We can use the word self to mean two different things. It can be the enlightened self, the one who is seeing and being. Or it can be the unenlightened self, caught in the ego. Sometimes these two meanings are designated with a big S or a little s.
If I was the one who got to say, I would use a little s for the enlightened self. Because this is a very unimportant normal natural self. This is just little old, you walking around doing what you’re doing. This is the little unimportant person that was born on your birthday. This is the person went to first grade with everybody else. The person who goes out to dinner. Who sleeps every night, needs a place to live, needs to have friends and a job. It’s the most boring, most normal part of you.
I would call the ego the capital S Self. With the biggest possible S you could put on it. You know one of those with all the little scrolly things on it. And you know how sometimes they put the S in it’s really big.
Self. This is the important “I need to be me” self. The “don’t tell me what to do” self.
This is all your sadness. This is all your insanity. This big S Self thinks it’s separate.
The little self, the enlightened self, the very unimportant blended with everything self.
So if I was gonna name them that’s how I’d do it. The little s for the enlightened self ,and the big S for that nasty old self-important think you’re separate Self.
Getting to the ordinary. That’s what we want.