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Letting Go of Our Sense of Self
Today the usual Western model that “you need a strong self” in psychotherapy—strengthening self first, then meditation—conflicts with Buddhism’s insight of no-self. In psychotherapy, low self-esteem is seen as the root of many mental disorders and high self-esteem as desirable; Buddhism shows that both high self-esteem (arrogance) and the “complex of equality” are equally foundations of suffering, all arising from comparison. Only with the insight of no-self—no one to compare—do these complexes fall away.
The three complexes born of comparison:
- Low self-esteem
- High self-esteem
- Complex of equality
Plum Village turns theory into lived practice: breathing, walking, eating with mindfulness to experience no-self. Breathing in, “I invite my father in me to enjoy breathing in,” reveals that human, animal, vegetable and mineral ancestors breathe with us, showing our continuity (santāna). One mindful in-breath or step can break the notion of self, bring insight, and liberate both ourselves and all our ancestors.
