WHO ARE YOU?

Recently, I left my cell phone on the bus. Fortunately, the phone was handed in to the bus driver and was taken to the lost property office at the bus depot nearest to where I live. The next day I went to the depot to collect my phone. Now, on the home screen of the phone was a photo of myself, taken in July 1991. I am seen at the summit of Diamond Head, at Waikiki, on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu. I am wearing a T-shirt to prove it. (LOL.) 

Anyway, the man at the lost property office brought out some phones. I pointed to the one that was mine and said, ‘That’s my one.’ He looked at the photo on the home screen and said, ‘Is this your son?’ Now, I wasn’t at all taken aback. I simply said, ‘No, that used to be me.’ I was then 36.

I remember seeing a TV show around 1983 in which the American singer Patti Page sang a song ‘The Person Who Used to Be Me’.* In this song Ms Page contrasted her then present self with black-and-white images of a much younger Page projected on a screen behind her. The images were from some of her 1950s TV shows.

Here are some of the lyrics from the song:

Who is that person on the screen?

I am sure it is someone that I’ve seen.

Though it's been so very long

And I could be very wrong

To believe that the face I see
Is the person who used to be me.

 

Time can play tricks on me, I know.

I have trouble now remembering the show.

Yet I’m sure I know that face

From some other time and place

That is lost in the used-to-be.

It’s the person who used to be me.

Now, do you really think you are the same person you were 5 years ago … 10 years ago ... 20 years ago? Well, in one sense you are, but in another sense you are an altogether different person both in body and in mind. Even your sense of self this very moment is different from your sense of self 10 minutes ago, or 10 seconds ago, let alone 10 or more years ago. Your sense of self is undergoing constant change as a result of every new experience. Buddha taught that the so-called ‘self’ is only an ‘aggregate’ or ‘heap’ of thoughts, feelings, perceptions, sensations and memories. The self, in the words of Manly Palmer Hall, is nothing more than ‘a summary of what is known and what is not known’. 

Each one of us is a person who recognises that there was, yesterday, and even before then, a person whose thoughts, feelings and sensations we can remember today, and THAT person each one of us regards as ourself of yesterday, and so on. As a result of this, we create a sense of self. We even come to identify with that self as us … as you and me. Nevertheless, our ‘self’ of yesterday consists of nothing more than certain mental occurrences which are later remembered as part of the person who recollects them.

Here is a short ‘sense of being meditation’ which I penned many years ago. It is designed to assist you in the task of dis-identifying with ‘the self’:

I am a person who has a body, but I am not that body.
I am a person who has a brain, but I am not that brain.
I am a person who thinks thoughts, but I am not those thoughts.
I am a person who feels feelings, but I am not those feelings.

I am a person who senses sensations, but I am not those sensations.
I am the reality of me ... the person who I am.

I am not my sense of self ... the false and illusory ‘I's’ and ‘me's’ which well up and later subside within me ... from one moment to the next.

Yes, you are a person ... a person among persons ... a vital part of life’s self-expression. You are a person who sees, thinks, feels, senses and acts. More accurately, you are a person in which there occur, from moment to moment, the various activities of seeing, thinking, feeling, sensing and acting.

P F Strawson, pictured, a British philosopher, wrote much on the subject of the person. He articulated a concept of ‘person’ in respect of which both physical characteristics and states of consciousness can be ascribed to it. Each one of us is a person among persons—a mind-body complex. 

The point is this. We are much, much more than those hundreds of waxing and waning ‘I’s’ and ‘me’s’ with which we tend to identify as 'us' in the mistaken belief that they constitute the ‘real me’, that is, the person each one of us is. Only the latter is ontologically real. None of those waxing and waning ‘I’s’ and ‘me’s’ are the real person each of us is. Never forget that!

Personal freedom, as well as personal transformation, come when we start to see, think, feel, act and live from our personhood as a person among persons. We need to get our mind off our temporary, ephemeral ‘selves’. We need to rise above them if we are to get real. Self can’t change self. Why? Because self is image inside a person. It is not the real person at all. The person each one of us is can indeed change—and change for the better—if we want, that is, really want, change more than anything else and are prepared to go to any length to get it.

Finally, please also remember that there is no human problem that’s not common to other persons among persons.

* ‘The Person Who Used to Be Me’: [from] Here's TV Entertainment / lyric by Buz Kohan; music by Larry Grossman. Fiddleback Music Publ. Company, Inc. & New Start Music. 1983. All rights reserved.

