The Skin of the Onion
You think you are your name, your job, your history. This is the skin. Tough, protective, and facing the world. But it is not the substance.
You think you are your name, your job, your history. This is the skin. Tough, protective, and facing the world. But it is not the substance.
Then you think you are your body. This vessel of flesh and bone. But this is just another layer. It is constantly changing, borrowing from the earth and sky. It is not a fixed thing.
Beneath that, your thoughts, your beliefs, your precious opinions. You cling to them. But are these thoughts truly you, or just ripples on the surface?
"Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone." - Alan Watts
You have peeled the onion, looking for its core, for the ‘real you’. But there is no core. There is only the peeling. The onion was its layers, and you are not a separate self, but a process.
"You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe." - Alan Watts