The Tao of Dark Sages - Chapter 13, Part 1

The Tao of Dark Sages
by Scott Bradley

Scott-tzu: I am thinking that before we discuss being free from identity maybe we should consider what identity is. What is identity?

It’s the ego-self. The ego-self gives itself substance by creating an image of itself which it calls ‘me’. Everything we do, everything we experience, relates to or is related back to this ego-identity.

Yes. I think of the ego as a great inland lake — a salt lake. Everything flows into it, but nothing can really live in it.

And the salt? That’s memory. The past. I find that one of the most powerful components of my sense of identity is my past preserved in memory. And that really plagues me.

Yes, you mentioned how anger about things in your past bothers you, Buz. And what are these memories that we own and cherish? How real are they?

Mark-tzu: For one thing, they are probably a piss-poor representation of the past. We have selected them from a vast number of experiences. Why have we chosen to remember the ones we have? And why do we choose to pull up certain memories now rather that others?

Nellie: And does the past in any way exist? I’d be way over my head if I tried to answer that question through argument, but I think I can say intuitively, that it doesn’t. The past does not exist. And yet, I somehow feel that it’s the most real thing about me! It’s crazy!

Sue-tzu: No, the past does not exist. The memories that make up our identity don’t exist, except in thought. Identity does not exist, except in thought and habit.

Identity, then, is a figment of our imagination?

Sue-tzu: Yes. It’s a great, big, made up story that we repeat to ourselves and others that we believe is a real and true statement of our identity. Most people have a story that is full of unhappy chapters which plague them when re-told to themselves, by themselves. Who am I? we ask ourselves. Why this story, of course! Your identity is a fictitious story. Isn’t it amazing that we choose to make up such unhappy and pathetic ones!

If you're interested in reading more from this series by Scott Bradley, go here.