Written by Dr. Crosbie Watler
The question is, “which self are we coming to know?” The DOing or the BEing? Awareness of this duality of self is the most important awareness. Bar none.
The BEing self is our essential quality. It was there at our birth: The Silent Witness. Presence…awareness consciousness…simply, “I AM.” No condition. Before we lost connection with source and learned to tell a story about who we are. Stories and judgements of ourselves, others and of the world around us. And the stories are rarely good.
The DOing self is like shifting sand. The roles, relationships, achievements, failures, appearance, possessions…and on and on. The doing self is the weather of your life.
If everything is going perfectly at that level, enjoy it. It won’t last for long. Identifying with the DOing self is the primary source of suffering. Like outsourcing our well BEing to the weather.
We were born steeped in awareness of BEing, before we lost ourselves to the monkey mind: “I think, therefore, I am.”Before we drank the Kool Aid and succumbed to the cult of disconnected materialism.
As we “grow up,” we begin to see ourselves as split off from others and from the world around us. The illusion of separation. Maya—the illusion of the senses. Our culture reinforces this illusion of disconnection. Disconnect from source. BEing.
It is always the perfect time to come back home to rediscover our essential nature. BEing. Grounding in witnessing awareness, without thought, judgment, or story. It is our birthright and our highest calling.
THIS is the healing field of the the psychedelic medicines. With the mind off line, we sit in front of the mirror, where we cannot lie to ourselves anymore about who we are. Credit to Duncan Grady, a Blackfoot elder, for that pearl.
Outside of these medicine-assisted shifts in awareness, we can learn to step out of thought with intention—as in meditation. In the space between our thoughts, we experience the stillness of being. Well being. It reminds us who we are.
There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in—Leonard Cohen. Our authentic self resides in the crack, the space between our thoughts. That’s how the light gets in.
Whether we succeed or fail at any enterprise, the BEing self remains the dispassionate, silent witness. The liberating transition to detachment: I don’t mind what happens. Non attachment.
When you are in that place and I’m in that place, we are one. An individual wave, aware of the connection with the ocean.
Be the change.
