The deluded projected their identity onto us, the young, fragile and innocent, incessantly, day in and day out. We never had a chance to find out who we are. We knew nobody in our world to show us the way out of the delusion.
Kyiv, Ukraine. Once one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.
We believed and never doubted. It never crossed our mind that others misled us. Sadly, we perpetuated the delusion from one generation to the next.
I can recall my childhood education at primary school and at grammar school until I quit, aged 15. The history lessons told us Britain brought civilisation to the rest of the world through the benign policies of the British Empire colonising 25% of the world plus invading surround lands. Our history teachers wanted us to be proud to be British. The deluded taught in the classroom. The harm far outweighed any good.
My international travel experience to such countries as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA changed my view. The British engaged in a brutal occupation of these lands often with widespread genocide, slavery and a divide and rule policy. In the case of the USA, the genocide and slavery continued under the British and other Europeans after America gained its independence in 1789.
Identity. Identity. Identity. Superiority. Superiority. Superiority. Inferiority. Inferiority. Inferiority.
Can we see deeper into ourselves?
We do not know who we are. Nothing much has changed. Genocide, wars, merciless invasions, terror, violence and horror continue. All of it finds its root in ignorance, in not knowing, in an inability to see deeper than our labels of ourselves and others.
Coming back again to the start of our life. Identity is a social construct, a language given to us by others who don’t know themselves. It is not even a language. It is often a single word – Indian, Jewish, American, Ukrainian, British and so on. We are not a single concept.
The concept does not stand alone. It is fed through interpretations of history including feeding of beliefs, healthy and harmful. At times, we don’t know the difference between the two.
There is an active or passive support for inflicting rejection upon others from war to domestic violence to verbal abuse. The whole gamut of prejudice, transference of problems, internalised hatred confirms the suffering and the tragedy of our species.
The problem inflames because you find it so hard, almost impossible, to stop being identified with the nation state and its long history of tales of woe. Is your scientist, doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, mindfulness teacher, yoga teacher going to explore deeply with you ways to find out who you are? Their job can help reduce some of the suffering, point towards well-being. We can be grateful for their dedicated services. This is not an end result but a small preparation to go deeper than the self’s grasping onto roles and identity, to find out the truth of who we are. To repeat again, we have been deprived of the opportunity to find out who or what we are.
Suffering, near and far, becomes the outcome of an unexamined existence. You are not allowed to think differently. The deluded will call you deluded. You will be told you are out of touch with reality, a traitor, stupid and irresponsible because you refuse to contract your mind to an identity with the nation state or religion or both.
Remember, you are not who you think you are. Meditate on this daily.
How will we know if we live in delusion?
Let me offer an example of intensification of identity – support for war. If you take sides, you don’t know who you are. You only know what you have been told throughout your life. You must support one side and inflict suffering on the other side. You think this is the truth, the reality. Be clear about the imposition of others on your mind. They left you with no choice but to attack and defend. Yet, a crack in the psyche might emerge.
We live in a world of divisions, competitiveness and behaviour that inflicts suffering and we succumb to the suffering inflicted on us. Biological science feeds the narrow view of human behaviour/evolution in the language of ‘survival of the fittest.’
Five Views around war
Here is a collection of five views I heard in my international travels based on a primary view bold type. We might find ourselves taking up one of five primary viewpoints.
1. An Active View to support war. “I support the war. We have no choice. Yes, we kill, main and traumatise innocent, men, women and children. We destroy their habitats – homes, hospitals, schools, museums, public and private places. We have to defend ourselves. This is a righteous war. It is our duty to support our government. We must destroy their army, their networks and their country, until they surrender. Otherwise, they will destroy us. It doesn’t matter how long it takes or how much suffering they endure. They brought it on themselves. We will not stop until we are victorious.”
Similar views are expressed in supporting another country at war. There are views carved in the rock with no possibility of a change of mind. There are views carved in wood that can undergo change. There are views written on the sandy beach that can wash away. Know your audience. Know yourself.
2. A Passive View which keeps quiet. I don’t like what our government is doing. I don’t like our government bombing, shelling, assassinating, arresting, torturing, kidnapping people. I would like it to stop. I wish we had a way forward to stop this war. Sometimes I feel so angry with what we are doing. I live in a democracy but I can’t change anything. If I express concern about what our government and army does, my family and friends get angry with me. So I prefer to keep quiet. Besides war is complex. It is hard to know who is right and who is wrong.”
