Shifting to Reality

When I was young, I was under the illusion of invincibility. I felt that old people belonged to a completely different species - that aging & death had nothing to do with me. By one's late sixties, such illusions evaporate. And it's a good thing!

This commonly-assumed sense of an unchanging, solid self is called ego illusion.

“The ego illusion arises because we believe the body and feeling to be ours. Yet when we examine them, we must come to the conclusion that we really have no say in the matter. It’s all just happening. How do we come to think it’s ‘me’? When there’s any feeling of discomfort, sadness, boredom, or frustration, we become uncomfortable, sad, bored, frustrated. We react by being involved with the feeling ('serving it tea') instead of knowing that this feeling has arisen and will pass away, as all feelings do. The moment we take our attention off the sadness and frustration, the boredom or intolerance, they’re gone. But instead we believe our feelings stay with us and act accordingly. When the feeling of anger arises, people become angry instead of saying, ‘Ah yes. It’s a feeling of anger. I’ll take my attention off it.’ Nothing creates ego except the belief that ‘I am the body. I am the feeling.’ ”

Ayya Khema. “Being Nobody, Going Nowhere. Meditations on the Buddhist Path.” Wisdom Publications, 2016.

"When you sit, you leave the front door open, you leave the back door open, and you don't serve tea." Shunryu Suzuki