RELATED POST

MINDFULNESS, THE ‘SELF’ AND SERENITY

YOU DO NOT EXIST!

Now that's a provocative title for a blog post, if ever there was one.

Well, do you exist or don’t you? ‘Of course, I do, you silly fool,’ I hear you say.

Well, it all depends on what we mean by the word ‘I’, ‘me’, and ‘you’.

One of the themes—if theme be the right word—of my blog posts is what is known as self illusion. It is a teaching of Buddhism but the idea is by no means exclusively Buddhist. Indeed, when I was in rehab many years ago, the psychologist-in-charge, Jim Maclaine, taught self illusion therapy. I have been expounding its virtues ever since. Why? Well, it worked for me! It still does.

Now, when I say that self is an illusion, it is important to bear in mind what I mean by the word illusion. It simply means that the ‘thing’ in question is not what it seems. We tend to think that our sense of self (‘I’ and ‘me’) is something that is real and permanent and stable—perhaps even something that is separate and distinct from the person that each one of us is. The truth is otherwise. Our sense of self seems to be incredibly real. In a sense, it is, although it is not a ‘thing-in-itself’, so to speak. However, there is now a wealth of scientific evidence attesting to the fact—yes, fact—that the notion of an independent, coherent self is an illusion, that is, it is not what it seems.

Dr Bruce Hood

Bruce Hood, pictured left, a developmental psychologist, and Evan Thompson, pictured below, a philosopher and cognitive scientist, are just a few experts who propound the non-existence, that is, the illusion, of the so-called self. I thoroughly recommend their books The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity (2011) [Hood] and Waking, Dreaming, Being (2015) [Thompson].

According to Hood, our brains generate, that is, construct, this illusion of a self—it’s a kind of a matrix—to deal with and respond to ‘a multitude of different processes and decisions that are often in conflict with each other, often occurring below our level of consciousness’. Our sense of self emerges during childhood and is built up andconsolidated thereafter. Thompson refers to an ‘enacted self’ (that is, ‘I’ as a process) and explains that we confuse the interplay of our ever-changing mind—which is a body-brain continuum of sorts—as a supposedly stable, core ‘I’ or ego. He writes:

… the mental repository is a subliminal data bank, not an ego, and it’s constantly changing process, not a substantial thing. Hence this impression that there’s a self is a mental fabrication and what the fabrication represents doesn’t exist.

The bottom line is that there is no a distinct ‘I’ or ‘me’ in charge of our thoughts, feelings and actions. In the words of Hood:

[O]ur brain creates the experience of our self as a model—a cohesive integrated character—to make sense of the multitude of experiences that assault our senses throughout a lifetime and leave lasting impressions in our memory. 

In other words, the self is an illusion created by our brain.

Now, you may ask, ‘Well, so what? Why is any of this important, assuming that it is?’

Well, let me explain, but first listen to these words of J. Krishnamurti:

The very nature of the self is to create contradiction.

Dr Evan Thompson

Krishnamurti also wrote:      

You know what I mean by the self? By that, I mean the idea, the memory, the conclusion, the experience, the various forms of namable and unnamable intentions, the conscious endeavor to be or not to be, the accumulated memory of the unconscious, the racial, the group, the individual, the clan, and the whole of it all, whether it is projected outwardly in action, or projected spiritually as virtue; the striving after all this is the self.

If you have ever struggled with an addiction, you will know all too well that there is, for example, the ‘self that wants to drink [or smoke, etc]’ and the ‘self that doesn’t want to drink [or smoke, etc]’. The two selves—and we generate hundreds of these selves every day of our lives, some of them becoming very persistent over time—are in conflict. At any moment of the day, one of them is fighting for supremacy.

Recovery begins when you come to the realization that none of these selves are what they seem to be. Yes, the so-called ‘self’ is nothing more than an aggregate or heap of perceptions and sensations. It is, in reality, a non-self. What is real is the person that you are. A person can change. You do what is appropriate for a person in your condition. You do not try to change the self that seems to you to be the problem.

Know this. Your sense of self is a constructed narrative that your brain has created. Do not try to change your ‘self’ or the particular little self that seems to be the source of your problem (eg the ‘self that wants to drink’). Work on the person that you are. Give your pesky little self no attention. Give it no power over you—for it has no power in and of itself. You, the person that you are, have power—the power to change your life for the better.

