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A dog is crossing a plank over a stream. Half way through it looks in to the water and sees another dog there. It wags its tail and the other responds. It snarls and the other reacts. It looks away to ignore, but when it looks again the water dog is still there looking on.
The view of an existing self is also due to such an unwise attention "I think therefore I am" is the resulting wrong conclusion. Neither narcssistic love nor masochistic hate can solve the problem. Ignoring with a cynical sneer is to evade the problem. Therefore one has to thrash-down this problem of the elusive self image to the basic confrontation between consciousness and name and form. The self image cannot be ‘wished’ away because there is ‘self’ even in that wish. So one has to see through the delusion with penetrative insight. Right attention, mindfulness, and full awareness are the unfailing aids to the development of this saving insight. |