This is a passive view. Identity is upheld through needing the approval of others with the same identity. War is not complex. War is about suffering and the end of war is about ending the suffering. Claiming a situation is complex is used to avoid taking an steps towards meaningful change. Such views in View 2 indirectly support View 1. You let the government and the army get on with the killing.
3. An Active View to stop the war. “I have to do something. I have to protest. I have to find people who feel like I do. Our government commits genocide in our name. Our army slaughters as many in another army as possible. I don’t want to be identified with any of this. I feel ashamed to be identified in this way. I can’t sit around and do nothing. It makes feel complicit in the war. I must take steps to reduce the level of suffering and show some compassion to the other side, not just be doing what I can for my own side. Serving the needs of my fellow citizens will not stop the war, no matter how much time, love and service I give to our people who are suffering. I am not going to submit to people living in anger and rage. I am a voice, who speaks up frequently about the suffering of citizens in neighbouring countries, as well as people in my country.”
Such a view reveals important cracks in the seemingly inpenetrable rock around identity. Such people take important steps. They will need much self-knowledge to sustain their dedication to reduce suffering.
4. An Active View to stop the war becomes inactive. “I felt passionate. I did everything I could stop to this madness. I went to meetings, wrote emails, letters, prepared leaflets, attended vigils, went on marches and more. All my protests have not made any difference. I am burnt out. The government does not listen. The media does not listen. People do not listen. They listen to the government; they support the government or try to get on with their daily lives and put their hands over their ears. I found all this very disheartening. I gave up.”
Activists trying to reduce suffering find themselves vulnerable to despair and burnout. They feel like a voice crying in the wilderness. Those engaged in the struggle for change need to develop the power to listen inwardly. Regular renewal matters whether through the outdoors, meditation, the arts, loving gatherings, appreciation for the wonders. of daily life, a loving conversation, the quiet coffee and much more. People who burn out breathe out but forget to breathe in fresh air.
The same four views can go in and out of consciousness in the same person.
You can explore the profound question Who am I? even while involved in one of the four primary views above or other issues.
5. A Liberated View from holding to Identity. This view abides free from the first four views. “I see the emptiness of holding onto an identity and the identity of others in any way, since it eventually leads to conflict and violence. I cannot see clearly if I am bound up with identity with its leaning towards prejudice. I cannot stay bound to the identity of the nation state or a religious or cultural standpoint. I am free from this view so that I can express an uncontracted, non-dualistic view, where there is no ‘us and them.’ In freedom from clinging, I see anger and rage gives way to wise response of a different order. Liberation action bears no relationship to identity.”
A liberated view brings a dedicated and unwavering action to reduce and end suffering bound to war. Such a liberated action does not depend on approval of any citizen or group of citizens anywhere. A profound freedom reveals itself through the unconditioned engagement in acts of fearless concern.
Does this mean we should avoid using conventional social agreements around identity?
No. It does not mean that. Let us feel free to employ this socially constructed language. We can use the language lightly. Let the language of identity rest easily in the palm of the open hand rather than inside the clenched fist. A personal example, I show my Brexit passport when entering the EU. I speak and write in English. I live in Totnes, England. I step into various roles. These are significant details appearing in consciousness.
Let us not lose sight of the bigger picture, of ultimate truth, not tied down to conventional views and tensions between people. The Buddha and Jesus were free from the delusion of identity. Look at their criticisms of society and religious authority. Trump and Zelensky and countless others, powerful and powerless, cannot see beyond the contractions of their own mind.
On another personal note. About three years ago, my daughter gave me a Christmas present. To find out about my ancestry through a DNA test. I welcomed the result of the test. I recall the test said I was 47% English, 29% Viking (warrior class), 20% Irish (Catholic background, immigrant to UK) and 4% Scottish (born 200 kilometres from Scotland). DNA confirmed mixed race. My grandchildren are mixed race (Anglo-Caribbean-African). Even the science might show you are mixed race.
You said others condition us into our identity. You said, we are not who we think we are. Please tell me, “Who am I?”
Are you serious? You have spent your life swallowing the views of others. Now you want me to state of a view of who you are. Find out for yourself. Discoveries will transform your life and change your view, once and for all, of yourself and of so-called others.
Here is a suggestion. On a daily basis, start with “My conditioning tells me I am …….. What does the unconditioned tell me…..” Be patient.
See what the deep inside you reveals, sooner or later. You can uncover endless revelations and realisations.
Every day engage in small acts of loving kindness to those of a different identity to you. This will also contribute to you staying awake daily and not sleepwalking through life.