There simply is no such thing as “me.” Not in reality and not in any way that can be proven. No one can prove the existence of “me.”
While I spend quite a bit of time researching ways and means to both gain and maintain a healthy emotional landscape for myself, I am still learning and trying to figure out my own place in the world. There have been times when I think I know where my own path is supposed to lead, but those times dissipate into the ether of time and history. It’s been like grabbing a tiger by the tail: Just when I think I’ve got it, it squeezes out of my hand and disappears. But I keep on searching for the truth.
One thing that I’ve definitely come to understand and know as true is that the majority of suffering in the world begins between people’s ears. We believe in the concept of “me” so much that it becomes overly personalized into all of its forms like “my” and “mine” and those personal forms of the “me” concept initiates pretty much whatever suffering people face. Now, I’m not saying that I don’t succumb to the myth of “me.” I’m human and the experience of being human is, in fact, my own. Just like everybody else’s experience is their own, I too am the subject of “my” own story. However, I’ve just realized that “me” isn’t real; it’s only a perception and that “me” is only what it seems to be and isn’t anything real, in and of itself.
Most people are concepts, really, and while they are made of flesh and blood, their “personality” is something that only exists in their minds. Whatever we define as “mine” is just as ethereal and the wind – it appears to be real, but no one really created it. There’s no such thing as “my personality” for anyone. Therefore, when someone takes something personally, those feelings just as non-existent and unreal as a unicorn. People might say something (or think something) “bad” about a person, but those sentiments are nothing more than mental creations, just as any concept of “me” is.
I see the erroneous use of “me” in people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. They often become consumed by the idea of “Me” that they devolve into a singular point of focus that drives every single behavior and thought they have. Yes, studying Addiction is studying extremes, but the reality is that in today’s age of social media, “me” has become the single biggest point of people’s focus; addicts are just more honest about their worship of “me.”
There simply is no such thing as “me.” Not in reality and not in any way that can be proven. No one can prove the existence of “me.” I dare anyone to try. However, I can prove that “me” is the source of all suffering: Next time you feel bad or angry, I can bet that you’re thinking in some way, “Why did this happen to me.”
