The illusion of the self is just an illusion. It is a role we put on. It is useful and practical in the world. It is only when we believe it that it creates problems.
Think of it like this. You are sitting at home watching a soap opera on television. At the same time you are also playing the role of one of the characters. All of you are characters in the soap opera. None of you are real. Nothing that happens in the soap opera is real.
You can tell because none if it actually affects you. If a fire rages on the soap opera, you are not burned. If your character in the soap opera is murdered and dies, you do not die. You are unaffected by everything that happens on the soap opera. And you are also aware of everything that happens on the soap opera.
If you forget you are watching a soap opera and believe that you actually are the character you are playing, then the mischief, confusion and suffering begins. You celebrate when your character wins the lottery or marries his beautiful co-star. You cry and moan when your character gets cancer or divorced. And celebrating and crying are all part of the soap opera. But when you know who you are, when you know you are just watching this whole show and unaffected by all of it, you no longer believe it.
You play your part. And this part may be quite different from the part you played when you believed your role was real. You may even play the part of someone who tells the other characters this is just a soap opera and they are really perfectly okay no matter what is happening on the soap opera. That’s not a very popular role. But occasionally some of the characters will actually listen. And a few will even remember who they really are. Perhaps they will even join you on the couch and you can laugh together about how real it all seemed and how wonderful it is that is wasn’t.
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