Read time 3 minutes. Discover Your True Self is a stand alone article in our Who Am I series.
In the next series of writings, we’ll step deeper into the distinction between the true self of Tao and the false self of ego. There are many approaches to truth, but one path stands out for its directness: earnestly questioning who you are not. This investigation can lead to a profound and sometimes immediate glimpse of authentic understanding.
What makes an ego an ego?
Mr. Rogers liked to say, “I like you just the way you are.” He wasn’t speaking from Zen philosophy. No, he was addressing the ego. Why? Because the ego always needs reassurance. It comes from a sense of lack, an incompleteness searching to be filled.
Two elements fuel this predicament: individualism and identity.
- Individualism: The ego insists it is unique, one of a kind.
- Identity: The ego insists it must define itself, give itself meaning, justify its existence.
But this process of defining and defending does not liberate—it limits.
Ego’s shortcuts
Politics offers a clear illustration. This article from the Pew Research Center suggests that parents pass along their political and religious views onto their children regardless of how hard or not they even attempt to do so.
Across cultures and times, family and community strongly influence our political and religious leanings. The ego finds comfort here. Beliefs borrowed from community both affirm identity and guarantee belonging.
In this way, the ego has its cake and eats it too: it feels unique by holding beliefs, and it feels safe by sharing them. But notice—it’s the having of a belief system that matters most to ego, not the content itself. The pattern is always the same: ego searching for justification, affirmation, and comfort. A task both exhausting and impossible to satisfy.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj cut directly through this:
“You are the awareness that is aware of the thoughts. Discover your true self and see that you are free.”
Beyond ego lies freedom
Your true self is not unlike Mr. Rogers in his kindness—it accepts things exactly as they are. In discovering the true self, you discover completeness. Nothing is missing. Lasting peace is already present.
When we release ego’s limitations of insecurity and fear, creativity opens. Decision-making clarifies. To let go of the ego is to let go of constraint itself.
Socrates knew this long ago: “Know thyself, and thou shalt know the universe and the gods.” Knowing yourself, knowing the universe, knowing the divine—these are not separate tasks. They are facets of the same recognition. To embrace the true self is to embrace unlimited possibility and Absolute Freedom.
Begin the discovery now
The practice is simple and it begins now: gently question your assumptions.
- Are you your thoughts and emotions? If so, why do they so often control you?
- Are you this body? When death comes, we say the body is left behind. So how could you be the body?
- Who is it, then, that perceives all of these—thoughts, feelings, sensations?
The one who perceives is not bound by what is perceived. That is the direction of our exploration.
This is where we begin.
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