I'm christian; always have been. I'm not buddhist.

I always thought buddha's "no self" just meant selflessness, an attitude; i.e. not selfish. I also thought Jesus' "deny thyself" was the same thing.

It isn't.

Eckhart Tolle was the closest, "you're not your mind/ego." But it goes much deeper than that. I experienced it for a second.

This is what happened.

I was waiting for my turn at one of those things I go to. I decided to meditate; rested my head against the wall so I would look like I was just napping.

After about 2 hours, it happened. "I" was gone. The mind was gone. "I" did not exist. It wasn't even quiet, the place was still noisy in fact. But that was just it. All that was left was awareness.

It lasted for just a moment. I don't know if there are deeper levels to it. There was auditory awareness. I could see black but I had the feeling I was slowly rotating in that blackness. The start of 360 degree awareness?

Anyway, the mind rushed back in to analyze it. And it was over.

"No self" is an altered state of consciousness.

sounds like some sort of pure conscious event. My question though, and I'm sure it maybe hard to put in words, but - did you feel you reduced your thinking, or heightened it from concentration?

I was visualizing the solar system one time, I had a very brief moment of utter astonishment and sense of place. 1 1/2 seconds long I believe. I could not recollect what occurred or how, it just happened. I tried visualizing again many times over to no avail. A glimpse of total consciousness?

I've spent almost too long in these "no self" states of consciousness.

My first experience was while meditating... I was in "no self" for what seemed like an eternity but I think it was only 10 minutes or something. I actually became aware of the ALL, and I saw its patterns, and I saw what timespace looked like from above, and I was just flying through all these dimensions... but it wasn't me. It was the Everything. It was a sort of a state of no-self.

I've had a few of those during meditations since then.... but a while after I experimented in some chemically induced altered states, and had found that while everybody else was seeing dancing pink flamingos and Incan temples, I wasn't hallucinating at all. I was in myself with no major visual effects, but I also wasn't myself. I was simply a reference point in a much larger crystalline pattern that ecompassed everything......

Ever since these events.... I've been able to feel all the energy of the universe converging on me at once and flowing through me constantly.

I feel like a helpless messiah sometimes. Like.... "yeah yeah I'm the one, God. I know. But problem is, God.... I just like beer too much."

Seriously though... be careful you don't spoil the point of the game with altered states of consciousness. Sometimes, even meditation can take you to places that you aren't ready. The no-self thing really #ed with me for a while.

I have experienced what your are describing many times through deeper sessions of meditation. It is an incredibly profound life-changing experience.

No-Self can be thought to be synonymous with All-Self. Awareness is Consciousness, Consciousness is Awareness. The Self acts as a filter to Consciousness. When the Awareness of 'Self' is eliminated, you are left with the Consciousness itself, therefore you are simply Aware.

It's Self-death. That's why it only lasts a moment when it first happens. You are killing your 'Self'. This is terrifying to the Mind, as your Consciousness is not use to experiencing this unfiltered Awareness. In fact, the purpose of the Mind (Self) to begin with is to filter an acceptable level of Awareness for your Consciousness. Just takes practice, and it will last longer. Mediate often

[edit on 15-11-2008 by Lucid Lunacy]

no-self / no-mind / consciousness-is-all-there-is is a very enlightening experience, I agree.

What I do disagree with is how some "experiencers"/meditators have taken this to mean that the state of self/mind is therefore somehow "bad" or needs to be "overcome". Instead, consider that they are simply two states: One identified/focused in detail and one de-identified/one-with-all.

This thread makes me smile.

Congratulations.
It may be that you have just managed to get a glimpse of Samadhi though only you can determine the truth of that.

Pay attention to Dunwichwitch and Lord Lunacy however.
You can easily get in trouble running after that particular goal.

It's quite easy to discover that other peoples reality can be a bit of a mess and some of the folk chasing after psychic perceptual phenomena do not understand the truth behind the old adage 'be careful what you wish for'.

Kudos.
Absence.

I once experienced total blackness that I was a part of it was me and I was it and it went on forever that was all there was it was like the ultimate void and it was fine til I 'realised' this, then 'fear' kicked in and it went all nastly hehehehehe.
Not sure its exactly what your on about but it was the odd.....I was me but with no body but I wasnt outside of my body I was inside of my body.....like a reversed OBE or astral travel thing....was mad!