Oneness

Joseph P. Kauffman
that idea, you will feel like your identity is threatened. Can
you see the insanity in this way of thinking?
The ego is an imaginary entity created by thought, it
has no solidity in reality. Therefore, people who believe
they are the ego will constantly try to enforce the solidity
of their ego by talking about themselves to others. They
believe that if others share the same image of them, that
this would strengthen their self-image, thus making it more
fixed in reality.
This is why people feel the need to always talk about
themselves, or even lie to others about something they
have or something they have done, just so that they can
strengthen their self-image.
By identifying with a mental image, people are really
only separating themselves from the reality of life. Just as
words and the mental images they form only isolate things
from nature, trying to label yourself or form an image of
who you are only separates you from everything that you
really are.
If you are a doctor, does that mean that you cannot
also be a father, or a mother? If you are a father or mother
does that not mean you can’t be an artist or a business
owner? What about a scientist or author? Would any of
these labels actually represent the reality of who you are?
Of course not, yet for some reason we cling to these labels
for a sense of identity. We cling to them because they
allow us to form an image of ourselves, and then we can
mentally label and understand that image.
But we are not our image of ourselves, nor can we
understand who we are with our limited language and
thought. The reality of who you are is beyond
comprehension. Therefore, in order to know who you are,
you have to give up trying to comprehend who you are.
This may seem paradoxical, but there is a difference
between knowing, and comprehending.
You know how to breathe, but you don’t comprehend
the process of breathing—how your lungs inflate and
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