Searching for an Identity

Many of us who have been conditioned to think and act from positions of weakness, find it difficult to accept self-transformative ideas.

After awhile, we find it more palatable to remain as victims and fight for a mythical freedom than expand our minds to pursue other ideas. We're at the point where, sadly, we've stop thinking for ourselves.

When we reach the point in our journey where complacency sets in, we are forced to deal with the suffering causing us to believe we're powerless. At this level of awareness, we are no longer satisfied with being victims of the illusions.

From positions of powerlessness, the illusions are real. And it's from this conscious awareness that we learn to reward ourselves with chimeras of happiness and myths.

Similarly, the more confused we become about ourselves, the greater our desires for mythical freedom. We begin to hallucinate about power by abdicating our power of creativity to the illusions.

It seems that we are constantly searching for something to give us power or something we can identify ourselves with that has power. It is from these actions that we create an identity crisis, which weakens our resolve to create spaciousness: the clarity we need to perceive the world as it really exists.

When our minds overflow with powerless beliefs, we feel the wrath of victimization. And we respond by seeking something to remove the pain and suffering. We call this freedom, empowerment or enlightenment.

Many of us seek freedom, empowerment or enlightenment because we have been told to do so. Unfortunately, we don't really know what they mean or what they look like in the complete state of existence.

As prisoners of our beliefs and values, we become victims of the illusory expressions of reality. Yet this is the only reality most of have ever known. And the thought of being able to envision freedom, empowerment or enlightenment without our illusions is unthinkable. 

The illusions used to define us as victims are also the ones we are using to search for the mythical freedom others have defined for us as our life's purpose. Unfortunately, this is a difficult process because the illusions are responsible for our education, experience, and aspirations, which we use to create our beliefs and values. 

Similarly, the awareness of ourselves as powerless victims distort our interpretation of the world. This awareness causes us to believe the world we live in is unfair, because it appears to reward some people and punish others.

Nevertheless, the awareness of ourselves as victims of world events inextricably tie us to the illusions  This is the relationship we are working to extricate ourselves. And regardless to the intensity of our pain and suffering, we must work continuously on creating space in our minds for new ideas to be born.

For some of us, the mere suggestion that we don't know who we are is reason for us to defend our illusions.  And by embracing our illusions of powerlessness, this opens the door to allow anger, fear, worry, struggle, and the other emotional culprits to take over our lives.

Meanwhile, there are some of us working to overcome the deleterious effects of the illusions. Although we were guided by the illusions for all of our lives, we seek to know life before we became victimized by them. And we want to know who we are and what's the reason for our suffering.

After we do some work on ourselves, we begin to believe we know who we are and what's our purpose. This false sense of awareness deceives us into believing we are free of the illusions. We feel free, exhilarated, happy.

We anxiously tell everyone we come in contact with that we are now empowered. This is such an euphoric feeling that it causes us to believe we are functioning at a higher level of awareness than other victims.

Whenever we create a new identity or awareness of ourselves, we believe we have achieved freedom or some advanced state of empowerment or enlightenment. This usually makes us happy or at least feel a great sense of accomplishment.

As individuals we crave uniqueness. We respond to our names, the way we look, act, and the way we approach life itself. And regardless of our social status, most of us don't want to think of ourselves as helpless victims.

Some of us try all types of all shenanigans to connect ourselves to legacies of power. If we are descendants of slaves, we imagine our foreparents as being strong slaves -- the freedom fighters.

If we are descendants of the holocaust, we imagine our foreparents as being the ones who were the strongest defenders of freedom. And if we are descendants of other ethnic or racial groups, we imagine our foreparents were all powerful, and made some type of contributions to the world.

Whenever we identify with a group or race of people, we search for ways to give power to the group or race, and thereby giving power to ourselves. We believe this identification gives us the power and uniqueness we need to satisfy our cravings for power.

Meanwhile, by identifying with groups and people we become victimized by the illusions-- world beliefs. These actions further lessen our powers of creativity and tighten the shackles of victimization.

The freedom we seek must be defined without the illusions. To do this successfully, we must take the time to understand the origins and nature of the illusions, which exist in all of us. This is a lifelong process.