Lose “Yourself”

So who are you? Some will introduce themselves as Harry or Jane, while others will identify themselves as a doctor or a lawyer. Others will state that they are a Republican or a Lakers fan. "I am tall," "I am shy," "I am sad," "I am a mother." Yes, all of these words describe you. All of these words will tell the other person a little bit about you, and from that perspective, they are all valid answers. But who are YOU really?

When the spiritual mind asks who you are, the answer might not be that easy.

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 

Everything you know about yourself is based on what you see in the mirror, what you know from people around you, and what you have experienced over the years. But all those adjectives you would use for yourself are about your human experience. It's like living in the Pixar movie "Cars," where each car has a personality, the cars hang out together and have adventures together, and they feel joy and frustration, relationships and enemies, goals and ambitions; and it is a beautiful journey to watch. For one living in the “Cars” world that is all they will ever see, they will think cars are what the world is full of,  and it will be partly true. Why not? The world just has cars; there's not a single human in sight; in fact, they probably don't even know what a human is. It's a great flight of imagination, and it is fascinating to be part of this world, but we know that's just a depiction in a movie. We know that in real life, cars have drivers. And the drivers are different from their cars. I may drive an RV today and drive a Prius tomorrow. 

So when you look at all those answers above to who you are, doesn't it feel like you are describing “the car” in passionate detail, without ever giving a single thought to the driver?

So how would one find the inner you? One necessary step is just the awareness that you are not your body; in fact you are not your mind either. Those are still associated with your physical experience, those are still features of your avatar. Everything you feel comes from your sense organs - the vision, the sound, the taste, the touch, the smell. This helps us understand that we are alive in this world. Our physical characteristics, our experiences, our opinions, our preferences, all are rooted in this avatar. To discover the real you, we need to slowly detach from our external avatar. Like a spectator watching a movie. Fully engaged, but aware that this is a movie. The trouble is, in our everyday routine we are constantly bombarded by so much sensory stimuli that it is hard to imagine a state without any of it. The “driver” never steps out of the “car”. How can we ever experience a world without senses? The answer is Meditation. 

A good meditation is when you sit in one place, eyes closed, staying still, quiet all around. When you meditate this way, you disconnect from all the senses for a short period. Not much will be coming in through the senses. What you experience then is the stillness you need. As they say, a lake that has ripples on the surface will be hard to see through to the bottom. You wait for the surface to calm, and the still water reveals the wonders beneath. 

Visit the stillness regularly, experience the nothingness. Over time, you will observe the separation of the inner world and the outer worlds. And once you do, as much as you love that state already, you also realize that this is just the beginning!