MAYA - THE ILLUSION OF “SELF” PART 5: THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING OURSELVES

SO WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO REALLY UNDERSTAND WHO, OR MORE IMPORTANTLY, WHAT WE ARE?

How we see ourselves is ultimately how we see the world we navigate through day after day. It colors our interpretation of everything and therefore contributes to the world we collectively create together as we interact with one another and every living thing on this beautiful planet of ours. We either see ourselves as separate from the whole of existence or a beautiful expression of it and intimately woven both into and out of it. If we see ourselves as the latter then everything we do is viewed with a sense of inclusion, not exclusion. It’s what creates a sense of community, not just a community of people, but a community of all living things. Why do I believe that the latter statement is so important?

“Everything we do affects the whole of existence.” There is no such thing as a benign act. This is very important to understand, because the more we connect with and understand ourselves, the more we understand our connection to others, the environment, the planet as a whole, and the whole cosmos we're a part of. The world as it is is only a reflection of how we see ourselves as individuals and collectively as a community.

The delicate “web of life” that sustains all of us is such that there is an extraordinary “inter-connectedness” to everything. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so as a consequence of its flawless design, nothing in nature is “independent!” Instead, every thread in the fabric of nature is “interdependent” with each and every living and non-living thing relying on the other for its continued existence. Everything that exists is contributing to your existence so that you may live.

Without sunlight, Earth becomes a frozen rock; without the moon, the tides fall silent and the Earth’s rotational stability vanishes; without gravity, oceans and air drift into space; without soil, no seed can grow; without worms, the soil turns into sterile dirt; without fungi, forests cannot renew; without bees, blossoms wither and harvests collapse; without birds, seeds go uncarried and forests die; without predators, ecosystems topple; without gut microbes/bacteria, digestion halts and bodies fail; without water, every living thing withers; without oxygen, every breath ceases; without trees, the air becomes unbreathable.

Something to keep in mind when one considers the world that we’ve divided up into countries, states, politics, social strata, class distinction, race, religion, ethnicity, and so on, and reduced to a marketplace. Only a very tiny fraction of humans venture out into nature and camp, backpack, or day hike. The world we’ve created leaves us feeling disconnected and cut off from one another and the very planet we are an extension of and literally made of.

So then, why can’t we feel this connection to EVERYTHING?

Part of it is our programming. In a culture that has turned LIFE into a competitive money sport, simply put, we don’t care . . . we were never taught to. We were taught to train our attention on only the material, not the immaterial, science and technology, not the ethereal concepts of spirituality and deeper dimensions of the mind, where this connectedness can be explored and experienced. With our educational system teetering on the brink of collapse, with Americans ranking near the bottom of the list in almost every category, curiosity is no longer instilled in our children; competition and consumerism is. It’s our identification with everything material that leads us to believe there is nothing beyond what we can perceive with our five senses, and even if there is, we tell ourselves, we don’t have time to think about all that nonsense. As an empath, I can tell you, there is so much more to you than you can imagine.

It’s fascinating to me that we live in a world where we are surrounded by science and technology that can detect all kinds of things that lie beyond what can be perceived by our senses, and yet we still continue to hold the belief that we are our bodies and there is no deeper reality than what we experience on the most superficial level with our five senses. We're left thinking this is all there is. Honestly, that's frightening. So, through the ages, we created elaborate myths to quell our fears.

Religion, in a well-intentioned but ultimately limited sense, presents elaborate narratives and sacred texts that claim to bridge the gap between the ethereal realms and the “here and now.” Yet religion often falls short of soothing our deepest fears of the unknown, not because its ideals are without merit, but because the way it is commonly practiced rarely matches the depth of its teachings. In a culture that panders to vanity and the restless mind, religion for many becomes a one-hour ritual rather than a lived experience. Its focus is largely outward, suggesting a separation between creation and creator, when in truth the two are indivisible. While religion may advocate love and acceptance, it can also divide by insisting that one’s tradition is “right” while countless others are “wrong.” In this way, it leans more on belief than on direct experience, more on repetition and ritual than on inner discovery.

Rooted in faith, religion provides answers in advance, leaving little space for personal exploration into the mystery of who and what we are. Its gaze is directed outward, toward a divine presence imagined as separate, rather than inward, where the deeper truths of connection and consciousness may be discovered directly.

It is in that inward journey — unmediated, experiential, and alive in the present moment — where the sacred reveals itself, not as something distant or imposed, but as the very essence of our being.

Before the age of technology and all the countless diversions from one’s self that come with it, men had accessed a much deeper reality. The ancient wisdom of countless sages who penetrated the veil of this physical reality by going beyond “mind” and “thought” has been almost entirely forgotten and replaced by an epidemic of amnesia, an unknowing of who and what we truly are.

In the Western world, we have embraced an institutionalized, spoon-fed way of thinking that shapes how we see ourselves and the world around us. Yet in the East, wisdom has long been sought in much deeper waters — through Buddha and other ascended masters who revealed that true knowing begins where thought falls silent, beyond the ceaseless, restlessness of the mind.

We have divided ourselves into our essence and our persona by dissociating with our true essence and replacing it with a surface personality, with an ego, and countless societal labels, used to craft the story of “us,” and who we believe we are.

Buddha said, in the Kalama Sutra, “in order to ascertain the truth, one must doubt ALL traditions, scriptures, teachings, and all the content of one’s mind and senses.”

Truth and essence lie beyond all such things; beyond our persona, beyond thinking, beyond the mind. In stillness, we find ourselves by discovering there is no “self.” That may be bothersome to some, but I for one take comfort in knowing I’m connected to everything, that I have no beginning and no end, that I’m part of a whole, that I’m limitless, eternal, and exist both within and without.

I would love to hear from you and hear your own personal thoughts on how well you know yourself, the relationship you have with yourself, or whether or not we can really know ourselves and our true nature in the comment section below. Let me know if the content of this article resonates with you, provides perspective, or helps you see things in a different way that empowers you to make different choices or see life through a different lens. I value your thoughts and feedback and look forward to hearing from you.

An Invitation to Holistic Transformation

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Let’s embark on this journey together. 

Love & Light to You in your continued Journey of Self-Discovery! 

David