What Is Your Real Identity?

Explore the most fundamental question of existence through ancient wisdom and practical self-inquiry. Discover your true nature as the formless awareness that witnesses everything while remaining untouched.

Beginning with verses about being "unattached and formless," this meditation guides you through recognizing the witness that has observed your entire life unfold. Learn practical exercises to distinguish between the perceiver and the perceived, and discover your transparent nature that no experience can touch.

Perfect for anyone ready to move beyond false identities and discover who they truly are. Includes guided inquiry into the question "Who am I?" and recognition of your nature as pure awareness.

Transcript

The entire spiritual exploration hinges around the question of who are you? What is your real identity? The quest of discovering your real identity opens the door for peace and happiness. Whatever life we have lived so far, It is crystal clear to us and the reason I am able to make such a claim is because otherwise we wouldn't be here. So it's crystal clear to all of us that no matter what we get, No matter what we achieve, That's not going to fill me up and at some level you are tired of this struggle and identity is not something we have explored ever. Most of us have just assumed that this is me, This body is me. I am growing, I am passing through time. Sometimes I am this body, Sometimes I am the mind, Sometimes I am the personality. What happens to this body, What happens to the mind, Namely, Feelings, Thoughts, Sensations, Hurts me, Bothers me, Affects me and that is life. I have to struggle, Constantly control people, Situations, Things, Fill me up with shopping, With people, With relationships and then I am going to die. This is an implicit trajectory that most of us believe to be on. Identity is never ever questioned, Let alone the true identity and you'll notice that our identity is quite scattered and unreliable. Sometimes we identify as a woman with the gender which is the body, Sometimes we identify with our associations and affiliations, Sometimes with the role we are playing as a father, Sister, Sometimes we think we are the skills that we have accumulated over the years, Sometimes we identify ourselves with the work we do, With the work we have done, With the awards we have gotten and yet we are unhappy and the reason for this unhappiness is because the identities and obviously at this point you are aware that there is more than one identity that we take on. Every untrue identity we take on, We suffer the consequences of that identity. If you think you are the personality then somebody's words will hurt you. If you think you are the body then the process of aging and pain will make you unhappy. If you think you are the affiliation, The association then any attack on that association you will suffer. Essentially you believe that whatever happens outside the body or inside the body and the mind is capable of affecting you, Bothering you, Diminishing you. Somebody's words will quote-unquote hurt you. Somebody's actions far far away will ruin your day. Identifying with our emotions of anger, Rage will ruin our relationships. Every identity we, Every pseudo-identity we adorn leaves us empty-handed and suffering. What I am proposing today is what if your true identity is not what you think it is, What it seems to be doesn't have to be. One very important fact of our experience gets very easily overlooked which is that there is something in you, There is something you that which you really call yourself I has seen everything unfold all throughout this life. It has seen the body grow. It has seen how you acted in school, In college. It has seen you cry. It has seen you celebrate. As a kid I always had this feeling although in a convoluted way but I am sure culturally you will relate to it even in the west. I always thought that somebody was watching especially if I am trying to do something wrong and I know I am the only one in the house but I know someone is watching. I always had this feeling that someone is watching and even in the west I have heard that there is a thing where they say God is always watching you. But what if that intuition, That message that someone is watching is true? Not right or wrong but true in your own experience. And that someone or something is not outside watching you like a camera or a pair of eyes but it is a non-judgmental witnessing that is happening all along. Like right now can you take a step back and see yourself listening to my words instead of listening to my words actually become aware of the process of listening. And notice that when I stop talking, When I pause while talking what you listen to goes away but you can still see yourself listening. Even if you move your eyes whether your eyes are closed or open doesn't matter. Even if you move your eyes from left to right, Notice if you can recognize that you are seeing your eyes move. You are knowing that your eyes are moving, You are perceiving the movement of your eyes. And if I asked you who do you think is perceiving, The only answer there is wait I am perceiving. Only you can perceive but it's not so obvious and once you see it, It is so obvious. Everything that is moving can be seen, Not seen with your eyes but a deeper seeing, Witnessing. I want you to say these