One way to think of this dignity is to equate when you are on the path with unraveling a ball of yarn. You have wound your sense of self so tightly that it's hard to be anything other than you, a big ball of yarn. That's just who you are, not string, or threads, but a ball of yarn.
Lodro Rinzler, The Buddha Walks into a Bar...: A Guide to Life for a New Generation
buddhism, identity, sense-of-self