self
"We all have a self-image and we call that self-image 'me.' You do. Dogen did and so did Gautama Buddha. Their enlightenment didn't chance the fact that they had a self-image. Nor did they stop referring to that image as 'me' when trying to communicate to someone else. Obviously you can't talk about anything at all without socially accepted and understood words to use to refer to it. The problem with our self-image is that we don't see it for what it really is: a useful fiction. The idea that our self-image is something permanent and substantial is so basic to us that we would probably never even think to question it. We believe in it; we believe that because it's such a useful fiction it's really real. It may be the only thing most of us actually believe in. The truth comes when you can see that your self-image is just a convenient reference point and nothing more, and that you yourself do not exist.