I Am and I Do

I Am and I Do

When we first meet someone, our gender, race, and age range are usually obvious. To that we add 2 pieces of information – our name and our occupation.

For many people, these bits of information are key parts of their identity. What I Am and What I Do. Our sense of purpose, our role in society, and our relationships with many revolve around this. We often add what we think others think of us, like handsome, not good enough, rich, and so forth. And yet, all of this is nothing but a story. Markers to categorize people like objects.

For example, if someone tells you they’re an accountant, that will trigger lots of associations that astronaut wouldn’t. But are all accountants the same?

Why do we take this stuff so seriously? It gives us a sense of control, a sense we know, a sense the world is safe.

As the spiritual awakening process has a tendency to amend such conceptions, it can lead to curious experiences and social conundrums.

What do I say when I am not this person?
What do I say when I have ceased to engage in action, simply observing the world?
What do I call myself when there is no person to name?
What do I say when life is my occupation or “job” is meaningless?
And so on.

These are transitory states we may go through. Others as well. For some, little of the outside changes with inner changes. For others, the outside changes with the inside.

Of course, the usual is to come up with a simple story so we have something to say socially. Saying “I am That” may just confuse people. (laughs) Nor is it usually useful to be rude about others identity. Namaste? Sure, but telling a stranger their identity is a delusion? That’s not meeting them.

As Maharishi Mahesh Yogi once said, “See the job, do the job, stay out of the misery.”

Strangely, our stories about who we are can interfere with who this person actually is. Our stories and laws of nature don’t always align. We can spend decades “searching for purpose” when we can’t not be living it. But when it’s not conscious, we can get in the way of it or move away from it because we don’t have the details right.

For example, we see we’re good at helping people understand and become a teacher. But that role is a struggle. We’re good at one-on-one but not with classroom management. Turns out we’re a counselor, not a teacher.

Life can be a funny dance of self-discovery.
Davidya

Last Updated on June 16, 2016 by

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8 Comments

  1. We do what we do. I somehow ended up as a technology recruiter, and can say that as a fact without an existential crisis. I used to get one earlier on in my life though when people here in England where I work said “where are you from?” with their inquiry triggered by an Ozzie accent. I always smiled over that one as the real answer would be “space” but living does need to be practical.

    1. (laughs) Thanks for the comment, Milo. I was in grad school in the states and got some Canuck, eh? queries.

      Some do end up in curious places though. Like having no visible means of support but everythings fine. That can be hard to explain to someone working a job they dislike to make ends meet.

    1. Hi Greg
      It can take some time to get clear on the nuances. Having a message doesn’t make you a teacher either. More than a few spiritual teachers don’t have teaching skills.

      I suspect that in time, we’ll have better testing available to make more informed choices much sooner in life. Then such things will be less of an experiment.

    1. Hi Paul

      Good thoughts.
      I’d probably put the second as:
      The purpose of a spiritual teacher is to catalyze. As in trigger shifts via resonance.

      Some spiritual teachers do a lot of talking about it. But some have decent darshan so the talking doesn’t much matter. It’s just the being together. 🙂

  2. Well, Davidya, just to add a slightly different perspective… What if the person in Enlightenment INSISTS on maintaining and valuing a human identity?

    You know, what could be called “Householder Enlightenment,” a version of Enlightenment that has new validity in this Age of Awakening.

    Would there not be value in the human bits, including all those demographic bits of data?

    From my perspective, a person in Enlightenment knows how to favor the consciousness aspect and also how to favor the human. So we can easily value those bits of demographic data.

    No shame in them. They. Be. Human.

    1. (laughs) Ah Rose, you caught me taking a consciousness-based approach.

      But notice I said “These are transitory states we may go through.” Some do place these as “awakened reality” but they’re not.

      All of the example questions I gave have been my experience and of others I know. But all where passing. For example “there is no person to name” lasted about 2 weeks prior to the Unity shift. At the time, I dropped using personal pronouns and friends joked I was “the person formerly known as David” (aka Prince)

      But then things integrated better and I made more sense. (laughs)

      From the consciousness perspective I take, we don’t loose the ego or sense of person. We loose our identification or attachment to them. This frees us to discover who we are under this “story of a person.”

      There can be an experience of loosing them but if we’re realistic about it, as the experience is integrated we discover they’re still there. But now they’re not the center. They’re an aspect of this expression, like our fingers.

      When we see some of it is a story we have the opportunity to edit it and use a more useful one. This is part of your work, though you do frame it somewhat differently.

      As you know, who we recognize ourselves as being then becomes a great deal more than just our body and thoughts. 🙂

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