Basically speaking, when you say “I am,” you begin to ask yourself the question, “Who said that?” You might say, “I said that.” But then you ask, “Who are you?” And when you look, you find it is very difficult to find out who that actually is. You might timidly come back to saying your name, thinking that this is who is speaking, but beyond the name that was given to you, nothing really exists. You may think that you exist because your name is so-and-so, or because your driver’s license says so-and-so. But if you look beyond such things, and beyond beyond, you find that there is no substance. That is ultimate prajna: it is the discovery of egolessness, which frees you from fixation.
Chögyam Trungpa
from the book The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion: The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, Volume Two
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Further quotes from the book The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion:
- Relative truth
- An immense sense of freedom
- Saddles, chairs, and green grass
- Facing the facts of life
- The sense of workability
- Putting others first
- Love is utterly kind
- A taste of enlightenment
- Living up to your inheritance
- Seeing your confusion
- Basic decency
- To work for others, you need composure
- Brush Your Teeth with Egolessness
- Just keep opening and unfolding
- Passionlessness
- Compassion and egolessness go hand in hand
- The utterly visionary quality of love
- Great Compassion is the Source of Great Genuineness