Some things are repeated again and again, in our tradition as well as in others.
One that is very much stressed is that the biggest and most terrible danger is thinking about oneself.
This is considered almost a definition of evil, being self-centered.
In a practical and spiritual way, the less I am motivated by my ego in every way, in every form, the more I am able to become a receptacle, a vessel, for receiving what is there.
It is something in the air.
I have to have an instrument that can pick it up.
We have a soul—we have it all in us.
We make too much noise.
If I am always listening to myself, I cannot listen to any other thing that passes through me.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz