Deconstructing the World of Self (4 of 4)

For students of Dharma, the issues of ‘self and ego’ and ‘non-self and non-ego’ are central to our spiritual quest and awakening. At the core of all our emotional dramas and melodramas is our self, the tyrant of our experience that wants to turn all our interactions into a story about “me”. It is this fundamental ignorance of the way things really are (Reality) that prevents us from experiencing our fundamental oneness and connection with everything and everyone.

The Buddha stated that this belief in the permanent and solid nature of oneself is the major cause of our ensnarement in the world of self-created dissatisfaction, confusion and emotional afflictions. The intellectual and, most importantly, experiential resolution of this seeming paradox – i.e. what appears to be solid and real is not – has major implications for the personal well-being or ill-being that we experience daily.

During this four days of this retreat, through targeted teachings and meditations, participants were given the tools and opportunity to look deeply into the very core structure of self/ego to view its essential unreality and phantom-like existence. With a deep and thorough understanding of self or ego and how the “I, me, mine” paradigm distorts our experience to create delusion and afflictive emotions, liberation from suffering can be realized. Then, the possibility of selfless living naturally manifests.