The next teacher featured in Buddha's Daughters is Sylvia Boorstein, one of my favorites, partly because an interview with her was one of my very
first BellaOnline articles. She helped found the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. The following paragraph is from her essay 'The Three Marks of Existence' and talks about her first direct experience of anatta, or no-self:
"...it was a complete surprise to me, some years into my retreat practice, to be practicing walking meditation, sensing physical movements and sights and smells and heat and cool, and realizing that everything was happening all by itself. No one was taking that walk: 'I' wasn't there. I
was there a few seconds later, recovering my balance after the 'uh-oh' feeling of 'if no one is here, who is holding me up?' I thought, 'This is wild! There really
isn't anyone in here directing the show. It is all just happening...'
- Sylvia Boorstein, 'The Three Marks of Existence', Buddha's Daughters
