Letting Go
When the thinking mind is quiet and the attention careful, all of a sudden we “get it.” We take a step a realize the no one took it - there are just the sensations of body movement along with sights, perception, impulses. … In the light of awareness, the constructed self of out identification relaxes. And what is seen is just he process of life, no self nor other, but life unfolding as part of the whole.
From The Wise Heart, Jack Kornfield.
As I was reading the chapter on the illusion of self I kept getting stuck in the same place - it is hard for me to imagine letting go of my sense of self, almost impossible actually. But as I was reading the paragraph above something clicked - I have been to that place before and it was awesome.
The name I have for that feeling is Flow. Wikipedia says:
Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.
You know the feeling, when you’re doing something - writing, creating, programming, playing a game and everything just clicks. You don’t need to think about the next step, you just do it. You don’t need to look for the button to press, your hand is already there. Challenge after challenge show up and you just sail through them. The only way to describe that feeling is Wow!
The most amazing thing is that (in the rare times) when I’m there, I really am not aware of myself. There is no doer, there is only the doing, the process unfolding and it’s not at all scary.