flâneur

wearing clothes - by Ava - bookbear express

ava.substack.com · 1,165 words · saved by 1 readers

I’m reading a book by Kosho Uchiyama where he writes that zazen is the self doing itself. The idea is that you always have a naked self, an awareness that’s just you: pure and unprocessed, unaltered by thought. But though we start out naked, throughout life we wear all sorts of clothes: army uniforms, monk’s robes, prison clothes, the clothes of status and fame and wealth. And for most people, the entire problem of living is

I’m reading a book by Kosho Uchiyama where he writes that zazen is the self doing itself. The idea is that you always have a naked self, an awareness that’s just you: pure and unprocessed, unaltered by thought. But though we start out naked, throughout life we wear all sorts of clothes: army uniforms, monk’s robes, prison clothes, the clothes of status and fame and wealth. And for most people, the entire problem of living is which nice clothes should I wear? If you translate that into more Freudian terms, you can phrase it as how do I best construct my ego? Of course, Uchiyama’s point is…

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