Who are you?

Annamartha / pixelio.de

Thay Phap Nhat

We can answer the question „Who are you?“ on many different levels. Let us first speak about the first level: Someone comes to us and asks: „Who are you?“ We might think: „I am this body.“ And if we have some psychological knowledge, we might add some more things: „I am not only this body. I also have feelings and perceptions.“ If we are a meditation practicioner, especially a practicioner of mindfulness meditation, we can observe our mind in our daily life. And we will see: „I am not only the body, the feelings and the perceptions. I also have mental formations.“ If we add the level of philosophy, we can see that there is one more „thing“ belonging to us, and that is our consciousness. So that is who we are: Body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness.

We can as well use another terminology. Some people who are practicing some spiritual practice and already have some deeper knowledge will give us another answer to our question „Who are you?“ They will say: „I am body and mind.“ Body and mind inculde feelings, perceptions and mental formations. I have met many people who stop at this point and don't go further. They say: „I am body and mind.“ But there is another level that goes deeper than that sentence. To me, it is important not to stop at this point. We can go a little further, a little deeper. Here, we cannot define anymore or determine. There is only the direct experience of what we are. We cannot experience it on the level of thinking. It transcends the level of our head. How can we know this level?

If you meet someone who is practicing Zen, and ask him or her: „Who are you?“, he or she will answer: „ I am this body and this mind. Body and mind are one.“ etc. But I want to ask further: „Ok, and who is here and now?“ That is what we practice in mindfulness meditation: Being in the Here and Now. So we ask that person: „Who is in the Here and Now?“ If this body is in the Here and Now, and this body is our true self, we have to admit: This body cannot stay here forever. But our true home, our true self, is eternal. Some people already give a better answer: „Our mind is here.“ But even our mind cannot be here forever. This means that there must be another level that goes beyond body and mind. We don't know much about that level, we don't know it well. Our full potential lies in that level, it is in the unknown. What we know about ourself is very limited. We think that we know ourself, but actually we see only the surface of what we are. It is like looking at an Iceberg. We see only 5% of the Iceberg, the part that is above the surface of the ocean. The other 95% are under the surface of the ocean, and we cannot see it. As a practicioner we need to come back to ourself in order to find out more about ourself. In that way we can discover those 95% of who we are. In the western psychology we call the upper part of the consciousness „mind consciouness“. It is about 5 % of our consciousness. Under the mind consciouness, there is the „subconsciousness“, about 95% of the whole consciouness. If we know how the mind consciouness and the subconsciousness are working, we will understant how our mind is functioning.