Remembrance of Me

"Have you ever forgotten who you are?"

I looked down at the new text on my iPhone, surprised.  "Random," I thought. And, "Duh."

The text was from a friend of mine I've never even met; one of the hazards of running MyOutSpirit.com is feeling very close to people you've never hung out with.  LGBTQ people often turn to me as if I'm someone with answers, and I do my best to honor their questions and reach inside myself to remember the answers.  (I even added a "Big Questions" section to the website so that all the members could do this question and answer work together.)

"Have you ever forgotten who you are?" my friend wanted to know.

From a spiritual perspective, answering "Yes" is deeply true.  We have all forgotten who we really are; it's why we're embodied.  "Genesis says Adam fell into a deep sleep," as Marianne Williamson reminds us. "Nowhere does it say anything about him waking up!" 

The root of all genuine, transformative spiritual practice is a freedom from identification with the small "s" self - the ego and its attachments, beliefs, habits and limitations - and evolving into identification with the capital "S" Self - an experience of unity with the Universe/Light/Divinity/Brahman/God. 

We suffer because we have forgotten who we are.

Our lives are meant to be about remembrance: rediscovering the atoms of stars in our bodies; stretching our ordinary consciousness into a vast web of unconditional love; moving into a place without "self" and "other," "subject" and "object."  We are here to reconnect with that Spirit that interpenetrates everything.

Or not.

We get to choose.

Most of us are lost in our lives.  Jobs, family, children, pets, good relationships, bad relationships, retail therapy, fashion, fitness, activism, sex, politics, GLEE - there are innumerable shiny distractions for the ego to play with like Legos it uses to build a portrait of itself. This is the real definition of karma. 

Karma is not about good or bad actions, sinful or virtuous behavior.  Karma is that which strengthens the ego self at the expense of the Self.  "Bad karma" is created when your thoughts, words or actions reinforce your ego.  That is what keeps you in hell, suffering, caught in samsara - however you understand it.  But it is possible to have sex, enjoy GLEE, and celebrate your life without creating more karma for yourself. 

How?  By remembering who you are and why you are here, and letting that remembrance color your choices.  Take action for your freedom.  EnlightenNext founder Andrew Cohen calls it "Clarity of Intention:"

"Wanting to be free more than anything else is not a feeling; it's an action. It is a conscious position you take in relationship to every choice you make. Without the clear intention to be free, no amount of spiritual practice will change you in the long run. Your success depends entirely upon your conscious choice to be free in every moment. Ultimately you will reach a point where you no longer have a choice, where your own freedom is recognized to be a choiceless obligation. Then the Authentic Self, which is already ecstatically and perfectly free, will have become the dominant force in your being."

"Have you ever forgotten who you are?"

We ALL have.

---

Clayton Gibson is the founder of MyOutSpirit.com, the gay spirituality social networking website and resource directory, and GaySpiritCulture.com, the co-op funding program for LGBT-affirming organizations and businesses.

 

Photo Credit: "Shimmer" by Bartosz Madej

 

Comments

[DJ]

Thank you for this today.

[pennyjane]

i just couldn't help but chuckle.

being old and having no memory left, no...i never forget anything, much less who i am. it's a blessing of old age senily, we get to rediscover that little matter each and every day.

as i was skimming along all the existentialism and the psychology of the self and the Self and all...wasn't there a movie like that..."the illiad and the id", or something of that nature?...well, anyway, that's far more than the typical highschool dropout, like me, can comprehend much.

so, in thinking about freedom, a conversaation i had with a woman today came to mind. i asked her (for the third time) if she wanted a ride to church this sunday...my car is rapidly filling up and i need to know. she answered again, "well, if i feel like it and i can get up i want to go."

grrrrrrrr.

which brought up my feeling about freedom, which is really pretty simple...."whatever decisions you don't make yourself, will be made by others or by providence....and neither have a great deal of sympathy or empathy for you."

so, yes....i did get that part...the part about freedom being an action....literally.

thanks for this.

much love and hope. pj

[Chris Lemig]

Wonderfully uplifting! Thanks, I needed something like this today!

[Mary Starr]

I think it's good to forget who we and BE who we are.