But the purpose of studying Buddhism is to study ourselves and to forget ourselves. When we forget ourselves, we actually are the true activity of the big existence, or reality itself. When we realize this fact, there is no problem whatsoever in this world, and we can enjoy our life without feeling any difficulties.

"We all act as if we had lasting, separate, inderpendent selves that it is our constant pre-occupation to protect and foster. It is an unthinking habit that most of us would normally be most unlikely to question or explain. However, all our suffering is associated with this pre-occupation. All loss and gain, pleasure and pain arise because we identify so closely with this vague feeling of selfness that we have. We are so emotionally involved with and attached to this 'self' that we take it for granted. The meditator does not speculate about this 'self'. He does not have theories about whether it does or does not exist. Instead he just trains himself to watch dispassionately how his mind clings to the idea of 'self' and'mine' and how all his sufferings arise from attachment. At the same time he looks carefully for that self. He tries to isolate it from all his other experiences. Since it is the culprit as far as all his suffering is concerned, he wants to find it and identify it. The irony is that however much he tries, he does not find anything that correspond to the self.

Westerners often confuse self in this context with person, ego, or personality. They argue that they do not think of the person, ego or personality as a lasting, single, independent entity. This is to miss the point. The person, personality or ego as such are not a problem. One can analyze them quite rationally into their constituent parts. The western tradition has all sorts of ways of doing this. The Buddhist way is to talk of the five skhandas, the eighteen dhatus or the twelve gates of consciousness. The question is not whether or not the person, personality or ego is a chagning, composite train of events conditioned by many complex factors. Any rational analysis shows that is the case. Teh question is why then do we behave emotionally as i fit were lasting, single and independent. Thus when looking for the self it is very important to remember it is an emotional response that one is examining. When one responds to events as if one had a self, for example when one feels very hurt or offended, one should ask oneself who or what exactly is feeling hurt or offended."
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