the doctrine of "non-self" – that no unchanging, permanent self or essence can be found in any phenomenon. Buddhism research.
J said, You don’t believe in God? And I said, No. I believe in this connection we all have to nature, to each other, to the universe. And she said, Yeah, God.
I think the ego is always afraid of some detriment of loving somebody - what if it doesn’t work out? what if pain? what if loss? what if all this time and energy spent on loving is a “waste”? - the ego is afraid that it would be harmed when the love is lost. But it doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive - in fact, it isn’t. The broad congeniality of the self is contained in the act of loving someone else. The boundaries of your world are expanded; awareness is enlarged; kindness becomes a necessary act toward both the self and the other. We shouldn’t stop loving when there is no special person in our lives; they are simply a conduit, a specialized point in space which teaches us the universality and ubiquity of love.
It being my power yet also my responsibility to define, construct, communicate, and negotiate my identity. It not being that nothing is real, but that everything is real, which is the painful truth we sometimes try to avoid. Underlying it all is still love.
Yet beauty is still important to me
It may be Plato's point to suggest that when humankind talks about god, they are drawn towards creating that god in their own image.
the beauty of being <> the exhaustion of being