Non Self Quotes

“In the cosmos of time, there's not a cocksucker in this room who is more than a fart in the wind!”
― Daniel S. Peña

“For Persons are selves and, in one respect at least, I was now a Not-
self, simultaneously perceiving and being the Not-self of the things around me. To this new-born Not-
self, the behavior, the appearance, the very thought of the self it had momentarily ceased to be, and of
other selves, its one-time fellows, seemed not indeed distasteful (for distastefulness was not one of the
categories in terms of which I was thinking), but enormously irrelevant.”
― Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception

“You cannot remain yourself.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Touching Peace: Practicing the Art of Mindful Living

“Give up everything, even peace.”
― Ajahn Chah, A Still Forest Pool: The Insight Meditation of Achaan Chah

“A true swarthi (interested in the Self) will become the absolute Self! This is considered paraartha (for the non-Self). A swarthi will attain the ‘Self’.”
― Dada Bhagwan

“The self can only be realized, and the realization can only happen, out of personal experience.”
― Roshan Sharma

“The crux of the second noble truth is not what you want, but the very fact that you want.”
― Andrew Olendzki, Untangling Self: A Buddhist Investigation of Who We Really Are

“Beloved one

You are not something that has been created.

You did not come into the realm of being from non-being.

You are a wonderful manifestation like a pink cloud on the top of a mountain or a mysterious moonlit night.

You are a flowing stream.

The continuation of so many wonders you are not a separate self.

You are yourself but you are also me

You cannot take the pink cloud out of my fragrant tea this morning

And I cannot drink my tea without drinking my cloud

I am in you and you are in me

If we take me out of you then you would not be able to manifest as you are manifesting now

If we take you out of me I would not be able to manifest as I am manifesting now

We cannot manifest without one another

We have to wait for each other in order to manifest together.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh

“One's thinking about me makes me feel this self; one's not thinking about me leaves me in this self that exceeds me."-"At least disappear in this thought.”
― Maurice Blanchot, The Step Not Beyond

“I sometimes think, in fact, that one of the most precious skills a human being can learn is this way of looking at things as 'not me, not mine'. The joy, freedom, and understanding it can open are profound indeed.”
― Rob Burbea, Seeing That Frees: Meditations on Emptiness and Dependent Arising