Who We Are

I am going to attempt to explain who we are, in the simplest of terms. It is very hard to describe something when the person you are talking to has no idea what it is. Can you explain what music sounds like to someone thats never heard music before? Can you explain the concept of water to a fish? So how then, can I explain to you, who you are? Are you thinking right now, I can’t because you know who you are? You know you are John Smith, or Jane Doe, you have an address, you have hobbies, you have a career blah blah blah…. That is not who you are. That is the illusion you have made yourself to be. If I were to strip you naked, take away your identification, erase all your personal documents from the system, and then ask you to tell me who you are, could you tell me? How could you prove it? You would keep on telling me who you believe you are, but with no proof to back it up, so why would I, or anyone for that matter believe you?

That is how hard it is to explain who you are. But now you must question, why is it so hard? Why can’t you prove it? You cannot prove it, because anything that is external, outside of yourself, is not you. They are all things that you have come to identify yourself with, and you believe those things to be you. We grow up with these things telling us who we are, and it becomes so convincing, so real, that we cannot see it any other way. We become blind to the fact that we have associated ourselves with things that are outside of ourselves, and in the process, we remain totally ignorant. Your grasp on those external objects, prevents you from learning who you are. It’s a catch 22. You cannot learn who you really are, until you’ve stripped yourself naked and asked the question.

Sadly, in this day and age, materialism is what we identify with. We believe we are the house and car we own. But then one day, life suddenly becomes boring, or stale. You long for something you can never quite grasp, something you can’t name, but know you want it anyway. Many people think that finding the perfect lover would ease their suffering, and it might, for a little while. But sooner or later that longing always comes back, never quite satisfied, but never quite hungry enough to search for the real answer.

So what is the real answer? I’ve already demonstrated that when you are stripped naked of all things, you cannot prove anything at all, you have no name, you have no identity, you’re just another person in an endless sea of people. You walk this earth with no identity. But that is only if you are expecting your identity to come from the external world. If you cannot let go of your external obsession, you will never learn who you are. The real answer lies within.

It is the ego that identifies with the external world, can you see now, how the ego, is not who you are? Everything you do in the external world, is your ego. Your ego is what creates your thoughts, your judgements, your experience of everything in this life. It is fed from the 5 physical senses of the body, which are also external things. The 5 senses and the ego, are one and the same. We feel pain, the ego feels pain, we feel pleasure, the ego feels pleasure. We feel pride, greed,good, evil, so does the ego. This is how the ego identifies itself, and because the experience is so real, you too, identify, not with yourself, but with the ego.

So how do you learn who you really are? How do you find some way to prove it to yourself? When someone tells you to go within, what does that even mean? What does going within, have to do with anything? Going within is a stupid idea, it doesn’t even make sense, we live in a physical world, so everything must be physical. There is no within. All these questions and thoughts, are the ego trying to grasp onto its identity, it becomes filled with fear the second you try to ask the question of who you are. It will continually spit out more and more questions and random thoughts to completely distract you from asking the question. So most of us never do. Most of us never even think to ask the question, and if we do ask it, the ego finds a way to stop you from seeking the answer.

There is a great truth that goes concealed from humanity, because of this. It has been hidden for thousands of years, yet it is in plain sight everywhere we look. Hidden in plain sight, if everything external, is not you, then what is left? All that remains is you, so therefore the answers must be within you. So now in order to answer that burning question, you must learn how to silence the ego.

This is a very simply thing to do, but it takes just enough dedication and practice that the ego makes up excuses not to do it. It makes such a convincing case, that you ask yourself why you’d even want to know, so time goes on, and you once again identify with the ego. However, if you do use a little dedication, and we’re talking, 10 minutes per day, you will indeed answer the question of who you are, and it won’t take very long to do that. When you do go within, once you have gone within enough times, with enough practice, you will find some very sacred treasures. You will feel energy within your body. Once you become more and more conscious of that energy, that energy will then start moving, and when it moves, it will give you revelations in to the very nature of who you are. You will eventually have a direct self realization of god. You will learn that you are divine, that the kingdom of god is within you. That you are pure energy. A multi-dimensional being, that is simply here on earth at a lower vibration to experience physical life. Sadly, physical life has turned into more of a life of survival than one of pleasure. It was not meant to be this way. The attachment to the material world has limited our physical experience to a point where we long for more, we long to understand who we are. When we go within, we free ourselves from this way of life, and we can only then, enjoy the physical for what it was meant to be. The great secret of life, is within.

reply to post by xxshadowfaxx


I think that was a great write-up. Well done. S&F

The great secret of life, is within.

This is simply not true. You mention social constructs as illusory and these constructs isn't what one is; this I agree with. But after you remove the ideals, you take it a little too far and say the very real physical world, that which we sense and perceive and the very senses themselves are illusory. This just isn't the case. If this were true, your inner world, as a part of the very real physical world perceived by the senses, would be just as illusory.

Vibration, energy, light—all that new age nonsense—is just as dependent on the apparent world as you and everyone of us are. Without the apparently physical world there'd be no spiritual world either.

The inner-world, the spiritual world—all of it is just another ideal, not unlike the social constructs we both agree are illusory, and not who we are.

