Understanding the social, cultural and geographical contexts of Buddhism

The world is increasingly getting obsessed with selfpromotion and the thinking that it alone can bring about peace and progress.

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The growing selfie culture is a manifestation of this daily obsession, backed by the technology of the day. Often, a ‘perfect’ identity is carefully curated on social media with a focus on the self.Swayed by the glitter of social media, there appears to be no actual pursuit of knowing the inner self. Eventually, this relentless self-promotion is leading to distress. The fear of having less and the desire for more have contributed to a balance sheet of unhappiness.

It's perhaps the right time to re-read the teachings of the Buddha, who argued thousands of years ago that the self is an illusion -- and that our belief in it is the cause of most, if not all, of, our sufferings. Poring over ancient Buddhist texts, Jay L. Garfield, Maria Heim, and Robert H. Sharf have teamed together to dismantle notions of the self in How To Lose Yourself: An Ancient Guide to Letting Go .Their suggestion? “Better to lose your self!” The writers contend that Buddha had argued for letting go of the self, which allows us to see more clearly the innumerable causes and conditions that come together to create our experience and that make us who we are. “When we allow our fantasies of self to dissolve, we discover instead the radically interdependent nature of our existence.”