We must unfold!

Perhaps we accept there’s no self to improve, develop, or grow.

But then we hear life is a spontaneous unfolding and ego perks its metaphorical ears.

“Unfolding, you say? I’m going to help out with that right now!”

And boom, we’re back into selfing.

No one makes the unfolding happen, no one manages or controls it. It’s a spontaneous movement of the whole universe!

But our tiny, megalomaniac egos are convinced they need to help out.

As long as there’s some belief in a doer, something will be made into a goal — something for the self to do or achieve.

The self-concept cannot lie idle.

If selfing stops, the smoke settles and the illusion fails — that’s the nature of this particular mental magic trick.

And it gives us a hint as to how the spell can be broken:

When belief and attention are totally removed from the self, the whole illusion can collapse.

Then it’s game over for the fictional character that believed it was in charge of its puny whirlpool in the infinite OCEAN.

But no one can make that happen either …

YOU already unfold, with or without belief in a separate “me.”