What is the self?
My therapy business was/is named “Authentic Self Counseling” which I have grown out of. Not that my thinking on this was all wrong, but my concept of self has changed drastically over the past decade. I still find it important that we learn about our likes and dislikes and why we like some things and dislike others. Understanding what has been conditioned and habitualized. What the collective has influenced of us. Our culture and upbringing. There is so much to sort through that it is hard and confusing to learn about our authentic self. It’s important to put these concepts to the test and keep an open mind about ourselves as we are never fixed and always changing.
The Spiritual
If you have gone down the spiritual road, you likely know that there is no self. We are a void, nothingness, everything. We cannot find the seer for he does not exist. There is no me in my head but rather every time that I come to this space I drop into experience itself. This is an important concept not just to know, but to experience.
Meditation
Meditation is the path to having a direct experience with the lack of self. Our mind is always pointing to a self inside our heads. We are always talking to ourself all day. But upon careful examination, nothing is there. If we identify the self who is looking at that self we have just identified? Oh, so we are the witness. Well who witnessed the witness? This game goes on for infinity. Yet we often play it daily which is kind of amusing to me.
Then who the fuck am I?
If you’re relatively new to this it could send you down an existential crisis. Or you likely just don’t give a fuck. Often we fall into one of these two categories. There is however, a 3rd category that arises. Freedom.
Freedom
If we are nothing, that means we are also everything. It means that we are the space of creation. The birth of the universe of a star of a nation of ourselves. It gives rise to freedom and empowerment. It is a gift that we have been given that we learn to work with and be in right relationship with. It literally opens up a new world that many call a spiritual awakening.