8
" All that I know is that I am.
I can know that the self is not me, because I can inquire into it, deconstruct it until it seems to dissolve, or just leave it alone, and yet I still exist. The body is not me, because it appears, changes, and eventually ceases to exist. Consciousness, too, is heir to movement and impermanence, and I am not solely that either. What remains when all else is removed is the silence that is a still, infinite, boundless, permanent, un-cancellable nothingness from which all springs.
And this Absoluteness never changes.
I can only say that I am this. "
― , 13 Pillars of Enlightenment: How to realize your true nature and end suffering
11
" The self is a story of who you are. The biological body has no ability to make up any stories, and consciousness has no need to do so. The practical mind merely goes about its business of making practical decisions and thinking without unnecessary emotions. But the self has been forged by millions of years of ideas, experiences, culture, history, biology, evolution, teachers, nature, education, religion, and all manner of influences. "
― , The Self is a Belief: The idea that causes suffering
14
" The two-sided coin of pain and pleasure keeps the 'I' in force. Most suffering is caused in this unending and troubling cycle, because desire becomes the overriding goal of the self. It wants things, and if it is denied them it becomes angry, frustrated, depressed, violent, sad, anxious, jealous, envious, miserable, boisterous, agitated, divisive, sorrowful, and troublesome. In other words, it is in a conflict that is self-induced and ultimately self- sabotaging. "
― , Consciousness: The Potentiality of All Existence: Exploring reality and belief as a subjective experience