Everything we think of as self is made up of not-self

Look again.

The body breathes and the heart beats without your input.

You think your thoughts are private—yet every word is borrowed from a common tongue, inherited from others.

You feel your feelings—but they arise unbidden, in shapes we all seem to share.

Your senses reach outward, but what they show you is what’s outside of you.

You believe in a solid self, a “me” at the helm—but look for it directly, and it slips through your fingers. What you find is a rotating cast, not a lone actor.

And then there’s awareness, which has no beginning and no end. You can’t stop it or grasp it, yet everything is known through it.

If you do absolutely nothing right now, all of this continues without interruption.

Meditation isn’t going within. It’s watching the idea of “within” dissolve.

Everything we think of as self is made up of not-self.