You Are Not What You Think
“a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”
Nothing in this world is different from the rose. Tulips, beetles, scissors, you name it. Whatever it is that you think, of yourself, an object in your experience, or another person, is like a name. Perhaps your thoughts contain strings and layers attempting to sincerely describe the complexity of people or events. But even a precise mathematical representation can only serve as a reference point to what is essentially nameless.
Imagine you look into a microscope and see the inner workings of a cell. Jotting it down, you have words on paper describing what you saw. Suppose you paid close enough attention to notice proteins talking to each other on their coffee break. Someone reading what you wrote will have looked at a map and not the event you inked in. They can go and see for themselves if they wish. Your words guide, point, describe, to something you witnessed in your awareness.
Let’s add a problem. People who read your note on chit-chatting proteins are in disbelief and don’t bother to look. So, what do you do? You prove what you saw by making a recording. Now everyone can see an image. A visual representation. A thousand words pales in comparison. Yet, similar to words, the image, albeit more accurate, is a reference to something in existence. That image is not the thing itself.
Thoughts are like words and images, only quietly held in the mind. A form of representation arrested by your attention. So, whatever it is that you think, is not, and cannot ever be, that which you are thinking of.
See this clearly. Not some of the time, but for everything and all the time. If you do, you might begin to feel liberation. At the very least, you will be no less awake than Buddha, Rumi, and your pet cat, if you have one. We are held as prisoners when we believe we are what we think. This is not to reduce the importance of words and thoughts. But to highlight in your awareness that you’re undefinable. So is everyone else. And even a stupid plastic bottle.