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“Yeah, I’d say it’s a little different from that, but not far different. I don’t identify with anything. I mean, there’s nobody here to identify with me or with anyone else. It’s just an empty, still presence here [inside my body], which is there [beyond my body].” I said, “So the problem with saying you identify with everyone is that first word, you.” “Exactly, because there’s no you there to do the identifying.” How can he talk this way—so paradoxically, and in a language that isn’t fully Buddhist or fully Hindu? Well, as for the paradox part, as I suggested near the outset of this book, if you don’t like paradox, maybe Eastern philosophy isn’t for you. (And, as I also suggested, neither is quantum physics.)
Why Buddhism Is True
Robert Wright
This sort of readjustment of attention, by the way, is a perfectly fine thing to do. In mindfulness meditation as it’s typically taught, the point of focusing on your breath isn’t just to focus on your breath. It’s to stabilize your mind, to free it of its normal preoccupations so you can observe things that are happening in a clear, unhurried, less reactive way. And “things that are happening” emphatically includes things happening inside your mind. Feelings arise within you—sadness, anxiety, annoyance, relief, joy—and you try to experience them from a different vantage point than is usual, neither clinging to the good feelings nor running away from the bad ones, but rather just experiencing them straightforwardly and observing them. This altered perspective can be the beginning of a fundamental and enduring change in your relationship to your feelings; you can, if all goes well, cease to be their slave.
Why Buddhism Is True
Robert Wright
A revealing exercise is to quickly write a list of what interests you. Whatever comes to mind in 30 seconds. Now look at your list. Circle the things that you are actually excited about and can imagine persuading a stranger to care about too. Do you have the energy to pursue these projects? Pretend the stranger will only care about five, and whittle your interests down.
Emissary's Guide to Worlding
Ian Cheng
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