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Who Am I, and What Is My Purpose?


by Chris Mcals


Projecting an Image
To live without self-knowledge makes no sense at all to most people, but then the question: "Who Am I?" is of particular interest only from a theistic point of view. If you don’t believe in the existence of God then it really doesn’t matter to you. 




It has been said that life is a stage. Why is that? Well, we perceive that there are threats out there, and for that reason we are afraid to show our true selves to the world (to be a lamb in a world of wolves), so we pretend to be who we are not, as actors do on stage. Why suffer if we don’t have to, right? That’s why we create, sustain and project an image, or persona. 



The False Self


Now the false self is more than just an act. It’s more an alter ego than a persona. It starts developing as soon as we begin to understand how the world works. So we see the first small lies: (I didn’t do it!), the first little pranks (hiding in grandma’s pantry), the first disagreement (No, I don’t want to take a nap!) and the first attempts to manipulate the environment (how can I get mom to give me a cookie?). 

These are the first stirrings of the derailing of our consciousness into the world of the false self. Unfortunately parents are unable to teach a child who he really is because they don’t have a clue.

A lot of it is due to the environment in which we live. For example in Tibet, children are taught to seek spiritual values and to ponder about spiritual realities at a very early age, whereas in the western hemisphere the opposite is true.

Being deeply rooted in the world in which we live feels very natural and very real to us, but it’s the ultimate illusion, because, if no alternative Reality is being offered, we inevitably become rooted in the image of the false self. In other words, we truly believe that the person we know as “I” is really “me.”

According to Guy Finley, acclaimed author of “the Secret of Letting Go,” the false self is no thing that feels like some thing, it’s no one that feels like some one.” In other words the false self is the great pretender. 

He Wasn’t There!

This point is brought home and dramatized by the movie “Life and Death of Peter Sellers.” Peter Sellers was the actor that portrayed the original character of Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther series, as well as most of the characters in the movie “Dr. Strangelove.”

If you watched the rather dark movie: “Life and Death of Peter Sellers” you get a pretty good idea of the personal tragedy engendered by living merely as an invented persona or a character. 

For example, when Peter Sellers was filming Dr. Strangelove, his mother went to visit him on the set, one day, during a break. She found him sitting on a wheelchair, totally immersed in his character as Dr. Strangelove. She repeatedly attempted to strike a conversation with her son, but all she ever got was Dr. Strangelove talking back at her with a German accent.

Later, when she was asked how she enjoyed the visit with her son, her response was a dismayed, “He wasn’t there!”

What about us? Are we “there”? If someone should knock on that pretentious mask we wear will she hear a hollow sound? Do we allow anyone to get close enough to see our vulnerability, to touch our wounds? Or do we put up a stoic front, and joke everything away to keep others from seeing us, or even from wanting to know us as long as we make them laugh? 

All too often we wield humor as a sword to hold others at bay, almost always without even realizing it. Don’t get me wrong; humor is wonderful when it’s used in the right way. Constantly throwing fairy dust in people's eyes by using excessive humor is like throwing the dog a bone to pacify him, so we can steal away unnoticed. How tragic! 

We created the illusion of a cocoon world, and we are prepared to die to defend it, because only when we are hidden in our cocoon we feel secure. Our body, our home, our neighborhood, our club, our town, our State and our Nation are all reflections of the same cocoon or turtle shell, if you like. They are the front that the false self has created to feel more secure.

What's My Purpose?

Most of us are really interested in understanding the concept of who we are,” but to get there we must first understand the process of becoming. “Becoming,” means that who you are is constantly evolving. However, if you froze in time in this very instant, you would be who you have become in the instant in which the clock stopped ticking. 

Paradoxically, while we are engaged in the relatively quick movement of Journeying, we are also at once almost frozen in the dimensions of time and space. So, while on one hand we may be moving quickly through our life journey, on the other we are moving infinitesimally slowly, to the point where we are hardly moving at all. 

Since we have no control over the vibrational momentum that propels us forward, each instant counts, because each moment can make a difference in how we evolve onto the next moment.

In order to know who I am, I need to step out of the box of “time” as in growing older, and see myself in the light of growing as a human being, because, after all, that’s life’s true Purpose.

When asked "what's my purpose?" most people come up with their own individual philosophy ranging from the most basic animal instincts of having fun and indulging in self-gratification, to the existential doom of being under a death sentence that compels us to come up with a story that makes sense, to the down to earth belief that we have infinite possibilities to be ourselves as much as we can, rather than having one single purpose, to the higher mindset of being made by God and for God so that we may ultimately become one with God.

