"The fixed idea that we have about ourselves as a solid and separate from each other is painfully limiting. It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play. That we take ourselves so seriously, that we are so absurdly important in our own minds, is a problem for us. We feel justified in being annoyed with everything. We feel justified in denigrating ourselves or in feeling that we are more clever than the rest of the people. Self-importance is like a prison for us, limit us to the world of our likes an dislikes. We end up bored to death with ourselves and our world. We end up very dissatisfied...We have two alternatives: either we take everything to be sure and real-or we don't. Either we accept our fixed versions of reality-or we begin to question them...To train to stay open and curious-to train in dissolving the barriers that we erect between ourselves and the world-is the best use of our human lives."
Pema Chodron's