We are looking for a way to feel more real, but we do not realize that to feel more real we have to push ourselves further into the unknown.
Mark EpsteinTo be free, to come to terms with our lives, we have to have a direct experience of ourselves as we really are, warts and all.
Mark EpsteinThe central premise of this book is that the Western psychological notion of what it means to have a self is flawed.
Mark EpsteinWhile the primary function of formal Buddhist meditation is to create the possibility of the experience of "being," my work as a therapist has shown me that the demands of intimate life can be just as useful as meditation in moving people toward this capacity. Just as in formal meditation, intimate relationships teach us that the more we relate to each other as objects, the greater our disappointment. The trick, as in meditation, is to use this disappointment to change the way we relate.
Mark Epstein