“You” are an illusion of relativity

by Brian Thompson.

“You” are an illusion of relativity.

I say this because everything that you believe yourself to be is relative to how you relate to the world that you perceive, as it appears through your hazy mix of personal opinions, thoughts, beliefs, concepts, knowledge, memories, preferences and emotions.

This sense of a “personal” self is continually changing and is relative to everything you interact with—especially your own body and mind, and how you believe they each compare with society’s expectations and whether or not you believe they conform with your culture’s ideals.

And so, who you believe yourself to be is relative to your opinion of everything you encounter. Your image of yourself is influenced and conditioned by everything you experience.

But this relative “self” is not really YOU—in actuality, it’s merely a mis-perceived identity caused by the heady mix of the ego’s ever-changing fears and desires. Your true Self however, is not relative to anything at all—it stands alone in its own illuminating essence. And yet to most people, their true nature remains unrealized, hidden underneath layers of personal belief, behavioural habit and conceptual thought.

And this is the flaw in your self-perceived identity—anything whose is-ness is defined entirely by that which surrounds it has no independent characteristics of its own. Therefore, you are not the independent entity you believe yourself to be, because how you define your “self” relies completely upon the whims of your emotional mind and how it relates to whatever the present moment contains.

When you believe that this idea of “me” is not only the centre of everything you perceive, but its “owner”, then you allow everything to define you. “Me” then becomes the bullseye at the centre of the personal target that needs to be continually defended from every possible perceived threat.

This “me” makes you selfish, because it posits you against the rest of the entire world—including your true Self nature.

In contrast to this false and imagined self however, is your true Self—the aware presence of consciousness which animates your body/mind. This is the true source of your being-ness—this is your I AM—and it alone is Absolute. It pervades everything that IS and is relative to no-thing. It is undivided, indivisible and eternal, conditioned by no-thing other than its own infinitely aware emptiness.

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