To study the self is to forget the self.

[stardustpilgrim]

Study here means observe, it's not a psychological examination, it's self-study. Two aspects are necessary, self-observation and self-remembering. self-remembering has nothing to do with the self we study in self-study. In self-observation we come to forget the self, the imaginary self. self-remembering, the practice, is like trying to cross a 100 foot chasm with a 99 foot rope. The 99 foot rope is the (imaginary) self (but we don't know that at first, then it's theoretical, until it isn't). Crossing the chasm is impossible, with self. self-remembering is "A man is unable to explain what he himself is". We practice, practice forms the necessary one foot, one whole rope. The 99 feet are nothing without the one foot. self-observation is nothing without self-remembering. But the one foot is nothing without the 99 feet. What is impossible with the 99 foot rope, is possible with the one whole rope. Rope = energy. The one foot becomes one whole new rope, the practice self-remembering becomes the state of self-remembering. You can't pour new wine into an old wineskin. AKA Hermeticism, or alchemy, using different words.

The thread title comes of course from Dogen.