## Highlights The self is more like a verb than a noun. To take it a step further, the implication is that without thought, the self does not, in fact, exist. In the same way that walking only exists while one is walking, the self only exists while there are thoughts about it. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hgbce5cxwakb71qw2yyg03g9)) ^m36mi1 Practically every function of the mind has been mapped to the brain with one important exception: the self. Perhaps this is because these other functions are stable and consistent, whereas the story of the self is hopelessly inventive with far less stability ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hgbcev69mfxtc6c1g2pn84t8)) ^boz0y9 the body is cross-wired — that is, all the input and output from the right half of the body crosses over and is processed by the left brain, and vice versa. This crossover is also true for vision, so that the left half of what we see goes to the right side of the brain, and vice versa ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hgbcke1by8gxy867nkchya1b)) correct answer here would have been, “I got up because you asked me to,” and “I laughed because you asked me to,” but since the left brain didn’t have access to these requests, it made up an answer and believed it rather than saying, “I don’t know why I just did that.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hgbckt6q2nm02j0g3m0qhk50)) Think about the significance of this for a moment. The left brain was simply making up interpretations, or stories, for events that were happening in a way that made sense to that side of the brain, or as if it had directed the action. Neither of these explanations was true, but that was unimportant to the interpretive mind, which was convinced that its explanations were the correct ones. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hgbcmtkvkk25dz76paa7jq29)) So, for the first time in history, the findings of scientists in the West strongly support, in many cases without meaning to, one of the most fundamental insights of the East: that the individual self is more akin to a fictional character than a real thing. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hgbcqs4thtq4ph8qaxhggq4e)) For most of us, we worry about _my_ work problems, _my_ money problems, and _my_ relationship problems. What would happen if we removed the “self” from these problems? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hgbcxfcjmpc539r4v21hkn8x)) ^6b5wve The _suffering_ I speak of occurs in the mind only and describes things such as worry, anger, anxiety, regret, jealousy, shame, and a host of other negative mental states. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hgbcxwr00yffd8m98jm3cn3r)) ^evrarn For now, the essence of this idea is captured brilliantly by Taoist philosopher and author Wei Wu Wei when he [writes](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/540671-why-are-you-unhappy-because-99-9-percent-of-everything-you), “Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself — and there isn’t one.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hgbcskmdwqxqe862jb7f255t)) ^z5r9ne