MEDITATION: The Only Important Question

Almost as soon as I awoke this morning, a familiar thought came to me: “Who am I?” is the only question worth asking. As I lay in bed thinking about it, a feeling for the wonderful simplicity of life came back to me. Good living is not a complicated process, not a treasure that’s secretly hidden somewhere, not an intricate machine that has to be studied. No, a totally happy and healthy life is as simple and straightforward as that question: “Who am I?” If I understand the answer to that question – really know it – then every moment of my life will be a moment in paradise. Amazingly, the answer to that vital question is actually very simple. The first part of the answer is that I am not in any way material, and the second part is that I am totally spiritual, or mental. I am not a thing but a thought. At any particular moment of my life, if I look carefully I will see that I am a brand new thought in a brand new universe. The implications of the previous two sentences are enormous, for they suggest a revolutionary kind of life (the kind that Jesus, one of the greatest revolutionaries, taught and lived). They imply, quite astonishingly, that there is never any reason to fear, because there is no thing to be hurt and no thing to do the hurting. There is only thought – only infinite Mind (sometimes called God, or Allah, or the Tao) unfolding its endless self. This is the wonderful answer to that utterly simple and important question I awoke to this morning.