RELATED POSTS

THE ILLUSORY MIND [Part 1]

 

THE ILLUSORY MIND [Part 2]

GIVING UP SMOKING WITH MINDFULNESS

MINDFULNESS, THE "SELF" AND SERENITY

 

KRISHNAMURTI AND THE TRUE ESSENCE OF MINDFULNESS

 

ARE YOU IN PRISON? (CHANCES ARE YOU ARE BUT DON’T KNOW IT)

WHO AM I? (A ZEN STORY)

‘Who am I?’ Have you ever asked yourself that question? What was your answer?

Here’s a famous Zen story on the point. I often use this story in my counseling work. What it says about who we really are forms the cornerstone of Buddhist psychology as well as other forms of psychotherapy such as self illusion therapy.

A distraught man approached the Zen master. ‘Please, Master, I feel lost, desperate. I don't know who I am. Please, show me my true self!’ The teacher just looked away without responding. The man began to plead and beg, but still the master gave no reply. Finally giving up in frustration, the man turned to leave. At that moment the master called out to him by name. ‘Yes!’ the man said as he spun back around. ‘There it is!’ exclaimed the master.

When someone sees you they see you, that is, the person that you are. However, when you see and experience yourself you do not see and experience the person that in truth you are. Instead, you see and experience any one or more of a number of self-images held in your mind. At one point in time you may see and experience the ‘little me’ or the ‘frightened me’ or the ‘inferior me.’ At another point in time you may see and experience the ‘confident me.’ These ‘me’s’ are nothing more than self-images in your mind. They are images felt and experienced as real, that is, as the real person that you are. Because there is a feeling component to these images many of them can be quite strong and persistent over time. (Their persistency over time only reinforces the mistaken belief that these images are really you, and also makes change seem very difficult indeed.) However, none---I repeat none---of these felt self-images are real. They are not the real person that you are. Having said that, these ‘me’s’ constitute in whole or in part your sense of who you are. Whichever image is most dominant in your mind at any point in time will constitute your sense of ‘me’ (that is, what to you, in you, is you---at least at that point in time).

At the risk of repeating myself, while you experience these ‘me’s’ as real, the truth is they are just images in your mind that you feel and experience, by choice or otherwise, as you. Now, as I’ve already said, these self-images will change over time but some are more durable than others. Take, for example, a person whose parents constantly told her, when growing up, that she was a failure. It is more probable than not that this person will grow up with self-images such as ‘little me’ and ‘useless me.’ So, what can she do in order to overcome her sense of self as a failure? First, she needs to know that it is possible to let go of these false selves (note: they are false because they are not who she really is). Secondly, she will change for the better---sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly---when she learns to live her life relying solely upon the power of her personhood, which is a power-not-oneself that we all have. Then, and only then, will she come to experience herself as a person among persons as opposed to one or more of those false and illusory selves with which she so closely identified herself for so many years in the past. In short, the woman hands over---that is, surrenders her false selves---to what she, as a person, can do.

Now, back to our Zen story. The distraught man wants to discover, that is, experience, his ‘true self.’ The teacher refuses to answer the man. The man pleads and begs, but to no avail. Finally, giving up in frustration---note those words ‘giving up,’ for they are so very important---the man turns to leave. At that moment---yes, at that exact moment---the master calls out to him by name. (The teacher was very smart, for he realized that the man had 'let go' and was therefore now ready to know and experience the truth.)  ‘Bill Taylor?’, he says. ‘Yes!’, says the man as he turns back around. ‘There it is!’ exclaimed the master.

You see, for the very first time in his life this man came to see and experience himself as he really was---as a person among persons. He experienced enlightenment. That means he---woke up! Yes, he woke up to what in truth he really was. He was not those many false selves (‘me’s) which in the past he mistakenly believed to be the real person that he was.

This is a very powerful story. Never forget it. More importantly, never forget the ‘moral’ of the story, namely, that what to you, in you, is you is NEVER what in truth you are.

Real personal transformation come when we get real, that is, when we start to think, act and live from our personhood as a person among persons. And remember this---there is no human problem that is not common to other persons among persons.

RELATED POSTS

THE MYTH OF SELF-IMPROVEMENT

‘WHAT AM I TO DO WITH MYSELF?’

