I am not a human being just because I have been given that label.
I am not a female just because I have been given that label.
I am not anything just because I have been given, or independently acquired, any number of labels. I am not even ‘I’ just because I have learned to use that pronoun.
What then am…’I’…if anything…any thing?
This is the question I must actively ask, sincerely seek to answer, and live as best as I can by that answer.
I can no longer afford to assume I am something that I am not.
Who or what was/am I before I was given a name?
Before I was described as male or female or any other configuration?
Before I started describing myself as independent, fearful, anxious, Jewish, poor, not-good-enough, British, an addict, husband, mother, brother, artist, CEO, liberal, honest, humanist, conservative, teacher…?
Would you consider this important to know? Or at least to start inquiring into?
At some point, we may realize that we have entered this physical world without an identity but that we acquired one soon after…
Someone’s daughter/son/grandchild/niece/nephew…
From there on, the layers of identity keep accumulating…
But who or what were and are we still beyond all of that?
What do we risk by not inquiring into this?
The greatest and most pernicious of all our false identities is the identity of the separated self
Quite simply, we risk living our entire lives in falsehood, the greatest and most pernicious of all being the falsehood of separation.
It is out of this falsehood that all manner of suffering arises, from the mild irritations of petty disagreements to the fatal abuses of life in such forms as exploitation, avarice, destruction and deceit.
If we truly seek a different world, a world where peace is normal rather than rare or exceptional, where peace is our moment to moment embodiment, then we must give ourselves the time and space to be this peaceful self. And we will only ever find this peaceful self outside all our given or acquired identities.
This peaceful self is not a direct target to aim for. Rather, it is approached through the moment-to-moment awareness of all the things that block our view, our experience of it. And we will find all these blocks within all our false identities.
Join us tonight as we practice being present to all that is not and therefore, ultimately all that is.
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