Real?
I sometimes hear statements along the lines of I am not really my human self, but ... whatever word people use for the soul and/or nondual levels.
I can see the validity of that statement. What is less temporal may appear more real somehow. And I can also see the function of that statement. If we are overly identified with our human self, and only occasionally dip into the soul and/or nondual levels, then emphasizing it this way may help us shift our center of gravity beyond our human self.
At the same time, there are other ways of talking about it that are more alive for me.
For me, all levels are equally real. How can they be otherwise? They are all God - as nondual, as emptiness dancing, appearing as all these varied forms and levels. How temporal something is has little or nothing to do with how "real" it is. The wave is not more or less real than the ocean.
To say that I am not my human self but really such and such comes from an identification. Either with our human self, and we are trying to compensate for it. Or with the transcendent levels (soul, nondual), and we are disowning the personal level and our human self.
It is of course OK, and can even be temporarily helpful. And it is also a reminder to us that there is a particular identification behind it - an exclusive identification, with a segment of what is.
Labels: identity