““The self does not exist “from its own side,” [...] as an object that can be isolated and defined. The more you search for it, whether through meditation, philosophical inquiry, psychological analysis, or dissection of the brain, you will not, in the end, discover any “thing” that corresponds to it. Nonetheless, this is not to deny that a self exists. It exists, but not in the way we instinctively feel it to exist. An empty self is a changing, evolving, functional, and moral self. In fact—and this is the twist—if the self were not empty in this way, it would be unable to do anything. For such a hypothetical self would be utterly disassociated from everything in the living world, existing in a purely metaphysical sphere, incapable of either acting or being acted upon.””