Jeff Shore is a good friend, and I consider him one of the most sholastic professors I have ever met on a personal basis. Nevertheless, his ability to teach something as experiential as meditation in astounding. Last Thursday evening, a small group of us met him in Conway for a lecture. He wanted to do something practical, and discuss the concept of no-self at the same time, which he did quite well.
He began by describing a framework for understanding our current experiences, which is like a see-saw and we are never at rest. Even when near rest, the complex is at it’s most unstable point. It is the self that wants this satisfaction, and it will corrupt all the pure things like love and generousity if it can’t have it, which it never will.
The way to short-circuit this process is through meditation, which stops feeding the fires of self, and thus it strangles itself.