Who am I? (By Scott Morrison and Robert Avalon)

Sunday, 23 September 2007

Question:
Dear Robert,

I observe that I am not free, my reactions, my behaviour, my thoughts, my beliefs, all my life is conditioned by schemes I integrated during all my life. For example, I see that I am affected by the model of my parents in my relations with women. How can I identify all the obstacles to my freedom? Is there any method to dismount all my programs, is there any method that you recommend for getting free? Namaste.

Who am I? Advaita. Non-duality. Enlightenment.

Answer:
There is only one "method" that I know that is absolutely dependable, and that is unrelenting, uncompromising observation and honesty. Your opening statement is an excellent beginning. You admit that you seem not to be free, your reactions, your schemes, your habits of relationship and so forth. So why not go directly to the source of all self-deception?

As long as you identify with whatever you think and feel about your "self," all of it conditioned mental and emotional memory and fantasy, as long as you imagine and pretend that what you think about yourself and others is important, true, accurate, useful and relevant, you will continue to spin endless webs of confusion and suffering. What if, in a moment of absolute honesty, you suddenly became willing to abandon "your life," and come to terms with the simple fact that you know nothing about yourself, and you know nothing about the universe?

Every once in a while, in the course of one of these dialogues or gatherings or maybe sitting across the table from a stranger in a crowded restaurant, simply because of the intensity of the conversation, someone will suddenly blurt out, "Who are you?" To which I can only offer, "I honestly don’t know."

I’m not saying that because it is the Zen thing, or the spiritually hip thing to say. I truly, honestly don’t know.
Even if I say "nobody special," or "I am Awareness, I am Pure Being, I am Everything, which may be the best that labels can do, none of that even comes close.

The only honest thing any of us can do is to keep it completely wide open. Any word or label or image, whether it’s "Robert" or "Christophe" or "writer" or "teacher" or "student of truth" or "arrogant con artist" or "bloody fraud," as one letter so concisely put it, all of that is an attempt to nail down what cannot be held in one place.

Each one may have some angle, some vested interest, or even some element of truth or another, perhaps a teaching that it might be wise to consider, but beyond that, any identity, all identities with any "thing" are the foundations of delusion, and distractions from what is.

There is no separate one who is superior or inferior. Not "you," not "me."
There is just Consciousness, this Whole, Infinite Everything.
There is just This. Here. Now.

(Scott Morrison and Robert Avalon)

One thought on “Who am I? (By Scott Morrison and Robert Avalon)

  1. I would just like to know if anyone can tell me about Scott Morrison’s passing. I just found out and am trying to get some details, how and when etc. I knew him in the mid 90’s and find it so sad.

    Maggie

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