The World As You Experience It

(Japanese dialogue from Naruto Shippuden between Naruto & Pain)

Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of
Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe

The realest, most vivid and important person in existence
We rarely talk about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness
Because it's so socially repulsive
But it’s pretty much the same for all of us
It is our default setting
Hard-wired into our boards at birth
Think about it
There is no experience you have had
That you were not the absolute center of

[Chorus]
The world as you experience it
Is there in front of YOU
Or behind YOU
To the left or right of YOU
On YOUR TV or YOUR monitor
The world as you experience it
Is there in front of YOU
Or behind YOU
To the left or right of YOU
On YOUR TV or YOUR monitor

And so on
Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow
But your own are so immediate
Urgent
Real

Please don't worry that I’m getting ready to lecture you about compassion or other-directedness or all the so-called virtues
This is not a matter of virtue
It's a matter of my choosing to do the work
Of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default setting
Which is to be deeply and literally self-centered
And to see and interpret everything
Through this lens of self
People who can adjust their natural default setting this way are often described as being
‘Well-adjusted'
Which I suggest to you is not an accidental term

[Chorus]
The world as you experience it
Is there in front of YOU
Or behind YOU
To the left or right of YOU
On YOUR TV or YOUR monitor
The world as you experience it
Is there in front of YOU
Or behind YOU
To the left or right of YOU
On YOUR TV or YOUR monitor