Diego Perez

And, you know, you pointed at this earlier where you were talking about individuals and the causes and conditions that got them here.

But you can also see that internally, they are a set of causes and conditions, that they're literally this bundle of mental and physical phenomena that have come together and are moving in these incredibly rapid speeds that create this sense of I. It makes you feel like, oh, I exist.

But when you really sharpen the mind and you point that lens inward, it becomes quite clear that...

It isn't even that there's an observer.

Even the observer itself starts melting away.

And you start seeing that that which is observing also has the quality of arising and passing away.

That your consciousness is arising and passing away.

The way that you react is arising and passing away.

So these components that come together to create the sense of I, they fluctuate just like everything else.

They're also unsubstantial.

And personally for me, that experience is quite liberating because it's

I can let myself change now.

I'm like, I am changed.

Like understanding that I am changed has been so helpful and just like, I don't have to stick to this idea of Diego.

Diego doesn't have to be this one thing all the time.

I can just keep letting myself flow, letting myself evolve, making sure that I'm existing within the confines of trying to not harm myself and not harm other people.

But then other than that, I'm free to do what I want.

I think it's been very freeing to just let my identity evolve.

Yeah, and also very liberating.

And that feeling, like I mentioned before, I'm not enlightened or anything like that, but when you think about the Buddhist teaching, it points to nibbana, the unconditioned, the truth that exists beyond mind and matter, and this experience of total freedom.