From Being Zen by Ezra Bayda, Chapter 7 ("The Substitute Life"):

... The practice life is about seeing through our boundaries, our artificial separations of mind, our self-images, our "someone special to be." To think that practice is about achieving some permanently enlightened state of mind—stillness or silence or whatever we want to call it—is really just a fantasy about practice. Practice has to include looking at our stuff. Living in this moment means that we're willing to be with whatever this moment holds, including all the ways we are holding ourselves back due to decisions we made in the past.

However, unlike a psychological approach, which might be directed primarily toward changing or adjusting ourselves, practice is about experiencing. It's about seeing the truth about the "self" who has constructed this substitute life. As we work in this way, we slowly dismantle this notion of a "self." In fact, the most fundamental core belief of all is "I am a me," with all of the consequent core pain of feeling separate. The more we are able to reside in this quiver of separation, the closer we come to seeing through its insubstantiality. This is the process whereby we open experientially into a vaster sense of Being. ...

^z - 2014-08-23