Post by popee on Jul 3, 2012 12:45:36 GMT
Identification
by Tess Hughes
Who are you really? I mean really, who or what are you? Who do you think you are?
What you really are and what you think you are, are not necessarily the same thing. It is not something most of us think about a lot. We usually accept society's definition of who or what we are.
As Douglas Harding, the great British mystic said, “You are not what you are advertised to be.” What he meant by “what you are advertised to be” is another way of saying what society has conditioned you to think—the external view of what you are.
The first line of thinking is that we see ourselves as a body. We give a description of our physical being as a description of who we are. All you have to do is look at the data given to any dating agency to see this.
Our physical appearance is a matter of major concern for most of us in the West. The attempt to enhance our looks and deny all signs of aging is a multi-billion Euro business.
The health and age of the body are seen as indicators of our prospects for how long we will live.
Death of the body is seen as the same thing as death of us.
The assumption that what we are is a body is so prevalent in our modern culture that it is not often discussed except in what are known as spiritual circles, where people are looking deeper for answers to deeper questions than are normally asked in mainstream society.
In order to check up on your own assumptions about how you identify yourself, all you have to do is listen to how you describe yourself to others.
Are you a doer? Do you speak about your experiences, your travels, your activities, your hobbies, your adventures in life? Do you see life as a series of experiences?
If so, chances are, you are identified with your activities and get your sense of well-being from accumulating experiences and from the intensity of these experiences.
Maybe you tend to describe yourself by your skills or functioning is society. Do you tend to tell people what your profession is or your role in society? Do you feel proud of your skills, talents, academic or sporting achievements?
Do you take your identity from what you own—your material assets? Do you derive a sense of security from owning things, having money, property, jewellery and so on? Do you collect items? Do you feel superior to others who own less than you do, or who are not interested in owning much?
Do you feel inferior to others who own more than you?
Do your think of yourself as your mental functioning? Do you think of your mind as your main identifying feature? Would you describe yourself as a historian, a great reader or a linguist? In other words, are your intellectual capacities a major aspect of how you think of yourself?
Are you a feeler, an emotional personality who sees itself in terms of its emotional changes? Are you one of those who describe themselves as crying at every film, suffering from depression, or happy-go-lucky?
Do you describe yourself in terms of personality attributes? Would you say you were responsible, lazy, thrifty or impulsive? What attributes would you ascribe to your personality?
Are you your personality or do you possess a personality?
How you describe yourself is the clue to your identifications and your identifications are the causes of all your suffering.
Your identifications are always in relation to others and your attributes distinguish you from those around you. All identifications rely on differences.
All identifications are unreliable and changeable.
Society operates on a consensus reality, and that consensus is heavily dependent on assumptions, which are, of course, unquestioned beliefs.
To notice your underlying beliefs and to examine them is the high road to Self, to your True Nature.
What you truly are, underneath the beliefs and the identities, is unchanging and ever-present. The problem is that most people do not even know to look for it or where to look for it.
It is under all these false identifications. It has been there all along. All you have to do is look behind the many layers of identification—these attributes by which your describe yourself.
Why not check them for reliability?
Ask yourself, Where did I get this attribute from and how did I take on this particular identification? In all cases, you will find that they are traits that you have accepted from society. You have been told by other people that you are this or that and you have accepted their word for what you are at the expense of your own direct perception and assessment.
This is the root cause of your problem—and your dissatisfaction with life is the result of you having lost contact with your true nature in favour of taking on a false nature from society. Your true nature is present; it is intact underneath all the conditioning… and it is easily discoverable.
This is the really good news… But don’t accept that from me—find out!
by Tess Hughes
Who are you really? I mean really, who or what are you? Who do you think you are?
What you really are and what you think you are, are not necessarily the same thing. It is not something most of us think about a lot. We usually accept society's definition of who or what we are.
As Douglas Harding, the great British mystic said, “You are not what you are advertised to be.” What he meant by “what you are advertised to be” is another way of saying what society has conditioned you to think—the external view of what you are.
The first line of thinking is that we see ourselves as a body. We give a description of our physical being as a description of who we are. All you have to do is look at the data given to any dating agency to see this.
Our physical appearance is a matter of major concern for most of us in the West. The attempt to enhance our looks and deny all signs of aging is a multi-billion Euro business.
The health and age of the body are seen as indicators of our prospects for how long we will live.
Death of the body is seen as the same thing as death of us.
The assumption that what we are is a body is so prevalent in our modern culture that it is not often discussed except in what are known as spiritual circles, where people are looking deeper for answers to deeper questions than are normally asked in mainstream society.
In order to check up on your own assumptions about how you identify yourself, all you have to do is listen to how you describe yourself to others.
Are you a doer? Do you speak about your experiences, your travels, your activities, your hobbies, your adventures in life? Do you see life as a series of experiences?
If so, chances are, you are identified with your activities and get your sense of well-being from accumulating experiences and from the intensity of these experiences.
Maybe you tend to describe yourself by your skills or functioning is society. Do you tend to tell people what your profession is or your role in society? Do you feel proud of your skills, talents, academic or sporting achievements?
Do you take your identity from what you own—your material assets? Do you derive a sense of security from owning things, having money, property, jewellery and so on? Do you collect items? Do you feel superior to others who own less than you do, or who are not interested in owning much?
Do you feel inferior to others who own more than you?
Do your think of yourself as your mental functioning? Do you think of your mind as your main identifying feature? Would you describe yourself as a historian, a great reader or a linguist? In other words, are your intellectual capacities a major aspect of how you think of yourself?
Are you a feeler, an emotional personality who sees itself in terms of its emotional changes? Are you one of those who describe themselves as crying at every film, suffering from depression, or happy-go-lucky?
Do you describe yourself in terms of personality attributes? Would you say you were responsible, lazy, thrifty or impulsive? What attributes would you ascribe to your personality?
Are you your personality or do you possess a personality?
How you describe yourself is the clue to your identifications and your identifications are the causes of all your suffering.
Your identifications are always in relation to others and your attributes distinguish you from those around you. All identifications rely on differences.
All identifications are unreliable and changeable.
Society operates on a consensus reality, and that consensus is heavily dependent on assumptions, which are, of course, unquestioned beliefs.
To notice your underlying beliefs and to examine them is the high road to Self, to your True Nature.
What you truly are, underneath the beliefs and the identities, is unchanging and ever-present. The problem is that most people do not even know to look for it or where to look for it.
It is under all these false identifications. It has been there all along. All you have to do is look behind the many layers of identification—these attributes by which your describe yourself.
Why not check them for reliability?
Ask yourself, Where did I get this attribute from and how did I take on this particular identification? In all cases, you will find that they are traits that you have accepted from society. You have been told by other people that you are this or that and you have accepted their word for what you are at the expense of your own direct perception and assessment.
This is the root cause of your problem—and your dissatisfaction with life is the result of you having lost contact with your true nature in favour of taking on a false nature from society. Your true nature is present; it is intact underneath all the conditioning… and it is easily discoverable.
This is the really good news… But don’t accept that from me—find out!