When you are asked who you are, what comes back in reply? Usually it is about where you are from, what you do, your job, your family, likes, dislikes, etc. I am not asking about that content, but what are the answers constructed of?
Language is the answer, words and sentences stitched together. It is this unique attribute of humans that has evolved over the millenia. It arises in the mind and flows out of the mouth.
We describe ourselves in paragraphs, which are composed of sentences, of course. The words are made of letters and the letters are lines, dots, and arches of various sorts, just little shapes or parts of shapes.
From another viewpoint, these building blocks of our self identities are little scribbles we write or type that match with the sounds of meaning we make. We only understand because we share common languages.
An assumption of being separate comes into being in the first couple years of our lives. We are constantly told what we are from our parents. They are just talking to us, but it is a brainwashing of what they want. Then, “our” platform begins to self apply labels and categories that it is given.
As kids, more labels are forced on us by family and friends. We are collages of these people’s own self-applied labels. Our identity is an amalgamation, seemingly real, but amorphous and skewed by the pereception of others. We are on the path of assuming to know who we are.
Many people solidify and take “themselves” very seriously. They are often the most angry, controlling, and miserable to be around. We should ask, “What is being serious? What is so seemingly impermeable, yet fragile?
Have you ever been furious with someone in your life, only to not give a damn later? Have you had anger and resentments dissipate over time?
Of course you have. This is how it is with nearly everything we use to label ourselves!
Meditation can Release us into Silent Peace
Through meditation and internal contemplation, we can begin to see this structure of the self that we hold so dear and assume ourselves to be. We step back from it, identifying only with our perception.
We are able to allow these language parts of ourselves to be seen as assumptions, sentences, labels, and categories we’ve been given through our lives.
Our perception and awareness can begin to separate from all the word components that make up our supposed selves. We can find peace as a Perceiver, leaving behind the Labeler.
There is great value in this contemplation and looking into its nature since we mostly assume to know ourselves through our languages. It is something we rarely consider.
We Awaken to Our Transitory Nature
The spiritual awakening process allows us to objectively look at our”selves”. It is the value of knowing what is true and what is temporary about us.
Don’t these self labels change throughout your life? Don’t your preferences and self descriptions shift as you go along learning in life? Let this fact give them less importance. Today I am like this, tomorrow like that…
A sense of peace and ease can be allowed when the internal language is seen as transitory and not deserving of serious attention. These assumed immovable self labels are what makes for conflicts of all kinds at all scales.
Observing these inner, self-applied words emerge from nowhere and go back there allows them to lose power. We can look at them with a bit of contempt and sarcasm as if to say, “what useless category will pop up next?”
Through this process of spiritual awakening (if it must be given a label) the fight is dropped. The “I” doesn’t feel the need to be correct, what a relief!
The impermeable barriers of self categories go away. There is more of a flow in the mind, focused on the herenow. Tremendous negative energy is freed.
Along the path, the mind quiets, the inner language stills. The “I” becomes softer, admitting “I” really don’t know who “I” am. Sometimes I am this, soon to be that!