There are two parts to our question of what it is to be oneself: to be, and to be oneself. If you read the literature from many different traditions and teachers, you will see that they keep saying there is no self, but they also refer to being oneself. They say you need to be free from yourself, but at the same time they also say that you have to be yourself. How can that be? How can there be no self, but at the same time you need to become yourself? This is usually not explained. Of course, we often do not think to ask this question. The precise understanding of what it is to be oneself is not a simple one. We could even be free from the self, from the ego, and still not know what it is to be oneself. – Diamond Heart Book Two: The Freedom to Be, ch. 2
