You probably go about your day carrying with you all sorts of mental and actual notes so as to remember what you need to do.
This is only natural, given how complicated and demanding our daily lives have become.
All these things come and go, and once you’re done dealing with them, you understandably tend to erase them from your memory.
Then, there are these other things which typically have spots in your memory that are reserved for them for longer periods.
These Are All The Things That You Identify Yourself With
It’s your name, your age, your external features, and your “life’s history”.
It’s your possessions, especially the ones you deem and cherish as most valuable – your house, your car, your financial and other assets.
It’s the people whom you feel more closely related to – your parents, your wife, your children, your relatives, your friends, your business associates.
It’s the things you consider to be the most important, or which you hold to the highest esteem, about your professional affairs and workplace.
It’s your hobbies, your political, religious, social and other affiliations, your sympathies, your views, the things you love to do in your “spare” time.
Fair enough, so far?
Now, let us conduct a thought experiment.
Admittedly, you may find it a bit scary, but I assure you it’s worth your while:
Assume That, In Just One Instance, All Contents Of Your Memory Were Erased
[If you are bold enough, you may even try to simulate such a situation right now)…
What would remain after such a terrible event?
It is pretty safe to assume that you would not cease to be, you would still exist.
But this “you” that would still remain after your memory’s outage would be naturally and completely (and blissfully, I could add) unrelated to any of your prior identifications with your name, your job, your wealth etc.
Evidently, this “residual you” is more steady, grounded and, therefore, real than the extended, memory-based “you”, as the latter is subject to your mental well-being, while the former is not.
But what is this “residual you”?
It Is Your Consciousness Of “I Am” Or “I Exist”, Is It Not?
It is your True Identity, which basically is an empty Vessel that your memory fills in with all sorts of things, such as the ones we discussed earlier.
This is the one thing you always need to remember: that you are the Vessel or the Container, but you are not Its occasional, impermanent contents.
The truth is you don’t even need to remember this.
You Anyway Are It, All The Time
Perhaps, then, it would be more accurate to say that you need to “return” to this knowledge – which is actually more of a lively, joyful awareness – as frequently as possible, ideally constantly.
Consequently, you realize that your memory is a useful and practical tool, but you stop identifying with, or being carried away by, whatever content happens to pop up on its screen or stored in its dusty archives.
Now, this Vessel that you are has some inherent and unique features which critically and clearly differentiates It from any other Vessel (that is, any other human being or organism).
Finding out and consciously realizing what this unique combination of your Vessel’s features is, is an extremely important process or, in fact, journey.
It is one you must undertake, if you don’t want your life to be a series of haphazard, impulsive actions performed on a thin layer of existential ice or on thick existential quicksand.
Once you embark on this journey with sincerity and dedication and you remain committed until you complete it, I guarantee that you, thereafter, will always know what to do in your life, as well as how and when to do it.
Furthermore, true self-realization will not stop there.
The Final Step Is To Consciously See
That Every “Vessel”, Including You,
Is A Manifestation of One And The Same Thing
That Thing is the “Vessel of Vessels”, even though It, Itself, Is No Vessel.
It is the Void of Nothingness, out of which Everything spontaneously emerges.
Memory cannot contain It, it is merely one of Its endless emanations.
But you can be sure of the fact that you will find no real rest or peace until you are It.
This being said, the extent and frequency of your recollection of this basic Nature of Reality, this Fundamental Truth, is the measure of a truly balanced, rooted and peaceful (in the deepest, innermost sense) life.
Until next time,
Asking yourself this question is all you need to remember!