I Am Not My Body

As long as I believe that I am my circumstances, my job, my family, my relationships, and my body, then I'm not able to resolve this age-old question.

Who Am I?

Am I My Body? 

In order for me to be my body, it has to be a thing. 

Let's examine the idea.

In our definition of a thing, it can't be a verb. 

It can't be an activity. Running isn't a thing, it's an action, an activity.

We identify many items as a thing, but we have really created a name for them and called them things. We have made up constructs and given them names.

That's what we do as humans.

The body, the mind, and the universe are three ideas that we have named and created constructs for in order to make sense of them. We have decided that these ideas are things.

But they're really not.

A body is a process. It is an activity that doesn't cease. It's constantly changing.

Consider your own body. You experience your body using your senses. Your body right today is not the same experience as the body you experienced when you were a toddler. It's not the same experience as your teenaged body and it won't be the same when you are older.

When you take your attention away from your body, it continues as an activity. It still changes, even if we don't want it to. In fact, we can't make it static.

No matter what treatment, botox, or health food, our body keeps changing.

Am I My Mind?

A mind is also a process, your thoughts are constantly changing. 

The thoughts and ideas you had when you were young are not the thoughts you have today. Yesterday's thoughts are not the same as today's. Thinking is an activity, and it doesn't stop. 

I do not store my thoughts in my mind; they are in my consciousness. If you bring up a memory of a holiday, where is that memory coming from? Does it come out of your physical body? 

Is it possible to stop your thoughts?

Perhaps in the deepest meditation, you can reach a point where your mind is not chattering away, where are you? You aren't in your mind; you are outside of your mind. You are in your consciousness.

Am I my circumstances?

The universe or the world is a process.

It's an activity that does not stop. It's always changing. It can't be a thing because it's an activity.

When you were young, the universe was different from now and it will be different when you are older.

When you take your attention away from the universe, it continues changing.

If these three ideas are activities, where do they exist? 

Can an activity exist on its own?

Take running, for example. As an activity, it doesn't exist unless it is experienced.

Your body, your mind, and the universe are activities. You aren't in them; they are in you.

Because your body is an experience, you can't be in your body. Your body is in you. It's an activity in you.

Your mind isn't in your body.

There's no scientific evidence of a physical thing called a mind that lives in your body. The activity of thinking exists within your consciousness.

Here's the one I grapple with the most:

The universe is an activity. It's a process. You aren't in the universe; the universe is in you.

Wisdom Traditions and Experiences.

At some point or another in life, a person has a crisis, someone dies, they diagnose someone with a serious illness, or you lose your job or tragedy occurs in the world. This fills the person with fear. 

Even if your life is perfect in every way today, eventually you will grow older and a crisis will occur. 

We are often afraid of our future. Some of us live in fear of our past experiences.

The wisdom traditions teach us how to find release from this fear of our experiences. This release is freedom from suffering.

That allows us to have the best life and experience each moment, without fear of the past or the future. 

"All experience is happening now." Deepak

The experiences of your mind, your body, your memories, are all happening now, but they are also in time. 

All mental or physical experience occurs in time. Even though time is an illusion, you experience things in time. You aren't the same person as you were as a child or a young adult. All those experiences are in time. These things occupy space, so they exist in time.

The 'I' in which these experiences occur is not in time. You are the same I, even though you are in a different time.

Then where is the 'I'?

'I' Is Timeless

The five causes of human suffering according to the teachings of the wisdom traditions are:

• Not knowing who 'I' is.
• Grasping at something that can't be held because it is a ceaseless activity. It's like trying to grasp air.
• Being afraid of that impermanence.
• Identifying with the ego.
• The fear of death.

The last four are contained in the first one. Not knowing who 'I' is.

'I' is That in Which All Experience Occurs 

'I' is that in which all experience is known.

'I' is that which transforms itself into all experience. It modifies itself into all experiences. This is where the activity arises.

'I' is that into which all experience subsides. Like a wave, the experience arises, then it subsides.

What is the nature of experience?

Experience divides into five sensory categories.

• perception, which divides into the perception of sound, form shape, and color, sound, smell, taste, touch or texture, all the sensory perceptions.

• our thoughts, which are our interpretation of the perception, most of these interpretations are influenced by social conditioning.

• feelings or emotions, which arise from our interpretations.

• imagination, and memory.

• the choice or volition or intention or desire.

A Final Attempt at Defining "I".

'I' is that in which all these components of experience occur.

'I' is the source of perception, of thought, of emotions, of memory, of intention

'I' is the source of the components of our experience.

Awareness is the 'I' in which all the experiences are happening.

Thanks for reading. This article was inspired by listening to Deepak Chopra's podcasts and Facebook live recordings. He's very generous with his work and you can find more online, at DeepakChopra.com.

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A version of this story also appears on Medium by Tree Langdon, the author.