MINDFULNESS, PSYCHOLOGICAL MUTATION AND HEALING

MINDFULNESS, THE 'SELF’ AND SERENITY

FAITH IN A POWER-NOT-ONESELF IS THERAPEUTIC

THE MYTH OF SELF-IMPROVEMENT

At this time of the year many people make a resolution, which is often short-lived, to embark upon some sort of self-improvement program or to give up some bad habit. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am all for personal transformation, but there is a right, and a wrong, way to go about it, both in thought, word and deed.

One of my all-time favourite spiritual teachers Alan Watts [pictured below left], in his book The Wisdom of Insecurity, has this to say about the wrong way to embark upon self-improvement:

I can only think seriously of trying to live up to an ideal, to improve myself, if I am split in two pieces. There must be a good ‘I’ who is going to improve the bad ‘me.’ ‘I,’ who has the best intentions, will go to work on wayward ‘me,’ and the tussle between the two will very much stress the difference between them. Consequently ‘I’ will feel more separate than ever, and so merely increase the lonely and cut-off feelings which make ‘me’ behave so badly.

The reason the good ‘I’ can’t change the bad ‘I’ is because they are one and the same. Worse still, both ‘I’s’ are illusory. When I use the word 'illusory' I am not saying these 'I's' do not exist. They do exist---but only as self-image in our mind. The 'I's' are, however, illusory in the sense that they are not what they appear to be. All the 'I's' and 'me's' in your mind are brought about by thought, and they have no reality in and of themselves. They appear to be 'solid,' 'fixed,' and 'permanent,' but they are not. They are, as the Indian spiritual philosopher J. Krishnamurti used to say, the product of thought which divides.

Yes, despite appearances to the contrary, and our own misbelief, these ‘I’s” do not have any separate, independent, discrete and permanent existence from the person each one of us is. The great Scottish philosopher David Hume came up with what is known as the ‘bundle theory,’ which postulates that our mind constructs hundreds of waxing and waning selves. None of these selves ever come together as a single unified entity. They are no more than a bundle of thoughts, feelings, perceptions and sensations. Neuroscience has shown that Hume, along with a considerable number of other eminent philosophers, was right.

Alan Watts explains how the phenomenon of self occurs:

The notion of a separate thinker, of an ‘I’ distinct from the experience, comes from memory and from the rapidity with which thought changes. It is like whirling a burning stick to give the illusion of a continuous circle of fire. If you imagine that memory is a direct knowledge of the past rather than a present experience, you get the illusion of knowing the past and the present at the same time. This suggests that there is something in you distinct from both the past and the present experiences. You reason, ‘I know this present experience, and it is different from that past experience. If I can compare the two, and notice that experience has changed, I must be something constant and apart.’

Over time our sense of self hardens, but it is never more than image---self-image---in our mind. And the bottom line is this---‘I’ can’t change ‘me.’ You see, the ‘I’ that wants to stop smoking or drinking is the ‘me’ that wants to keep smoking or drinking. What’s more, all such ‘I’s’ and ‘me’s’ are in the past. They are all the result of past thinking and past conditioning. They can never result in the attainment of something in the now, let alone the future. When we work and rely upon only our ‘I’s’ and ‘me’s we will never, never succeed in our endeavours. As William Temple, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, said, ‘For the trouble is that we are self-centred, and no effort of the self can remove the self from the centre of its own endeavour.’

The only program of self-improvement that has any chance at all of being successful is one where the person that each one of us is makes a decision to invoke the power of one’s own personhood. That power is not of self; it is a ‘power-not-oneself.’ Self can’t change self, for all our mental selves are in and of themselves not only powerless but also contradictory and in opposition to each other. Hence the need to rely upon a power-not-oneself---the power that comes from being a person among persons.

Now, what is a person? Well, the well-known English philosopher P F Strawson [pictured right] wrote much on the subject. Strawson articulated a concept of ‘person’ in respect of which both physical characteristics and states of consciousness can be ascribed to it. Each one of us is a person among persons---a mind-body complex. We are much, much more than those hundreds of little, false selves---all those waxing and waning ‘I’s’ and ‘me’s’---with which we tend to identify, in the mistaken belief that they constitute the ‘real me,’ that is, the person each one of us is. Only the latter is ontologically real. Personal freedom and real personal transformation come when we get real, that is, when we start to think, act and live from our personhood as a person among persons. We need to get our mind off our ‘selves’ and rise above them if we are to get real. And remember this---there is no human problem that is not common to other persons among persons.

