Read time approximately 2 minutes.
Without labels, there is only movement.
Tension.
False self.
All of it.
There’s the ocean. The tide rolling in. The wave, the sea foam, the spray.
We know it’s all ocean—but sometimes it’s more useful for a wave to be a wave.
Navigating all these labels is deceptively tricky.
It’s a matter of convenience, really.
We don’t question it.
What is the nature of the ripple that rides the water?
What is the nature of this tension which ripples within the body?
Who is this thing we call the self? (Hint: not a thing.)
Zen often tells us: You are the ocean, not the wave.
Sometimes we remember.
Sometimes we forget.
At times we say, Why am I so tense?
Other times we say, Why do I feel so tense?
What’s the difference?
Is it just semantic wordplay?
Or is something deeper being revealed?
You are not tension.
You do feel tense.
So… what is this tension when it’s left unlabeled?
Here’s the thing: none of these things is a thing.
Movements.
Patterns.
Echoes—yes.
But not a thing.
Not a thing.
Movement, not mover
We confuse the movement with the mover.
But the ripple isn’t a thing—just an effect.
You are not the tension.
You’re not even the “I” that feels the tension.
You can go from self… to self-less.
As I wrote in The Five Phantoms of Ego:
Nothing is not actually “no thing.”
Absence is not loss. Therefore selflessness is not a sacrifice.
This is more than poetic wordplay.
It’s a realization—not a thing.
Are you the movement?
Not quite.
You’re the space through which it moves.
Labels muddy the waters.
But there’s no need to untangle the whole knot.
Just loosen one string at a time.
You don’t need to solve the false self.
Just stop clinging to it.
If you’re tired of holding on—let go.
Try this:
Ride the wave.
Don’t become the ripple.
Feel the ripple.
Feel it fully.
Let it echo throughout your body.
Let it radiate through every cell.
Soak it in.
Transform the nature of this tension.
It’s not you—but it’s not wrong either.
It doesn’t define you.
It’s just an experience, passing through.
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