We Are a Ghost, or at Least Our Self-Image Is

By: Nirmala

Most of us think of a ghost as something that only exists after we die. We imagine it to be a piece of us that continues to hang around and haunt the places we lived while alive. What if there are ghosts of yourself that are around while you are alive? What if what you think you are, or your self-image, is actually a ghost?

Most people think ghosts are insubstantial shapes or visions that come and go. They aren't very solid or real, and a lot of people can't even see them. And yet how real or solid are your images of yourself-your ideas about who you are? If one day you have an image of yourself as an very attractive person and the next day you see yourself as unattractive, how substantial was either image? And who else can see your self image? What could it mean if you see yourself as unattractive and someone becomes attracted to you anyway? It could mean that they can't actually see your self image. Maybe the way you see yourself is a kind of ghost.

We may not be willing to learn that our idea of ourselves is not real because we are used to thinking these ghost like images are who we really are. We end up wondering, Who could I be if what the image I have of myself is not real? What else exists here besides these ghostly self images I take to be myself?

We do exist, and we are real. But does this innate sense of our reality actually come from the image of ourselves? Or does our sense of existing come from someplace deep within our being? It's hard to determine when the image and the sense of realness are both present at the same time, and our ego takes on that deeper sense we have of being real.

One way to distinguish what is real from what is not is to ask yourself how real your ideas of yourself are. One measure of how real something is, is how long it lasts. The more real something is, the longer it lasts. How long do ideas about yourself last? They come and go (like a ghost in a ghost story) and don't last very long at all. A thought is often over so quickly that we can't remember a moment later what we were just thinking.

Our images we have of ourselves are always changing and passing away to be replaced by another idea or picture of ourselves or even a thought about something else. So those ideas or identities we have must not be very solid and real. They are just ghosts in our minds.

How about the pure sense that you are real right now? Does that sense come and go? Do you ever really have the opposite sense that you don't exist or never existed? This sense that you do exist is more true than any of your ideas about yourself because it is always here. You always exist, but the thoughts in your mind about yourself are like ghosts. What you are has never been contained in your self-images. Even when your ideas of yourself fade away, like images in a movie, what you really are is always still here .

What if it is this real you that matters most? Wh not become more curious about the real you than about the false ghosts of identification. What is are you made of? What is this real you like? What does it want to do? These are deep and valuable questions to explore, but remember that the answers are never found in your thoughts about yourself. The true answers can only be found in the simple sense of existing.

Article Source: http://appliedhealtharticles.com

Well known spiritual teacher, Nirmala has been offering satsang and individual spiritual mentoring since 1998. He provides free spiritual books and many more ways to explore his teaching on endless-satsang.com.
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