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What Is Identity?
We are going to talk about identity. First, I will ask people: Who are you? I am me! Hard question. And this is good. Who is me? Good extenuating question. Me is not thee? Ah, but is negative definition real understanding? A state of focusing consciousness, filtered through a perception honed over time. Ah, sort…
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Who Has Fear?
Is anyone experiencing an emotion in a chronic way that they don’t like? Yeah, would you define fear as an emotion? Yes, I would. I’m not fond of fear, and being introverted, it scares me to say something though it doesn’t always stop me. Involuntary introversion is fear. First, everyone recall a moment in which…
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Who Is Impatient?
Everyone recall a time in which you were impatient. Everyone who stands in a line getting groceries? Especially if you went shopping while you were hungry. Now ask yourself this, who is it that’s being impatient? The ego in a hurry. Seems like it’s related to habit. It is all related to habit and judgment…
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All You Need
Now here is a big revelation, and yet is perhaps the most simple truth I know. How many emotions do you have? Probably an infinite number. Countless or one? I’m not sure I can feel more than one at any time. Is true, and well they say God is love right? They also say that…
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Sense of Identity
The subject is identity. It’s a pretty intense issue. When asked about who they are people often just say “I’m me”, and this is true, but in all likelihood they carry around identifications with roles and feelings and circumstances even if they aren’t paying attention to them. So, how much of the identity issue is…
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Who Is Me?
What is this me? There is a simple practice of inquiry that can lead to very deep insight. What is this me, and who is asking? It’s me. Yes, but we often still get caught up in life, even if we understand this inquiry it just seems easier. We get distressed and just go on…
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Good Enough
By definition, is anything you can observe, you? Or is it something you have? Are your body and mind somehow in charge? Did you see something beautiful today? You only saw yourself. Did you see something ugly? You also only saw yourself, but these are not the true self. Self is self and all others…
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Defined by Relationship
What matters? How do we know what matters? That there is something instead of nothing? We guess? We feel? Compassion. What makes us feel healthy. Even nothing matters. What do we do when we know what matters? Smile. Try to get it. We take care of it. We make sure human gets enough sleep, food,…
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Valuing Yourself
Are you your name? Many people have traditionally and even in the contemporary era reacted quite defensively over affronts to their “name.” To the Wari people of Brazil, you are not a single identity but a set of identities, all valid, each depending on where you currently are. If you are with your grandmothers family,…
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What Matters is Stories
How do we know what matters to ourselves as persons? We have to look inside of ourselves to know what really matters to us as a person. By what we do? I need a thicker layer of skin. Our boundaries are respected then we know we matter. If you insult me, it will not matter…
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Memory Matters
How do you know what matters to you? Who you are? What I find myself doing. You react to the stimulation, pleasure or pain. According to science, it’s memory, and as you go through your day and experience things, a structure shaped like a horse shoe around your spinal cord registers and routes every sensory…
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Starting a Story
How do you start a story? With an event? Once upon a time. . . In the beginning. . . Can something just happen with nothing else involved? I think it’s good to start a story with a perspective. A unique way of looking at the world. You need subject and object. No. You need a…
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Management of the Story
So we have a producer, yes? If you can direct your mind at all, then we have a producer, no? We have a cast of characters and can recast if needed, yes? By recasting our attention. Sometimes the adherence is because you get stuck and miss out on learning about other views. Yes, you have to…
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Tell the Story Your Heart is In
Does this make my stuff about controlling the mind seem any more possible, any more practical? You have to take your eyes off the prize. The prize is very often just another problem. In the “Ring of the Nibelung”, the hero wins the dragons hoard. He seems remarkably successful, even becomes king, only to be…
Category: Identity
Many are identified by what their ego has accomplished or allowed them to accomplish. They attribute that value to the ego, where the ego was just a window. It’s often argued we need an identity. I don’t in the least disagree, we certainly do, but we shouldn’t mistake the finger for the moon it’s pointing at. We need this being that we are, and need to not sabotage it with doubt, or a belief that in any way who we are is insignificant or invalid. If it were, then how in this infinite world did we arise at all?
Your way isn’t out of order. Your feelings aren’t out of control. There is change, but this is necessary. It’s life, and living things need flow.
“I’ve grown certain that the root of all fear is that we’ve been forced to deny who we are.” Frances Moore Lappe
“The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose.” Richard R. Grant
“The identity of one changes with how one percieves reality.” Vithu Jeyaloganathan