The POWER of knowing ONESELF

Did you hear about ChatGPT?

No?

Well, I just heard about it myself, but apparently it was launched in November 2022 by OpenAI. It's a chatbot that is programmed to use realistic human text to create articles, poems, stories, news reports using just a small amount of input to produce large amounts of quality copy.

You can input anything that doesn't exist and it will create on the fly making it look like it's the real thing. For example, have you ever seen a real picture of koala dunking a basketball?

As a society, it's no surprise that we are advancing at an incredible speed. Especially, when it comes to technology and AI (artificial intelligence).

The more tech savvy we get the more further away it leads us from the most fundamental question every human should ask themselves:

Who am I?

It is the question that most yogis, monks, or anyone seeking spiritual enlightenment spend their entire lives trying to answer.

This may or may not be you. However, the reason you still want to ask yourself that question is because it will allow you to observe yourself and hopefully understand why you are the way you are.

Behavior, thoughts, actions is what drives every human being. And all of that stems out from your psyche.

The problem in today's society is that very few can answer this question and even fewer take the time to think.

Who am I?

I want to introduce you to a deeper part of yourself.

Identity. The mental structure of a human being.

Most people identify themselves with their body and everything that comes with it. For example, if I ask you, who are you? You will most likely answer by stating your name. But that's not you, it's only a name that you'r parents gave you. If I change my name, I am still me, therefore I am not my name. Then, you may answer by stating what you do for a living, which is your occupation. But that's not who you are. You may change your occupation, but you still remain as yourself.

Stay with me. Let's unpeel the onion further.

Let's say I am a man or woman. Is that it? No, because that is only a biological classification. Let's take a look at it from a more spiritual view.

Have you ever heard of the name Dalai Lama? Did you know that He is the 14th Dalai Lama?

It means that His Holiness has reincarnated 14 times.

Yes, He changed his body 14 times. This is a normal concept in the Buddhist and Yogi traditions. There are plenty of other stories, if you research, where people remember their past lives.

It means that you are beyond the body. We have this body, veichle, that we use. Just like you use and wear clothes. But you are not the shirt or pants. Same goes with our bodies. The soul changes bodies. Just like we change clothes.

And just because you can't remember your past lives, doesn't mean that this cannot be true.

You don't remember the day you were born.

You most likely don't remember anything until you were the age between 3-5 years old. But that doesn't mean you didn't exist.

This leads us to the next layer of the onion.

The mind.

Do you think you are the mind? It seems like that is what the great philosopher Rene Descarte thought.

"I think, therefore I am."

But, again, if we look at it from a lens of yoga we can clearly see that the mind is only an accumulation of the manas (senses), chitta (memory), ahamkara (ego), and buddhi (intellect).

The soul or awareness, in other words, the observer is in the middle. If you scan through your life, you can clearly see how you have generated each part of the mind. Your environment. Your parents. Grandparents. Friends. Teachers. Movies. TV shows. Songs. Education system. I like this. I don't like that....

The list goes on.

Once you realize that you are the soul, the observer of everything, you begin to see and realize why you are the way you are. You make decisions based on one of the four aspects of the mind. Or sometimes even multiple.

BECOME AWARE OF THAT.

Even now, while you are reading this, observe your thoughts and see where they're leading you.

How does that make you feel? (Mannas)

Maybe you remember reading or watching something about Dalai Lama. (Which means you're using the chitta part of the mind)

Incorporate this into your everyday routine.

Observe.

Pay attention, not to just what is happening around you but also what is happening within you. And you will begin to experience this world differently.

No matter how advanced we get technologically or how smart one can be intellectually, knowing oneself is the highest source of power.

For anyone who has basic understanding of the human psychology, you can see how people are being manipulated in so many different ways without even being aware of it.

As you continue to engage in this world, remain the observer, who is at the center, like the image that illustrates the functions of the mind.

The world will go on as it always has and it always will. But you do not need to get caught up in the storm that moves you away from who you really are.

Stand firm.

In faith.

In knowing oneself.

Go within.

And watch the world magically yield to you.