Now, here are the steps involved. You begin by making up your mind and make a decision to do X [X being whatever positive thing you wish to see actualized in your life]. Great power arises from the making of a decision. Then nail that decision up in your mind and don’t look back. A big part of not looking back means that when any thought, feeling, perception or sensation arises that is to the contrary of the doing of X, you proceed to reaffirm and thus strengthen your original decision and resolve to do X by performing some action---the important word is action---that is not only consistent with the doing of X, it will actually help to bring about X. In the words of the American essayist and minister Ralph Waldo Emerson, ‘Do the thing and you will have the power.’ The power is in the doing---the power of the person that you are. It’s the ‘act as if’ principle taught by the great American philosopher and psychologist William James. He said, ‘If you want a quality [of personhood], act as if you already had it’ [emphasis added]. Now, who must act? You, the person that you are, must act.

For example, if your decision is to give up smoking, and a thought arises that a cigarette would be nice right now, you immediately do something that is consistent with being a non-smoker. For example, you go somewhere, or mix with someone, where smoking is simply out of the question. Forget all about so-called will-power, for there is no such thing. The ‘will’ is simply your ability to make a decision; it has no power in and of itself. We will always do whatever is our strongest want. It’s want-power---fortified with enthusiasm---and not will-power that we need. Another problem with so-called will-power is this---it is simply the imposition of one illusory ‘self’ over another. It’s the old problem all over.

One more thing, motivation is essential for successful personal transformation. Motivation is motive plus action, the latter being the doing of all that is necessary for X to actualize. What is your motive for doing X? (There may, of course, be more than one such motive.) Your motive must relate to you as a person. For example, if you want to give up smoking, your motive may be to be a healthier person or a wealthier person (as smoking is, among other things, damn expensive). Keep your motive upfront in your consciousness. Your motive is your want-power. For all intents and purposes they are one and the same.

So, remember this. Self can’t change self, but the person each one of us is can indeed change---and change for the better---if we want, that is, really want, change more than anything else and are prepared to go to any length to get it.

RELATED POSTS

GIVING UP SMOKING WITH MINDFULNESS

THE USE OF MINDFULNESS FOR SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS

MINDFULNESS AND SHOPPING ADDICTION

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO MINDFUL LIVING

Ring bells! Blow trumpets! This is the 300th post on my blog.

I want to thank all those who have read my posts either regularly or intermittently. My only reason for blogging is to say something which may prove insightful and eye-opening to others. Well, that’s the main reason. To tell you the truth, there are also occasions when I just like to get certain things of my chest.

I have given some thought to what should be the subject-matter of this 300th post of mine, and this is what I’ve decided upon. I want to list, and discuss ever so briefly, the major themes which have been the central focus of my blog since it began in October 2010. Here they are ... in no particular order.

Theme No. 1: There is a single way of being

There is only one way of being, namely, that of occurrence in space-time. There is only one order or level of reality. All things exist on that order or level---on the same plane of observability. So, forget all about the so-called ‘supernatural.’ If it exists, it is perfectly natural. A single logic applies to all things, for all things exist in the same ‘level’ or plane of existence and observability. Not all things are one in any overall monistic sense, but every thing has some relations with some other things. There is no entity which is wholly independent of all other entities. Each 'thing' is a cause of at least one other 'thing' as well as being the effect of some other 'thing,' so every thing is explainable by reference to one or more other things. Thus, all talk of the supposed need for some 'first cause' is, well, unspeakable nonsense. Empty words. There can be no contrivance of a ‘universe’ or totality of things, because the contriver would have to be included in the totality of things. There was no first cause---and absolutely no need for one.

Theme No. 2: Truth is a moment-to-moment experience

Truth, also known as life, reality, and God, is a moment-to-moment experience. Truth is dynamic, not static. Truth is not found in any belief, doctrine, or dogma. Truth is something ‘real.’ It is not a matter of opinion. The truth or falsity of any statement or proposition always a question of---is it so? Truth is indeed a ‘pathless land,’ as J. Krishnamurti told us. There is no ‘way’ or ‘path’ to truth, and none is needed. Truth is the way. Truth is the path. Whether we know it or not, we are always in direct and immediate with reality. Direct, knowing perception of truth takes place when there is choiceless awareness of life as it really is. The so-called ‘Path’ is simply the livingness of life from one moment to the next. It leads nowhere that is not already fully present here-and-now. It is, however, everywhere.

