, kicking, crying, etc. this is a deep topic but personally i agree it is neither personal or impersonal, until you identify with the perception and follow through with "your" experience of it through that identification.

[@TreblemakerandGoomba]

nemnoton and guess what, youre right. suffering does not exist, outside of the mind that contemplates it :) reminds me of the heart sutra.

[@TreblemakerandGoomba]

btw dont think when i mentioned the monks i think they dont feel anything. its obvious they have sensations rampant all over them. the point was that through harnessing the power of the mind they can disassociate with those sensations, and that is evidence to me that they would not be absolutely personal.

[@daneecklund157]

its about chemicals....thats causes every feeling. Even falling in love is a chemical reaction caused in order to increase the chance of you reproducing.

[@gabikarvak]

Can you be more practical, e.g. i have job which pays well, but i have no interest in it anymore, but i also have a child and i am raising him alone, i pay rental, so i cant quit my job, but i dont know what else i could do...i dont know what is good choice, how choices are happening...

[@jameelisaac7122]

Find a job that interest you but in the meantime keep working at your job and find someone to help you raise your child