Your True Identity

Your True Identity

That which is purely the essence of all things is sometimes spoken of as “unitary consciousness,” Mind, Brahman, cosmic intelligence, etc. And it is sometimes said that “out” of this essence, this one actuality, all other things are manifested.

But it must be clearly recognized that this essence is not something which has a center somewhere. And so, when it is said that plurality “manifests” from singularity, this is not to say that something is “coming out of ” something else (as in childbirth). There is not a One standing apart in readiness to impart the Many. The One is infinite, omnipresent: it has already always been all that is. And in its infinity, it is “outside” the pale of time; knowing nothing of duration or sequence— nay, only simultaneity—it is not the predecessor of any other thing. To manifest means to “make evident,” to express, not to manufacture. And, in this case, that which expresses is itself expressed by the expression. That which is giving birth, to put it another way, is itself always at the same moment being born; neither womb nor fruit is more fundamental or preliminary than the other. A nagging idea—which even the most ardent of the religious thinkers have difficulty surpassing—is that the Absolute “existed” before (and, in that way, apart from) us, and that out of this pre-existing condition we were “created” or “manifested.”

Even if we were to take as a provisional premise that essence which is present in every iota of matter and energy, and at every point of form or void, it would form a singular, whole

connection—the only denominator of all things. As the basic, common identity of all things—the Hindus would call this Brahman—if we were to ask what any particular “thing” is, primarily, we would have to answer that it is primarily Brahman. (Or whatever name we choose to give it.) Principally, we would have to say that—at the “bottom line”—it is the only thing which does actually wholly exist. In other words, it can be said that essentially all things (the Many) are this essence (the One). That which truly is—whether we speak generally or specifically—is Essence. That means that you are It, I am It, all things are It. Therefore, in this context, there is not any “thing” which is apart from any other “thing”: all things are It. And this is the point which many have failed to grasp. Being all things, it has no separate or particular identity of its own. It occupies no special place or center, it exists in no particular sequence or duration, it has nor holds not anything to itself. In short, it has no self. And in fact, in this sense, it can be said to be Void, Nothing or Empty (and, frequently, is said to be all of these). When this aspect of the Absolute can be comprehended, a startling discovery can unfold. This, which has no identity of its own, in a peculiar way does not exist: this Absolute, in other words, has no choice but to eternally be unknown to “itself.” Put another way, if all things are Brahman, there is not anything outside of that condition which can recognize that there is Brahman. Brahman, we could say, does not exist, unless some aspect or element of Braham manifests its existence.

Is that where you appear? Your capacity to recognize Intelligence is this Intelligence in re-cognition of itself. The Absolute, being all things (including you), anything which any aspect of it contemplates is It contemplating Itself. Put differently, it is only through your unitary consciousness that the One can be conscious: even when you are merely conscious of yourself, you are conscious of “more than” yourself. Though you may not be aware of it (although you can be), you are always supremely, wholly conscious. You are consciousness itself, to the extent that there is any consciousness in existence in the cosmos.

As Shankara says, It is not the “object” of anything “but its own self.”