If we stop and just for a few moments take the time to contemplate ourselves and our lives, it is not difficult to recognise, and perhaps even experience right now, the inner feeling that we are different from anybody else.
I feel I am an individual. You probably feel the same or have felt it in the past. Everybody I have asked has, at times very intensely, at times as a background vibration, had this perception. I am myself, the good and the bad, the light and the shadow, what I like and show, what I condemn and hide. I am all of that.
This is a true and ultimate feeling: I am all that I am; you are all that you are. There is no one like me, and no one like you. Perhaps similar, but certainly not the same: uniqueness is our intrinsic nature. And the same is true for any manifestation of life — animals, plants, clouds, rocks — as many masters and mystics have pointed out over and over again for centuries. So the question if we want to live more consciously, is how to make manifest, honour, share and enjoy this uniqueness in all its dimensions: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
First things first. The tendency to compulsively try to prove (to ourselves and others) that we are special is the first block. Wanting to be special is, in practice, the habitual denial of uniqueness. Specialness is based on comparison, on looking out and wanting to be more than, better than, higher than someone or everyone else. Uniqueness is the simple recognition that in Spirit, no comparison is possible, no hierarchy makes sense.
Uniqueness is, then, not about being more or better than someone else, but rather being more and more of myself, possibly being the totality of what I am. It is about bringing to full consciousness and expression all the facets of this uniqueness.
The desire to be special is the shadow of an infantile relationship with the Inner Judge — the internalised representations of our parents; the values, beliefs, attitudes, standards and prejudices we have inherited and made ours.
Whoever has asked the question “Who am I?” and, with passion, taken the quest all the way has inevitably found that the true I, what I call the Authentic Self, is free from the past; is not defined by it. This does not mean that the past disappears or cannot be used as a resource when it is needed. Rather, it means that the Authentic Self has the capacity to experience itself and the present in a fresh and original way, without any unconscious filters from the past. The past has been integrated and doesn’t limit the direct perception of what is.
Why is realising uniqueness and living from that realisation important, I would say even vital, for us and our planet? I think there is very little hope for this planet if we keep being driven by the past and the accumulated weight of our ancestors’ fears.
The reality of uniqueness is possibly the most efficient and universally shared key to move beyond the compulsive tendency of the personality to generate and thrive in conflict and in separation. The natural and effortless outcome of a realised and embodied sense of being unique is the recognition of everybody else’s uniqueness and, as a result, respect, wonder and curiosity.
From Watkins’ Mind Body Spirit magazine, issue 33 - Spring, 2013
