Some people believe in some kind of unitary self in which we have one perspective, one set of thoughts and desires, and that any kind of inner contradiction is a sign of moral weakness or mental illness.

This makes no sense if you truly observe yourself or others. If you only had one true thought then why do you have inner conflict. If you experience self-hatred, how could that be possible? A pencil only has one point and cannot write upon itself, but we can turn the gaze backward and judge and scrutinize every action—that is a part of us scrutinizing other parts of us.

Truly it is normal to have a multiplicity of thoughts and perspectives, a tangle of contradictory impulses and longings, and it is from the recognition and acceptance of that multiplicity that we come into a coherent inner consensus on who we are and what we stand for. Yet it is hard to appreciate this multiplicity, let alone allow it to make music rather than noise, when we’re fighting to make one part dominant and the other parts inferior or excluded.

This morning the image of a rattler comes to mind, a hollow gourd filled with beans that we can shake to make music. Meditation is like becoming that gourd, allowing our thoughts and feelings to separate out from each other without needing any of them to justify their existence. You might wish to try on this image as you go about your day, being a hollow gourd in which your many thoughts and feelings rattle around, keeping rhythm and becoming music.