We can only know the truth when we live mindfully, that is, with ‘bare attention’ to, and ‘choiceless awareness’ of, the action of the present moment from one such moment to the next. No person, no matter how wise or holy, is the embodiment of truth or can 'give' you truth. No one, and no group or organization, has a monopoly on the truth. No so-called ‘holy book’ contains the truth, although most such books contain some very good advice---provided they are sensibly interpreted and applied in the light of reason and sound scholarship.

Theme No. 3: Enlightenment is not a ‘thing’ at all

Enlightenment, also known as salvation, is actually a ‘no-thing.’ It is not a ‘thing’ at all. It can be found, but never searched for. If you seek it, you will miss it. You must be your own ‘saviour and lord,’ that is, your own teacher and pupil. Enlightenment occurs when we---wake up! You are ‘saved’ when you no longer engage in conditioned thinking, when you stop trying to control things and others, and when you start to live spontaneously---free from all cravings, 'sticky' attachments and aversions.

What must you do to be renewed in your mind? Well, it is not so much what you must do, rather it is a matter of ceasing to do a number of things that stand in the way of mental health. Here are a few things to avoid: judging and criticizing others, holding on to anger, resentments and ill-will as well as illusions of all kinds, not letting the past stay in the past, living mechanically as opposed to mindfully, not being satisfied and content with your lot, imitating and copying others, seeking sense-gratification, and so on. There is nothing more important than the health of your mind and your body. Make it a daily---indeed, a moment-to-moment---concern of yours ... without becoming self-obsessed in the process.

Are you seeking ‘ultimate reality’? God? Then look for it in yourself ... in the presence of each moment ... from moment to moment. Live with choiceless awareness. That means you no longer choose what you will be aware of. Whatever happens, whatever ‘comes’ into, or is, your consciousness---sorrow, joy, love, hatred, wakefulness, drowsiness, anger, affection, and so forth---of that be aware. Always remain curious, letting your awareness take note of what is going on ... in and outside of your mind. Get up close to whatever is passing through your mind, and investigate whatever arises ... with detachment and acceptance ... without judgment, condemnation or evaluation ... and without resistance or trying to control what is happening. 

Theme No. 4: Belief systems distort the truth

Beliefs of all kinds are an impenetrable barrier to truth. We are in direct and immediate contact with truth but beliefs are like a brick wall between us and things-as-they-really are. Eschew beliefs. Bugger beliefs. You don't need them. See things-as-they-really-are. ‘If you want to know and understand, don't believe,’ said Gautama Buddha. He was right. Belief systems distort the truth and our moment-to-moment perception, knowledge and understanding of it. Beliefs are thought coverings or veils. They are also like those distorting lenses or mirrors that you find in many carnivals and amusement or fun parks. Either way, they do not reveal reality, indeed they distort reality. How? Well, they prevent us from knowing and experiencing things as they really are in all their directness, immediacy and uninterruptedness.

All belief is conditioning, but knowledge is experiential. We need to safely 'navigate' our way through life, but beliefs actually stand in the way and hold us back. What we really need is knowledge and understanding. There is so much we can know that, well, there is simply no need to believe anything at all. In any event, the very act of formulating a 'belief' causes an otherwise present reality to die away, because the very nature of a belief is a mental construct based on an already past reality. That is, by the time a particular belief has been formulated, the reality upon which that belief is purportedly based is no longer a present reality. It is now the past. Beliefs lock us into the past. Beliefs imprison. They do not liberate. They are chains that bind us. Set yourself free---today! Give up your beliefs---yes, all of them!

Theme 5: Self can’t change self

How can ‘I’ change ‘me’? Both have no reality in themselves. Both are brought about through thought. There is no actual ‘self’ at the centre of our conscious---or even unconscious---awareness. The ‘self’ does not exist---at least not exist in the sense of possessing a separate, independent, unchangeable, material existence of its own. What you are is a person-among-persons. You are not the hundreds and thousands of ‘I's’ and 'me's' (likes, dislikes, beliefs, opinions, attachments, cravings, and so on) that your mind generates from one moment to the next. These 'selves' are ‘false selves.’ They are illusory, being no more than mere images in your mind. They are not who you really are. Indeed, almost all of our problems and difficulties arise because we mistakenly believe that those ‘I's’ and ‘me's’ are us, the person each of us is. You are a person, that is, an ontological entity that takes form and shape as a dynamic human body-mind system. Yes, a person, which is not identical with a body or a mind or even an embodied mind. A person---something which is not reducible to any more basic kind of entities. A person among persons. Something which is identical with nothing other than a person. In order to fully function as an integrated person, we need to undergo a process of personalization, that is, we must move from a sense of self to a sense of being. Only then will the dual nature of our being (body and mind) function in a unified as opposed to a dualistic manner. Only then will we be truly alive.

