Inviolate Nature

If thou comest for the faith stop all the hankerings. Think not of good, think not of evil, but see what at this moment thy own original face doth look like, which thou hadst even prior to thy own birth.

Hui-neng, the sixth patriarch of Buddhism, said that to a monk who was pursuing him and questioning him about leaving the monastery after a personal enlightenment experience in the 7th century. There is an innate something buried in those words that bounces off the walls of rationalism and finds refuge in an unknown reality. The original self is this face that has no form. In other words, pure identity has no form. We speak of one body, one self because we are only familiar with one aspect of the whole self.

Identity is composed of pure energy, which takes up no time or space. The identity is inviolate, but it does expand and change organizations and even combines with other identities in the same way that cells do. Our consciousness and its consciousness merge, so we are composed of a multitudinous individual consciousness that form tiny physical particles within it. These particles are constantly in motion even though the body remains itself. We retain our sense of permanence even though that permanence rides on constant changes. The identity relies on those spiritual, physical, and psychic changes.

Just like the cells the identity is always changing; forming and unforming in a symphony directed by strands of consciousness. Our identity is composed of counterparts that may live in the same century or they may straddle other centuries in order to experience the challenges that exist within perceived time and space. Each counterpart is part of the original self, which is the face that contains all the energy of each individual particle.

Like a mountain, which is multitudinous consciousness composed of rocks, trees, grass, and hills, we ignore our independent counterparts until we become aware of the changes that form our own identity, and impact it in a psychic or physical manifestation. Once aware of these identities they still retain their own individuality and inviolate nature, but changes take place in our identity.