Are you the person?

A man who is numb to the world is blind all the glory of life. That same man takes for granted the smiles and laughter of children playing in a grassy knoll. He overlooks the beauty of the grass itself, sprouting together in synchrony from this lively planet, fueled by a star which undergoes fusion and emits a byproduct of light that has gifted our planet with a constant wave of energy that is absorbed and re-distributed to a magnificent variety of living things. As well as conjuring life, the electromagnetic waves released by the sun regulate our earth’s climate, allowing It to be suitable for life in the first place.

Assembled from the atomic byproducts of the fusion of many different stars, a numb man feels nothing but a blunt sense of meaninglessness. He lives only to die, and die he will. What will not die is the only thing that should have ever mattered to him.

“Beyond all thoughts of good or evil, there is a field, I will meet you there.” -Rumi

The field Rumi refers to is analogous to the field in which children laugh and play, where they are oblivious to the chaos, destruction and greed that have plagued human history. In this glorious field, there is no chaos or destruction, only the presence of emptiness itself, observing without judgment. All the good and evil of the world become neutral, and no event, regardless of its outward appearance from the human perspective, is truly right or wrong.

That is to say that the human perspective is biased towards human outcomes, rather than the vast totality of the world and universe at large. I know that within every human being is the potential to tap into this empty, free flowing, and universal oneness. I know that no matter what actions you committed in the past, regardless of how “evil” society views them as, your spirit can recombine with the essence of the universe, flowing freely and without worry, with the universe and all of its beautiful plans.

Your life situation right now may feel so wrong, hopeless, lonely, depressing, chaotic, etc. As long as you continue to assume the identity of the person who feels those emotions, you will suffer. Every high is followed by a low when you’re a person; In non-personhood there is no such thing as high or low, but instead a stability and groundedness in your life’s journey.

You may be confused that I am telling you that in order to overcome suffering, and find contentment in a perhaps miserable life experience you must drop the idea that you are a person. Let me elaborate on this point by first defining what a person is. A person is a set of ideas, beliefs, concepts, opinions, emotions wrapped up in the neural activity of human consciousness. Is this set of ideas, beliefs, etc. the basis for who YOU really are? If your answer to that question is yes, then I have to ask you how is it possible for you to observe those aspects of who you think you are?

You truly are the ultimate observer of these aspects of self-identity, and therefore you are not the person. That person is in fact the mind’s portrait of who you are, often painted very elegantly with a broad brush of life experience, environmental and genetic factors, as well as all of the memories of the past.

So, if you are not this person, then who are you? Well, very simply, you are the observer. You are indefinable by human definition, but always remember that everything you see cannot be you.