Meditation and True Self

There are so many things that we identify with, like our body, something our parents may have said about us, our perceived attractiveness or lack thereof, our role as parents or children, our social status or profession, our emotions, and so much more. All these identifications are subject to change. The young beautiful girl will eventually become old and lose her physical attractiveness. The powerful manager will one day be over the hill. Your status will vanish when you get fired or someone else becomes the new hot shot in your company or your community. You work hard to keep your position, but the fear that you one day might lose it all will remain. People with low confidence and perceived weaknesses might fall into the trap that their lack of confidence makes the negative outcome self-fulfilling. They might keep looking for evidence to prove that they are victims of life, or they might with hard work and the help of positive psychology turn their life around. All along they will identify with some role, be it that of a loser or a rising star.

Sooner or later every role will be transformed. While the mother will always identify with her role, it will still be hard for her to accept when her children grow up and move out. All ego roles are fleeting in nature and we are here to learn that we are not any of that. You are not your changing emotions, whether it is happiness or sadness, whether it is exuberance or depression. You are neither a boy, nor a middle-aged man. You are not your thoughts, not your fantasies and not your desires; the list can go on and on. Life will teach you eventually that you are not any of that, but you can take a short-cut and come to this realization here and now. In meditation you get a glimpse of who you truly are. When your thoughts come to a standstill you can liberate yourself from all the prisons you have created for yourself and merge with the Source. At this blissful moment you get a taste for who you truly are.

By Su Zhen



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