The Habits of the Separate Self
By Don Iannone

We are in certain ways.
Habit defines the ways we are,
yet our habits are not who we are.

Look beyond your habits
to find true nature.
Look at what you do
in any particular moment you choose.
It doesn't matter which moment you choose
since all are one and the same.
Look at what you feel and think
in that particular moment.
Again, it doesn't matter which moment you choose.
If you look closely
you'll find them everywhere,
that is your habits--
those programmed ways of being
we imagine ourselves to become.

You lie beyond your habits.
That is the real you,
resting beyond all thought and conditioning,
and resting beyond you--
in the sense of there being a separate you.

You,
as you think you are,
don't exist.
Observe closely.
You will find nothing--
beyond what your mind creates.
Just mere illusions seeking permanence.
All are disappearing footprints in the sand
your mind has created
to give permanence
to the you that simply doesn't exist.

Your mind tells you
these footprints, and even the sand, are evidence
that you exist separately from all else--
as though there is any other.
No you.
No other.
No longer even any habits,
or footprints left to disappear.
How can that which doesn't exist disappear,
let alone leave any trace?

Say goodbye to your separate self
and all of its habits.
Say hello to the shared one
we all are.