Words of Wisdom for Sept. 13, 2019: David R. Loy on the Sense of Self

“According to my interpretation of Buddhism, our dissatisfaction with life derives from a repression even more immediate than death-terror: the suspicion ‘ that “I” am not real. The sense-of-self is not self-existing but a mental construction which experiences its groundlessness as a lack. We have seen that this sense-of-lack is consistent with what psychotherapy has discovered about ontological guilt and basic anxiety. We cope with this lack by objectifying it in various ways and try to resolve it through projects which cannot succeed because they do not address the fundamental issue.”

― David R. Loy,
Lack and Transcendence:
The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism

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