25 Jul What am I? I am the body? I am what I see, I am what I think? I am what I feel? (DON MIGUEL RUIZ)
The mind confuses the needs of the body with its own needs because the mind needs to know: What am I? We live in this world of illusion, and we have no idea what we are. The mind creates all these questions. What am I? becomes the biggest mystery, and any answer satisfies the need to feel safe. The mind says, “I am the body. I am what I see; I am what I think; I am what I feel. I am hurting; I am bleeding.”
The affinity between the mind and the body is so close that the mind believes, “I am the body.” The body has a need, and the mind says, “I need.” The mind takes everything about the body personally because it tries to understand What am I? So it is completely normal that the mind starts to gain control of the body at a certain point. And you live your life until something happens that shakes you and allows you to see what you are not. You start to become aware when you see what you are not, when your mind starts to realize that it is not the body. Your mind says, “Then what am I? Am I the hand? If I cut off my hand, I am still me. Then I am not the hand.” You take away what is not you, until in the end the only thing that remains is what you really are. It’s a long process of the mind finding its own identity. In the process, you let go of the personal story, what makes you feel safe, until finally you understand what you really are.
You find out that you are not what you believe you are, because you never chose your beliefs. These beliefs were there when you were born. You find out that you are also not the body, because you start to function without your body. You start to notice that you are not the dream, that you are not the mind. If you go deeper, you start noticing that you are not the soul either. Then what you find out is so incredible. You find out that what you are is a force – a force that makes it possible for your body to live, a force that makes it possible for your whole mind to dream.
Without you, without this force, your body would collapse on the floor. Without you, your whole dream just dissolves into nothing. What you really are is that force that is Life. If you look into the eyes of someone near you, you will see the self-awareness, the manifestation of Life, shining in his eyes. Life is not the body; it is not the mind; it is not the soul. It is a force. Through this force, a newborn baby becomes a child, a teenager, an adult; it reproduces and grows old. When Life leaves the body, the body decomposes and turns to dust.
You are Life passing through your body, passing through your mind, passing through your soul. Once you find that out, not with the logic, not with the intellect, but because you can feel that Life – you find out that you are the force that makes the flowers open and close, that makes the hummingbird fly from flower to flower. You find out that you are in every tree, you are in every animal, vegetable, and rock. You are that force that moves the wind and breathes through your body. The whole universe is a living being that is moved by that force, and that is what you are. You are Life.
The Mastery of Love
DON MIGUEL RUIZ
