You Are Not a Who

That voice in your head, the one that tells you to:

Hit the snooze bar one more time
Spit off the roof of a tall building
Gossip about a coworker
Stop living in the past
Have one more cookie
Become more spiritual

You know, that voice.

When you think about it, though, it’s not really a voice, is it?

Unless you’ve gone completely mad, you don’t really hear a voice. It’s more appropriate to say that you are aware of the thoughts parading through your mind.

You call it a voice because it personalizes this naturally occurring process, because it creates the notion of a “me”, a doer, someone having thoughts, someone calling the shots.

But that’s not what happens. There’s no one calling any shots. There is no “me”.

“Me” is just another thought flitting through your mind.

“Me” is the thought you have never considered to be a thought, perhaps until this very moment.

You have been under the impression that you were directing your thoughts, when all the time you were a thought.

In a police lineup consisting of the following subjects holding numbers to their chests…

1. Hit the snooze bar one more time
2. Spit off the roof of a tall building
3. Gossip about a coworker
4. Stop living in the past
5. Have one more cookie
6. Become more spiritual
7. Me

…you would likely identify subjects 1-6 as thoughts, and subject 7 would get a free pass. You would assume that “me” is the person on the other side of the two-way glass, the one identifying subjects 1-6 as thoughts. However, there were actually seven thoughts in the lineup, because “me” is just another thought.

Got it?

Okay, now that you know the correct answer, let’s try this exercise again.

The following subjects appear in a police lineup holding numbers to their chests:

1. Hit the snooze bar one more time
2. Spit off the roof of a tall building
3. Gossip about a coworker
4. Stop living in the past
5. Have one more cookie
6. Become more spiritual
7. Me

How many of these subjects are thoughts?

All seven, you say? Correct.

Now, who is it on the other side of the two-way glass making this observation?

If “me” is standing in the lineup holding up number 7, then who sees this? Who is aware of this? How could you possibly be in two places at once?

Well, you can’t.

The “me” standing next to “become more spiritual” is an imposter. It’s a thought pretending to be you.

You are the one peering through the glass, aware that “me” is just another thought.

You are not a who. You are more of a what.

You are awareness, not a person who is aware, but awareness itself – formless, borderless, disembodied awareness.

You do not have a hat size or a birthday.

You do not have friends or fall in love.

You do not mow the lawn or pay taxes.

You never need a haircut.

You exist beyond the world of form. You are the field of awareness in which forms appear.

[More…]

Philosophers stone – selected views from the boat http://philosophers-stone.co.uk