“Who Am I?” Asking this question deeply and regularly can lead to profound revelations in your understanding of yourself and your relationship to others and the world around you. Most of us think of ourselves as limited individuals, occupying only the space within our skin, confined to the small set of knowledge, abilities, qualities, relationships, history, experiences, hopes, and fears that normally occupy our life. This is true. But it isn’t all of who we are. There is also an aspect of our being which is like an infinite vastness, unbounded, untouchable, pristine and unharmable, like an empty sky. Many of us also intuit this much greater sense of ourselves, knowing that there has got to be something more to ourselves and to the universe that just our little frames of reference. This intuition is what started me on my own spiritual and existential investigation. This part of ourselves is also true. In reality, we are already both of these things, the vast and the small, and everything on a continuum in between.
Most spiritual teachings emphasize only the vast aspect of ourselves, seeking freedom from our limited condition and circumstance. This is well and good, but to whatever extent they minimize, repress, or even deny our particular, more personal, and more intimate aspects of our being, the more out of touch they are with all of reality, and the less effective they will be at helping you understand and come to terms with the entire spectrum of who you are.
This style of mentorship is different. I sit with the view that you, and I, are infinitely vast and small at the same time, and everything in between. Some paradox, but that’s reality, and coming to recognize it is both tremendously heartening and freeing. The consequence of this is that any topic of conversation about who you are or how you are living, big, small, or medium, ultimate or relative, whether it be directly investigating your infinite consciousness, finding a meaningful job, relationship, or purpose in life, sorting through emotional confusions or existential suffering, or coming to grips with our minuscule historical prominence in the field of deep time, is totally appropriate for us to consider together. Becoming more familiar and intimate with all of who we are is the only way not to split some parts of ourselves from other parts, or to create ideals out of some qualities of our being while demonizing others. As a mentor, I offer you some support for rolling out the welcome mat to all of who you are.
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A Deep Life