The intense, direct experience of my own inner world had fundamentally anchored my sense of identity. I had learned to watch and observe the moment-to-moment parade of impulses, insecurities, memories, plans, fantasies, and fears that made up my mental reality. The “self” inside me that did that observing was something different from—and stronger than—the thoughts, insecurities, and fears themselves. Ironically, a religion that teaches there is no self had helped me to find my identity.
