Читать книгу The Art of Being You - SRI PUBLICATIONS SRI - Страница 12

When you meet someone for the first time, how do you introduce yourself? Do you talk about the work you do or who you are, in relation to someone else—I am so and so’s spouse or friend or brother? Do you mention where you live, where you went to school, what organizations or what church you belong to?

All these things are subject to change. Today you are a teacher. Tomorrow you could be a cook! You have played many roles in life—you have been a student, an employee, a son or a daughter, a caretaker, a patient in bed—but you are much more than the sum total of all these roles. When you identify yourself with a role you are playing, you are fragmented, your life is compartmentalized and you are unaware of your full potential.

You need a right vision of who you are. You are not your relationships or the roles you play. You are not the sum of your thoughts and opinions; your changing moods; the feelings that rise and fall. These things come on their own and go on their own. It is your very nature to be joyful, peaceful and loving, and that remains the same for all eternity. That is who you are.

We think of love and joy and peace as emotions, but they are not emotions. They are states of being and they are always available. When you understand how to handle your negative emotions and thoughts (Chapter Three), you have taken a big steps toward being able to restore and maintain the love, joy and peace that you are. When you see that these qualities are the very essence of who you are—your heart will open more fully.

Everything is changing, isn’t it? Moods come on their own, stay for a while and go on their own. Different feelings rise and fall. Your opinions change, your body changes. In that moment, when you recognize that things are changing, you can be sure - there is something that is not changing. If you can observe change, then something opposite to it—something that can be called ‘non-change’—must also exist.

Could you recognize love if you had not known hate? Or plenty if you had not known lack? In the same way, if you can observe change, there has to be something that is not changing. That something, that is not changing is the essence of who you are—it is your nature to be joyful, peaceful and loving, and that remains the same for all eternity.

This unchanging aspect of you may be called the Self. This book, The Art of Being You, is an exploration of ways to come back to your Self, your true home, and experience the love, joy and peace that you are.

When you identify yourself by your nationality or your religion, it serves some purpose, but this is not the final truth. In divine creation the whole world is united. The search for this unity is the real spiritual journey.

Today wars and conflicts are happening all over the world in the name of religion. When people take a position: I am a Muslim or a Christian or a Jew; I am a Hindu or a Sikh or a Buddhist; and those who are not what I am, are not mine—division and conflict arise. It is fine to be proud to be an American or Mexican, Indian or Pakistani. With right understanding, these identities need not create division and separation.

Unfortunately, misunderstanding has divided human beings and torn apart society. In these circumstances, the values of unity, love and peace are lost. It is important to see that the identity we all share is that we are part of divinity and part of the whole human family. When the things that

All human beings have within themselves the ability to experience God.

distinguish us from one another—race, gender, nationality, religious tradition— are seen as subordinate to these two. When we have this understanding of who we are first, before our ethnic, religious, economic, or national identifications— separation does not happen and violence does not come up. Instead, when we see who we really are, compassion and generosity spring up. Then we can celebrate and enjoy all that we are; including that which makes us different from one another.