No Self and Jesus

CharGPT said There’s an interesting echo here in Jesus’ language:

In the Gospel of Mark:

“Whoever loses his life will find it.”

That’s often interpreted morally—but it can also be heard experientially:

* Lose the constructed, grasping self

* And something freer, less fearful emerges

Not a doctrine—more like a pointer.

A Subtle Caution 

It’s easy to turn “no self” into:

* an idea to believe

* or a conclusion to adopt

But that would just create a new identity:

* “I am someone who understands there is no self”

Which quietly rebuilds the structure.

So the real movement isn’t:

* believing “no self”

It’s:

* noticing, moment by moment, how the sense of self forms and dissolves

One Simple Way to Hold It

Instead of:

* “There is no self”

You might hold it more lightly as:

* “Where is the self, right now?”

And just look.

That keeps it grounded in experience, not belief.

Artificial Intelligence as a Spiritual Guide

"Please take the following thoughts and using other sources, create a several paragraph description of this view of Christianity.

Christianity Is a simple religion. Love thy neighbor. And if we look at the term faith It's more about trust, not belief about a concept or idea, and faith is experiential, trusting the day. When we learn to swim, we learn not to fight the water. Let it carry you? Faith can carry you and hold you up in the universe. Jesus helps us understand God. A mystery does not help us understand Jesus. Religion should not lead to itself, but lead us deeper into our own life.

A religion points Beyond itself. In fact, it dissolves, as all religions are trying to point to ultimate reality. Matthew 25 tells us what Christianity Is to do, but we need to stay connected and not burn out."

After taking a few scattered notes, listening to some podcast, I use my notes to write the above prompt to ChatGPT which ended up writing quite an interesting description of Christianity. After I copied the text, Adobe generated a podcast where two people go back and forth discussing the essay. I put it into NotebookLM which easily generated another conversational podcast which I thought was even better. It also made a cool infographic.

Later I asked ChatGPT "What would Christianity be like if we emphasized the teachings of Jesus rather than his death and Resurrection?" It began saying, "That’s a profound question, Frank—especially given your interest in faith as lived trust rather than abstract belief.

If Christianity emphasized the teachings of Jesus more than his death and resurrection, it would likely look less like a religion centered on what happened to Jesus and more like a movement centered on how to live as Jesus lived."

I'd forgotten that that was the original place, I used the prompt to produce the initial essay so I was surprised. At the end of each answer, ChatGPT has been asking another question which also surprised me. It's interesting because I can come back later and continue the discussion.

P.S. I did continue the chat but added an antisyncopation statement into the personalization.

The Unraveling Thread

I visualized my problem with standard Christianity as an unraveling thread. When you pull on a thread and everything unravels. I clearly think back to the time near confirmation when I thought how could have everything changed with the life and death of Jesus and I just couldn't rest on that being such a significant event as is commonly portrayed. I realize many times I could easily make a list of things about Christianity, such as the actual life of Jesus is not mentioned in the so-called apostles Creed, but that's not really productive. I still find strength and understanding in the life of Jesus and still strongly feel that I'm a Christian, but I find that it expresses itself best in Zen Buddhism.

Of course, what really matters is living the life. And since there is no self, making the best of this moment by loving others and making a better world is what really matters.

Taoist Roots of Zen January 23, 2026 Geoff Dawson

I found this very interesting with the talk of Taoism. I had a time when I was specifically reading and researching taoism, but I think it was before everything was available on the internet. It made me think that this is how I ended up with Zen Buddhism because I liked Taoism and Zen Buddhism practices much of what they teach.

Using a search engine, I looked for the nature aspect which has always been a desire of mine:

Emphasis on Nature: Taoism's reverence for the natural world and the observation of its patterns as a guide for living harmoniously influenced Zen's focus on the interconnectedness of all things and the potential for enlightenment within everyday life and nature, rather than solely in abstract metaphysical realms.

My early desire to live rurally seems to me to be an expression of this. I romanticized it, enjoyed experiencing it, but have just now come to understand it's a mindset and not dependent on actually be in a rural environment.