Who do you think you are?
Another interesting idiom that we use when confronted with another person overstepping their boundaries is, "Who do you think you are?" This expression provides another portal into the study of duality and non-duality.
So, who DO you think you are? Questions of identity take many different forms, and thus many different answers are appropriate for any given situation. In most cases, a label or a number will suffice. Who are you? And you answer with your name. Or perhaps your social security number or driver's license number. An address describes where you sleep. A phone number tells how to reach you when you're not present. A job title indicates how you spend your working time and how you earn your money. Other titles or labels may give information about your hobbies, pastimes, or interests. A number may indicate your socioeconomic status. Family relationships describe how our mortal life fits into the current timeframe. Activities and possessions also get mentioned in descriptions of identity.
I won't try to describe them all, but do you notice that they all have one thing in common? At the center of each example is a human being. A body, a brain, a life, an individual. At some point in your past, another person (probably a parent) pointed out an image, a reflection. It may have been a mirror, it may have been a photograph. And when s/he pointed it out, you were told, "That's YOU!"
And we have believed it ever since.
We think our individual bodies and lives ARE who we are. Even people who hate their bodies and their lives believe this. It seems beyond question.
But question it, anyway.
What if you have made a mistake? What if you are not who you think you are? What if you are not WHAT you think you are? Could it be?
This is what non-dualism teaches: we have made an error and we suffer from a case of mistaken identity. We are not truly humans. We are not truly separate. All the things that we think describe our 'self' actually are just features in an hallucination. And all hallucinations have two things in common: they are not real, and they will end.
And when this dream ends, you will remember Who You Are. And it won't be just a point of view; it will be undeniable Fact.
Oops. One mistake in that previous paragraph. I wrote, "When this dream ends, you will remember Who You Are." Actually, when you remember Who You Are, the dream will end.
So, who DO you think you are? Questions of identity take many different forms, and thus many different answers are appropriate for any given situation. In most cases, a label or a number will suffice. Who are you? And you answer with your name. Or perhaps your social security number or driver's license number. An address describes where you sleep. A phone number tells how to reach you when you're not present. A job title indicates how you spend your working time and how you earn your money. Other titles or labels may give information about your hobbies, pastimes, or interests. A number may indicate your socioeconomic status. Family relationships describe how our mortal life fits into the current timeframe. Activities and possessions also get mentioned in descriptions of identity.
I won't try to describe them all, but do you notice that they all have one thing in common? At the center of each example is a human being. A body, a brain, a life, an individual. At some point in your past, another person (probably a parent) pointed out an image, a reflection. It may have been a mirror, it may have been a photograph. And when s/he pointed it out, you were told, "That's YOU!"
And we have believed it ever since.
We think our individual bodies and lives ARE who we are. Even people who hate their bodies and their lives believe this. It seems beyond question.
But question it, anyway.
What if you have made a mistake? What if you are not who you think you are? What if you are not WHAT you think you are? Could it be?
This is what non-dualism teaches: we have made an error and we suffer from a case of mistaken identity. We are not truly humans. We are not truly separate. All the things that we think describe our 'self' actually are just features in an hallucination. And all hallucinations have two things in common: they are not real, and they will end.
And when this dream ends, you will remember Who You Are. And it won't be just a point of view; it will be undeniable Fact.
Oops. One mistake in that previous paragraph. I wrote, "When this dream ends, you will remember Who You Are." Actually, when you remember Who You Are, the dream will end.
posted by AWB @ 3/05/2011 06:35:00 AM
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