' The central fixation of self '...

"When the awakening is very deep, we no longer operate from a place of personal self. In other words, everything doesn’t relate to “me.” Thoughts don’t relate to me; feelings don’t relate to me; what others do doesn’t relate to me; and what happens in the world doesn’t relate to me. In the egoic state of consciousness, literally every single thing that ever happens is happening to a me. Right?

That’s the “normal” state of consciousness. Nobody can really explain what the personal self is; we just feel it. It’s a visceral thing. It’s not just how we act and what we say; it’s our central fixation of self.

As we see through it, we realize that the personal self is not who we are and that it was not ever anything substantial to begin with. And as we really see into our true nature, there is a paradox that arises: the more we realize that there isn’t a self, the more intimately present we actually are."



(from "Emptiness Dancing" by Adyashanti)