You are not who you think you are

The majority of humanity has never asked the question, “Who am I,” and really examined what that question might reveal. It seems so obvious to us that we are our minds – our thoughts, emotions and feelings. And as children, we adopted identities other well-meaning people placed upon us. As we grow up those ideas become cemented in our minds and we neve question them.

We won’t go into a deep conversation about this idea right now, but I want to point out a few things that might be beneficial to you.

You are not your thoughts or emotions. If you slow down and take a few minutes, you can actually observe your thinking and feelings as they arise in your mind. You must be something greater if you can witness them.

You are not your name. Your name was given to you by your parents so they could identify and communicate with you. You could have been named anything.
You can change your name at any time and it has no bearing on who you really are. It’s simply a convenient label.

You are not your roles. You may be a mother, teacher, CEO, actor or any of a million other characters, but those are just labels.

You are not your body. Your body continually ages and changes. You may be young and attractive, but you will grow old and lose all of the qualities of youth.

If you continue to question all of these ideas you have about who you are, you can only come to one conclusion. You are pure awareness. You are consciousness having an experience inside of a body.

You don’t have to struggle with this idea right now. Mull it over from time to time and see if you come to a deeper understanding of who you are as you take this course.