No one knows how many I’s
Precede the I that I think I am …²
We tend to be narrow-minded about the Myriads of
Different things that go into making Somebody.³
I am not turning against myself—
I contain Multitudes!⁴
To study the Way is to study the Self—
To study the self is to Forget the self—
To forget the self is to be Actualized by myriad things—⁵
We turn Inward and prove our True-Nature: that
True-Self is No-Self—our own self is No-Self—⁶
We strengthen our own selfhood by
Surrender to Superhuman Destinies.⁷
The real You is the totality of
Everything you are aware of—
And a Great Deal more besides …⁸
One who seeks the self and Understands it—
Obtains all worlds & all desires.⁹
Power to be finite Ceased—
Before identity was Leased!¹⁰
¹ Padmasambhava tr. Gyurme Dorje, The Tibetan Book of the Dead
² Italo Calvino tr. William Weaver, Meiosis
³ David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men #46
⁴ Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy
⁵ Dogen tr. Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi, Genjo-Koan
⁶ Hakuin Ekaku tr. Rochester Zen Center, Chant in Praise of Zazen
⁷ Hermann Hesse tr. Richard & Clara Winston, The Rainmaker
⁸ Alan Watts, The Essence of Alan Watts
⁹ Chandogya-Upanishad 8.7.1 tr. Max Müller
¹⁰ Emily Dickinson, Estranged from Beauty