No one lives his life.
Disguised since childhood,
haphazardly assembled
from voices and fears and little pleasures,
we come of age as masks.
Our true face never speaks.
– Rainer Maria Rilke
Before you sit, grab a pen and write down your qualities and roles. Kind, caring, prickly, pedantic. Teacher, parent, neighbour. The ones you have applied to yourself, and the ones that have been applied to you. Then place the list to the side.
Settle. Let the whole body hang off the skeleton, filled with bright awareness. Tune into the gaps, the little space between the sensations, between the thoughts, between the feelings.
What is your sense of self right now? Maybe a thought. Maybe a density, a contraction. Maybe an image of yourself meditating.
Glance at the list. Are you being those things right now? Are you being caring? Are you being a friend?
They vividly appear. Yet there’s no core you can find that really is that.
Unhook. Put it to the side, and notice what happens.