rEal you..

The Real You

Who are you, who am I?

Are we more than meets the eye?

Look hard and close for a long, long time.

You will see changes that seem to defy

And contradict all reason and rhyme.

Are we our actions or the things we do?

When we ponder this, we find it isn't true.

So if we aren't our bodies and how we act;

Then we must be something else that is a fact.

Can you judge a book by its cover? Can you know what something tastes like until you have tasted it? Can you know what is in a locked safe if you don't know the combination to open? We are all like a locked safe, a unique being with a potential to share with the world, just waiting to be discovered and shared. And what is this unique being? It has been said when Michelangelo was asked how he sculptured the marble statue of King David he said, "I saw King David standing in the block of marble and I chipped away what wasn't King David and there he stood." Using the same process we can chip away the things many people perceive to be the reality of a person.

Are you your body? If you were your body you would be a different person every time there was a change in your body. Are you a different person if you were to lose a leg, an arm or get a haircut? The observable reality is you are who you are no matter what size or shape your body is. Your body is a physical form through which you function. You are not diminished in any way if you lose any part of your body. Even if you were to become physically or mentally handicapped, you would be still as you.

Are you your mind? The observable reality is your mind is the activity of your brain or human computer and its associated nervous system. You are that being which uses your mind to think and make decisions. If you were your thoughts, decisions and attitudes you would cease to be any time you were not thinking, any time you were to fall into a coma or dreamless sleep.

Are you your behavior or actions? The observable reality is every human act is a response to a personal need. Your actions are the means by which you choose to satisfy your needs. You work to earn the money to buy the necessities of life. You scratch your nose because it itches. The fundamental need you are trying to satisfy every time you choose to do something is to Feel Good. If you were your actions, you would cease to be any time you completed an act such as eating dinner, making a speech or just doing nothing.

There is a story of a fifteen-year-old girl who committed suicide because she got a "B" instead of an "A". She left a note saying, "If I fail in what I do, I fail in what I am." The reality is that since you are not your actions, it is impossible to fail at being who you are. Had the girl understood that she was not what she does, she would not have committed suicide. But what are we judged on, if not our actions and behavior, as can be attested to the grading systems in school and the periodic performance reviews in business.

Now the question is, if you are not your mind, body, thoughts or behavior, then who or what are you? If you were to die and be pronounced dead, your body would still be around, but the reality is something definitely has changed. Obviously something left your body. Yet, that something cannot be observed to be gone. We can deduce from the evidence that what left your body was the non-physical essence that inhabited and animated your mind and body, that made decisions, acted and reacted. The real you, is a non-physical essence that leaves your body at the point of physical death.

To use this poem one has to look beyond the surface trappings of appearance, creed, sex as well as the roles people play in their lives and look for that God-given creative being that inhabits our bodies when are alive. If we could do this and support the potential of everyone with whom we come in contact we would approach the goal of peace to all and good will toward mankind.