Who am I? Who is ‘myself’?
Q: What is the one thing motivates everything you do?
A: Your search for ‘yourself’? Does a little voice telling you that when you find ‘yourself’ you will have found all that you are looking for and be complete, full and happy?
So we seek… we chase after our desires/needs/wants only to find that having achieved them after a period of time the happiness decreases and a new desire emerges. We think that we will find what we are seeking by acquiring the objects for our desires. Our focus is all external and not internal at all. In fact there is nothing that we actually need to have/acquire/be to be complete and whole…we are already complete and whole.
Why then are we not aware that we are already OK? We have become covered with moss, seaweed and barnacles as we have travelled through life. Now we need to peal these away to reveal the shining and perfect goblet that we are. These are layers of impressions, stories, masks, veils that stop us seeing our real selves.
The deepest happiness we can experience is to be content with ourselves right here and now and experience our own inner completeness and fullness.
The 7 veils or the 7 stories that we get lost in resulting in us loosing sight of our intrinsic nature.
1) Body image. We see our physical image in the mirror and it creates an impression on our consciousness. We then create a story about it: tall or short, big of slim, pretty or not, etc. Today there is a whole industry out there dedicated to changing it, nip it, tuck it, uplift it, etc. Listen to the story you tell yourself about who you are based on your body image. Are you lost in this wrong story of you?
2) What I do. Are you lost in the story of what you do? Are you what you do? Is it not just something you do? This creates a lot of fear and tension about performance in life.
3) My Past. How much time do you spend relating your past to others? We get lost and fragmented by doing this. We make up and elaborate on our histories too so that we can impress others to get from them what we want such as: admiration etc.
4) Personality. Have you ever taken a personality profile test? Do you accept and wear the label as you? I am this sort of person… and then live within the bounds of this!
5) In Relationship. What story do you tell yourself in relation to your relationships? In families for example, I am the oldest/youngest/black sheep/good one/responsible one/etc.
6) Subtle Self Image. Do I tell myself I am a good/bad, happy/sad, naughty/nice person etc. This story shapes our self esteem and self worth. We formulate it at a young age based on what others tell us. Do you easily feel guilty or ashamed? That comes from this story. Guilt comes from believing in the subtle self image that ‘I am someone who does bad things’, and shame from ‘I am someone who is bad’. Then from these negative self images a whole cloud of negativity covers us.
7) Feelings. These are the most challenging stories and the hardest to take off. When we feel angry, sad, depressed etc we say I am angry, sad, depressed etc. We are identifying with what we feel. We are not what we feel though, you may be feeling angry but you are not the anger. Emotions come but they aren’t you, there are like the energy flares we see from sun that flash out and then die back away into the sun.
Do you see the illusion of each story?
You are not how you look, what you do, your past, your personality, your subtle self-image or your feelings. If we strip off all these veils what is left? The I that says: I am. The complete, perfect, whole, absolutely OK and needing nothing I. When you reach here you feel that you have found everything that you have been searching for. There is the experience of the deepest and most profound peace, that peace that surpasses all else. All the stories are gone and at the centre is just I that is left. Then the only thing to do then is to radiate. We radiate all the time it is just that as this passes through all those stories our natural positive radiation comes out distorted and restless. When the stories are gone…
Drop asking questions and see the self instead. Go to that space that is you and experience your own peace, love and happiness.
