The Nature of Identity and Self-Discovery

The core of human existence is a progression through various planes of identity, ultimately leading to a timeless state of being.

### Understanding the Multidimensional Nature of the Self and Life's Purpose
* 📺 Ram Dass introduces the concept of viewing individual differences through different "**channels**" or planes of reality - **physical, psychological, and astral identities, soul, and void**.
* 💬 "Of all of these channels on the television set, who are you? Which one do you want to **settle for**?"
* 🌌 The ultimate identity is the **void**, the one awareness that is in a **multiplicity of forms**.
* 🔄 Each plane or turn of the dial has a different statement of one's identity, with **deeper planes being more profound**.
* 🔄 "If we start from the top and go on down into the grosser planes, I am the void who manifests as the **one who becomes the many**, who has a unique set of factors to work out through a **unique astral, psychological, and physical body**."
* 🔄 The purpose of taking a body is to do certain work, and when that work is finished, the body will be **dropped**.
* ⏳ Time is relative in the higher plane of the void, where **one just is, going nowhere and coming from nowhere**.

[Music] To the extent that I am anything at all, we could consider me as a separate entity, a set of predisposing characteristics, a program that is manifesting by taking a human birth. At this time, I have taken a birth into a body, and that body has with it a personality. I've taken a breath into a personality, and that personality is in a body, and I am going through a set of experiences, which is called living life. And these experiences have a certain function. These experiences, if used consciously and intentionally by me, are vehicles through which I can awaken to who I am in truth. Let me take you through an example I often use, just another little metaphorical image, an analogy. Imagine, for example, that you have next to your eyes a little control switch, and you look at another human being on channel one. And what you see when you look at the other human being is a physical body, man, woman, old, young, fat, thin, pretty, handsome, ugly, interesting. If you're a scientist, you might call them mesomorphs, ectomorphs, and

endomorphs. Okay, it's a matrix of individual differences on the physical plane. It's the plane of standing on the corner watching all the girls go by. It's that reality. Now let's just say you're looking at another person and you flick your television receiver one channel. Now you look at another person and what you see is their psychology. Oh, you're a manic depressive. Oh, you're a happy person. I wish I was happy like you. People in psychotherapy live on this channel. Usually, they're totally preoccupied with their own depressions, elations, fears, anxieties, loneliness, hopes, etc. And that's reality. That's the real you, and the physical body is merely the carrier of that. Well, let's flip it again. Flip it again, and you look at another person. And if you are so trained to be able to see on this channel, you would say, Oh, I know who you are. You're a Libra. I can tell because of the... You're a Sagittarius on this channel. On channel 3, there's only 12 beings in the universe, and

various permutations of them. You are now seeing what could be known as the astral identity of an individual. You're seeing another plane of reality. They're seeing another way of looking at individual differences. These are three ways of looking at individual differences, three matrices if you will. But now you flip the dial once more, starts to get interesting. Now if you flip the dial and look into another person's eyes, you flip the dial inside your own being and look into another person's eyes, what you see is another being looking back at you inside an astral configuration, a personality in a body, you in there, I'm in here. How did you get into that one? And you see what the Christians call soul, you see another soul, see another being just like you, no different, just like you, just another being. And that you see that all the individual differences are all of the stuff in which this being is encased. Now you could almost be comfortable with that one, but we unfortunately must flick the dial a few more times. I mean, I must take you the whole journey.

you flick the next dial, and what you see when you look into someone else's eyes is you see yourself looking at yourself looking at yourself because on that plane, there is only one of it. It is one awareness that is in a multiplicity of forms. And finally, if you allow me to flick the dial just once more, if you haven't given up completely yet, you flip the dial once more, and you disappear, and I disappear, and the dial disappears, and we're dealing with what the Buddhists call void. Or in the New Testament, before the word that is before the vibratory uniqueness, or why God is not able to be spelled in the Hebrew religion. It's unspeakable, unknowable, unseeable, unconceivable, inconceivable. Okay, now of all of these channels on the television set, who are you? Which one do you want to settle for? You want to be middle-aged? How about that one? I mean, I'm middle-aged. I guess I'm middle-aged. I have a 47-year-old body. It's like I have also a 1974 Dodge van.

