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RE: Discussion - Towards the Future: Creating a better World We All Want to Live In
In my opinion, self-mastery is the ability to act rather than react. In a way, it is the ability to choose.
People think they have that ability already, but usually that is an illusion. Kind of like what you have already said about the gum wrapper. Even such a more or less trivial situation requires mindfulness.
Ah yes, "responding rather than reacting," long a favorite teaching point. And, as you say, most people don't have it... it remains a life-long practice to simply be the observer, recognizing that my ego is arising and then falls away again, upon being recognized for what it is.