So-called ‘consciousness’---not an entity in its own right but a dynamic, ever-changing process---emerges when the mind and the body cohere. The physical body is essential for the emergence of the mental, but having said that, the body and the mind are not separate. Mind ‘extends’ into the body, and the body also ‘extends’ into the mind. Also, our consciousness goes through continuous fluctuations from one moment to the next. As such, there is nothing to constitute, let alone sustain, a separate, transcendent ‘I’ structure or entity. We ‘die’ and are ‘born’ (or ‘reborn’) from one moment to the next. In short, there is no ‘self.’ It is an illusion.

The bottom line? Self can't change self, but the person that you are is a power-not-oneself. Yes, you, the person, can change---totally and fully---provided you really want change more than anything else and are prepared to go to any length to get it. The power-not-oneself may takes various forms (eg God, Jesus, Buddha, or the person that you are). It doesn't really matter what you call this power. It simply needs to be 'not-self.' Why? Because self has no power, and is no power. End of story.

This metaphysical and psychological principle is the cornerstone of all psychological and spiritual healing.

Theme No. 6: Only an inner psychological mutation can ‘save’ you

Self-observation leads to self-knowledge and insight. A complete, inner psychological transformation can happen instantaneously or incrementally. In either case, the experience can be ‘revolutionary.’ This revolutionary change in you is one which you bring about yourself. It is not something that others can do for you. Only you can effect this change within yourself, and it is a change which affects the conscious mind as well as the unconscious. The change comes from finding a way of living where you ‘come into reality.’ It is an awakening, that is, you wake up and then learn to stay awake. This revolutionary change in you can only happen when you want it more than anything else. Yes, so great is the power of change that if you want it---that is, really want it---you will have it! But first you must see the ‘danger’ inherent in the way you’re living now. Revolutionary change produces freedom---freedom from fear, greed, envy, jealousy, dependency. But remember---only you, the person that you are, can set you free.

Theme No. 7: Acceptance of what is, is the only way to live

Acceptance is the answer to all our problems. ‘On the acknowledgement of what is there is the cessation of all conflict,’ said J. Krishnamurti. Let go of all expectations. However, before you can let go, you must let be. The latter is an act of acceptance---and a choice. Receive each event or happening in your life with a mind-set which neither likes nor dislikes. This is sometimes referred to as having an 'equal' mind. ‘Reality is a question of realizing how real the world is already,’ wrote Allen Ginsberg. Life is hard at the best of times, and bad things often happen to good people. There is no sensible explanation for this. It is one of life’s mysteries. Forget about what others think of you. They don’t even need to think of you at all. What others think of you is none of your business. Others will react to you as they will. Accept yourself, the person that you are. 

Stop looking for the supposed ‘purpose’ of human existence. There is no intrinsic, built-in purpose or underlying meaning to life. Things just are. Things do not change; we change. Things go wrong because we are wrong. However, your life can be extremely meaningful if you give it meaning. The best way of doing that is to start living mindfully. Start living with a purposively open mind---and, most importantly, a mind that is curious and receptive to whatever is happening in your moment-to-moment experience of daily life. After all, is it not self-evident that it helps to be purposefully alert, receptive, and attentive to what is going on in and about us? Go about your daily, everyday life with your eyes wide open and your mind open, curious and engaged. Got that? Then please never forget it---and pass the word around.

Theme No. 8: Live in the eternal now

Well, there is a state of mind or consciousness that is timeless in the sense of being beyond time. This timeless state is more than a state of mind for in a very real sense it is a state of ‘no-mind’ or ‘no-mindedness.’ The mind dwells on nothing, stops on nothing. It just is. The mind has even gone beyond awareness---that is, awareness of ‘things’ as such---although there is an awareness of awareness itself. It is the self-knowing mind out of which all things came, that which fashioned and brought matter into existence. It still does. The mind that is aware that it is aware is the self-knowing, creative mind. It observes, explores, but never stays or stops. Some call this ‘Presence’ the eternal now, and that is not a bad turn of phrase at all.

