Anshi Zachary Smith gives a talk titled “I, Me, Mine: A Helpful Guide to the Intricacies of Self-Construction.”
The Buddha identified attachment to the notion of a separate self as, perhaps, the main problem with human existence and famously established the doctrine of “No-Self” as the key to living comfortably and skillfully with the Human Condition. Over a thousand years later Dogen insisted that the key to liberation is a particular kind of self-study. Nonetheless, the question remains, what is this “self” and how can we study it in a way that doesn’t reify it more firmly than ever?