No self...no problem

In Thor's mailbox this morning...

If there is one word that characterizes The Watercourse in its Way … it is “honesty.”

...truthfulness has the characteristic of non-deceptiveness; its function is verification according to facts, its manifestation is excellence, and its proximate cause is honesty....Think of truthfulness not just as the quality of speaking truth but also as the practice of devoting yourself to the clear seeing of reality. Paired with a sense of urgency, truthfulness shows us that our lives are fleeting, which means we don’t have time to waste on delusion. – Vanessa Goddard

...We are a changing process, not a fixed being. There never was a self – only our identification makes us think so. So while purification, kindness, and attention can certainly improve our habits, no amount of self-denial or self-torture can rid us of a self, for it was never there....We can choose the archetype of hero, lover, mother, ne’er-do-well, adventurer, clown, or thief as our identity and live a year or a whole lifetime based on that. To the extent that we grasp these false identities, we continually have to protect and defend ourselves, strive to fulfill what is limited or deficient in them, to fear their loss. Yet, these are not our true identity...our identities make all our problems. Discover what is beyond them, the delight of the timeless, the deathless. – Jack Kornfield