When a traveler arrives at a hotel, he negotiates a price for a room and
informs the staff of how long he will be staying. But as he gets comfortable
there, he may begin to feel like the hotel is his home, and after a while he
forgets about moving on. When the management tells him that he must give up
the room, he refuses to leave. “This is where I live! Why should I leave?”
There is some misunderstanding, and it leads to strife.
When we start to identify with our bodies and minds and think of this life
as ours, then we are similar to the traveler who doesn’t want to leave the
hotel. We have a wrong idea about this temporary stopping place, and we find
ourselves always in struggle and conflict.
Ajahn Chah, from Being Dharma (Shambhala)