INTROSPECTION

 

Who are you?

Do you remember?

Before you could name things.

Before you had any thoughts. How could you have any thoughts? You didn’t know what anything was, you didn’t have a word for anything.

Before your first memory.

Before the world told you who you are, do you remember?

Are you your given name Pauline? Just a sequence of vowels and consonants? Is that all you are?  By the way, there are about a thousand Paulines in this town.

Are you your thoughts and feelings? Your thoughts and feelings are your own, but just because you think and feel anxious doesn’t mean you are anxious. You and anxiety are not the same. You are only experiencing the symptoms of anxiety.

Are you your beliefs? I only ask because you get so defensive when someone differs. Who are you defending? The truth or yourself? The truth certainly needs no defense. It is a knowing, a fact. When I put my hand in the fire, I’ll get burned; that’s not a belief, but truth.

Are you your lover? You were devastated when he left you. Remember how it felt? Like a part of “you” died. You know what, let’s not go there, it’s so dark there.

I could go on and on about who you are not, but my dear, I see you are getting confused.. upset perhaps. My intention is neither to confuse nor upset you. Just to remind you of who you are.

Stop looking for yourself by identifying with and attaching yourself to things/people/situations out here. You are not of this world. Stop looking for yourself in this world of forms, which dance and morph and die as time passes.

Change is the only constant here. Nothing lasts forever here; even the sun will run out of fuel one day. Nothing will give you lasting fulfillment here, no matter how perfect, promising or grandiose it appears to be at first. Don’t you know this by now?

Look within instead. Be silent. Be spacious. Be the One who perceives your emotions, thoughts, sensations and situations as they arise, like you did when you were a child, only this time, you will have transcended thought. Remain alert as a cat, still as a lake, and your inner state; your sense of identity will no longer depend on whatever arises.

Be Present. Be Free.