Tricycle Daily Dharma July 3, 2012
The Limited Mask of Self
Of
all the words we use to disguise the hollowness of the human condition,
none is more influential than 'myself.' It consists of a collage of
still images—name, gender, nationality, profession, enthusiasms,
relationships—that are renovated from time to time, but otherwise are
each a relic from one particular experience or another. The defining
teaching of the Buddhist tradition, that of non-self, is merely pointing
out the limitations of this reflexive view we hold of ourselves. It’s
not that the self does not exist, but that it is as cobbled-together and
transient as everything else.
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- Andrew Olendzki, "Self as Verb"
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