Reduction of Ego
Chogyam Trungpa, in Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (Boston and London, 2002), says that “the main point of any spiritual practice is to step out of the bureaucracy of ego.” (p. 15)
In his private meetings with each of his students, Trungpa took the risk of embarrassing or irritating them by exposing their continual awareness of themselves.
It is possible to function perfectly well without awareness of oneself. To walk down a street, a person needn’t, and usually doesn’t, think of putting one foot in front of the other. To empty a dishwasher, it isn’t necessary to think of putting the dishes in the cabinets. Many activities do not require awareness of self to perform them.
Sitting zazen does promote the gradual reduction of a sense of oneself. This reduction can also be fostered outside of zazen by deliberately discarding a sense of self when a person spots it.
My life has benefitted by pursuing this practice.