Who are you, if not the voice in your head?
by Vic Shayne
author
The Self is a Belief: The idea that causes suffering
The question of who you are is really answerable only by yourself. Even though you may come across an answer, what does it mean to you? how would it help you? how would it lead to a realization for you?
We can take a quick look at the basic cosmology and then you’d have to do some investigation for yourself…
There is a silent stillness that pervades everything, which the Vedic sages call “The Absolute.” This, they say, is what we all are at the core.
Consciousness is the totality of all that is. It is one single movement.
The mind is that which fragments the totality of consciousness into duality. If the mind could not do this then there would be no way to navigate life, to have any sense, and so on.
The egoic mind is the self, or what people call “me,” “I,” the ego, the egoic self, the center, the persona, and so on. The egoic mind is created when consciousness is exposed to ideas from influential sources such as parents, teachers, authority figures, religion, culture, and so forth. It is this egoic self that is the cause of suffering because it does not realize that it is merely an accretion of thoughts that have fragmented the wholeness of consciousness. Because it has done this, it always feels that it needs to obtain, attain, get, find, search, and acquire. Thus, it desires constantly. It seeks pleasure and avoids pain in a persistent cycle.
Now back to our question — If you’re not the voice in your head then what are you? This is something you have to find out on your own. You do this by persistently asking yourself who you are. You observe without judgment, observing thoughts, where thoughts come from, how the egoic self is made of thoughts, which thoughts affect you, what thoughts you identify with, what thoughts linger and which pass quickly, etc. When you do this for long enough, even years if need be, then you eventually realize that there is a permanent, silent sense of Self that is just observing without thinking, judging, analyzing, etc.
There is only awareness; all else is an overlay.
