The Art of Dharma Practice

The art of dharma practice requires commitment, technical accomplishment, and imagination. As with all arts, we will fail to realize its full potential if any of these three are lacking. The raw material of dharma practice is ourself and our world, which are to be understood and transformed according to the vision and values of the dharma itself. This is not a process of self- or world- transcendence, but one of self- and world creation. The denial of self challenges only the notion of a static self independent of body and mind--not the ordinary sense of ourself as a person distinct from everyone else. The notion of a static self is the primary obstruction to the realization of our unique potential as an individual being. By dissolving this fiction through a centered vision of the transiency, ambiguity, and contingency of experience, we are freed to create ourself anew.

--Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism Without Beliefs

OK, is "ourself" really a word? Really? ;-p

Actually, I wanted to quote this passage because the "denial of self" or "no-self" idea has always been a challenge to me. The whole ego vs. no ego thing. And this makes total sense of it at last. Well, for me at least. That our minds are more like a bacterium--the kinds that exchange DNA but don't "reproduce" in the sense of creating a separate cell. It's the "same" cell after the interaction but the identity (DNA) is different. Whee. that's enough intellectual exercise for tonight.