Questioning our ?Self'
Something that interests us all is ourselves - because we are the subject and main focus of
our lives. No matter what you think of yourself, there is a natural interest because you have to
live with yourself for a lifetime. The self view is therefore something that can give us a lot of
misery if we see ourselves in the wrong way. Even under the best of circumstances, if we don't
see ourselves in the right way we still end up creating suffering in our minds. The Buddha was
trying to point out that the way to solve the problem isn't through trying to make everything right
and pleasant on the external dimension, but to develop the right understanding, the right attitude
towards ourselves, and to overall just do what we can.
Living in the US at this time, we expect comfort and all kinds of privileges and material
comforts. This makes life more pleasant in many ways, but when our every need is provided for
and life is too comfortable, something in us just doesn't develop. Sometimes it is the struggle
through hardship that develops and matures us as human beings.
But when we give up or surrender to restriction and to restraint through wisdom, we find
liberation. Life is the experience of restriction and restraint, being born in our own skin and
having to live under the laws of nature. Mentally we can fly to the sky, but physically we are
bound to limitations that get more and more restrictive the older we get. This isn't seen as
suffering by us because that's just the way things are.
The sense of oneself is something that we are aware of when we are children; when
we're born there is no sense of a self as bei ...