Nothing is Lacking: Ordinary Self is the Way

In our discussion last fortnight, we talked about making friends with death, and finding our home (nirvana) in this world rather than seeking some kind of transcendence of our ordinary self in an afterlife or in a “true” self that is behind, above or higher than our ordinary self, as if there is always something missing in our experience of ordinary self. In today’s talk I will explore some possible explanations as to how this sense of lack arises. I will be challenging the idea found in many commentaries, that the ordinary self is always experienced as an egocentric or separate self that is inherently insecure. Rather, I will suggest that the ordinary self is composed of many different self-states – only some of these states, the egocentric states, feel a painful sense of lack at their core but others may feel a deep sense of acceptance and nonseparation from the world. As is suggested in Case 19 of the Gateless Gate, maybe the ordinary self, when experienced from the perspective of emptiness, just like the spring flowers and the moon in Autumn, is the way.