Grounding our identity in awareness is our preparation for the complete realization of our oneness with the very ground of reality. The deeper our stillness the more fully we can reflect the movements of bliss. The more profound our silence the more clearly we can express compassionate love. We grow in our ability to be the intimately personal, blissful, compassionate love that is the essence of all existence.
As our identity becomes more firmly grounded in being a silent, still point of awareness through the practice of an inward gaze and inquiry into who we are, change and growth will happen. The more we live conscious of being a point of silent, still awareness, the more our relationship with our body, mind and personality change. The ground of our identity shifts away from them and rests in the simplicity of being awareness. No longer being the ground of our identity, the body, mind and personality are reduced to being only tools for the expression of who we are. We now ask our self, "Are my body, mind and personality accurate reflections and expressions of the still, silent awareness I am?" We have a new measure for growth, a new compass for direction.
As this shift in the focus of our attention and in our identity becomes habitual, noticeable change occurs. For example, the inner dialogue of our mind settles down, and when it is chattering, we are less attached to its chatter. Our heels dig in a little less deeply when some aspect of our personality is challenged to change and grow. Because it is no longer the ground of our identity, but merely an expression of it, we are more open to comments and criticisms of it, more ready to make the needed adjustments.
Having a firmly grounded identity in the silence and stillness of awareness makes us less vulnerable to emotional and mental manipulation and abuse. When our identity was grounded in our ever changing moods, feelings and ideas of and about our body, mind and personality, we were on shaky ground. When our sense of who we are is based on only a set of ideas in our head, we are easy prey for cult leaders and other con artists. Our mental and emotional strength and stability grow the more we are in touch with our own lived experience of being silent, still awareness.