Individuality*
Dear Human Being:
You are here on this earth this moment but not through your own choosing. You were created by the thought or emotion of a man and woman who decided to get together and have sexual intercourse. Nine months or so later you were born from the womb of a woman. Perhaps you do not even know their names, perhaps you do, and call them by the conceptual words 'mother and father.' In either case you were born and are here.
You were given a name, or perhaps a few names. You were told you are a person. You were told you are unique. You were given food, shown how to eat and you grew physically and mentally. You were told what to believe, how to feel, how to act. You were told what religion to practice or not, told what to wear and what schools to attend. In school you were told facts and figures and that you should get good grades so that you can get into college or get a good job. Then you were told by advertisers what products to eat, what clothes to wear, what car to drive, what music to listen to. You were told by your peers perhaps what drugs to take, what drinks to drink, what words to say. You are still being told what to do, how to think, how to feel. Magazines tell you who is pretty and who is not, who are rich and who are poor, who is successful and who is not. Priests, Imams and Rabbis tell you how to be good, what they believe is true and how you should live your life and what you must do to go to heaven. Psychologists tell you if they think you are well or sick in your mind. Governments tell you how you should feel about your country. In short everything you think, do and say is because you were told by another human being how to think, how to do and what to say. And all this has been generated by human thought and concepts.
But what about "you" my friend? What if in this moment all that you ever learned, knew and believed suddenly disappeared. What would happen if all the experiences, memories and dreams vanished into thin air. Then "who" would you be? Or would you be at all? Or is there really a "you" at all? Is there really a someone there? Is there an individual at all? Or are "you" just a collector of experiences as they happen? This is very profound yet important knowledge if you wish to be free, if you wish to live your life happily and sanely. You must discover the "you", the real "you." You must face the truth of these questions.
Perhaps, after reading the above, you will continue on as before. But if something in the above has jarred something somewhere inside, then I invite you to further investigate if there really is such a thing as individuality or individual, if there really is a "thing" called you. And in that process of investigation is there anything definitive you can say that "you" really are? The answer is there my dear friend: it is there in the pure silence at the core of your being itself. That is where you should look. Look into that silent space itself and find what is there. Find what is always there. Maybe for the first time in your life you may discover that "you" do not need to be told anything. Maybe, for the first time in your life you can let go of all that you have ever learned and experienced and really see what is present in this moment, right now. Maybe you will come to understand that there is nothing "you" really need, or want or have except this moment. In this you may just find reality, as it is. Wouldn't that be something!
From "me" to "you", with love!
* After writing this section I stumbled across an interesting point-namely, the word "duality" in the word individuality. Hmmmm......wonder what that means?