SELF CONSIDERATION - PERMANENT IMPERMANENCE (PDF-1814)

The Buddhist teachings point out that we don’t have a truly-existing or permanent Self. What is that all about? They do not say that we don’t have a self; of course we all do. What they say is that the self that we do have has no true existence (as in: permanency), but rather is like a patchwork quilt made up of whatever we have drawn around us and are attached to. Here is an example. For most of us our self is the literal and figurative center of our existence – home base. Our self as center is inviolate and around that center most of us arrange our life. And while the center of our self is always with us, what that center is made up with is constantly changing. In other words, while the center is more or less permanent, what we consider central to us at any time in our life changes.