D. T. Suzuki, when I was studying with him, said the ego has the capacity to cut itself off from experience--whether it comes through the senses or dreams--and it can flow with the experience. It has that capacity.
In other words, we can change our minds, so that rather than concentrating on our selves in self-conscoiusness, we can become attentive to enviroment--outside like today, or it can be, so to speak, zero in the contemplative setting.
I thought that instead of taking the conventional discipline of sitting cross-legged that I would take this other way. If I approach the world of relativity free of my likes and dislikes, so that when something happens that I don't like, instead of continuing to say I don't like it, I ask myself why don't I like it? then here is a clear possiblity of changing my mind.
I proceed from one composition to another in a similar way. And then you can take all kinds of things as guides. In other words, you can become an observer of your work and the effect of your work both on yourself and to a lesser extent on other people.
--John Cage