words quietly in your mind and do not answer the question. Instead let this question linger inside you. Who am I? Do I have any shape? And notice your mind trying to look for an answer or your eyes moving around and recognize that you are the one noticing the movement of your eyes or your mind trying to answer the question. And whatever you are seeing is not you because you are the one seeing, Witnessing. Notice how you are listening to my words. Witness how your body is breathing. Witness how you are seeing your thoughts. And notice that this witnessing has nothing to do with your eyes. In fact you can sense your eyes moving as well. For instance let's do an experiment. Try to see your forehead with your eyes. And then try to see the back of your head with your eyes. And notice that the movement of the eyes can be sensed, Can be witnessed, Is being witnessed. It's very subtle. This witnessing has just become so one with our thinking, With our perceptions, With our feeling that it's very difficult in the beginning to recognize. But especially when you are in the room alone like right now, There will be a sense that somebody is watching and not in a spooky way. In a loving way that somebody is watching. And the reason this recognition of being the witness, Being the awareness behind everything is so important. Because as awareness, We don't have a shape, We don't have a form. As a body, Yes, We have this bio-computer that is growing, That is aging, That is hurting. But as awareness, You are transparent. And no matter how much you have aged, Grown, Accumulated, The awareness has not bloated. So no matter what you have experienced, How much trauma, Hurt, Excitement you have experienced in your life, Nothing has stuck to awareness, To you. And don't let me hypnotize you into believing it. I want you to see if anything sticks to you, Anything has stuck to you. The witness, The awareness. You might have witnessed yourself cry, Go through rock bottom phases, Go through marriages, Go through breakups, Divorces, Childbirth. Yes, You witnessed your thoughts. Yes, You witnessed the pain of the body. Yes, You witnessed hearing brutal words. But they left no trace. Like right now, Thousands of words must have been spoken by me. Is there any trace on you? Your body changed tremendously in the last 15-20 minutes. Your mind changed in the last 15-20 minutes. You probably grew in understanding in 15-20 minutes. But you, The witness, Was anything added to you? Was anything subtracted from you? Can anything be added to you? And can anything be subtracted from you? All our unhappiness and struggle is because we don't want something unwanted to be added to us. And we don't want something wanted to be taken away from us. But if nothing can be added to you and nothing can be subtracted from you, Then what happens to your unhappiness? Yes, Your thoughts are coming. Yes, The words are coming. Yes, The sights and sounds are coming. Situations are coming. Because the body has appeared in this world and the mind has appeared in this world, It is a product of this world. So the laws of this world, Laws of the nature, The cyclic laws of nature of recycle, Reuse, Repurpose, Birth, Growth and death applies to this body. Yes. Applies to this mind, Yes. Because our body and mind has a name and form, Has a shape, Has a location, Is in space, Is in time, Needs to be fed. Needs to move, Act, Earn money, Interact with people. But you, The witness of everything, The witness of nothing as well, You are transparent. You are not affected or bothered by what you perceive, What you witness. Yes, The pain will happen in the body and the pain will happen in the mind. But as long as you know that you are neither of them but the witness of them, Suffering need not happen. What would the quality of your life become when you realize that nothing can touch you? Nothing has ever touched you but you didn't know that. So whatever suffering happened brought you here to realize that you can never suffer. What would the quality of your life from this moment onward be if you recognized, Not believed, If you recognized that I am the awareness that can never be affected. The way the fundamental building blocks of nature are running nature in a cyclical manner and we are not outside of nature, So we do have a cycle that we are running on as a body, As a mind, Yes. That is unfolding right in front of your eyes and you are witnessing it every moment. Although time is passing for my body, For your body and the words are stringing into a pearl necklace, You the witness are always here and now. You are not moving, Are you? Everything else is moving in you, Leaving you untouched. Just like the space in this room is a part of this room yet apart from this room. Just like that you are a part of your body and mind while you are interacting yet you are apart from it as a fundamental subjective I experience. That's why the identity, The real identity is so critically important. The exploration and the revelation of it is so critically important because that holds the key to what we are truly looking for. Everything else is just smoke and mirrors, A false promise. Instead of becoming whoever you want to become, Why don't you find who you truly are? Maybe the need to become someone else or something else will just disappear in front of the power of who you find yourself. Who am I?