This change in our perspective is just the beginning of what can be a complete transformation in the way we see ourselves.

 

We tend to see a sharp distinction between “inside” and “outside,” “self” and “other.”

These are distinctions that seem to so natural that we rarely, if ever, question them. And yet we've seen that the notion of separate internal and external worlds doesn't hold up to scrutiny. The outside world is really a product of our subjective states meeting the objective pole of our experience.

Sometimes when we’re sitting in meditation (or even walking in meditation) this distinction between inner and outer begins to blur. We begin to have a sense that there is less of a sharp distinction between these two worlds, to see in fact that they are really one world that we unconsciously split in two. Sometimes there is no distinction at all, and our awareness simply constitutes a unitary field of awareness that lacks divisions into inner and outer, self and other.

This can happen in the our practice. While cultivating lovingkindness we are learning to widen our sense of ourselves. We’re leaving behind a narrow sense of ourselves that assumes the best way to be happy is to look mainly, or even solely, after our own interests. And yet in this practice we soon learn that we are at our happiest and most fulfilled when we take other people into account by wishing them well. This change in our perspective is just the beginning of what can be a complete transformation in the way we see ourselves.