Without identification with personhood there is no fear, no suffering. It is the person who is creating the thoughts of vulnerability and then suffering feelings of fear. This sense, this belief, I am this person is 100% thought based. You are not thoughts. The identification with personhood is a psychological construct. You are not a psychological construct. All of this is the play of the mind. You are not the mind. You are prior to mind.
Since you are the one observing all of this, none of this trouble can be you. For you to be the observer, you must be prior to that which you observe. Nothing can be observed without you, the observer, being there first. You are the open spacious consciousness in which everything arises and is known. You are the infinite, timeless purity of being. If you don’t take the very limited, constricted shape of a person, no fear or trouble can touch you. Only the ideas you have of being a person can suffer.
In the same way, you don’t find frustration floating around all by itself, looking for someone to frustrate. There is always a personal relationship with the one who is afraid, discontented or frustrated. They go together. So, when any form of discontentment arises, do not try to resolve it. It is not the problem.
It is not the troubling circumstance that makes you suffer. Look for and find the one for whom it arises. Look for the one who is suffering. Who is the one saying, “I am frustrated.” or “I am afraid.” ? It is being the person who is frustrated or fearful that is so troubling. The difficult circumstance that is causing the suffering is not the issue. It is being the sufferer that is the problem.
Surprisingly, our egoic expression of self, the one who is suffering, does not need to be transcended, because we are not this. We have never been this. We simply have to stop thinking, imagining and believing that we are this.
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