You are as much your body, your thoughts, or your feelings as you are a car, an apartment, or a pen!
When we say, “my car” or “my apartment” or “my pen,” we don’t mistake ourselves for the object. “My” is a possessive pronoun that indicates possession of an object. Something is claiming to have or possess something else. Yet, when it comes to “my body” or “my thoughts,” (due to conditioning, un-investigated assumptions and beliefs), we mistake (mis-take) our “body” and/or our “thoughts” as NOT another object/appearance that we seem to have, but rather who/what we literally are!? But this makes no sense, as the body ages, but do YOU? Thoughts come and go, but do YOU?
Again, if you say “my body,” your very words are indicating that it is NOT you, but rather something you seem to possess. You have a body, but it is not literally you. You have thoughts, but they are not literally you. This needs to be investigated deeply for oneself in order to see through the persistent, but ultimately illusory feeling/idea that you are your body/mind. (And the same thing applies to feelings and ideas, as in “my feeling” or “my idea.” Feelings and ideas are never you, but something you seem to temporarily have or possess.) Whatever the mind claims is “you” will ALWAYS be an object or appearance to YOU… including “the mind” itself.
As Nisargadatta said, “You are nothing conceivable or perceivable.”
About the author: Michael Jeffreys is the author of 9 books. He has two stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul Vol. 3, and has articles published in The Whole Person, Reader’s Digest, Success, and Entrepreneur Magazines. He is the organizer of the Santa Monica Eckhart Tolle meetup. Look for Michael in the film The Collective Evolution III: The Shift, due out in 2014. His Awakening Blog can be found at: www.mjeffreys.com and the Michael Jeffreys’ Awakening Community on Facebook is at: www.facebook.com/groups/415496431893041/