As this body ages - more wrinkles and grey hair, less shine on the surface - I experience the strange phenomenon of not recognizing myself when I look in the mirror. Who is this old person in front of me? In my mind I look the way I did at 40, and there is a jarring disconnect when I see my reflection. My mind can get busy with narratives about this aging body - how to slow down the process, improve the image. This involves a lot of comparing to others - in media, in public spaces, in the darkness of my own imagination. I can go to war with myself and the world. All to back away from the abyss of the disconnect - the terror and uncertainty of aging and dying.
Or the disconnect itself can be received as an invitation to stop and inquire. Who is this that I see in the mirror? And who or what is seeing? Is this image of apparent form - skin, hair, body - who I am? How can it be if the experience of “I” has not changed as this body has aged?
Who am I with no concept, image, projection or idea of what I look like? Who am I with no narrative of form? What is left when the identification with form falls away, for just a moment? Right now?
This is the invitation from my teacher Ramana, passed down through Papaji and Gangaji and can be found here:
‘Who Am I?’ Sri Ramana Maharshi’s teachings on how to realise the Self - David Godman
Entangled in the Search for a Better Identity - Gangaji
Please join me to discover together who we are deeper than our self-image, to discover what doesn’t change as the body ages, what remains as the form disappears completely.
We plan to gather by zoom on Saturday June 1st from 10am to 11:30am Mountain time & all are welcome.
5pm - London
6pm - Amsterdam
If you would like to join us, please contact me here: embodied meditation sign up
The gathering is free and donations are accepted here: