I can't find any way to subtract myself from me -- and I have OFTEN wished to! I do love to read my favorite Zen author, Pema Chodron, who has lots to say about this. The more we are willing to really know who we are, the more connected we become. She says it better actually:
"Dogen Zen-ji said, “To know yourself is to forget yourself.” We might think that knowing ourselves is a very ego-centered thing, but by beginning to look so clearly and so honestly at ourselves—at our emotions, at our thoughts, at who we really are—we begin to dissolve the walls that separate us from others. Somehow all of these walls, these ways of feeling separate from everything else and everyone else, are made up of opinions. They are made up of dogma; they are made of prejudice. These walls come from our fear of knowing parts of ourselves."
I suppose I am becoming a little Buddhist myself as I how important the ideas are that Chodron teaches: about working through our fears, about groundlessness, about suffering, about what different people and things have to teach us. Pema goes on:
"Then Dogen Zen-ji goes on to say, “To forget yourself is to become enlightened by all things.” When we are not so self-involved, we begin to realize that the world is speaking to us all of the time."
For me, the teachings I learned from the Bible, from Jesus -- about the Spirit and the nature of God -- became much more meaningful when I released them back to the Spirit, got uncomfortable with the idea of not knowing, and set them aside.
Oddly, very many of us are also in that lonely place, unwilling to relinquish our place in the center of our world to join the party. Sometimes I like it that way.
I can't find any way to subtract myself from me -- and I have OFTEN wished to! I do love to read my favorite Zen author, Pema Chodron, who has lots to say about this. The more we are willing to really know who we are, the more connected we become. She says it better actually:
"Dogen Zen-ji said, “To know yourself is to forget yourself.” We might think that knowing ourselves is a very ego-centered thing, but by beginning to look so clearly and so honestly at ourselves—at our emotions, at our thoughts, at who we really are—we begin to dissolve the walls that separate us from others. Somehow all of these walls, these ways of feeling separate from everything else and everyone else, are made up of opinions. They are made up of dogma; they are made of prejudice. These walls come from our fear of knowing parts of ourselves."
I suppose I am becoming a little Buddhist myself as I how important the ideas are that Chodron teaches: about working through our fears, about groundlessness, about suffering, about what different people and things have to teach us. Pema goes on:
"Then Dogen Zen-ji goes on to say, “To forget yourself is to become enlightened by all things.” When we are not so self-involved, we begin to realize that the world is speaking to us all of the time."
For me, the teachings I learned from the Bible, from Jesus -- about the Spirit and the nature of God -- became much more meaningful when I released them back to the Spirit, got uncomfortable with the idea of not knowing, and set them aside.
Oh and here's the link: https://www.lionsroar.com/pema-chodron-to-know-yourself-is-to-forget-yourself/
Oddly, very many of us are also in that lonely place, unwilling to relinquish our place in the center of our world to join the party. Sometimes I like it that way.