What is your self image? How do you conceive of yourself? I think it's safe to say that, for most of us, there is the idea that we are a "solid" body that has a brain inside of it that is the center of thinking. Outside of this "solid" body, there is a whole universe of other bodies and things. This is what we have been taught. Is it true?
This concept of being a body brings with it a great feeling of gravity and seriousness. It is a corruptable, fragile object that must be protected at all costs. When we invest so much of our sense of self in it, our happiness and sadness seem to hinge on whether it is doing well or ill, whether it has good or bad fortune.
Is a body what we are?
Without thinking, describe yourself. Can you? In the absence of thought, there is obviously no description. What is left? Conscious presence. In this pure awareness, there is no identification with the body or thoughts (mind). There really IS no body or mind besides the sensations and thoughts that arise in the registering emptiness. This non-material sentience is what we really are - it is the permanent by which the ever-changing is known. The body image and thoughts change from moment to moment but the presence is constant. When we say "I", this is what we are really talking about. When we say "my body" or "my mind", this is the "me" that "owns" those things.
To hang one's happiness on the world is foolishness. To hang it on the Self (awareness) is wisdom.
The world (everything that appears, including the body/mind) is always in flux. To be dependent on anything there is to be in a perpetual state of insecurity. The Self (conscious presence) cannot leave you because it is what you are and it is unwavering and steadfast. It is complete in itself and needs nothing to fulfill it. It is the source of all experience, but, ultimately beyond and untouched by it. When you build a house, you look for a strong, solid foundation - such is the Self. Trying to build a house on air (fickle appearance) is foolhardy at best.
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