A puppy doesn’t sit there with an idea of itself and who it is. It doesn’t have a psychologically created version of self. It’s not thinking maybe who I am is not wanted on the inside of this fence.
It is through these kind of self concepts and ideas we have, where a part of our mind talks to itself about itself, that we generate and feel more and more separated.
We form a reality of ourselves through our self perceptions… that we are not good enough, or superior, or too intense, too needy, too this or not enough that, what will people think of me, will I be rejected etc etc etc.
An invaluable form of self inquiry is to look into this more deeply.. who is the ‘I’ that my thoughts are referring to? A puppy still exists without having an idea of ‘I’. In fact it is even more clearly itself without this psychological layer and process being there.
When we begin to return home to the reality of who we are, we learn to see this psychological layer playing out, and we know it has nothing to do with our true nature. We feel ourselves as the awareness and being prior to it. And over time, in believing and feeding the psychological self less, it reduces and ultimately dissolves.
Are we then gone? Or are we simply free to enjoy just being ourselves like a puppy?!
RATNA DYER 