(no subject)
Self As Illusion (an excerpt from 'This Is Not A Book: Adventures in Popular Philosophy').
The premise of the Buddha is that the world is out of kilter. Suffering is endemic, part of every life story. He was not blaming the victim when he said that the cause of suffering is craving, an ignorant clinging and thirst for life. We want what we do not have. We have what we do not want. The clamouring self is at the root of these frustrations, but the self is only a fiction of our life narratives. It is a rhetorical device we use to bind ourselves up with the world and to our relations. Our mental dramas intensify the suffering; stepping back from them relieves it. This does not require leaving home, or even withdrawing from experience. On the contrary, the posture of just observing is stepping back enough, and the development of this mental discipline brings one closer to experience, ultimately liberating one by weakening reflexive habit patterns based on the illusion of self.
The premise of the Buddha is that the world is out of kilter. Suffering is endemic, part of every life story. He was not blaming the victim when he said that the cause of suffering is craving, an ignorant clinging and thirst for life. We want what we do not have. We have what we do not want. The clamouring self is at the root of these frustrations, but the self is only a fiction of our life narratives. It is a rhetorical device we use to bind ourselves up with the world and to our relations. Our mental dramas intensify the suffering; stepping back from them relieves it. This does not require leaving home, or even withdrawing from experience. On the contrary, the posture of just observing is stepping back enough, and the development of this mental discipline brings one closer to experience, ultimately liberating one by weakening reflexive habit patterns based on the illusion of self.