Caught in the Storm of the “I”
What is the storm of the “I”?
Put simply, the storm of the “I” is our battle for identity and the ensuing struggle to hang on to it in times of adversity.
It’s human nature to compare ourselves to others. We want to live lives that matter. We want to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Then, along comes an event that makes us question our identity or, sometimes, strips us of it entirely. In the movie, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, after suffering a nasty fall, young Bruno encounters Pavel, a “farmer” who works in the kitchen and “gave up being a doctor” to “peel potatoes”, unaware that Pavel is actually a prisoner of the adjacent concentration camp during the time of the Holocaust.
What happens when the labels, identities and titles we identify ourselves by get completely erased?
Our ego-driven self is small-minded, fearful and constraining. It wants to force-fit everyone, ourselves included, into narrowly defined, little identity boxes. Taking on the constipated views it has self-created, as well as those put on us by others, it seeks to forge a veritable identity-lock on who we are and who we can become. During times of identity loss, our EGO goes kicking and screaming into the Dark Night of the Soul. Some equate the intense pain of shedding our EGO with the process of reaching toward enlightenment.
In the Bible, according to the Book of Luke, Chapter 17, Verse 21, The kingdom of God is within you. Psalm 23 states: I shalt not want…my cup runneth over. Similarly, in the Bhagavad Gita, according to the Eighteenth Teaching, verse 61, Lord Krishna states, The lord resides in the heart of all creatures. In the Eighteenth Teaching, verse 78, Sanjaya continues, Where Krishna is…there do fortune, victory, abundance…exist. And, according to Tibetan Buddhist precepts, the secret wisdom of the Dzogchen teaches us that whatever we are looking for, it is always right here…what we seek, we already are.
Numerous highly revered, sacred, spiritual teachings, like those listed above, remind us that our true self is actually limitless and Divine. There is nothing bigger than our true self. It cannot be contained or constrained, it just is.
Martial arts legend, Bruce Lee, famously said, Empty your mind. Be formless and shapeless, like water. Don’t think…FEEL! In the battle for conformity versus being your true self, rather than caving to the screaming EGO, listen carefully for the all-powerful whispers of your soul. In other words, learn to be without your identities, labels and titles. Learn to just BE!
jon m ketcham
Dream re-Kindler to Earth-bound Travelers of Light
Offering hope to the hopeless & helping the broken re-kindle their dreams.
www.AlwaysBelieveInYourDreams.com
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