Forgetting Yourself Long Enough to Notice

To study the way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be awakened by all things.

Forgetting the self is not a feat. It happens in small leaks: the moment you stop rehearsing an argument and actually taste the coffee, the second your hand on the mug is only warm, not yours. Study looks like this. You catch yourself narrating, and you set the narrator down. Nothing dramatic arrives. The cup, the chair, the sound of your own breath simply get their turn to speak first.