False Self

Here's a challenging idea: those who don't know their true identity do not know that they don't know who they are. It's a kind of spiritual amnesia produced by having assumed a false identity without knowing it. How is that possible?

All of us know what it's like to be dogged by parts of us that want to drag us down. Call it what you will: some compulsion or obsession seems to follow us into all our relationships, only to wreck them in one way or another. We struggle as best we can to free ourselves from these dark states but invariably find ourselves short of the mark.

Have you ever heard within you, not necessarily in words, something to the effect of "Oh no, not this again!"? Perhaps we're looking at the latest flame of our heart and we see a fire in his or her eyes, but it's not because they are looking at us. In that moment we no longer see the moment unfold as it is, but rather we stand there transfixed -- experiencing the moment as we are; and we are not really present!

Seeking fulfillment it empties itself. Seeking importance it compromises itself. This is the self that opposes itself.

If... You serve only yourself, You serve nothing. If... You love only yourself, You love nothing. If... You cling only to yourself, You hold nothing. If... You wish to please only yourself, You please nothing. If... You have only things as pleasures, You have nothing. If... Your thoughts wrestle with tomorrow, You struggle with nothing. If... You strive to amass o...