Where do I draw the line between self and other?

Warning.. This is only my personal opinion. Please don't mistake my musings for teachings.

Zen master huang po said, " there is no self and no other."

For me, the most interesting teaching of Zen and Buddhism, is that there is no self.

So, I often wonder, where to draw the line, between self and not self. When I'm thirsty, I will drink, this is pretty straight forward. But there are other, more subtle desires and drives begging for attention.

If I want to write a post on r/zen, debating self and other, where does this wanting come from? Is it from habitual tenancies? I have learnt that habitual tenancies aren't a self, yet they have a certain sway over the mind..

Is the desire to go against these tendancies a self? Or just a more subtle form of newly acquired habit?

Where to draw the line? It seems like a cutting off of desire, is just more desire?

So, do I just let my desires run rampant? Unhindered? Giving free reign to self that isn't really a self?

Or do I apply agency of control over desire?

Is the agency of control just a habitual response?

Do I sit in quiet meditation and just notice desires arising and ceasing, noting that the desire isn't a self?

I now notice the noticing, where does it end?

It seems to me like a narrowing down of awareness, a cutting away to see what remains beneath all the desires and thoughts..

It seems my wandering thought process has come full circle, and taken me to a point where all these thoughts are just musings arising from nothingness, taking me nowhere.

But the question remains, where do they come from?

Submitted August 14, 2020 at 02:49PM by transmission_of_mind https://ift.tt/3aqlfFe