Identification & Doer
When I look at the connection between identification and a sense of doer, it appears as incredibly beautiful and also quite comical.
Whenever there is an exclusive identification with anything, it appears as a doer.
When everything is revealed as empty of any inherent I, the sense of any doer also disappears.
There is still the doing, but no doer. Or we can say that the whole is acting through and as our human self, although this whole is not really a doer either - nor is it not a doer. It is all happening, apparently spontaneously. It is all happening, that is maybe the most accurate way to talk about it.
If there is identification with particular thoughts, these thoughts appear as a doer - they seem to initiate decisions, behavior and so on. If there is identification with particular emotions, these emotions appear as a doer - as initiating decisions and actions. If there is identification vaguely with my human self, then this human self appears as a doer.
If there is identification with the witness, pure awareness, this sense of doing begins to fade - although there is still an identification there and a subtle sense of being separate from what arises within this awareness. There is still a belief in the idea of I, now placed on pure awareness and creating the appearance of seer and seen. So while the actions of this human self may appear to just happen, there is still a subtle "doer" as the seer.
And when there is the realization that no aspect of what is has any inherent I in it, when this is clearly seen, then it all falls away. Any sense of being a doer falls away. Any sense of separation falls away. It is all the dance of the ground, emptiness dancing.
Labels: absent of I, identity