but you say to me, who are you, and I don't say I'm a dodge van. Why do I choose to identify with this? Well, if I don't pick body, should I pick personality? I'm somebody on the path, that's a good one to be. I'm a curious person. I'm curious about the future, that's a good one. I'm a responsible person. Well, I'm kind of wild. I'm lazy. I'm working on myself. These are all different psychological takes of who one is. Each plane, each turn of the dial, has a different statement of your identity, and each one is getting into a more and more profound place. Now, when we come back to who am I, which channel are you talking about? If we start from the top and go on down into the grosser planes, I am the void who manifests as the one who becomes the many, who has a unique set of factors to work out through a unique astral, psychological, and physical body. That's what I'm doing on Earth. I have taken a body to do certain work.

and when I finish that work, I will drop that body. We are dealing here with the issues of karma and reincarnation. Now in the West after the Councils of Trent, Constantinople, and Nicaea, anywhere from about 200 to 500 A.D., these ideas were roughly thrown out of Christianity because they didn't make the church a workable situation. Because when you had reincarnation and karma, every human being became their own priest because it was between you and God. And for the church to keep its own control and see its function as keeping people morally living properly, it had to get rid of those concepts. Have I taken birth before? I have no experiential knowledge of that. But from where I'm sitting, undoubtedly, thousands and thousands and thousands of times will I take birth again. Undoubtedly, thousands and thousands and thousands of times. I have to tax your brain with one more difficult concept. As long as we were dealing with your body, with your personality, with your astral identity, or with your

soul, we were dealing in time. Time passes, things change the minute we got up into the higher plane than that in the one. There is no time anymore. Time is relative. Now we're dealing with the place where when you know yourself as that, you just are. You are going nowhere and you are coming from nowhere. The Zen master says your going and coming is nowhere but where you are now. If you can start to sense, I mean you don't have to believe what I'm saying, just because it's the way the universe looks to me, but if you could empathize just enough to appreciate how it would be to be looking at the world from this point of view. If you imagine what it's like to see your life as so functional to your awakening and your death equally so, that the whole business becomes merely a process of growth and awakening and opening and deepening and clearing and shifting channels. And there is no problem about transition. There's no holding on out of fear. It's just opening you.

The Freedom of Being Nobody - Ram Dass

We cannot change the world. But we can change ourselves...and that will change the world. The goal of this channel is to empower the individual and deliver profound ideas through art.

Everyone is welcome to contribute. If you have a good idea for an animation please send them to Mark at AfterSkool100@gmail.com

After Skool

Understanding the Manifestation of Self through Life Experiences

The speaker views themselves as a set of predisposing characteristics manifesting through a human birth and personality.

They believe that consciously experiencing life is a way to awaken to their true self.

The speaker uses the metaphor of a control switch and different channels to explain how they perceive and interact with other people.

The Multifaceted Nature of Personal Identity

Individual differences can be viewed through different lenses, such as astral identity and soul perception.

There is also a perspective of oneness, where one's awareness manifests in multiple forms.

The journey of exploration ultimately leads to the concept of the void and the unknowable nature of existence.

The concept of identity can be viewed from various psychological perspectives, including body, personality, and spiritual beliefs.

Different cultural and historical influences have shaped the acceptance of these perspectives, with the Western rejection of reincarnation and karma due to its impact on religious authority.

The speaker expresses a belief in the cycle of birth and rebirth as a fundamental aspect of their spiritual identity, despite lacking experiential knowledge of past lives.

Perceiving time as relative can lead to a sense of being present in the moment.

The Zen master's perspective emphasizes the idea of transition and growth without fear.

Viewing life as a process of awakening and opening can shift one's perception of the self and the world.