We are Nobody and Anybody

Meditation is one of the oldest religious, spiritual, and metaphysical practices in human history.

Since the birth of our self-consciousness, we have known our cognitive limitations. What we can know is so limited. There has been a vast dimension that we can never understand.

Know thyself.

That is one of the Delphic maxims. And our act of knowing ourselves is the way to realize how much we are ignorant. As Plato depicted the saying of Socrates, “I know that I know nothing” could be such a realization for the Delphic maxim. All we can know is, paradoxically, that we know nothing.

Who are we? Who are you?

In our meditation, we keep repeating this phrase as a mantra. And what could be our answer? Are you your body? Are you your mind? Are you your soul and spirit?

Despite all the possible answers, we would never find the best. Who are you? Who are we on earth and in heaven?

We don’t know who we are. At most, we know that we know nothing about ourselves. The truth is we don’t know who we are. All we could say is that we are nobody and anybody.

In Buddhism, that is the realization of non-self, called anattā in Pali or anātman in Sanskrit. Our sense of self is, after all, a mere manifestation of how we exist in this world. We are nobody and anybody. What we know is that we know nothing about ourselves. Our very existence is, indeed, such paradoxical.

In Christianity (or all Abrahamic religions), God created us in His image. And we can call Him our Father in heaven. If so, who are we, after all? Still, the answer is we are nobody and anybody.

As God is omnipresent, in his image and lineage, we are ultimately nobody and anybody. We are the sons of God; therefore, we are “God” as the part and whole of the universe.

How can we know that? We must be “still” in our meditation.

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Psalm 46:10

We are nobody and anybody. Therefore, God is nearer and truer than our illusory self-consciousness. Meister Echart said as follows:

God is nearer to me than I am to myself; He is just as near to wood and stone, but they do not know it.

Meister Eckhart

Knowing God is near, then who is this “God?” God talks to Moses as follows:

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

Exodus 3:14

Jesus Christ also described himself as follows:

Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

John 8:58

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