“Most of the time we are inside
our own ego and completely identified with it. We believe that we know who we
are. We are the one who is having all these reactions to everything around us.
The ‘I’ that gets offended, upset, angered, resentful. The one whose feelings
get hurt. The one who feels threatened or jealous or, conversely, pleased with
oneself, the holier-than-thou one, or the superior one. That’s all our ego and
it is possible, by appointing one ‘I’ as an observer, to step away from all
that, and that first step is huge. Once you practice that step over and over,
and see yourself as you are in reaction, that very seeing, without judgment or
name-calling, just plain seeing, is the beginning.”
— Ellen Burstyn
