I saw there was no self; that selfishness was all folly, and the result of circumstance; that it was only because I thought self real that I suffered; that I had only to live in the idea of the all; and all was mine.*
Margaret Fuller

Being put in our place by something bigger than ourselves is not a humiliation; it should be accepted as a relief from our insanely hopeful ambitions for our lives.**
Alain de Botton

The ego serves a purpose, and
then it is a hindrance;
We move from dependence to
independence, but are then
prevented
from moving to interdependence where
“all is mine”:
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.^

It isn’t a once and for all experience –
We humans know how to lose a good thing – but
the power to find it again each day is
within each of us.

*Dacher Keltner’s Awe;
**Alain de Botton’s Religion For Atheists;
^Walt Whitman, from Dacher Keltner’s Awe.