John,

I love this line of reasoning, and appreciate the Shakespeare perspective on how to dance through life. In regards to no-self, there is a perspective that may settle confusion. Its not that there is no true sense of self inside us, rather there are many selves. We cultivate the sense of selves that lead to liberation, and drop those which lead toward delusion.

One teacher of mine described it in a story. Imagine we are standing outside our home and see a bunch of bullies picking on our sister. It is a sense of self that motivates us toward helping our sister (family identity)… she is a part of a ‘we’ or ‘us’ that arises in the mind. Then we come inside and she grabs the toy that we wanted to play with and a different sense of self arises (personal happiness) and we become frustrated with our sister (now ‘other’) because she has our toy.

The goal then becomes discerning which sense of selves lead us toward liberation… ie the motivation for the 8fp. Its like holding on to the door of a cage because we know it is a door. When it opens, the sense of self dissolves and we are free to fly. If we attempt to deny self, it is like pretending we’re not in a cage, and we suppress the aspects of self and painful emotions which would otherwise bring us information about the door.

With warmth,
Matt