You are not your identity

here again this week to give you what you're owed right because whenever we find something good something great something useful we tend to want to share it with others and that's what we're doing here again this week and I thought it'd be a good idea to talk about and make you think about those people we all come across them and we all do this ourselves at some point um the people who work at a job and when they talk about the company they work at they say we did this or that or um you might

commonly see this with with sports fans all over the world it's a universal happening which is that if if their team wins they say we won or we lost or we scored this many and it's a kind of an interesting phenomenon because obviously they have no association whatsoever with the team and any kind of official capacity even if they did they're certainly not the players or the player that that did score that or this point in whatever sport but they still say we we did this and in fact this goes so far that in in

almost any sport you have those group groups that when they meet some other fans of the opposing team they'll get into conflict they'll they'll exchange some really rude words and and some of them will get so offended that they'll actually start physically fighting and we look at that and observe that with other people with with sports that we're not interested in with teams that we're not interested in in in countries that we've never even been or or don't know what kind of sports they like or we don't have the same Sports and we observe that

and we say how how silly that is how strange and how much conflict and and pain and and anger could be avoided by not counting yourself as one with with the team with a sports team or again a company or whatever other group that you might want to think about and the same exact thing happens also with nationalities but the funny thing is what we identify with most of the things that we identify with are not really us and that's a I know it's a very strange concept to think about but when you do think

about all the things that you identify with start starting with something as small as a sports team and going up as high as the very core of you being who you hold yourself to be we often have to realize that all of those things that we identify with we were either born into or we adopted them there's no such thing as as an inherent identity because what we do to ourselves when we identify with a nationality or or any sort of group we make the fears hopes victories defeats complexes problems and all its its fears

and and negative thoughts of both the past and the present and the future of of a whole group we make all these things our problems fears hopes victories and defeats and identity and consequently one more step further all of these things make US Open to attack the simplest example that we already mentioned when we identify with some sports team so much just as a fan and we make its history our history its victories and Def so-called defeat beats and and all of its problems or points of Pride our own we become open to attack by

anyone who criticizes these things of which we are neither truly responsible nor in control of someone will dispute some kind of win we will get outraged for that we want we want the credit credit where credit is due and and it's and it's false and we get agitated we feel personally attacked why because we've made it a part of our identity and of course the question is if that's not my identity and this is not my identity and that other thing is not my identity what is my identity and I think that's a very very

important question that all of us need to ask ourselves and the first thing that will happen we ask ourselves this question is we'll we'll feel a lot of fear we'll get really scared we'll say well if I let go of this and I let go of that as something I identify with what will be left who am I what am I but this is exactly the kind of fear that's healthy and good because what we all these things that we identify with are our ego and we are not our ego ego as you know is

comes from the Latin word for I me the ego is always me me me I I am this I am that and what the ego actually looks for is conflict because it it gets scared of of Disappearing it doesn't want to not exist and it can only exist through identity and by identifying with things and by making the goals the missions the defeats the history the hopes and joys of of a whole group its own and it looks for conflict because it looks for the edges of that identity it doesn't know where it is and

it doesn't want to disappear and it's constantly nervous and anxious to maintain its existence but it's not you because if you'd all of a sudden go into a coma or you lose your memory or whatever all these things would go away you wouldn't know uh let alone that you Associated or identified with that sports team you wouldn't even know possibly what that sport is anymore and you wouldn't know what your name is what your nationalities what what part of the world you happen to have been born in and even the people around us sometimes we

identify with them but we wouldn't remember them either so what would be left would be would be really disappear Would we not exist anymore no that's not true the eye the true you would still exist only your ego would be gone and of course of course having the same mentality you would immediately set to restore your ego but it just goes to show that the ego and you the things you identify with actively knowingly that you make part of your identity are acquired things and that would be all fine and well if it wasn't for

the point that I just mentioned of it the ego opening us up for attack anyone now who has a mouth and a tongue to speak with can injure us can agitate us can annoy us can make us angry and divert us from every higher goal that we had for ourselves with such a simple thing as where we work with or who we identify with or who we like or or what country we happen to be living in or our family history whatever it may be me what you can do instead is to let go of

these things that are not truly you which include your problems where you take your selfworth from all of these are external and appropriated things in a way you do not have to do this you do this as a choice the person who wakes up in the morning and you know how when you just wake up sometimes you don't know where you are what what time it is or who you are really you're just sort of there and you're looking around but you're not scared you're not stressed you're just observing things but you the memory has

not quite kicked in yet right we have those few moments sometimes in the morning that's the real you that's your Consciousness that's your intellect that always exists that you you been born with and that intellect can adopt as an identity whatever it wants and whatever it doesn't want that you if you can pick anything you want you would want to pick the highest things that you can think of right the highest good the most valuable principles that you can think of and those happen to be also the ones that close you to attack in other

words that are not looking for approval of someone else when you're working at a certain company that you've always dreamed of working at you make that dream part of your identity and then finally when you do get that job you make that job part of your identity but anyone can take that job away from you things happen Co happens some someone higher up than you just doesn't like you for an invalid personal reason that should not really factor into your employment but it does people like that exist so what they do then is you you

give them the power to affect your identity to take part of your identity away from you and you feel lesser you feel attacked you feel damaged but you did not have to make that job part of your identity you can be exactly who you are in fact you will be exactly who you are regardless of your job and regardless what you think of that job so it's about gaining that perspective of that broader broader Universal perspective you can identify with anything you want and the intellect does seek things to identify with if you give it

honesty it will identify with honesty it will identify with you being an honest person and that's entirely dependent on you to never tell a lie to never deceive to never cheat anyone that's up to you or if you want to be a kind person that's completely up to you no one can make you cruel no one can make you anything other than what you are if that's what you are if that's what you want to be and that's entirely to be honest to be kind to be all these things that we call virtues right that

the ancient Greeks called virtues and our religions do as well these are all completely dependent on us no one can give them to us no one can take them from us we can only do that to ourselves we can only give them or take them away from ourselves I hope you understand the larger point I'm trying to make here there's nothing wrong with enjoying a sport there's nothing wrong with enjoying where you work there's nothing wrong with enjoying the country and its history that you happen to be a part of even if it just a

in the way of a formal citizenship and you don't identify with it as much there's no problem with that the problem becomes a real problem when we make it a part of our identity to the degree that like I said all its problems of this group or concept that we identify with become our problems and all its glories become our glories meaning those are things that can all be criticized and taken away from us and that's how we become people and when we look around us we see so many people who are worked up all

the time they're constantly angry about something because there's always someone who criticizes something about someone and if you are open to these criticisms if you are affected by them which is like I said to a very very large extent some people would argue entirely up to you in your control and so let us identify with ideas and Concepts that are higher and above criticism that are secure from Attack that are completely impervious to any kind of physical or mental attack or degradation