The absence of self

 When I say there is no self, what do I mean? I think people easily get hung up on the idea of a Self or a soul, or God. Most people can't disentangle the positive aspects of these notions from their egos. So when you talk about them as realities, people associate their ego with them and misunderstand what they are. The image of the separate self is deeply ingrained in the mind of most human beings. People imagine that their separate self will live forever in some kind of paradise, if they can only get to it, or realize it. What they don't see is the negative and horrific side of this ego image. The side which is constantly repressed because it is unpleasant and it doesn't suit the person's fancy. This is the constant warring torment, insecurity, fear, and extreme displeasure and discomfort that the ego creates. We incessantly avoid this reality and wistfully look to a paradise for salvation and fulfillment that does not exist. We cherish our egos even if we walk a spiritual path and claim to deny them, we feel righteous in doing so. The we here is simply the pride of the ego and a feeling of superiority among our fellow human beings that gives us comfort. A part of this righteousness is not egoic perhaps, to greater and lesser extents, and is the awakening of subtler forms within consciousness. 

What we don't realize is that it is our ego which keeps us suffering. We think we realize this, but we simply set the ego on a higher pedestal. We think we have read enough and that we see enough, and know enough for ourselves, but I don't think most of us do. The ego is exposed for what it is as our consciousness deepens. As we awaken. I think it is impossible for us to realize or imagine the extent to which it has penetrated our lives until we have done some serious deep digging. I think much of what we think of as non-egoic aspects of ourself are egoic and not real. The extent to which what we think of as ourself that is illusory is profound. The extent to which we die to ourselves in awakening is also profound. To wake up, we have to let go of our entire self. Our entire way of perceiving things and looking at the world. This is like being a tooth in a mouth and telling the dentist to pull you out with pliers and discard you into the trash bin. The whole enchilada. I think as we awaken we romanticize what enlightenment means and is. We lovingly cling to who we are and strive to save ourselves for this great liberation of our suffering where we can be ourselves without restraint. We don't realize that much of what we hope to take with us to nirvana is what keeps us in samsara. We don't see the extent to which we are not who or what we think we are. We don't see the profundity of a thing like nirvana. Or the self-lessness of One taste. We imagine it is me there with God as God in paradise when so much of this me is less than paper thin and when seen clearly is entirely undesirable. So much of waking up is waking up to the trans-personal. The beyond personal. This is exactly what it sounds like. Beyond the person. Beyond who we think we are. It's not some immortal hero. Its bodies and currents of selfless energy and being that exist beyond the scope of the egoic mind. You can't get one without the other. You can't wake up without dying to who you think you are, which in most cases is entirely who you think you are. This is why I say, there is no self.