Much is made about thieves who steal people’s identities. Americans victimized by such crimes suffered more than $24.7 billion in direct and indirect losses in 2012 alone. That’s more than $10 billion more than losses incurred due to burglary, other property theft.
More than 16.6 million Americans were victims of such identity fraud, with two thirds suffering direct financial loss: on average $9,650 per person from misused personal data, $1,003 on average from credit card fraud. These statistics were supplied by
dailyfinance.com.
However, there are no statistics compiled on direct and indirect losses suffered because people have ignored or misrepresented their identity, but the number is far greater than 16.6 million. Some of you are scratching your head, asking, “Whatever is Cary talking about?” What I’m talking about is very simple—namely, your true identity, and the remembering of it; more specifically, the living from it.
You’re the one stealing your identity every time you say that you are a father, mother, husband, wife, employee, entrepreneur, and so on. Every time you cite your religion, political affiliation, or one of your social roles as who you truly are, you misrepresent yourself and ignore your real identity. I’m not suggesting you’re not a wife or mother, husband or dad; sure, you are. Clark Kent was a mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, but he was also Superman.
Who You Truly Are
You might be a mild-mannered reporter, banker, baker, or candlestick maker, but you have a super self, too. It’s your higher nature, your higher Self, and it’s beyond your perceptions, your thoughts, your feelings, your ego — it’s the Transcendent within you.
As the old Coca-Cola television commercials said, “In the back of your mind/what you’re hoping to find/It’s the real thing.” This “real thing” is your true or secret identity. I say “secret” because at the moment, you’re not aware of it, so your identity is a secret to you. The experience of your identity, even for a second in meditation, for example, brings deep peace and bliss.
Living out of this higher Self on a 24/7 basis — what we call Enlightenment or Self-Realization — brings a peace that lasts long beyond a second — it’s a peace that doesn’t go away, ever!
You steal this identity every time you say things like: “I’m ADD.” No, you’re not. You might have attention deficit disorder but, I assure you, are not the disease. The Spanish language has a more intuitive understanding of my point. If you’re living in America and your stomach gurgles, you say, “I am hungry.” But if you’re Hispanic and hungry from Barcelona to Bogota—you say, “Tengo hambre,” which translates literally as, “I have hunger.” What follows the words “I am” is profound.
When Moses stumbled upon the burning bush and confronted the Higher Power of the Universe, he asked Him/It what Its name was, and the answer came booming back, “I AM.” (Exodus 3:14).
In the Vedic wisdom of India, there’s a well-known expression, “I am That.” That, in this case, refers to the unbounded consciousness that is your true nature at the transcendental level of your mind. Popeye himself seems to have grasped this deep spiritual point. The great hero identifies himself in this memorable way: “I am what I am and that’s all that I am, I’m Popeye the Sailor Man!”
It’s important to know this but it’s more important to experience this, to be this.
That’s where spiritual practices like Transcendental Mediation and Higher Self Healing Meditation come in because they bring about such contact. I cite each of these because I know from experience, having taught the former from the ‘70s through 2010, and the latter since then. And because your true Self is your essential nature, experiencing it, in truth, should be simple to do.
What can be simpler than to simply be who and what you are?
For as Walt Whitman, wrote, “What is common, cheapest, nearest easiest, is Me.” Note the capital M for me. The experience of your true identity, your true I, and my true Me, occurs in meditation absolutely effortlessly and absolutely delightfully. Oh, and one other thing: this identity can never be stolen from you.