Relationships and The Sense of "Me"

(by unknown)

It is in our relationships with one another, that our buttons get pushed most easily and that we come up against the sense of "me" and "my territory" and "my way" being violated or thwarted. Relationships provide tremendous opportunities to look into what is at the root of all this hurt and conflict that human beings experience. What is it we are defending? For me, it seems as if my very life is somehow threatened when someone questions or seems to be defying "my way". When I look into it, I see that it isn't so much the particular opinion or way of doing things that I'm fighting for, it's that sense of "me".

Can we look and see if this "me" is really here? Let us listen to the stories we tell ourselves and each other, and notice how a single thought can generate feelings of depression, elation, anxiety or bliss. This is immense work, to sit with all the feelings, to explore, listen, discover what's here. Not once and for all, but this moment. And this moment. And this moment. This work is to see the awesome power of our habitual reflexive tendencies, and to discover that in this moment, in open listening, they do not have to continue.