There are so many things in life that we use to say 'this is who I am'. You know this for a fact. This is what we do as humans. We use what we do and what we know and what we like and dislike to establish a sense of our self.

We do this so we know who we are. We do this so that we don't forget who we are. We do this so that we can tell others who we are. We do this so we can connect with others who are like and the same way that we tell ourselves that we are. We do this so we can stay away from those who are not like who we think we are.

I call this the Identity Project, but it's really more of an identity crisis. It's one big massive effort on the part of virtually every human being on the planet to know who they are by what they do and what they know and even what they feel and think.

Now, I know that I'm not writing about something cutting-edge here or first-of-its-kind type of thing. I know that for a fact. This has been written about millions of times before in countless books, articles, and now websites.

But what amazes me about all of this is the insidiousness of all of this. The pervasiveness of it and the relentless effort we all feel compelled to march towards so as to have our own personal identity.

Now I know that many of you might be thinking that I've gone into the deep end of the pool here with this. You might even be saying "Well of course I have an identity you silly dude you, how else would I know my self? " Others might even say "Are you insane? How else would I function in society? I need an identity!"

There are many different justifications for needing to know who we are, especially in relation to others. This is the way the human race is established. Everything has a reference point. Everything is in relation to everything else, so of course it needs to have a place that it is in reference to by the mere fact that it exists.

This includes each one of us. We all need to know who we are and where we fit in to in society and our surroundings. We need to have our own personal pecking order in life. Where we are in the chain of command varies depending upon the environment that were in at any particular time.

It's all a pretty cool way of handling this morass of existence that we're thrown into with no choice. We begin to develop a sense of existence in relation to existence.

But where this goes awry is when the sense of existence is related to only through the many identities that we have and it is all that matters whilst no effort or focus is made on the existence of one as a human creature in existence here.

Let me rephrase.

Simply, the focus is always outside and on external objects and events. I'm saying that the focus should at times be more of an internal focus where the relation that is seeked is one with one's self.

We all have an identity and, like each of us, I would surmise that no two are the same. We need our identity to function in this world we're in. But there is also a world, an inner world, that is available for our touching and contacting. It's there inside of each and every one of us.

We're just looking the other way. We're looking outside when we need to turn our attention inside to experience this true and unchanging connection. With who or what? Easy.

With our Self. With the essence of our existence. That common bond that we share as human creatures existing on this planet. That common bond that we share with all of existence itself.

Oh, of course, I know that what I'm writing about here won't make any sense to many readers of this article. Especially those who have not the foggiest idea of what it is that I'm attempting to point to here. That's okay.

I'm sharing with those who are seeking some sort of purpose in life. Some sort of purpose to existence. Some meaning to it all. They are the ones who have a calling of sorts.

They are the ones who know that the Identity Project isn't working. The Identity Project is collapsing at the seams, slowly, but surely.

They are the ones who know that there is something here that is bigger than each of us. They just don't know what.

This is not fantasy. This is reality.

We each exist. We each know that we exist. We each are fully certain that we exist and that we're here. Yet we don't spend much time or effort touching that certainty. We don't spend much time making an effort, for even a brief moment during our short time thru life, to drop the thousands of identities that we each have built up over the decades so as to see the reality of our existence as a human created out of the nothingness of the infinite.

So, to reiterate, what exactly is it that I'm attempting to impart here?

I'm working to share that each of us has built up over the decades of existence that we've been alive in this mortal coil a way of relating to our existence that truly doesn't allow us to connect with the essence of our existence. Why would we want to do that? We all know why.

If one is not happy with their existence and the ever-changing fact of the identities that are created and then glommed on to and hung onto for dear life, then one might want to consider looking in a different direction for what doesn't change and what we were created from and can't cover up no matter how many identities we try to use to 'know ourself'.

Let me give you an example.

I'm a parent of a teen and two pre-teen boys. I'm a single parent. When I'm with them and I'm fulfilling my role/identity as a parent, life is very full and focused on the boys. They need parental attention and that is what I opted to do by becoming a father to them through their birth.

Imagine that they're physically with me but busy doing their thing in the adjoining room and I'm in the kitchen making supper for all of us. I'm standing in the kitchen and yet can see each of them as they're busy in their own little adolescent worlds. As I'm standing in the kitchen I can choose to step out of my own little parental world and instead focus on the mere fact that I exist at that moment.

I can allow myself to touch the knowing of what it is to exist. Period. Not exist as a parent. Not exist as Dad. Not exist as a man. But, to exist, right there and then.

That moment is devoid of identity. That moment is indescribable and unbound. That which was touched is not in relation to anything else of identity. That is why it is unbound. That is why it can't be described.

So, why do this? Well, again, one will only do this looking if one is wanting to do it. Others will simply ignore or forget. That's fine.

But, the looking at what doesn't have any connection with the concept of identity is what erodes the identities and brings one in contact with what all of existence is. And what one's physical body was borne out of and into.

It doesn't matter whether one is sitting at a desk in an office in a skyscraper in a humongous city or walking barefoot along a dirt path in the grasslands in a small country south of the equator.

We all have identities, and we all have an innate knowing that we are not the identities. Efforting to be, from the place that is not part of the Identity Project, allows one to connect with the simple peace of existence.

Some time ago I decided that I want that.

You?

Written by Andre Best
http://www.andrebest.com
'...insights :: insightful information for inquisitive individuals'

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