Who Do You Think You Are?

To live life as an enlightened being takes continuous awareness of Who You Are.

When you walk into a room full of people, it is Who You Think You Are who walks into the room and it is Who You Think You Are who speaks and acts, not Who You Truly Are. Your every word, your every act clearly expresses Who You Think You Are. If you think you’re not a great talker or that you’re not a very interesting person, or if you believe that your accomplishments have fallen short of your expectations or that you have not lived an exemplary life, that will radiate from you as if you were holding up a sign with a description of yourself on it.

Change that. Always remember: Your consciousness is the consciousness of Tao. You share consciousness with the creator of and the spiritual essence of All-That-Is. That means you are connected to, are part of, the greatest, most powerful source that exists. Once you become fully aware of that, the concept you hold of yourself will be altered. You will think differently, feel differently, and act differently. You will manifest yourself differently and respond to events differently. You will be different.

You Were Chosen

You were chosen to be part of Tao’s creation, to exist. It is the greatest honor anyone can hold. And that makes you the equal of anyone. Your goal is to maintain that awareness. Being a part of Tao’s creation is better than all the titles that exist—king, queen, princess, president, rock star, smartest person on earth, greatest movie star, grand exalted ruler—and better than all the worldly fame or accomplishments you could attain.

If you have never ordered a report on your ancestry, I recommend it. It’s not expensive and will reveal enormous amounts of information about your ancestors going back to caveman days. It will help solidify who you were then and who you are now. It may also trigger some memories of past lives.

Going back billions of years in an unbroken line of succession, through hundreds of thousands of lifetimes, all your ancestors were survivors. You, at this moment, except for any children you may have, are the latest survivor of your ancestors. Every life-form that ever existed that gave birth to another of its kind was a survivor. They survived every kind of catastrophe.

Your direct ancestors of the hominin family, including the great apes, honed their skills for millions of years—toughing it out, fighting for survival, warding off every kind of danger, killing when the need arose, overcoming every obstacle, being protected from birth until they could fend for themselves and live long enough to produce an offspring that, after millions of years, became you—life after life, form after form, death after death. And now . . . you’re here.

The Powerful Qualities Inherent in You

In all the forms that preceded you, your ancestors developed the intelligence, courage, wisdom, craftiness, strength, daring, and imagination to survive until they produced an offspring. Billions of years of gradual development, through the eons, have gone into the creation of you.

Can you imagine what powerful qualities are inherent in your DNA? What reserves you actually possess? What skills, what strength, what ingenuity, what courage, and what resourcefulness all lie within you, waiting to be called upon? Every one of your ancestors in every life and in every form was a winner in that they survived long enough to produce another of your ancestors.

Now that you know who you are and who your ancestors were and what qualities you possess, you can go forth and live what’s remaining to you of this lifetime with a new awareness, not only of who you are and who you were but where you came from and from whom: survivors all. Think of that the next time you want to accomplish something, the next time you are faced with adversity or a difficulty, an obstacle or a problem. Call upon that which is in you. It is truly who you are. Let that be your new awareness.

Look back over your life. What were you like? What have you done? Where will you go now? What will you be like?

Adapted from That Was Zen, This Is Tao: Living Your Way to Enlightenment by Chris Prentiss. Learn more about the book.