Inspiring Words

"Sometimes egolessness is called no-self. These words can be misleading. The Buddha was not implying that we disappear-or that we could erase or personality. As a student once asked, 'Doesn't experiencing egolessness make life kind of beige?' It's not like that. Buddha was pointing out that the fixed idea that we have about ourselves as solid and separate from each other is painfully limiting. It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play. That we take ourselves so seriously, that we are so absurdly important in our own minds, is a problem for us. We feel justified in being annoyed with everything. We feel justified in denigrating ourselves or in feeling that we are more clever than other people. Self-importance hurts us, limiting us to the narrow world of our likes and dislikes. We end up bored to death with ourselves and our world. We end up never satisfied.

We have two alternatives: either we question our beliefs-or we don't. Either we accept our fixed versions of reality - or we begin to challenge them. In Buddha's opinion, to train in staying open and curious - to train in dissolving our assumptions and beliefs-is the best use of our human lives"
Pema Chodron-The Places that Scare You