Hi Simon,

Great article! Thanks for sharing.

As a daily meditator, I have found the mind to indeed be more (or less!) than it seems. It is a core component of Buddhism that everything changes. Among all that change, Buddhism challenges us, where is it that we find a permanent thing to call "self"?

But, "nonself" is not how we typically experience reality. We feel whole and connected. We feel like an agent in the world. It feels like things are happening "to us". Everywhere we go, we feel the world interacting with the "self".

This is why there's an important difference between knowing something intellectually and knowing it experientially. Intellectual knowledge will not cause us to abandon our firmly held beliefs in the self. It is only by experiencing "nonself" for ourselves (through meditation or artificial means) that has the capacity to release the grip these beliefs have on our minds.

It is this experiential knowledge that has the potential to transform our perspectives and our lives.

Cheers!

Jeff