Our whole life revolves around ourselves. We think of ourselves all the time. In particular, we get an identity from the social situations that we find ourselves in. A lot of the thought that revolves around ourselves centres on the topics of, “How do I fit in? Do I belong? Do they like me, or do they not like me? Do they realise how wonderful I am? Do they see through all my junk inside? Do they appreciate me? Do they recognise my talents? Do they honour me? Do they respect me? Do they treat me well?” And on and on. Always thinking about ourselves, always trying to fit in and get some acknowledgment from other people, and continuously getting upset when we do not feel like we are acknowledged the way we should be. Competing with other people, being arrogant to them, and being jealous of them.

This whole psychological mess that we find ourselves in and all these thoughts that we waste our time thinking are all centred on the concept of “I”. We need to check to see if that “I” that we are so protective of actually exists. That is one thing to challenge. Another thing to challenge is if it is the centre of the universe and if it is actually so important. The third thing is, instead of trying to get our feeling of self-respect from how we think other people think of us, we must incalcate confidence in our Buddha nature, and our potential to become a fully awakened being and act from that space. If we have some confidence in that Buddha nature, we know that there is no big “I” in there to have to prove or to be insecure about. Instead, we can open our hearts and care for others and in that way progress along the path and have a mind that is a lot more peaceful at the same time.

“365 Gems of Wisdom” e-book is out now!