We identify with what we are experiencing. Lets use an analogy. When we watch a movie, we become drawn into it, so far that anything else in the room other than the movie, no longer exists. We become the characters of that movie, we identify with them. When they do something funny, we laugh, when something bad happens to them we cry. When they are in dramatic situation we tense up. So whats happening to the main characters, is also happening to us, because we have identified with their experience. Then something happens. The movie ends, and suddenly you realize you are sitting in your chair, and that you are in a room, and now all the details of that room come into focus and you realize that all the experiences you just went through, were not who you really are. You were just temporarily identified with that experience. Now you have to get up and go about your own daily life.
However, our own lives, are not much different than those in the movies. We still feel sadness, we still find ourselves in dramatic situations, we still laugh at funny things and we still identify with these experiences. We can apply the movie analogy, to our own lives. All situations are just experiences that we’re having and if we identify with them, they seem very real. However, it’s really all just an illusion, because if you don’t identify with them, that experience passes you by. Just like if you’re watching a movie, but you’re not really paying attention to it, you’re too busy talking to someone, or looking at something else, no matter what happens in the movie, you will not be affected by it, because you have stopped identifying with the characters of that movie. The movie will continue to play, and you will hardly even notice it. This is the same thing for all situations in your daily life. If you don’t identify with sadness, or any emotion that you don’t wish to experience…. it passes you by. You will not be affected by it, and you will see it from a perspective that is not directly involved. You become aware that you’re the watcher, not the character, just like watching a movie. You’re the watcher, unless you’re identified with the characters.
So we can go through all sorts of suffering and misery, but at the end of the day, all of us, sooner or later, ask the question… who is it, that is sad? It is only when you ask this question that you realize that you are not sadness, you are just experiencing sadness and identifying with it, but it is not actually who you are. Sadness is the illusion, it’s the experience that you are choosing to experience in that moment. You can apply this to many other concepts we have. Let’s take a look at heaven and hell for example. Heaven and hell are not places to go to…. They are experiences, states of consciousness. Here on earth, there are people living in hell, and others living in heaven. Those that are living in hell are identified with their suffering, and they cause others to suffer because of it. To them, life is a living hell, and they will continue to suffer until they realize that they are not their suffering, that they’ve just identified with it, that its really just an illusion. On the other hand, we have heaven, and many people are living in heaven, following their highest joy, helping others, and just being in gratitude and happy for their life. Just being alive is enough to be happy, they radiate their happiness to all those around them and greatly improve others lives just by being who they are. To them, life is heaven on earth.
Anyone who has attained self realization, knows that you do not have to seek happiness or joy, or god. The buddha went through many years trying to answer the question to why people suffer. He did terrible things to his body looking for answers, from deprivation of food, to self inflicted pain, almost to the point of death. He found no answers doing this. But then one day he decided to look in the only place he never thought to look before. He sat down, and meditated. He pondered the questions on why people suffer, and it led him to discover that his suffering and the suffering of everyone else, was self inflicted. He discovered that suffering is not real, that it’s only an experience that we identify with. He faced all his fears, and realized that suffering was not something he had to identify with any longer. In a single night, he became enlightened. He could have done this at any time at any point in his life, had he known that you do no have to seek anything at all, but instead to understand that you choose what experience you wish to identify with, because you are none of those experiences, and yet, you are all of them at the same time. You are all that is, you are the oneness of all that is, and you are able to express and experience, all that is. You are the observer, the creator, the character, the writer, the director, and the producer. You are unlimited potential and possibilities, and if you wish to experience limitation, that is a part of what it means to be unlimited. We are source, we are the universe, we are god, expressing itself in physical form, subjectively. 7 billion different ways. In essence, we’re all one, and everything beyond this oneness, is just an experience that we’ve identified with. This gives us the ability to consciously create the life of our dreams, because when you realize that it’s all just a ride, just an experience, it removes the idea of limitation from your life.
