Identification and Bypass, Spiritual Pitfalls

We are raised and shown by example to know ourselves by identifying with what we are experiencing and by what is happening inside of ourselves. We are taught to believe that who we are is a solid, fixed "I" based on our experiences, history and personality. This habit is ingrained, unconscious and automatic. It occludes who we ultimately are and creates great suffering because we no longer have perspective on what we are experiencing. Therefore, we take it too seriously and at times this can feel unbearable.


Who we truly are is a unified field of oneness or love. It pervades and is everything. This fundamental ground of who we are is usually lost sight of, but it still exists, and through training, dedication and commitment we can realign and remember this truth and live it.

In Tibetan Buddhism who we ultimately are is emptiness/bliss or awareness/emptiness or clear light. Emptiness means that one is empty of a separate self. You are that which never dies. Rather than being the content you experience, which is impermanent, you actually are everything and the ground of all existence.

I find this helps give perspective, acceptance and ease to what I am experiencing. Through time and commitment you can learn to perceive and experience this awareness, realizing as well that the fundamental ground of who you are is also the true nature of all the content you experience. What freedom.

Anger, hatred, sorrow, shame, guilt, as well as happiness are no longer "you". This does not mean you no longer experience emotions, thoughts, certain states, or patterns sometimes that is true. Rather, it means that you are no longer swept away by the sea of your experience. Instead, you have a true ground to hold everything having remembered your connection and awareness of your essential nature.

This does not mean that you ignore or bypass the content of your experience either. It means that you embrace everything knowing ultimately you are awareness/emptiness or love and so is what you are experiencing. From this view, you feel and experience the fluidity of phenomenon. All our experiences are constantly changing and liberating themselves in each moment. This is the true nature of reality. This awareness gives you the capacity to be with everything as it is. The trap and pitfall is that as you learn your true self you can go to the opposite extreme of nihilism. You might start rejecting phenomenon rather than being the ground which frees all experience. You are nothing and everything.

In embracing everything with awareness you are able to be present with that which may seem intolerable and the content will reveal itself in its wisdom aspect. For example, at face value anger may arise and as you are present with it rather than creating an "I" from it, anger will transform into wisdom and reveal a broader, more inclusive perspective resulting in wise action and speech. Often we react and act from an emotion. This creates suffering for ourselves and others. Sitting with our emotions and being present with them allows them to reveal themselves as wisdom, generating wise effort and action.