Be aware of your own mind and how you label yourself and others.
By Patrick Kelly
Identification, simply put, is how we classify things from our own observations. Our perceptions on how we identify situations, our fellow humans and even the tangible things around us are greatly the result of our life experiences, our programming and conditioning. It includes the way we identify ourselves, how we label ourselves and how the ego often tells us how we want people to see us. Identification can often be a roadblock to seeing ourselves and the world for what we and it truly are.
You’re no more your mind than you are the myriad of things you tell yourself you are. Most everything in your life is subject to change, you’re not really your name; we only have names to identify ourselves in some way. You could change your name! You can change your profession, theology, beliefs, political views, etc. and even your mindset! Your flesh and cells in your body are in a constant state of regeneration; therefore, if you are not all these things that you have come to identify yourself as, then you must be something else. Meditation brings forward our true being, which up until now has been clouded by the identification of thought and form.
A meditation: Be aware throughout your day, here and there, when it comes to your mind, or not, of how you identify your fellow humans, how you label them and how they label themselves. For instance, if someone says, “I am a fireman,” your mind is very likely to see that person through your perception of what a fireman is. That’s OK, although seeing this person from how you identify them will more than likely interfere in seeing the human being that is underneath.
For more on this topic and meditation practices, visit his website. ••
