who we are ? – Infinite Love 2012
Maybe you have already asked yourself, “Who am I?”
Or maybe you’ve never had the time to ask yourself this question.
The answer to this question is very simple: To understand who we are, we just need to eliminate all that we are not. This approach is inspired by the ancient teachings of awakened Masters, and it is classic, logical, and easy to comprehend.
I) First of all, you are not your physical body.
Our physical body is an autonomous system. It is a host, a complex set of systems that allow us to become flesh. It serves as an interface between ourselves and the world; however we are not only our physical body.
If we take the example of horse-drawn carriage, our body is the horse that pulls the carriage and the driver. This body is a fundamental element of our embodiment. It allows us to do a number of things from eating to moving around, playing sports and reproducing, as well as to enjoy a number of experiences and sensations.
The body is the interface between what we are and the material universe. But the body is not the one who makes the decisions. We live in symbiosis with the body, like zooxanthellae and hard corals.
This physical body has a number of needs and a number of expectations. It is autonomous and seeks to survive, like any other organism in the universe. Its fundamental needs are to eat, to keep its integrity, to move around, to reproduce, and to experience life through the senses.
Our body is our best friend; it was there for the first breath we took at birth. It will be there for our last breath on our deathbed. When there is a problem, when the body is stressed or hurting somewhere, it communicates with us through pain and also through illness.
For this reason it is very important to listen to it and respect its needs. This is the purpose of exercise, yoga, dance, massage, or other techniques for getting in touch with the body.
In extreme cases, the body may be completely disconnected from who we are; we call this is a coma. In that case there is only a disconnected body that can no longer do anything.
In modern society, so many people have stopped listening to their bodies that it’s a veritable epidemic. The more we listen to and are attuned to our bodies, the happier our bodies are and the easier it is to work on other areas such as the mind or the spirit.
Listening to and respecting the body is the foundation of any spiritual work. For how do we empty our mind if our back hurts, how do we engage in spiritual practice if our body is stressed? This is the reason that people in the East begin a spiritual practice with Yoga.
It is of fundamental importance to be in harmony with our body.
Several poems about the body were written following meditations:
II) You are not your mind, you are not your thoughts.
At birth, our left brain is a clean slate, like a new computer.
There is no memory, no mental programming.
Progressively, through education and experience, we begin to learn and to be programmed. We are programmed by our parents, friends, schools, the media, and society in general.
We have all seen children repeatedly drop a ball to the ground.
This is how we learn, how we program our brains, our minds, to understand the material world around us. We are trying to understand the laws of the universe, or of gravity in this case.
We can very well imagine a universe without gravity, if we take the example of a child born in a spaceship. All of these rules and all of these experiments shape our minds and our ways of understanding the world.
We see the world through the prism of these experiences. Once we understand that the ball will fall 99% of the time, we don’t need to try the experiment again.
But this programming also happens psychologically. All of our behaviors, conscious or unconscious, come from this programming. Parents, schools, and friends have all contributed to this programming. This is what shapes our values and behavior, and also what generates our current actions and decisions. We are all the product of our culture, of millions of years of evolution, not just from a biological standpoint, but also socially and culturally.
Poem: 7 billion robots
We are not our thoughts:
Demonstration: The allegory of the dog
Imagine that you are walking down the street and you see a man with his dog.
The dog is on a leash in front of the man, and is pulling hard, going right and left. The dog barks non-stop, he tries to bite passers-by as well as other dogs and cats.
In fact, he’s uncontrollable. In truth, he’s the one who’s walking his master. He’s a big dog, muscular and powerful, and at least one meter tall. He pulls and he pulls. He stops when he wants to, and forces his master to go in a certain direction. He runs after a passing dog, he sniffs all the posts, he pees everywhere. He is uncontrollable, completely untrained.
And on the other sidewalk, there is another man who is also walking his dog.
But this one is nice, gentle, and he’s not even on a leash! The master is walking slowly in front of his dog. The dog follows behind him, and he stops when the master stops. He goes when the master goes. He’s a very small dog, very well trained. The master needs only to frown for the dog to stop immediately. The contrast with the man on the other sidewalk is remarkable.
The little dog is very well trained, he does everything the master asks, and it is the master who decides. This dog listens to and respects his master.
Well, this story is an analogy to help you understand that the dog is your mind. Your mind and your thoughts are like a dog; you can let them do whatever they want, or you can take control. This is how you can control your destiny, how you become free!
You are not your dog! You are not your thoughts, you are not your mind!
Want proof? You can simply watch your thoughts go by. If you can watch them go by, without taking them into account, this shows that they are not who you are. Have you already tried to watch yourself walking down the street?
Of course, you can also ignore certain thoughts that bother you, since you are free to choose your thoughts!
Another example: Dinner at a restaurant
Tonight you have decided to eat at a restaurant: The first idea comes to you.
“Let’s go the Indian restaurant,” then “let’s go the Chinese restaurant,” then “let’s go to the French restaurant,” and why not the Italian restaurant. In the end the Thai restaurant isn’t bad.
All of these ideas, all of these thoughts, you would agree with me that they are not you. You are the one who decides which restaurant to go to.
You are not your thoughts! Thoughts come to you and you can choose to listen to them or let them pass on by. But YOU decide which restaurant you wand to eat in.
So you can easily understand that you are not your thoughts.
On the other hand, we can say that thoughts cross your mind (which is already not so bad!).
Definition of the Ego:
The definition of the ego in this article, and for Infinite Love, is this: The sum total of all of our mental programming. This is not the usual definition, but rather a “technical” one.
The ego is a construction, a mental program that allows us to defend ourselves and to survive in this universe. There are no positive or negative connotations. We will speak later of positive or negative ego. The Ego is the construction of our “self” as viewed by the mind. To the mind, the Ego is the “self.”
As soon as we understand that we are neither our thoughts nor our minds, we can understand that the Ego is just a construction, a program. Luckily, it is entirely possible to reprogram it. That which has been programmed can be deprogrammed.
For millennia the great Indian and Tibetan masters have explained that we are neither our physical bodies nor our minds. Buddha, Jesus, Saint Augustin, Osho, Sri Aurobindo, Joshua Living Stone, Muktananda, Ramana Maharshi, etc.
This knowledge is very well known and is not an extraordinary revelation since it is very well documented. However, if you are receiving this information for the first time, it can really change your life, since it can help you become FREE.
For once we have integrated this concept and mastered it, we become truly free.
Here is a poem on the subject: 7 Billion Robots.
The next step consists of distancing ourselves from our thoughts, to let all of the parasitic thoughts that don’t interest us just pass on by. Once you have practiced this, and you can practice at any moment of the day, you will then be able to “reprogram” yourself in order to increase you choices and your freedom. This way you will increase your level of consciousness in the fields that interest you.
If this is a new concept, re-read this article several times and read other books on the subject.
In general, several months of practice are necessary to truly understand and master these new concepts. If you were already familiar with them, it will be quicker and easier.
So, you may ask, “How do I transform this teaching into knowledge? How do I become free again, and not let my thoughts control me?”
It’s very simple; continue to read all of the poems and texts on the Infinite Love site. Each reading should help your level of consciousness progress! If you think that certain articles are not accurate or precise enough, write to us!
Kundun, Paris 09/01/2012