“The ‘problem’ comes up because we ask the question in the wrong way. We suppose, that is, that ‘I’ is some sort of separate ego inside a bag of skin. A center of consciousness which looks out at a world that is strange and alien. That this is a hallucination. This hallucination produces the sensation of a gap between ‘I’ and reality, and this gap is the feeling of fear, isolation, and of being a stranger in the world.

In other words, we treat ourselves as strangers in the universe, and that is a problem. Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.”

— Alan Watts