Notice how often this sense of “I am” arises in relation to our bodies, particularly when we are comparing our bodies, in one way or another, to other people’s. Notice, then, how many different thoughts and emotional patterns get triggered through these comparisons, how many projections we get lost in: “If we buy this product, we will be like, or look like, the perfectly beautiful beings advertising it.” Because the comparison is such an obvious ruse, the fact that it often conditions our behavior points to its appeal to some deeply rooted pattern in our psyche. In seeing the body as a
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