Here you go.
8/14/2023 On that That that That is, and that This is not.
"This" vs "that" is a distinction meaning "near" vs "far" (from the speaker perspective).
Let us assume without having to say it that the speaker is a seeker, better yet one who has attained wisdom, who speaks toward that which is most meaningful and most important. You, for example, focussing on your higher purpose and goal.
Needing a pronoun to refer to that higher purpose and goal, which would you use, "this", or "that"?
"This", the thing that is near as opposed to far, is more related to self by its very nearness to the speaker. Cognitively, merely because it is nearby to self, it is associated with self; it characterizes self.
For example: see "this" in my hand? It is near to me, I am its holder, its relative center, speaking to you as the central character in the drama of the holding of "this". This very trivial drama is my limitation, I play not only the role of center relative to this which is nearby to me, but I am bound to an emotional constraint as its neighbor, holder, owner, doer, and the proper focus of my and others' social attention, being as I am near this focus of attention, this "this". All of which implicitly says, me, me, me. Here I am, me with "this".
No it's not exactly painful, especially if "this" is something praiseworthy, and your nearness characterizes you by a vicarious praiseworthiness, some kind of goodness by association. But it's bound.
And the point is to go beyond being bound. To be unbound. To flow. To expand. To become the infinite. To recognize the non-limitation of self. Something that when you grasp it with your hand, or when you have the thought of grasping it with your hand, evaporates. Because you there, your grasping, your hand, your mere adjacency to the thing, those are all character and characteristic of self, as soon as they cross your identifying mind, as soon as you recognize you are in the role of doer, holder, center, and characterizee. Instantly: bondage.
Emotionally, "this" supports the egoic perspective. Everything that constitutes a This constitutes a support for ego. Yet wisdom is abandonment of ego.
Therefore: That.