Who are you? (hell, experience, POV, verse, Zen)

Somkid · #1 02-23-2008, 07:57 PM

This is a pretty basic question: Who are you? How do YOU answer that? Do you say "I am a wife/husband a father/mother a teacher, police officer, trash collector, etc...." Do you describe your interest? "I like to read, I like to hike, I'm a Buddhist..." Do you form an autobiography of your memories, your childhood, your formative years, abuse or love in your past and present?

WHERE, in all of that talking, thinking, and story telling are YOU? Where are you?

No where, everywhere, right here???!!!

People cling to memories - especially of their childhoods! We revisit the old places we lived. We revisit, in our minds, the old wounds. We human beings cry that we are damaged by inattentive or abusive parents, that we have been damaged by poverty, rape, hatred, anger, or even that we have been damaged by love. We do this because we are looking for verification of WHO WE ARE. We go back to those old places - stop by old stomping grounds, reminisce, hurt over our pasts - because we're trying to verify to ourselves that THIS is what makes up who we are: that our experience, memories, and interests define us. We suffer because we remember suffering and think that this suffering dictates who we are NOW. We keep ourselves trapped in hell realms because we cling so hard to the attachments that provide us the illusion of identity! You're not the person you remember! Not even physically! Since you were a child, every cell in your body has been replaced - some many thousands of times over. And, that's just PHYSICALLY not being the same. You're not the person you remember from five seconds ago!

I'm serious! Think about it for a moment. Many people think that what they ARE is the sum total of their experience, their memories, their likes and dislikes. They don't realize that all of this is just story - just noise and nonsense. None of it is YOU. You don't even exist except in the NOW ...and NOW is a concept that we can't even fathom because as soon as we try to grasp it, it's already passed! Try it, if you don't believe me! NOW. Now. Now. Now. What fraction of time is NOW? Not one that your processing consciousness can understand! When you say "now" to yourself, you process what has already happened, you're always trapped in the forward propelling illusion of a non-linear time! When you get a hold of NOW, you do it by letting go of all of the trappings of what you think YOU are, what you think the universe and TIME is.

Any thoughts going through your head are happening as post scripts. They are not the experience of NOW, they're the story you tell yourself after the fact. Do you see the illusion? If not, think about it - find somewhere quiet and really think about it.

If you only exist in the NOW and all of your attachments are just stories, who ARE YOU? You're the quiet emptiness in between your thoughts.

So, let it go already! Stop telling yourself the story of who YOU are, and just BE. Let go of suffering - clinging to those illusions that we call memories only keeps the cycle going. You'll never be happy until you can let go of your attachment to suffering.

Izdaari · #2 02-23-2008, 08:10 PM

Nice post! Very thought-provoking and very Zen (or should I say Ch'an?).

However, beyond saying that, I'm at a loss for how to respond to it... so here's some flowers.