The quote from my calendar the other day was:
“Zazen isn’t about blissing out or going into an alpha brainwave trance. It’s about facing who and what you really are, in every single g*****m moment.”.
-Brad Warner
The guy who said it is listed in Wikipedia as a Soto Zen priest, author, blogger, documentarian and punk rock bass guitarist. He also worked in Japanese monster movies and blogs for the Suicide Girls.
This really struck me because, to start, the quote itself points out that the real point of meditation is figuring ourselves out, and that once we get ourselves sorted out the rest will fall into place. And then, the guy who said it — quite a lot of facets to that guy. That served as a secondary reminder that “ourselves” isn’t just one facet of one person. We have many facets. Throughout the day, we’re many people.
That actually kinda takes the pressure off. In searching for “our true selves”, we don’t have to settle on the one “true face” we’ll always wear in every situation until the end of time. We just have to find that place of peace and openness, from which we can freely interact with all the changeable places and things and people that we’ll encounter (or even be!) throughout our lives. It isn’t a “final answer”, it’s a starting one.
Nynia in the Now 
For me, everything in life is contextual — everything is a reaction to something else. This is just as true for ourselves and so, in my mind, this is why we have different selves, as you aptly point out. The “me” of this moment won’t be the precise “me” of the next moment — I can never catch up to “me” because I’m always changing into someone else.
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Exactly! Reminds me of the Heraclitus lines… something like, “A man does not step twice into the same river”, or “We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not.” I love those. Poetic and simple reminders!
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