Truth is if we knew who we are and why we are here, we'd know what our purpose is, but most people don't know the answer to those questions. It's much easier to answer the question that relates to linear time, than the question related to personal growth.

What’s in a Name?

Here on earth our names don’t necessarily reflect who we are, but in Heaven we will have a name that will reflect exactly who we are. A name by which we may be called and recognized. 
God has a special name for us, and we are that name! In Revelations 2:17 He says: “I will give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.”

Having a name means to be recognized so that you may be called, and in order to be called you need to be known. So only those known by God will receive a new name, and here is why:

“Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as He made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked Him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”

He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ (Luke 13:22-27)

We don’t want to hear Jesus say those terrible words: “I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, you evildoer,” If Jesus doesn't know us, then we have no name by which He can call us, and if we have no name by which Jesus can call us it can only mean one thing: we are nobody in Heaven, and if we are nobody in Heaven, we don't exist there.

Who is an evildoer? Evildoers are people who live and die hating other people and God, (Whereas God is Love, evil is hate, the opposite of love). Evil actions reflect a hateful attitude.

All people are created with Divine Love in their innermost core, but evil people reject their Divine heritage. Their aim is to find solace in self-righteousness, rather than love. That was Lucifer’s sin of pride that got him hurled into hell.

Everyone who hates is motivated by self-righteousness, which is another word for pride, because hateful people think themselves to be superior to others. They do nothing to help, in fact they choose to do harm rather than good.

Too many people squander the gift of life, and then magically expect things to turn out well for them. As with every relationship, we must apply ourselves to make things work if we want to see positive results. Hate will never get us there.

Who We Are Not

Here the late Father DeMello, S.J. hands us a valuable insight. He said:

We define ourselves through occupations, education, relationships, religions, citizenship, roles, qualities, emotions, status, all of which are subject to change. Many of us experience identification with the crimes and sins of our past. Others are addicted to images of their accomplishments or goodness. 

“Many of us find ourselves identifying who we are though the experience of a particular grief, pain or hurt as if we were that grief, pain or hurt. We say, 'I am depressed', identifying with the condition. We are not the state of being of depression. We are simply experiencing it. Who are we? Who is the mysterious one who witnesses the states of being?”

If we only identify with our body, our gender, our jobs, our looks, our popularity, or our roles in life, we will never be able to discover who we are. Why? Because these are all things that are attached to us; they are things that We have.  For example, when I say I have a body I don't really mean that I am the body, because I have already established the existence of the "I" that affirms that it has a body. So having and being, are two different things.

Possessions may help us get where we need to be, but we should use them sparingly, because the inevitable truth is that the more we have, the more we identify with what we have. Many people who suddenly lose their business or all their wealth in the stock market end up committing suicide. Why? Because life to them is worth nothing without their wealth! That's another example of "He wasn't there!" Identification with wealth or earthly possessions derails us from the true purpose of our existence, which is to BE LOVE, and fear of losing what we own stifles love, preventing it from expanding.

Who Am I?

Fr. DeMello offered an interesting observation on the subject of “Who I Am.” He said,

“…Does this mean we don’t experience the full range of our feelings, or have opinions and attitudes about values, politics, a philosophy of life or act in a creative way to express these things? Certainly not! It simply means our identity does not rest in these things but in the great I AM of Jesus or the Suchness of Buddha or the Union with the Beloved of Rumi or the great yogic mantra, Hamsa, I AM THAT. 

“As we are present to ourselves, witnessing with awareness the states of being through which we journey, we watch ourselves constantly changing. We may ask, ‘Who is doing this watching?’ We might observe, ‘When I was a child I was totally myself. When I was a young adult I was totally myself. Now I am older and it is still 'I.'
Who is that I?”   

Indeed, “Who is that I?” 

“I” is pure Consciousness (I Am), because it is neither this nor that (whatever is attached to my consciousness). Pure Consciousness rests in the mold of Divine Love, because: 

“I’m the offspring of God. It is God's Spirit of Love that brought me into existence, hence I'm a spark of that Great Flame of Divine Love from whence I came, and my purpose for being here is to learn and grow by being true to who I am. I am Love. My final purpose is to merge once again with the Love from whence I came. " 
















This post first appeared on DIVINE THUNDER, please read the originial post: here

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Who Am I, and What Is My Purpose?

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