Most people hold onto a sense of self they believe is fixed—an unchanging ‘me’ residing inside this body, or perhaps they think they are their thoughts.
The truth is that we are part of a fabric of ever changing interrelations.
When scientists tested the biome of our gut, they found that 94% of it is made up of entities that are more ‘not us’ than ‘us.’ The Buddha taught that this rigid idea of a separate self, the need to get ‘mine,’ is the root of human suffering.
We tend to imagine there’s an inside and an outside, yet in reality, we are all of it. Even the “monsters” are part of us. As Joseph Campbell said, “You discover it’s all your own mind.” People often think there’s danger and darkness “out there,” but as Campbell suggests, it’s actually our own.
The path to freedom from fear is to dismantle the idea that you are separate from anything and, if possible, to find intimacy with all things. Finally, when I free myself from fear, I also release you from my judgment and control. And then something remarkable happens: you begin to feel freer too.