⁸It is actually not my goal here to define what self is, I am merely considering how phenomena typically associated with “self” are related to suffering, amplifying or even producing it. In fact, there is some ambiguity in this chapter regarding whether self in, say, self-evaluation is the target of evaluation or the system that evaluates; and whether self-evaluation can be seen as a process that somehow leads to the emergence of self or whether self-evaluation takes some “self” that is already defined and then evaluates its performance. Similar ambiguities hold for self-preservation, as well as the further discussions of self-related phenomena in later chapters, in particular, self as control in Chapter 11 and self-awareness in Chapter 12. It is related to the distinction between the “I” and “me” aspects of self, i.e. self as subject or object, described by William James.