Notice the different feelings evoked ... - Dhamma by Ajahn Jayasāro

Notice the different feelings evoked by the words ‘this body’ and ‘my body’, ‘this pleasure’ and ‘my pleasure’, ‘this pain’ and ‘my pain’. Observe how the sense of ownership arises, how it feels, and how it passes away. The sense of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ is not always present in the mind. When it arises, suffering appears. When it passes away, suffering ceases.

When a human being emerges from its mother's womb we say it's born. This kind of birth occurs only once in every lifetime. But in Buddhism the word ‘birth’ has a second meaning. It refers to the arising of the sense of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ in the mind, and all of the suffering that comes with it. The kind of birth takes place a great many times every day. We could say that in our practice of meditation we are learning a natural means of birth control. The non-arising of the sense of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ means the end of birth and with it the end of death. The Buddha called this Nibbāna, the Deathless Realm

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