You think you are someone. You are not. And yet, here you are.

Have you ever looked into the abyss of consciousness? It’s an interesting place. If you are not careful, one day you might get shot into interdimensional space, like I did. Some people report watching themselves from above, having left their body behind. It could happen in your daily life, or in a dream. In fact, dreams become increasingly difficult to separate from waking life. What is the actual difference, really?

Perhaps you used to subscribe to the idea that your waking life is reality, while dreams are the product of your subconscious mind? Think again. What is this reality of which you speak? If you look carefully there is nothing to hold onto, nothing to stop you from falling into a big black hole of nothingness. The thought alone should be enough to make you dizzy! And what of those things you call objects, tenets of a wildly popular idea most people seem to hold true: that an objective reality exists outside of their own perception? Well, once you look carefully enough those objects start to crumble and fall apart upon closer inspection. In fact, all there is left is a stream of perception, without any permanence or independent substance. Once again, you look into the abyss, realizing there is absolutely nothing to hold on to.

“But at least there is still me, the person who observes all of this”, you might think. Well, guess what: there is actually no difference between the thing you call yourself and the thing you call the outside world. All of it is just one big stream of scattered perception, and that thing you call yourself is just one endless row of mirrors reflecting upon themselves.

What is one to do then, but accept that there is indeed nothing to hold onto? On the one hand, there is nothing to do but to actually enjoy it as a newfound freedom. No self? No world? No problem! You are free to surf the waves of the stream of perception as you please or, as traditional instruction puts it: play freely in the fields of emptiness.

But wait, don’t get too comfortable yet and think you can stay in your cozy little sphere of unlimited solipsism! Because, although there is no you, here you are. And so is the world, with dogs and cats and jellyfish and blue skies! And thus life goes on, with you and no you, with the world and no world. And yet, neither is the ultimate truth.