We often imagine the “self” as something deep inside — a core, a center, a solid identity we must discover or protect. But in meditation, something remarkable becomes visible: The self doesn’t live at the center at all. It lives at the edges  — wherever craving defends or pursues something. Whatever craving wants, we call me . Whatever craving rejects, we call not me . The self is not a stable essence. It is a border drawn by longing, fear, and preference. And every time we

There is a moment each morning that most of us miss—a quiet doorway between sleep and waking where a new consciousness forms. Today, during my morning meditation and qigong, I had an insight so clear and experiential that it deserves to be shared. As I woke, I noticed something subtle: The consciousness that rose this morning was not the same consciousness that fell asleep last night. It wasn’t just a shift in mood or energy. It was a different being  awakening, a fresh const

How Morning Craving Programs the Mind — and How We Unwound It Most people think their habits are made during the day. I’ve learned, through years of hypnotherapy work, that habits are actually created in the first 8–45 seconds after waking . That first moment is the doorway. One of my clients — we’ll call him “G.” — came to me with a pattern that might feel deeply familiar: “I wake up and immediately start feeding. I don’t even choose it. It just takes over.” At first glance

The Ghost Within In Buddhist teaching, the hungry ghost  — preta  — is a being trapped in endless craving. Its mouth is tiny, its stomach vast, and nothing it consumes ever satisfies. But this image is not about some far-off realm; it is a mirror for the mind that has lost its center. Whenever we are ruled by wanting — more comfort, more attention, more escape — we are walking in the hungry-ghost world . The ghost hungers not only for food or pleasure, but for the feeling of

The Buddha’s Vision of Reality In the quiet of his awakening, the Buddha saw that all things — the body, the mind, even the mountains and stars — are without self . What we call a “self” or an “object” is not an independent thing but a collection of conditions : arising, changing, and dissolving in endless flow. This insight is called anattā , the principle of non-self . It means that in the deepest truth, there is no “me,” no “you,” and no “thing” that stands alone. Everyth

A reflection on the Buddha’s correct perspective There was a time I wondered if the Buddha had gone too far. When he spoke of the “self” as illusion, I thought perhaps he missed something—that we were not the individual leaf on the tree, as he described, but the whole tree , the great Self, the All of All. But then a voice within asked: “If you are the Self… who recognizes that? If you are the All… who is there to know  this?” And like that, the illusion shattered again. Beca