People often become confused about selflessness because they sense a continuity in their experience. But selflessness does not imply a lack of continuity. When we think of a seed becoming a sapling and then becoming a tree which bears fruit, we find a continuity in that process even though there is no single element which is carried through from the seed to the fruit. The seed does not move up through the trunk of the tree into the fruit. It’s a lawful process of becoming, but there is no single element or self carried through. The Flavors of Anatta: Reflections from a Theravada Perspective
~ Joseph Goldstein