The “Person” idea

You as an “individual” have all kinds of ideas about yourself.

 

At birth, you are given a name and told repeatedly you are that person. Then you have gender, age, family, religious beliefs, cultural background, career, friends, race, and so on. Our entire language spoken constantly reflects the idea of separation. Think about the phrases you hear and say daily. Most phrases reinforce identification as a body and individual that can be born, live a while, age and die. Always in the language is “I, me and mine” or “them and us.”

The moment you appear to be “born” the conditioning continues. But this belief is in the mind before you appear to take on a body! It does not come from childhood as most people believe. As long as you appear to be in a body, the belief is there until it is seen for what it is and dissipated.

It is the “person” that gets annoyed. It is the person that doesn’t like this or that. It is always the person that gets offended or afraid or feels insecure, sad, or judges. This is ego’s way of sucking you in and keeping the anxiety dream-game going.

If you are experiencing any loss of peace at any moment, look to see if you are identified with this “individual person.” It is not really You, but a false you that you think you are. This individual doesn’t even exist. No individual does. Even those family members and friends you love still exist in Perfect Oneness. Bodies aren’t real. The vast Presence of Self can never be contained or separated in a form except by images appearing in the mind’s projection.

This is why Ramana Maharshi in his Self-Inquiry reminds one to continually ask, To whom is this happening?” In your sincere reflection, the “person” to whom this is occurring is nowhere to be found. It is simply an image you take yourself to be. This is discovered when you follow the idea of this individual-I back to its source. All of this can be seen by the Self, by You, by the vast awareness that can continually “step back” and silently observe.

If you can witness it, if it can be seen, it’s not the real you.

You, as Pure Awareness, can always see all of this going on. You can overlook disturbances and see beyond whatever appears. With practice, this will become a joyful habit, effortless really. But you must keep at it. When the false sense of self dissolves, forgiveness is unnecessary as Love and Truth is all that exists. You are this Love. You are this Truth. Nothing other than this has ever happened. You will see that there was only LOVE.

It is Your dream. Recognize that You are the dreamer so you can free yourself from the mind’s false view.

Turn your attention inward. Remain empty until you feel Peace. Enjoy being nothing so that you can be everything.

Stay as the witness. Stay as LOVE. Be as You Are.

 

“Concentrate on the Seer, not on the seen.
All that you see is false, and the Seer alone is True.”  
~ Ramana Maharshi