Many are seeking to find who they are.Ignorance is the cause of suffering and not knowing who you are is the worst state of being.As practitioners we enter the Way seeking answers from our surrounding environment.We gather information and create a ‘‘head on top of our head.’’
As we gain experience and mature we start to turn our minds eye inwards.Realizing our uniqeness we understand that only by looking into our own nature we can know ourselves.As the sage says,’’To know the others is intelligence/To know yourself is wisdom.’’
If we want to liberate ourselves,to break free from a mechanical way of life,we have to free ourself from the psychological conditioning we were exposed since beginningless times.We have to identify the triggers which make us react as an automaton and get desensitized.
The self is a construct,created from a very early age,and ‘‘lives’’ in the memory,is memory,a bunch of stories which identify psychologically as ‘‘I.’’We see the world through the illusion of being an ‘‘I,’’ independent of all existence,unconnected to the rest of the Cosmos.
In existence there are Three Marks:Impermanence,Suffering,and No-self.In a costantly changing environment where nothing remains the same for long,we are in a constant state of dissatisfaction even when we take what we want-because we are afraid that we may lose it-and we don t know who we are,living under the illusion of the ego as the real self.
So start seeking nothing.Be satisfied with what you have and stop cultivating preferences.As the Third Patriarch of Zen Sengcan says in xinxin ming,stop to like and dislike,free yourself from love and hate,and cultivate contentment.
Act spontaneously.Be authentic,and faithful to your values,start expressing yourself naturally.Don t be a people pleaser,don t act in a way which doesn t match your original self.Real happiness comes only from being loyal to one s heart.
Finally make daily practice to look into your own nature.Observe your thoughts,your emotions,and how the body feels.Experience non judgementaly,without manipulating your experience.Identify as the observer not the observed,you are the sky and thoughts are the clouds which come and go,pay attention to them.
Since things don t have inherent existence one should go beyond dualistic notions of subject-object,of you and me.One has to have direct experience of life and to see the emptiness and interdependence of all things.