When we seek the self, we do not ‘build’ our identity, instead, we ‘discover’ it.  By removing layers of ‘that which we are not’ (mind, ego and wounds), we find the ‘true self’ underneath.  The ‘true self’ is the essence of who and what we are, but what does that mean?  What exactly is the ‘True Self’?

Various traditions have differing takes on the same theme of the ‘self’ as an ‘eternal’, wordless aspect to what we are.  In contrast to that, Zen Buddhism claims that there is ‘no self’ and to identify with a permanent or independent self is inaccurate if it’s rooted in separateness.  Instead, according to this teaching, the ‘self’ is a process, rather than a ‘person’, and the nature of reality is fluid and interdependent.

Curiously, the debate about whether we are ‘one among many’, or that ‘all is one’, is the same when discussing the nature of the divine, as per animism and pantheism.  ‘Animism’ sees everything in nature existing as separate spirits, individuals belonging to individual plants or to a river or a mountain, etc.  It sees separate individuals fused by the essence of everything as ‘alive’, including crystals, the land itself, bodies of water, and so on.  ‘Pantheism’, on the other hand, sees everything as god: “the universe is God—everything is a manifestation of it.” Gregg Braden in his book ‘The Divine Matrix’, wrote, “we are bathed in a field of intelligent energy that connects everything in creation.”  Alan Watts had a similar theory when he said, “you are the universe experiencing itself.”

In truth, we are both everything and individuals and whichever one is ‘more true’ at any given time depends upon the perspective and the specifics of the moment.  For example, if you were to ask an angel, “Is the earth God?”, the angel would say, “No, the earth is a manifestation of God, but the life-force that pervades everything in and on earth is divine essence, which is God.”  Alternatively, if you were to ask a wood nymph or an elf or a nature spirit that dwells in a tree, “Is the earth God?”, he or she would most definitely say, “Yes, the earth is God.”  And both perspectives are correct.

Much like ‘Schrödinger’s Cat’, that is both alive and dead at the same time, it is from the perspective of the inquirer and opening the box within which the luckless cat has been placed that the outcome for the cat is revealed.

Part Individual and Part Collective

So, if the ‘self’ is both an individual that is separate and a part of a continuous divinity, how does this impact our understanding of ‘the true self’ as the essence of who and what we are?

And this is where it gets interesting.  Not only are we a soul, that is the learned experiences of all of our lifetimes, with all of the vast wisdom and ‘knowing’ that we have accrued, but we are also a more vast consciousness that (as individuals) we cannot fathom.  (The theoretical ‘fathomless’ bit: We are all partly the consciousness of every other person alive today and every other person who ever lived, combined.  But, if that’s third and fourth and fifth dimensional consciousness, that is, space and time continuum consciousness transcended into non-duality consciousness of fifth dimension and above, then it is beyond our comprehension to belong to the consciousness that dwells at, say, the twelfth and thirteenth dimensions and beyond.)  

Aside from the ‘fathomless’ bit, when it comes to knowing the self, we can be assured that there are a few accessible truths.  We can know what we know (in this lifetime and all of our experiences as a soul over many lifetimes).  And we can know that there is some stuff that we do not know (likely we don’t have conscious every day connection with much higher dimensional frequencies that we know do exist).  And beyond that, we do not know what we do not know, meaning that we don’t have any awareness about dimensions that exist beyond our comprehension, even though they may well exist because, at least in theory, infinity exists.

So. What does all that mean?  It means that we are individuals.  And that we are part of an historical and a collective mass.  We can access our individual awareness as a multi-lifetime being (and the wisdom therefrom) but we also can tap into a much broader consciousness that includes more than our experiences, like a massive soup within which we all belong.

Sounds kind of basic, really.  We are individuals, but we’re also part of a collective.  A lot like most of life.. individuals living inside the ecosystem to which we all belong.  So, what’s the benefit of knowing the mapping for all of this ‘self’ discovery?  Because when we access the multi-lifetime wisdom (that we’ve personally experienced over many lifetimes), and the ‘soup consciousness’ to which we all belong, our awareness and expansion of consciousness and comprehension becomes limitless.

And the benefit of ‘limitless’ consciousness?  The answers to every question you’ve ever had about the nature of reality, God, consciousness, our role as humans on this planet, our role as humans in the evolution of the consciousness of other races belonging to other planets and star systems and dimensions.  And the answers to questions about whatever you find most interesting about life. 

Finding the Remarkable in the Everyday 

The philosophical and the theoretical are vast and can stretch our tiny brains into new realms and are most certainly worth pursuing.  Often, however, I find the ‘Who We Are’ in the vastness and the profundity of life and our belonging within it, best perceived in silence and stillness, by feeling the love that I have for, and while witnessing, a flower.. blades of grass.. the wind over the trees.

It was my birthday recently and a dear friend gifted me a terrarium as a present.  It is a large glass, corked jar with a tiny garden in it, absolutely beautiful, with soil and rocks, moss and little plants.  I keep it on my desk where I have sessions with my clients.  It occurs to me that this terrarium is as beautiful as any other garden that isn’t in a jar, but somehow because it is ‘framed’ as an object to be admired, like a piece of art, it is somehow more alluring.  And that is the point.  It is because our attention is drawn to the tiny garden because it is in its jar that we focus on it and we find the remarkable in the everyday.

Profundity as a Guide to Love and Identity

If we can take this ‘framed’ mentality to the everyday, to the sunlight on the tiny hairs on your child’s face, we can experience an extraordinary profundity.  And not just profundity at the beauty of life all around us, but, most importantly, the adjoining love that naturally flows from us when we experience that profundity.  The feeling of being moved profoundly in a good way directly invites us to love whatever it is, and it is the love that we have that is the connecting glue that reveals to us our ‘already-belonging’ to that thing.  It is the love that we have for the beauty of life all around us that connects us to it and has us belonging to it, in it, and to each other.  This love that is our ‘connecting glue’ is where we find our true identity. 

To have that love revealed within us, it helps to first be moved profoundly, and the ‘framed’ mentality can help with that.  Notice that the ‘framed’ mentality is nothing more than being ‘fully present’ and aware.. fully in the moment, fully alive, experiencing the fullness of the thing we are witnessing.  And when we feel profoundly moved, we find that we have an identification with that person or thing and the love flows.  This is how we are.

Love as Our Identity

It is the ‘love for’ what we witness (the flow of love from us towards the direction of the thing), and the ‘love of’ it (the immediacy of the connection between us and the thing), and then, most intimately, the being ‘in love’ that we feel for something, that most defines us.

Identity is fluid, yes, but it is also a guided process of understanding the profundity of the love that we have for all of life. That is who we are and how we are.  We are gods, but we are divine only because we love, and are love. 

And a skill to develop to tap into this level of awareness?  Not to think about it, but instead, we can listen for it.  It comes to us if we invite it.  And communicating with a ‘framed’ mentality with all of the life-force around us (especially in nature), keeps us attuned to this frequency of our adoration for all of life.  And this is where bliss is found.

Blessings to all on the healing path.