André Duqum

It's just like, here's the shock of reality.

You're not this still, static thing.

You're actually just composed.

It's a composition of all of these forces coming together.

And I think it's really... I'm so grateful.

I think that's been one of my...

biggest points of gratitude is understanding that my identity isn't static and being able to feel the dynamism of it, to be able to feel like, you know, my body has a rushing river of atoms and really clearly feel that, you know, which one of these atoms is me?

Like, where is the focal point of my existence if everything is arising and passing away at such incredibly rapid speeds?

And you understand that, oh, it's actually okay.

It actually is rather helpful to understand that you simultaneously exist and you don't exist.

And being able to live with these two truths, like Lady Sayadaw said, you know, if you say you exist, that's true.

If you say you don't exist, that's also true.

Neither of them are lies.

And this is something that you get, you know, because you, especially when you go to these Vipassana retreats,

you're being exposed to the ultimate reality.

Like at the conventional level, you and I are having a conversation.

At the ultimate level, what's happening, right?

It's just atoms.

It's just like subatomic particles moving at really rapid speeds.

And we just happen to be like near each other.