What forms our unique 'I' identity?

What forms our unique 'I' identity?

Dear Rupert,

Surely the combination of the body-mind’s genetic make-up plus the ‘world’ – experienced as perceptions – combines to form a unique ‘I’ identity. Or is this way off?

Thanks,
Guy

 

Dear Guy,

The body-mind plus the world is experienced as a stream of thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions. These constitute what could be called objective experience, in the sense that a flow of conceived or perceived objects are experienced.

There is, however, something that knows or is aware of this flow of objects, and whatever that is, is not itself an object. It is the knower or experiencer of all objects. It is most commonly known as ‘I’, for we all known that our experience is known by ‘I’, by myself, not by someone or something else. It is also known sometimes as awareness because it is both present and aware, although it has no objective qualities.

You can easily check this in your experience. Is the world known or perceived by the mind (thoughts) or by the body (sensations)? No, the world, which we know only through perception, is not known by another thought or sensation. Perceptions, thoughts and sensations are all known by ‘I’, by myself, by this aware presence. So our true ‘I’ identity is this presence of awareness, which has no objective quality such as an age, a shape, a colour, a location or a duration. 

What you call our ‘unique “I” identity’ is an imaginary identity which arises from believing that our true identity of awareness has a particular age, shape, colour, location and duration. It is an imaginary entity which seems to arise as a result of identifying what we truly are, awareness, with a cluster of ideas, images and sensations (the body-mind). It is later substantiated at the level of the body with feelings.

From the moment this imaginary identification takes place, we ‘forget’ our true nature of awareness, and as a result, its inherent qualities of love, peace and happiness are seemingly veiled. We seem instead to become a separate, inside self moving around in a world of time and space, forever in search of the love, peace and happiness that seem to be missing.

The recognition of our true self of awareness (that is, its recognition of itself) brings this imaginary inside self to an end, if not immediately, in due course. As a result, the mind and the body return to their natural state of ease, balance and harmony. Subsequently, the love, peace and happiness that are inherent in our true nature, are shared, expressed and communicated according to the unique characteristics of each body and mind.

With love,
Rupert

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