Select Page

Who / what are we?

“We are the process of ever being nature. Some say we are just bodies seeing through nerve ends sent to be processed by the mind. Or others say we are just the eternal consciousness of self or maybe spirit. None of those are wrong, it’s just when you say it’s one way, you also say it’s not the other way. I feel Nature is a blend of all aspects in things, not one more needed but all integral parts for the fruition of existence. Being affects consciousness and vice versa. And the body is spirit, a part of the natural expression of the naturally occurring world. We think spirit is just in our chest or in or expressions or intentions, or in some spiritual plane beyond? It’s everywhere you look in my opinion. The natural world is the spiritual plane and you could say God or the Universal self is expressing itself with its spirit and we naturally are that and take part in that.

I say nature/natural because it doesn’t have any special associations with it and it is ‘what is’ in the natural world, unlike god, how it subconsciously infers some separate entity somewhere beyond pulling all the strings. Whatever is the true nature, left right up down, it is always itself and could never be disconnected with that selfness. For how could anything ever not be natural whether it is ourselves or god or anything. This world is functioning successfully without us trying to make it so. We just sort of inevitably find ourselves here, awake, and alive, but in this simple process the world is lit up by natural being. Because It is inevitable to experience in a universe with being-happening in it. The only other alternative is void, which is the void of experience itself which wouldn’t be an experience at all.

This question is one of the hardest questions to answer because I feel it is paradoxical, because it’s asking for a true description of who/what we are which is nature- everything by attempting to dissect nature into different parts when it’s not separate and we could never truly dissect it. We use it as tools for communicative purposes. To say it’s one way is to say it’s not the other way but nature is all possible ways in whatever way it does and could happen. And also I can’t tell you who or what I am unless there’s something different I can compare it to. Now if you’re asking my identity I can easily tell you that. Because those are our unique qualities. But the underlying essence of who we are is a constant in everything, so how can i begin to describe that? We are a combination of both of those things. Though still, there is nothing else to compare it to in order to serve you an edible dish of information. Because it is everything. The fundamental being that cannot be destroyed. If it were possible to extinguish the universe forever it would have already happened and we wouldn’t be here now.

If i were to simply answer i could answer it in 3 ways equally. I would answer, i am, because that answers the question not with words, but with natural unowned undefined, being as its own description. Isness, amness, thusness. I know its sort of a cliche answer but i feel it actually does a good job at pointing at the moon. It requires your genuine inquiry to find the answer in yourself. Or Source, the indestructible essence that underlies, sustains, and is everything. Lastly Nature, because it is the natural word, in natural processes that we find ourselves. Existence – non existence could never not be natural. No-thing could not be natural. Everything – nothing is inevitably natural. I am the natural world. Identity truly is not limited by boundaries of skin. Because all is inevitably self.

Who/what are we?

“We are children of God. We were created as a whole, complete soul. God created us to have the desire to incarnate on earth. With that spark of desire, as little souls we incarnated on earth. In that process, our soul splits into two halves. Each of those halves incarnates into a tiny fetus inside of our mothers. As soon as we incarnate, we now individually have two bodies attached to our soul. So we have our soul, our spirit body, and our physical body. All attached by a silver chord.”

Who/what are we?

“I’ve reasoned that we’re meant to be stewards of the earth. We’ve been given a divine kind of consciousness that allows us to experience a sense of separation, duality- that is used to observe the world around us, our place in it, think of the past, and try to predict the future. I think we use this divinity rather selfishly (which lends to a lot of our psychological sickness, I think), where-as it could be best used to facilitate harmony. I think we all are different manifestations of the same energy source. To quote Deepak Chopra- “I am you, and you are me, only in disguise.” And to take the thought past only you, or me, and extend it to a flower, the mountain, a whale- brings me a lot of solace. There are times when I let my sense of duality fade, and I feel all mixed up with the world, and earth around me, and something about it feels so right- like home. But, I think it is with our sense of separation that responsibility steps in. We have a responsibility to heal and take care of the world around us.”

Who / what are we?

“In Vedanta we use the word Atma for individual consciousness, which is the real me. Think of this. We use the word ‘I’ the most number of times a day referring to oneself. Only a conscious entity can use this word in the first place.  That is why we call the human birth a rare one. So what are we referring to when we say I?  Core to Hindu philosophy is the phrase ‘Tat tvam asi’, or ‘thou art that’.  It means that our true nature, our deepest Self, is all-encompassing; beyond space, time and causation.   

 In order to realize this, we have been provided with three states of consciousness – The waking, the dream and the deep sleep. In waking, we are aware of all the interactions we are having with the world outside. In dream, we have an internal world created by our own mind and are witness to it.  In sleep there is no interaction of the mind and body with anything, yet we are conscious of this fact that there is nothing.  The only common factor is Consciousness.  So what is this that seems to be a witness of everything?

The job of consciousness is to be an illuminator.  Let’s take the Sun. It illuminates but does not participate in anything. Its light helps us to Know.  It has no bias, likes or dislikes. If anything comes in its path, it will illuminate that thing.  This is the inherent quality of the sun’s light.  Similarly, the Atman or your consciousness illuminates your knowing. Without this, the data will remain unknown. it is in you and outside of you all the time. Therefore, the mind and body, which is just a bundle of matter, becomes sentient and aware. This principle is called Atma.  This is the basis of all you are and what you know.  This you refer to as ‘I’ . Next time you use ‘I’, just ask yourself:  What ‘I’?. 

The whole journey of self discovery is to move away from the body-mind complex as ‘I’, to the Atman as ‘I’. Since Atman is without parts and has no limitation of space, time or causation, everything outside of you is also essentially the Atman or consciousness.  So you envelop the whole world as ‘I’.  This is Brahman or universal consciousness. The vedanta says, knowing this, all else is known. Naturally the fear of death disappears and you can claim freedom. THINK.”

Who/what are we?

“We are human beings – beings with the ability to make conscious response. We are the Instrument of our solar system where our measurement of our bodies matches the sacred geometry of the universe through the phi ratio. We don’t exist by accident. The reason we have such consciousness and intelligence is because we are made with intent.  Human history still remains in the dark and there are many yet to be discovered by science but is spoken through ancient myth of the many world traditions.”

Who/what are we?

“We can’t possibly know who we are, just as the eyes can’t see the back of the head, how the nose can’t smell the stomach, how the ears don’t hear the brain, or how the hand can’t clap itself.  Our organism is not designed to ‘know’ itself, but to dabble in delusion, to pursue in folly, to explore the hazy unknown.  In just the same way, the human mind is designed to ask ‘why’, but not to receive’ the answer.”