“Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of us all?” Who hasn’t had days like this? The hair won’t go right. The face won’t go right. The clothes won’t go right. The Ugly Stick addresses the terrible entrapment of self-loathing, moving us to locate equanimity and poise. The penetration of self-image, ‘good’ or ‘bad’, is a death into a new life. Self-image is an act of separation from the ‘pattern of relations’ and it is about the survival of that one who is subject to the self-image. With The Ugly Stick, that one dies and there is a rebirth into being a true participant bringing enjoyment to life.