Some of us who looked within and found all the answers were hoping for some great ascension, but im perfectly content with not ascending now. I just cant wait to see what comes next.

reply to post by Newagekid2012


Your hope for that ascension tells me that you have not found all the answers.

The real secret that comes from within, is the redirection of our creative energy, from outwards, to upwards.

reply to post by TheSubversiveOne


The physical senses are limited by the ego. When we break the ego, we can enjoy our senses for their true meaning, free of judgement. We are free, living as our true selves, as the divine would see us. As above, so below.

Originally posted by xxshadowfaxx
reply to post by Newagekid2012

 

Your hope for that ascension tells me that you have not found all the answers.

The real secret that comes from within, is the redirection of our creative energy, from outwards, to upwards.

Its great to take the inner journey, I feel we all need to do it at least once, but its wise not to let yourself get lost in there or to dally for too long because the places where you connect are on the outside reaching out to you and when you stop reaching out for them you lose something that is far more meaningful than you will ever find within.

reply to post by Shema


When you go within, and give up all your desires, all your concepts of who you think you are, and you surrender totally to the divine energies within you, you become free of all judgements, of all suffering. Which means that your physical life becomes filled with love, you are free of suffering, you are able to enjoy each and every moment, as the right now, the I AM, with nothing in the past or future to hold you back. That is what true freedom really is. In order to obtain that, you must learn to go within and surrender completely.

This is the goal of every single major religion on the planet. They all have the same message, the same wisdom. People, using their egos, have created dogma. So much dogma, to the point that the truth is totally lost. In a world full of battling egos, the truth remains hidden, in plain sight.

Originally posted by xxshadowfaxx
reply to post by Shema

 

When you go within, and give up all your desires, all your concepts of who you think you are, and you surrender totally to the divine energies within you, you become free of all judgements, of all suffering. Which means that your physical life becomes filled with love, you are free of suffering, you are able to enjoy each and every moment, as the right now, the I AM, with nothing in the past or future to hold you back. That is what true freedom really is. In order to obtain that, you must learn to go within and surrender completely.

This is the goal of every single major religion on the planet. They all have the same message, the same wisdom. People, using their egos, have created dogma. So much dogma, to the point that the truth is totally lost. In a world full of battling egos, the truth remains hidden, in plain sight.

I hear what you are saying its not as if I haven't been there done that. At the end of the day though what you
are saying is self delusion always has been always will be.

Originally posted by xxshadowfaxx
The attachment to the material world has limited our physical experience to a point where we long for more, we long to understand who we are. When we go within, we free ourselves from this way of life, and we can only then, enjoy the physical for what it was meant to be. The great secret of life, is within.

What else is there besides this world? Are you not the one longing for more by inferring spirit worlds and disregarding the physical, observable, and prominent world that we all know?

So I offer you a different approach: The ego isn't that which identifies with the world, but that which identifies with the individual only. And therefore, to transcend the ego, one must identify with everything. That is unity. So it is seen that I am everything that I see and everything that I don't see (as long as it exists)

reply to post by xxshadowfaxx

Your post really resonates with me, as I have been experiencing a kind of separation of self, you could say. I've had the revelation that there is the ego, the self, the one, and then beneath that, buried deep within for some, is the pure, unadulterated consciousness, the everything, the all.

I feel like when I go to work, or participate in other activites externally, I have to put on this ego mask just so I can live my life within the "social norms." Lately however, the need to remove this mask and live as the REAL me, which isn't me at all, but a conscious whole, is becoming far stronger and more necessary feeling.

My intuition has been telling me that if I can acheive this, which I will, I can accomplish anything.

Thank you for sharing this post, my friend.

reply to post by smithjustinb


When you realize you are one with everything, there is no unity. Unity is part of the duality concept,and when you go within, you come to that realization of oneness, not unity. To be in unity, to to believe there is two forces, two different polarities. In our physical world, that is exactly what we see. Duality, everywhere. Duality is directly percieved by the ego. When you transcend the ego, you no longer see duality, you are capable of everything, because you not associating with a "me" so you cannot be a victim of suffering, there are no good experiences, there are no bad experiences. You enjoy each moment for what it truly is, in the right now.

So many of us live in the past and or the future, riddled with fear or anxiety, we create so many problems ,and so many limitations because of these thoughts, that we become limited beings. Life becomes an illusion of troubles and worries. When you can learn to transcend the ego, suddenly there are no troubles, there are no worries, there is no duality. In that realization, we become truly free of all suffering.

reply to post by InfinitePerspective


That is exactly the entire point of my OP.

It's nice to meet someone that can understand where I'm coming from.

Originally posted by xxshadowfaxx
reply to post by smithjustinb

 

When you realize you are one with everything, there is no unity. Unity is part of the duality concept,and when you go within, you come to that realization of oneness, not unity. To be in unity, to to believe there is two forces, two different polarities.

This is semantics. The fact is, the word I used, "unity", describes a state of non duality.

But by saying, "within" you imply that there is an outside. This is dualistic thinking. In oneness, or unity, there is no inside or outside, there is just this and it is not divided.

By labeling a spiritual withiness and contrasting it against the material world, you have created a dualistic separation, and therefore a conflicting opposition within your perception of the perceived, which constitutes the self. Therefore, you will wind up suffering.