When you probe the depths of your being, you will find that you have no gender. That is because you will discover that you are not a physical being but a spiritual being. This is not a far-fetched delusion; it’s a fact that you can experience with very little effort.
Unless you are lucky enough to have been born with an aptitude for deep wisdom, the explanations and observations that follow will be believable only through your direct experience. I will outline a method which, if followed correctly, will give you this experience.
The aim of the method is for you to believe (actually, ‘realize‘ would be a more accurate term) that you are not your body, your mind or any other perceivable object. The principle behind the method is simple: if you can perceive something, it cannot be you.
Let’s start with a simple example. Let’s say there’s a book lying on a table. You can see it. You are the subject and it is the object. Clearly, the book is not ‘you’ because you are the one who is seeing it. It is the object and you are the subject.
To extend this logic, anything that you can perceive is an object, and you are the subject who is perceiving it. The object is different from you. In other words, the object is NOT YOU. More precisely, a perceived object cannot be you.
I am going to ask you to close your eyes, stop paying attention to things going on around you and pay attention to what is going on in your head. I want you to participate as usual in your thought process. Only I want you to do something a bit different. I want you to notice how there are your thoughts, and there is someone who is aware of the thoughts, namely you.
Now find a time during your day when you will have no distractions and sit comfortably. Breathe in and out very slowly four times, without any discomfort or inconvenience. Close your eyes for two minutes and during those two minutes follow the instructions I just gave you…
Your eyes should be open by now. Let’s talk about what happened when your eyes were closed.
You thought about things as usual. Did you realize that thoughts were going on in your head and you were aware of them? If not, give it another go for 2 minutes. Repeat the exercise until the truth hits you. Shouldn’t take too many tries.
The thoughts are just like the book on the table which I mentioned earlier. They are the objects, and you are the subject. They are therefore different from you and cannot be you.
Likewise, close your eyes again and be aware of your body and its movements. You are aware of them, so they too are objects. You are therefore not your body.
In the same way you can eliminate everything that you perceive as ‘not you’ . What is left, then? Only the subject. And the subject is whoever perceives the objects… the objects being thoughts, emotions, sensory inputs (like taste, touch and smell), the body and things in the external world. The subject is YOU.
All you are is a witness to all thoughts, emotions, sensory inputs, et. al… which boils down to just a ‘sense of being’. The ‘sense of being’ (aka ‘you’) is still and unmoving, since if there is any movement, it can be perceived and is therefore not ‘you.’
As explained earlier, the ‘sense of being’ perceives all thoughts and emotions. Thoughts and emotions are the objects and the ‘sense of being’ is the subject, which means it is not the thoughts and emotions. Since thoughts and emotions are not part of it, it is free from agitation, which means the ‘sense of being’ (aka ‘you’) is absolutely peaceful.
Once you experience it, you will realize that this ‘sense of being’ is in everyone. It is the same regardless of the physical characteristics of the body (since it is different from the body, which, as I mentioned earlier, is a perceivable object). Therefore it is without gender.
In other words, the essential ‘you’, which is your ‘sense of being’, is is neither man or woman.
Oh, and incidentally — since it is not the body or mind, it is also neither young or old, rich or poor, smart or stupid!
All you have to do is dig into your being using the method described above and you will see for yourself that everything I have said is true. For your own sake, try it!
If you feel the need for more information about the method, read this earlier post.
Don’t waste your life being stressed or unhappy,
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post.
‘The sense of being cannot be percieved..’ What about mystical/gnostic experiences, don’t those arise after being aware of your being? Or feelings of immense love and peace, are those a part of experiencing/ percieving Being? ‘Perception’ itself implies the existence of an object.. Ok, I guess I understand now what you mean by ‘being can’t be perceived’. But it’s just hard to imagine
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Mystical/gnostic experiences are perceived. They are not where your core being lies. Your core being is what is aware of the mystical/gnostic experiences. The same goes for feelings of immense love and peace. You are the perceiver. You cannot ‘see’ or ‘perceive’ the perceiver. You can only BE the perceiver. During your quiet time, stop paying attention to the thoughts and sensory experiences in your mind and JUST BE.
These are such important concepts that I will be tweeting them later on today…
The analogy seems a little off, especially since it can be extended to that sense of being. After all, if you can’t perceive that sense of being, can’t perceive your “Self” then you can’t be aware of it. The fact that one has the capacity to even separate that sense of being from other things means that one can perceive it.
Meaning that, according to your idea, even the sense of being is not you, it is not the subject.
It’s a great meditation technique, to reach just that core sense of being, free of physicality, pain and emotion, of course. But the metaphysical philosophy using this meditation technique to dismiss everything but the sense of being as Not You seems a bit flawed, including its analogies.
Just something I noticed in passing.
You’re right about one thing… the sense of being cannot be perceived like all other things. It is what exists when the object is removed from the subject-object pair. There is nothing left to perceive; only the perceiver remains. Please think about his carefully… I’d be happy to explain further if necessary.