We tend to identify ourselves with many things. Whether it’s our self-image, expensive things we own or thoughts in our minds. It’s perfectly normal to have identities as we are beings in a material world, we need to function in society and pay our bills. One may work for a particular company and there’s nothing wrong in taking pride in what one does for example. But problems arise when we are overly focused and become obsessed with our identities. Why? Because things change. Fortune may come and go. The young would one day become old.
In the spiritual sense, all identities are transient. One could even go as far as saying that everything is transient. There is an expiry date in everything. Once the prominent feature of our identity is gone, for example a young and beautiful person will inevitably grow old one day, it can be devastating to that identity. Until it becomes unbearable, eventually causing a huge problem if we don’t have anything else to rely on. So what do we do if everything has a shelf life? We disidentify. We are not job titles, familial roles, or whatever we think we are. We are simply beings. We are life.
Our true self is not what we know as ‘I’, ‘me’ or ‘us’, it’s what many spiritual people call ‘consciousness’. It’s the deeper version of ourselves which is connected to the universe. It’s the oneness. Also sometimes known as God. It’s not my intention to give definition to something that can’t really be defined. It’s also futile to examine what terminology is the ‘best’. The most important thing is that we experience things for ourselves. One thing we could all start doing is to learn to be less identified with names, titles or anything the material world regards as important, but start finding joy in simple things and pay attention to the life deep within us.