We can add to ourselves.
We were tiny creatures in the planet's mud before we were people, and we are yet to become more....
Add to ourselves?
We have senses that are not up in current repertoire...; but could be. We have sensors waiting in the wings.
To uncover them, we will be looking at what is close at hand. After we uncover them, we will be apprehending even what is far away. What's more, this is when we often acquire new skills that are really worth having.
We are slow doing this.
To help us speed up, we will try to get a handle on who we are it should not be a surprise that it is necessary to know ourselves.
In order to use ourselves more, we must know:
What are we?
When you try to answer that, you may discover that learning who you are begins with learning who you are not.
That's the key to adding extra senses and skills.
It will also draw you closer to the hidden reality.
In fact, LEARNING WHO YOU ARE NOT is half the plot.
You are not what you have: your watch, your suit, and your car; your diamonds, jewels, and furs; your bills and mortgage; your children, spouse, and house.
You are not any of the above. How can you be, if you are aware of them?
Each is an object. You are the subject.
What else are you not?
What else are you aware of? Your thoughts.
You can notice them. If you notice them, they are not you. You are the thinker.
That's something else you are not: the thoughts you have. Each is an object. You are the subject.
Something else you are not: what you seem like to other people.
That means you are not a picture in anyone's mind. You are not anyone's opinion of you. You are not in anyone's head.
You are here.
Remember that.
Remember yourself.
How others may picture you has value, but only as a way of examining yourself.
The picture is not what you are. It is a picture.
Caring about the picture will start an avalanche, right at the top, starting with a mistaken identity. Then a comparison will be made. Then there will be an uncertainty, then a subtle discomfort, and this will end up a pain. You can count on it.
That is the way it happens when you don't care about yourself.
And something eise you are not:
What else are you aware of that may not be you? Once more, notice a feeling in your body. It may not be you.
It's like hearing a sound. The sound is one thing. You are another, listening.
Finally, one more that you are not: you are not the body.
That is jarring news to political scientist Herb Corkran, who has hovered often around these pages. It rises as a fact for many of us, often, when we use the rule of thumb.
For me, anything I am aware of is an object: light rays sliding through the window; a football; the memory of poetry; a fine mist in the air.
Each of them is an object; I am the subject.
Object and subject cannot be the same.
What I am aware of is not me.
What you are aware of is not you.
It is a pleasure to see good things happen and to give. We think back on the place we came from, where we ourselves were sometimes in short supply.
The music plays now, inviting us to enter the dance floor. We respond to a tune without the old fears, nimbly choreographing our own new dance steps, and dance comfortably with strangers. We preen. We are filled with ourselves, heady about our progress, and with good reason.
Then, we receive an advisory. The more we become, and the more we know, the more we must help again.
Every dance club has rules.
Step away from your body? This is a form of speech. We travel only in the mind; we think we leave the body. But at times we have a pressing need for this, when pretending helps.
Think you are an inch away from your body. Now observe it steadily.
Or try this. From where you sit, see a spot on the wall; then pretend you are there. A child calls this make-believe.
Noticing any unpleasantness, sharpen your focus on it, and quickly use the imagination.
Why would you do it? You can change replace any thought, any unpleasantness, any condition you observe anything at all.
Critics have said we think we are God. Of course not. We seek resonance with the third side of reality, a link with it. Can we enter it, or become it...? We can, in a manner of speaking. Even more, we may yearn that it enters us.
I is the content of consciousness. I is not Me.
I am pleased to give the me a name but not my name. I like Soul, soul, Inner Self, Hashem, higher power, inner power, God, or another, this one in cultural ferment: messiah. For some of us, the word messiah is referenced to history; for others, to future. For a smaller group, messiah is close at hand, personal, the mysterious what-I-am, the mysterious what-you-are. But by whatever word the me is called, or the clothes we dress it in, or the images we use, or the stories we tell to evoke it, to bring it near, to draw it close as the heartbeat still it may elude us.
On the other hand, one who has learned its signs will know how to find it. Anyone may restore the signs: anyone who trusts something in themselves has found enthusiasm, joy, confidence, and quiet excitement.
Some do not trust something in themselves. For them, finding the treasure is like following a course of gold without a shovel. They are a waiting audience for a genial storyteller who will offer them an old parchment to find the treasure and a special name to use and send them off with a packet of mining stories. Perhaps they will locate an old cave, or a picture, or an artifact, and stake out their find; and they pronounce the name. But the storyteller has gone, and while they can say the name and pronounce the words of the story with flourish which rewards them they have not learned the art that will reveal the treasure. So they seek another storyteller who gives them new directions. Now, with an open book, a sleeping bag, and a name, they head for another place some distance away. They do not trust; yet the treasure is by their side.
I like to be wise a few times a day. But there are many days I forget to trust my me. Oh, how forgetful I can be!
Enter what? Visit what? Names are given. You may call the hiding side of reality Me, me, Host, hosts, Master, Lord, God, gods, Christ, self, angels, nefesh, neshama, love, Love, and the other names. Without a name, you won't be able to think about it. (You do need a name.)
It drives the legs, the heart, the brainit drives the body.
On many occasions you have felt authentic signs of it.
Knowing what you are not will bring you abreast of it.
Whv read, when there is work to do?