Login
Theme: Light Dark

As one deals with the language of identity and attempts to move closer to the oneness of consciousness by not nourishing the ego, what language can be used instead of "me, myself, I, etc.?

Tagged: identity, david-hawkins

Home - Quora Link

Many teachers have experimented with adjusting language in this way. In my opinion, once the novelty wears off, it just makes things more confusing, and certainly isn’t worth trying to work into ordinary speech. Here’s a paragraph from Dr. David R. Hawkins’ “The Eye of the I”:

The perceptual world had been replaced. Identity had shifted from being a limited subject (a personal ‘I’) to unlimited context. Everything was transformed and revealed beauty, perfection, love, and innocence. Everyone’s face shone forth with the glow of inner beauty. Every plant revealed itself as an art form. Each object was a perfect sculpture.

Notice that, for the most part, he eschews ‘personal’ subjects and just describes objects. His subjects are either abstractions, such as “identity,” or something other than the person, as the conceit is that there is no longer a person doing anything.

Hawkins adopted this style with his very first book, Power vs. Force, and refined it over the course of his literary career. His more advanced books are thick, dense articulations of specific mechanisms of surrender, and you’ll never find a single ‘I’.

I will adopt this style from time to time when drawing attention to the self would be distracting from the point. But to me it’s best to distinguish ego from the self, and to acknowledge that the self is illusory, not non-existent. We can talk about Luke Skywalker even though he doesn’t really exist.