Nondual Zen Article:

Who Do You Think You’re Fooling?

nondual title

Who Do You Think You’re Fooling?
by Kathleen Sutherland

Hey, you. Who do you think you're fooling? You pretend to be a small human - one who is not too happy with the way things are. But who are you? You have been listening to lies for so long and adding your own lines into the mix that you have fallen into a trance; you have come to believe the delusion. But the veil is thin. All you need is a little prod, a little reminder: Stop pretending! You, who act so innocent, as if you didn't know what's going on. You know perfectly well what's up. You know perfectly well who you are. You are not a human navigating a complicated life. You are the One, and it's all really very simple. Try as you might, you can't forget that for long.

You become engrossed in the game in your attempts to forget, in your attempts to run from the truth of who you are. But eventually you grow weary. The distractions no longer distract, and you come face to face with Yourself. In one last attempt to avoid yourself, you declare that this is not you, and you're going to keep looking. As long as you keep searching for yourself, you needn't worry about ever finding yourself.

But here you are. Even in the search, you begin to sense you're at the end of the line. What you seek isn't out there. You're a smart one. You would have found it by now if it were. Or someone else would have found it and easily led you there. Others may claim to have found it, but they can't lead you there, and you only become frustrated trying to follow their pointers.

Unless they point right at you. That's the only clue you need. You will need to explore the implications of that, let it sink in, feel the truth of it. But it's all right there for you. It's all right here for you.

Then you can laugh, remembering that you have it all; it's all in you; it's all just You. There never was anyone or anything else beyond This. You were just pretending, just playing the role of a discontented separate self. But your elation and surprise won't last long because you see that you knew this all along. It's not really a revelation. It's just a remembering, a waking from a dream. Then it's back to business as usual. You're awake. You've always been awake.

It will take vigilance to remain free of the trance. But even if you're swept back into the delusion, you will still know you're play acting. You might be fooling many others, but you can never really fool yourself again. If you reach a point where you fall deep into the dream again, just ask yourself, who do you think you're fooling? The one who is perfectly aware of the obvious? The one who knows the one thing by which all else is known?

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