Time is a scale we have created to ‘divide’ the occurrence of happenings into so-called past, present, and future. At best it is not a thing in itself (like a flower or a bus is a thing) but rather a medium in which all things exist and have their being. Space and time---they're really one---are largely 'tools' of the mind, with time in particular being a most ‘relative’ construct. The truth is we live both in time and eternity. We are ‘in’ (that is, immersed) in eternity right now. In a sense, we live out our existence in both time and eternity. For the most part, the difference lies in the quality of life being experienced by us. For example, when we are anxiously waiting for the expected occurrence of some future event we are existing---note, I didn’t say living---in time. When we are bound up in attachments and addictions we are also existing in time. But when we are truly and fully present in the Now, then we are living---yes, living---in eternity. Wow! What a difference there is!

Life is ceaseless movement and constant flux even though in and of itself life is timeless andspaceless and unchanging. Unchanging, yet forever changing. Nothing moves yet nothing stands still. What a paradox! Everything---and I mean every thing---is contained within ‘the now.’ All time is total and complete---that is, has its fulfilment---in the now. There is an eternal quality about the now, for the now is forever new. What we somewhat ambiguously call ‘the present’ is simply that content---occurrences, both internal and external, in space-time---which presents itself before us in consciousness in and as the now. The eternal now is that ‘present’---yes, it's a problematic word---which is forever renewing and re-presenting itself in and as each new moment. This eternity supersedes time itself. In other words, there is a ‘present’ beyond the ‘present,’ but if you try to 'chase' the next present you will fail. Everything is---here now! Life is eternal, and we are in eternity now. Few people know that. Few people are truly alive. Are you truly alive? Few are, you know.

Theme No. 9: Life is consciousness

If quantum mechanics has shown us anything---and it has shown us plenty---it has shown that consciousness or mind is fundamental, eternal and all-creative. That which we call mass, together with what we refer to as matter, is derivative, being constructed wholly from the interactions between massless---yes, that’s right, massless---elementary particles. Those massless elementary particles constitute the ‘innerness’ of all physical things, even so-called inert matter. I am not referring to some supposedly omnipotent creator God prior to and 'above' time, whatever that word 'above' means in this context (which is nothing in fact). Quantum mechanics appears to provide no support for any such hypothesis or religious belief, but it does provide enormous support for the proposition that mind or consciousness is both fundamental and all-pervasive, that is, that mind or consciousness constitutes the fundamental undifferentiated nature of reality. What emerges from that quantum field depends to a very large degree upon---consciousness! Yes, mind or consciousness is primary and fundamental, the creator and governor of matter. Consciousness is an essential quality or characteristic—if not the defining one---of the quantum field … at least in potentiality.

There is an eternal motion---the Now---of which each of us is a part, that never stops … not even for a nanosecond. Each of us, at the quantum level, is a frequency of consciousness, and there is something very timeless yet veridical about that. The timeless in one person is the timeless in every other person and thing. It was ‘there’ even before the beginning of time, it was ‘there’ when it scattered the stars into space, and it will be ‘there’ long after you and I have ceased to exist as conscious centres of life’s self-awareness.

What does all this mean for you? Well, a number of things, but perhaps the most important one is this---the quality of your life is to a very large extent determined by your state of consciousness, that is, your thinking. Renew your mind. Renew your thinking. No amount of positive thinking will change hard facts, but nothing is to be gained by negative thinking.

Theme No. 10: Get your mind off yourself

Get your mind off yourself. Set yourself---that is, the person that you are---free from all your false selves. You need to be taken out of yourself. Detach mentally from your ‘selves’ by living mindfully. Most of our problems and difficulties occur because we are self-absorbed, self-centred, and self-obsessed. One of the best ways of moving from a sense of self to a sense of non-self (being), is to help other people. Lose yourself in others. Experience a ‘Copernican revolution.’ The world does not revolve around you. Selfishness is the essential problem of your life---and mine. Love is the solution.

So, dear readers, go forth and live mindfully. Think less of yourself, and more of others. Give your life meaning by living meaningfully … from one moment to the next. Angels---if there are any (which I strongly doubt)---can do no better.

The photos in this post (other than the '300' image)

were taken by the author while on trips to Japan.