|
  |
|
|
The Identity Delusion
Human beings everywhere are suffering from a delusion--a delusion that threatens to destroy the entire species. It is a delusion of identity. Evolution has played a dirty trick on us. Although our species has survived so far, the price has been the species-wide delusion that we are individual, independent, vulnerable persons--and persons only. The truth is that there is really only one identity: call it Being, or Spirit, or Energy, or Energy-Awareness. And we are that, living the temporary information-based adventures we call human lives. The delusion appears to arise partly from genetically inherited programming, and partly as a logical consequence of the way our senses work. The senses deliver a highly edited set of information about the external world, and as a result we develop erroneous "common sense" assumptions about what is going on. We are deluded by those assumptions. Beyond that, the most ancient parts of our brains--the reptilian and limbic parts--are programmed in ways that reinforce assumptions of separateness and vulnerability. This creates a set of attitudes in animals and humans that has survival value for the individual under conditions of scarcity and competition, but which do not reflect important aspects of reality that don't happen to stimulate our senses. Our natural condition prior to bombardment by the brain's informational show is one of broad identification. Newborn babies are in this state, and stay in it for months before the delusion of separateness starts to take hold. The assumption of separateness is reinforced and deepened by the repeated messages that our senses deliver to awareness--messages that tell only partial truths, and are therefore really lies of omission. The deeper problem is not that the personal view is present, but that the holistic view is absent. Seeing a human being as a separate entity is often a useful-enough approximation of what is going on: When diving off a diving board, for example, or jumping on a trampoline. But that view is limited, incomplete, and distorting in other situations. It gets us into deep trouble when we deal with more fundamental issues--the general well-being of the biosphere, for example. As we grow up, the delusion draws us out of our original broadly-identified condition. That's as it must be. We couldn't stay mental infants and do what we need to do as human outcrops of universal process. We need to build an ego and a lot of human competence before we can let go of that ego and use that competence for larger purposes. But while we're building that ego--as children and young adults--we could also be taught about the eventual necessity of discarding it. Nowadays, because the identity delusion is backed by so much technological leverage, the very survival of the human race is threatened. Yet there is hope. A small percentage of humans have seen through the delusion. The well known ones have been variously called spiritual teachers, saints, sages, lamas, or gurus. And the several paths to clarity which they followed are available to us too. In the beginning, the task is to see how brain processes again and again pull us back from the wide-angle peace-filled perspective to the perspective of small-s self concern. We see the arising of anger at the mosquito, for example, and the arising of a wide range of personal wants. The challenge is to see through the melodrama of our lives to the enabling stillness that underlies it. We find and enter this deeper reality by letting local concerns fall away, and letting attention return to its natural resting place in the still and peaceful ground of the mental/physical whole. The challenge is to just be. To just be energy, without any quest. To just be awareness, happy to watch whatever arises.
|
|
 |
|
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
The Wisdom Page
Premier source of information about wisdom
www.wisdompage.com
|
|
No reactions yet.
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
Please login or sign up to add a comment.
The copyright for this content entitled "The Identity Delusion" has been specified by the contributor as:
All Rights Reserved
This content may not be copied, distributed or adapted by anyone under any circumstances.
|
|
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
