I Identify As.....

Everyone identifies as SOMETHING....and that's the problem.  I know, you're thinking this will be some kind of anti-woke diatribe on how everyone is identifying as something other than they obviously are, but it's not, exactly.  This is about identification in general.

As the last post showed, there are innumerable quotations on how we are NOT the body - at all. And yet, now apparently vast numbers of people (or so we're told) not only identify with their body, but identify with it in strange ways - and not just the gender thing. People identify as other races, as animals, as different nationalities, as babies, as inanimate objects. There's really no end to it, as you can now, evidently, identify as anything you want. 

But what ARE we in the first place? 

If one takes the time to actually inquire, using their God-given discrimination, they can begin to question all the things that they normally identify with.  By simply questioning if you ARE something or if you are aware OF that something, you can quickly realize that, chances are, you are aware OF it and not actually it.  For instance, although our consciousness is spread through the body, and therefore are very aware of every part of it, we still say "my body"  and not "I body".  My body, my hands, my feet, my head, my stomach, my heart, my my my.....

Similarly, we are aware of our thoughts - "My thoughts" not "I thoughts".  And our emotions and feelings, although there we tend to say "I'm sad" or "I'm happy" with is less awkward than "I am aware of sadness" etc.  But are we really sad?  On some level, we can still determine that somehow I am separate from the sadness - the sadness, like happiness, will come and it will go. None of them are permanent states, usually. 

This process is called in Sanskrit 'Neti Neti' (not to be confused with the single neti as in the nose washing pot).  Neti neti  is 'na iti na iti' or 'Not This Not This'.  As you consider, "Am I ........?"  the blank being anything - body, parts of the body, the mind, the thoughts, the feelings, whatever is arising - one can ponder it for a moment and then recognize that they are AWARE of it, not it. 

This process generally may take awhile, but bit by bit, one can see that anything they are aware of is not who or what they are. 

So what are they?  What ARE you?  

Well, I can tell you, but that's obviously not the same.  You are Consciousness.  But until you've gone through some kind of process, just telling you that means nothing, as you will not have had the direct experience of it.  (Even the word 'experience' is not exactly correct, as experience suggests an experiencER and an object experiencED - where this is direct.)

I've often given the analogy of an orange. I can describe an orange forever. But that won't give you the experience.  So you can taste an orange and that gives you the semi-direct experience.  I suggest taking it even a little further - it's more like BECOME the orange!  Except in this case (neti neti), you don't become anything, but rather removing all the things that you're NOT and then, that which you are shines as obvious. 

So while it's certainly fine if you want to identify as something, it might be nice to consider that any identification is, in essence, an illusion. We are living in a reality where we really have nearly no clue of who and what we truly are.  Even the things that we THINK we experience through our senses, are an illusion. We identify as 'seeing' things when something called light, theoretically bounces off an object, hits the eye and is translated into an image somewhere in our brain. Same with all the other senses. They're just relayed patterns.  We could be in the Matrix. Or your brain could be in a belljar in New Jersey. The point is stop putting all the identification with the out there (which includes the body), but with THAT which is experiencing it all, "in here".

(Note:  I say the body is 'out there', because as you play this game you begin to recognize that there isn't a place where the body stops and the 'world' begins. There is no here and there - only here. In fact, there is no 'out there' because ALL of it is here. It's all arising in this Consciousness, which has no real demarcations.)

Thus, if you want to 'identify as' something. Maybe identify as Presence, Awareness, Consciousness, THIS-ness, THAT-ness, the Absolute.  You're at least getting closer!! :-)

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