I am not a human having a spiritual experience; I am a spirit having a human experience.
At the time of our birth, we are perfect creations. Regardless of how a newborn looks or the state of its health, it is, at the moment it first arrives, the greatest undistorted expression of its true Self (that which it was created to be). This brand-new human being has not yet identified with the changing material world. The infant human is like a perfect musical note from a musician with perfect pitch (God), not yet having passed through a distorted amplifier (the man-made world). At birth, the human being is not man-made; but God-made. This God-made creation becomes a man-made creation by identification with the physical environment in the process of covering over the Perfect Infant Self.
Aside from survival needs, which cause discomfort, a baby is its own source of joy. It experiences its soul (which is bliss) as the entirety of itself. It floats in and out of its body, not yet identified with the limitation of human form. This sense of freedom is a joy in itself. The infant is identified only with its immortal spirit, which possesses unlimited potential.
Soon after birth, the soul becomes identified as being limited to its physical form. The first identity layer is “I am a human in this physical body” rather than the truth: “I am an immortal spirit.” The next layer begins when the baby is told: “You are beautiful.” It is identified as some “thing,” as opposed to being everything. This programming is the origin of identification with duality. If nothing were considered ugly, there would be nothing with which to compare beauty; beautiful and ugly exist only in duality. Next arise questions and self-judgment: “What if I am no longer beautiful? Is my brother more beautiful?” What was intended to be a positive statement toward the baby becomes a limiting one, teaching this immortal, unlimited soul, a manifestation of pure potential, the limiting concept that “you are this.” Thus begins the layering of identity.
The layering continues as the toddler is told, “You are a girl, you’re a boy, you’re big, small, fat, skinny….” “You’re weak, strong, smart, dumb, bad, good; loved, despised.” Continually told what he is from birth, he is labeled and taught to identify with concepts of who he is: an identity consisting of only a physical form and a false self-image limited to these descriptions.
As children, we pretend to try on identities as part of our play. We have been convinced that we need to “become” something to have value. Little girls will try on a nurse's or mommy's identity using their dolls. Little boys try on the identities of firemen or superheroes. In their imaginations, they become these identities to see how they feel and if they have become something “worthwhile.” Children can take off an identity just as easily as they put it on. They retain the potential to become anything because they do not attach themselves to or completely identify with any of their temporary identities.
Little girls don’t “try on” the identity of a nurse and then say, “I guess that is what I am and what I will always be.” They pretend to be one “play nurse,” then take the identity off and return to experiencing who they are as an immortal soul, pretending to be a limited mortal.
As children grow older, adults influence their concepts of “what they should be” even more. Adults who do not try to label or teach this limitation will inevitably program the child by setting him the example of their limiting beliefs. The child hears that what he is isn’t enough and needs to “become something.” The need is created in the child to become something of value because he has been convinced that, otherwise, he has no value. Just being God’s unique creation is not enough. Can any living entity like a tree have no intrinsic value? Many would value a tree only by how it can serve them. It is valuable if it provides shade, wood for burning, and wood for carving furniture. So, children are taught that just “being” the one-of-a-kind creation they are has no value, and they must “become something.”
The child’s belief in his inadequacy becomes the motivation to take on more identity concepts to become something of value. He starts believing what his parents and other people say about him. The real cause of his duality is forgetting his original state of being: he was born whole, perfect, and a creation of God. As everything God creates, every flower, every tree, is, by definition, perfect, so the child, at birth, was perfect because it, too, was God’s creation. Eventually, man-made creation replaces God’s; the child becomes entirely formed by the environment, adults, school, peers, and television. This layering process continues, and the trying on of identities becomes more of a layering of identities. Now, the child believes, “I am this body, I am this size, I am this smart/stupid, I am so pretty/ugly.” This becomes the limiting part of the child’s identity. As the child becomes an adult, the identities layer even thicker because now he believes, “I am a doctor, I am a nurse,” etc. Your identity becomes even more engrained, and your value is how good you are at that identity. From that grows the competition for who is most valuable and which identity is the most valuable, producing an endless search for the means to someday feel good enough. Buried far beneath all the false layers, the true essence of knowing yourself as a one-of-a-kind creation of God is never felt again.
As that layering process continues through life, the identity changes continually as more and more images are added. The layering becomes thicker and thicker as it changes from “I am a doctor” to “I am a doctor, wear this nice suit, own this big house, and drive this expensive car.” All this is added to the core identity belief. The layering actually grows beyond just the physical form and mental concepts. The environment becomes part of the layering because your self-image grows into your world. The layering can become enhancing or detrimental as identification with a car, house, job, and even spouses and children increases. These additional layers are believed to provide either more or less value.
The true spiritual path is identity “disrobing.” It requires no effort and is really about just letting go of who you are not. As Yogi Amrit would say, “You don’t have to worry about letting go because you can never let go of who you really are, just who you are not.” It is not about “becoming” something more, as many religions teach. It is about un-becoming and disrobing all of these identities, stripping them away to reveal your true essence. Spiritual realization lies in revealing the true Self with which you were born: the spirit, the immortal soul that was in perfect oneness with and connected to God in that moment of birth. As a baby, your “beingness” was love. Before you identified with worldly concepts, your identity was your soul, and your soul is a part of God, and God is love. A baby’s “beingness” is love and sweetness and beauty: the true soul, before it has any layers over it to restrict its expression. All babies are beautiful because they are reflections of the perfection in which they were created. Looking at a baby, you see a soul through an unlayered, transparent body. The process of the spiritual path is one of undoing and un-layering. It’s not about becoming more spiritual. It’s about becoming nothing, becoming less, unveiling who you naturally were at the moment of birth. That’s why religion is not required to become enlightened. You were enlightened already and need to return to being who you truly were; that is the path to enlightenment.
The spiritual path is seeking that which we were at the moment of birth. This is the original message of Christ. When he said, “You must be born again,” he was not speaking symbolically. He was talking about going back to the moment of your birth and re-membering, rejoining your true identity, which had the ultimate value without needing to “do” or “become” anything more.