𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗘𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿

I used to posture. I used to put a version of myself out into the world that had it all figured out. Special. Awake. Enlightened, even. It was bogus. I was performing.

I keep coming back to one short song, because it does something to that whole move. It makes it impossible. It takes away the ground that any identity could ever stand on, including the spiritual one I used to dress myself up in.

The song was an answer to one question. A teacher asked a young man, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶. And instead of giving a name, or a story, or a list of what he had done, the young man answered by taking away everything he was not, one piece at a time, until there was nothing left to point at. Here it is, in plain English, line by line. And here is what each line is really pointing at.

𝗜 𝗔𝗺 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗴𝗼, 𝗢𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘆

He starts with the things we are most sure are us. Our thoughts. Our reasoning. Our sense of being a self. Our memories. And he says, none of that is me.

It is true for a simple reason. We can watch all of it. We notice a thought show up. We catch the mind working on a problem. We feel the ego flare when it gets challenged. We watch a memory surface. And whatever we can watch is not the one watching it. We are the awareness it all shows up in, not the things that show up.

And this is worth being clear about. Saying 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 is not running from the mind. It is not going numb, checking out, or pretending the thoughts are not there. That is dissociation, and it is the opposite of this. We stay all the way present. We watch the whole mind move with full clarity. We just stop calling the movement ourselves. We come in closer, not further away.

𝗜 𝗔𝗺 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝘀, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗲, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝘀𝗲, 𝗢𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘆𝗲𝘀

Not the senses. We are not the hearing, not the seeing, not the tasting. We are what all of it shows up for.

And again, this is not going numb. We do not stop hearing. We do not deaden anything. If anything the world gets brighter, because we are no longer crammed down inside the eyeball running the equipment. We are the open space the whole sensory world is moving in. The seeing keeps happening. We are simply not the eye.

𝗜 𝗔𝗺 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝗲, 𝗢𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗶𝗿

Not the stuff that makes up the body and the world. The body is borrowed material, on loan from the planet, headed back to it. We are not the material. We are what is aware of it.

Then, after taking away the mind, the senses, and the body, he lands on the first refrain. The thing that is left when all of that is gone:

𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘴. 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘭𝘧.

Awareness. Aware, and at ease for no reason, needing nothing added. That is the ground he keeps coming back to after each round. Everything else is being cleared away to show it.

𝗜 𝗔𝗺 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝗱𝘆'𝘀 𝗘𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗜𝘁𝘀 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗢𝗿 𝗜𝘁𝘀 𝗢𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝘀

The second verse goes further into the body than we usually think to look. Not the breath. Not the life force. Not the deeper layers. Not even speech, hands, or feet.

Even the breath, the thing every app tells us to come home to, is not us. We are aware of the breath. It moves on its own, and we are the one noticing it move. He is leaving nothing out on purpose. He will not let a single hiding place stay standing.

𝗜 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗡𝗼 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗡𝗼 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗡𝗼 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗱, 𝗡𝗼 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗡𝗼 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗲, 𝗡𝗼 𝗝𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗼𝘂𝘀𝘆

Now it gets personal, because now he takes away the feelings. The ones we treat as the rawest proof of who we are.

And notice exactly what he is saying, because it is easy to miss. He is not claiming to have beaten jealousy or risen above pride. He is saying these are not me. When jealousy shows up, it is weather moving through the open sky of awareness. The sky is not the storm. We are not the feeling.

This is the opposite of suppression, and the opposite of spiritual bypassing. He is not numbing the feeling or pretending to be above it. The feeling gets to be all the way here, felt fully. It is just seen for what it is. Something passing through, known by us, never the same as us. We can feel the whole storm and still know we are the sky.

𝗜 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗡𝗼 𝗗𝘂𝘁𝘆, 𝗡𝗼 𝗪𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵, 𝗡𝗼 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗿𝗲, 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Here is the first real jolt. He lists the four big things human beings chase, the things every tradition says give a life meaning, and he takes away all of them. Including the last one. Liberation. Enlightenment itself.

