Dialogue on Manifest Self Versus Witness and Use of the Mind in Seeking

TO ME:

What is your opinion on free will? It seems that all of our thoughts and thought processes are a result of experiences, however which thought processes become dominant is a result of where our attention goes, so I guess the question of free will boils down to whether we have control over attention. I am inclined to say attention is something we have complete control over, though one could argue that past experiences could form complex thought patterns that would lead one ultimately to make decisions based on where to focus attention, for shouldn't a decision on where to put attention precede where attention is placed? Therefore, does a complex array of subconscious thoughts and ultimately past experienced decide where attention is placed?

ED’S RESPONSE:

Are you able to "feel" how far such questioning is from being you?  It is only logic, theorems.

You know yourself by feeling Self, not by thinking.  You have to stop all such useless thinking about philosophy and only dwell in your sense of Self, I Am.

You can never awaken to who you are on any level—and there are many—until you let go of the goal of intellectual understanding.  There is a knowing far more profound than that of the mind, and that is where I am taking you.

TO ME:

I am able to feel it, yes. I have been pondering the question for a while and I figured asking someone who has experienced the states you have may shed some light on the subject.

When you say dwell in sense of self, I do that already, but I recognize simultaneously there is an even more subtle perception that is watching this happen, and then I usually find that to continue to acknowledge the subtler perception is to perpetuate the never ending process of objectifying subjectivity, and so at that point all thinking just stops and I abide in that non-thinking state. At this point, what should I do?

Ed’S RESPONSE:

Abide in the I Am.  That will lead you to the Manifest Self--Atman.

Leave the subject alone for now.

Eventually the two come together as one, but first know the Manifest Self of energies, lovee, bliss, and all of the emotions, positive and negative.

At this point the Witness is only a distraction.

Do not dwell in emptiness or no thought.  It is easy to get lost there and accomplish nothing.