The Single Most Important Thing You Don’t Remember You’re Forgetting
I’m not talking about the house keys, so be prepared to continue locking yourself out on occasion.
The reason this forgetfulness is not as easy to catch as simply forgetting your keys or a gift for a friend’s birthday party is because the forgetfulness I am concerned with has not to do with material items. It is not associated with the mind—with planning, strategizing, calculating. No. The forgetfulness I emphasize is not about things and objects.
Many people are living in a state of chronic forgetfulness, which dwells deep within until they leave their physical bodies. We fail to remember that we are even forgetting, because we are surrounded by others who are living from the exact same state of forgetfulness. Even if someone suggests we are overlooking, we may not even believe it, because spiritual amnesia has become the norm. To remember is to deviate from the norm. It is perfectly okay and understandable that one would forget, and it is no one’s fault.
The plague of forgetfulness boils down to our very nature. Us. Human beings. In simple phrasing: YOU ARE FORGETTING YOU WHO REALLY ARE. If you think you are a mother, a lawyer, a doctor, a yoga teacher, a fat person, a husband, a wife, a CEO, a student… think again. These are all your personas. They are labels. They are who you are at this time based on your existential circumstances. You were once not that, and they may not apply forever. You were once a baby, not a lawyer. You were once a daughter, not a mother. You are in a constant state of flux. Don’t you see? In fact, the you that you identify yourself with is NOT. The constant flow of your nature is the real you. I am not implying that your labels are not important or valuable. They are part of you. They exist in the material plane and are helpful to an extent. But there’s more. Much more. To limit yourself to your label is to put yourself in jail.
If you strip yourself of your labels, what’s left? If you strip yourself of even your name, which was given to you by others, what is there? Who is there? Do you even know? Or is the dust of ‘doing’ covering up the clarity of ‘being’? Have you spent your life too busy accumulating more badges, certificates, degrees, labels, and trophies, all the while neglecting to take a good deep look at yourself? From where did you come? To where do you go?
These questions and introspective practices tend to bring anxiety and insecurity to the surface. We are living in tremendous subconscious fear of our own selves. We live in fear of the black hole of loneliness and death. We desperately try to fill that hole with food, partners, clothing, accomplishments, and the like. There is always something. There is never nothing. We would not be able to bear it— to bear the emptiness that encapsulates our ego yet strengthens our soul. The emptiness that is reminiscent of a black hole- a hole of pure creative potential.
Many people visualize a black hole and immediately become scared. It can’t be good. It’s dark, and there’s nothing in it. Why do we need something in it? Is the darkness not filling the hole? Is the hole not already full with darkness? Great things—anything in fact, can only come out of a void. The black hole is the opposite of existence, yet its necessary counterpart. Two sides of the same coin. Death is part of life. It is all very beautiful, and there is nothing to be afraid of.
You are pure Nothingness, Spirit, God, Bliss, Stardust having a temporary physical experience. Enjoy it. It is the ultimate blessing. Don’t forget who you are. And if you did, it’s never too late to begin the journey back home. Relax into the unknown. Smile. Breathe. Dance. Live from your heart. Learn to focus and concentrate your mind so it does not govern your life. Use it wisely, and always come back to your heart. Move your physical body in order to clear out blockages of stored tension. Your body stores emotional stress, and in order to keep the energetic pathways clear—in order to gain easier access to remembering your true self, you must keep the temple of your body in optimal health.
The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most sacred spiritual texts in yogic philosophy.
Chapter 2, verse 20 of the Bhagavad Gita reads:
‘The soul never takes birth and never dies at any time nor does it come into being again when the body is created. The soul is birthless, eternal, imperishable and timeless and is never destroyed when the body is destroyed.’
It’s time to dust off the mirror so you can see yourself clearly again. Live from a state of copious consciousness instead of stagnating your own growth with ego induced feelings of lack and self judgment. Allow all emotions and sensations to arise, just as the waves would temporarily cause the lake to appear less than a purely reflective sheet of glass. And then choose to rejoice in your heart. Rejoice in love. Remember Love. Remember YOU.