A simple seeker was meditating on Stage 16 of The Tree of Life. Her chosen text calls this meditation “I Am That I Am.” An earlier meditation had, as its focus, “Who AM I?” But, she kept asking herself, “If I am that I am, who or what am I?”
“You were never anything other than what you are now Physical life serves to help us understand that simple reality. Whatever we have experienced, whatever we experience now, and whatever we will experience, the simple fact remains, we are what we are, whomever we choose to be, and while we choose to be.”
“If I’m playing life as an actor, then why does it seem so real?”
“An actor is an actor, no matter what role she plays. But each role we play, each relationship we experience, we have chosen to live the roles, or archetypes, we express. We simply are an individual aspect or ray of Life. Case closed.”
…
A simple seeker’s note to herself
“Could I have chosen to play the role of a simple seeker?”
“Yes.”
“But what of all the many other roles that I have seemed required to play throughout my long life?”
“Each and every one of them were no more nor less than a subset of roles that contributed to the roles you now play.”
“What role does memory serve in contributing to how well, or not so well, I play the roles that I now play in life?”
“Memory is as a script that you have learned to read, to help you focus on your role.”
“Some people seem to lose their memories without changing the way they play their roles in life.”
“They have learned as much as they can with memory as a guide, and now are challenged to live without it.”
“Can social conditioning replace memory as a guide to living social roles?”
“Yes, and it does. The roles we play today are not all as those our ancestors played. Life situations required us to adapt to changing conditions of life.”
“Then, our children will not necessarily live as we do?”
“Even now, modern technology, and rapid access to the thoughts of others around the world, are expanding the information that future generations will possibly call memory.”
“And yet, they too will be playing archetypal roles, even if those roles differ from those we now may see as a way of life?”
“Yes.”
“And yet, they’ll still be whom they are?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a beautiful ending.”
“There is no ending.”
………
Simple Seekers 