Read that again. He takes enlightenment off the list of things he is or needs. The awareness we already are was never trapped, so there is no liberation for it to get. The exact thing we spend our lives reaching for, he removes in a single line. There is no one here who needs to get enlightened.

𝗜 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗡𝗼 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗼 𝗕𝗮𝗱 𝗢𝗻𝗲𝘀, 𝗡𝗼 𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝗶𝗻, 𝗡𝗼 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮, 𝗡𝗼 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝘆 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲, 𝗡𝗼 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗡𝗼 𝗥𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹

This verse clears out the entire spiritual toolkit. The scoreboard of good and bad, gone. The techniques, the mantras, the pilgrimages, the holy books, the rituals, all of it, gone.

This is the one that undoes the spiritual ego, and that is the point. Every shiny thing we collect to feel advanced, every practice logged, every verse memorized, every sacred place visited, none of it touches what we actually are. Awareness was never made better by a single mantra and never stained by a single mistake. The whole collection was decorating a self that is not even there.

And then he takes away the experiencer itself. 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘴, 𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥, 𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨. The whole setup of a someone having an experience of something, gone. We are not even the one having the experience. We are the awareness the whole experience is showing up inside.

𝗜 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗡𝗼 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵, 𝗡𝗼 𝗕𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵, 𝗡𝗼 𝗙𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿, 𝗡𝗼 𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿, 𝗡𝗼 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲, 𝗡𝗼 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱, 𝗡𝗼 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿, 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁

Now he takes away death. And birth, which is the bigger one, because what was never born cannot die. The part of us that is terrified of dying is the body and the story. It is not what we are. What we are was never born to begin with.

And then he says the line that means the most to me. 𝘕𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵. No guru. No disciple.

Sit with how much that takes away. The whole ladder of the ones who have it and the ones who do not, the one who knows and the ones who need to be taught, is gone in a few words. In what we actually are, there is no enlightened teacher and no unenlightened seeker. No one above. No one below. The whole ladder disappears, because there was never anyone standing on it.

𝗜 𝗔𝗺 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺, 𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁, 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗔𝘁 𝗢𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗲𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗡𝗼𝗿 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲

And here is the last line, the one that finishes everything. 𝘕𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦.

This is the sentence that ends the whole game. If there is no prison, there is no freedom, because freedom only means getting out of a prison. He is saying there is no cage to escape, and so there is no escape to win. No one can become an enlightened person, because the song already took away the cage that enlightenment was supposed to open, and took away the person who was supposed to do it. There is no enlightened state to reach. There is only this. What was always already here, before anyone started looking.

And one more time, the refrain. 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘴. 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘭𝘧. That is all that is left when the song is done.

𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗔𝘁 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜𝘁 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗗𝗶𝗱

Step back and look. Line by line, he takes away everything an 𝘐 could be. The body. The mind. The ego. The senses. The breath. The feelings. Good and bad. Scripture and ritual. Pleasure and pain. Birth and death. Family. Teacher. Student. Trapped. Free. Even enlightenment. Even the one having the experience.

By the end there is no one left. No identity makes it through the song.

And that is the whole thing for me. The move I used to make needs a few things to run. It needs an 𝘐 who got somewhere. It needs a state called enlightenment that the 𝘐 reached. It needs the feeling of being further along than I was. The song takes all of it. It takes the 𝘐 in the first line. It takes the teacher and the student in the fifth verse. It takes enlightenment as a place you arrive in the last line. There is nothing left to claim, and nowhere to stand.

So here is what stays with me. To actually take this song in past the words, into the body, which is the only place any of this is ever real, is to have no one left to perform as. Nothing to prove. No version of myself to protect. The part of me that wanted to be seen as someone who had it figured out is the exact 𝘐 this song removes in its first breath. The one who wants to look enlightened is the first thing to go.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜𝘁 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲𝘀

This is why I keep coming back to it. Not because it fixed me, or because I worked my way into being humble. Because it points at something that is just true. There was never anyone there to be special in the first place. No one to defend. No level to announce. No arrival to post about.

And to be clear, because this is where it could be taken the wrong way: none of this is checking out of life. The song is not about going numb, or floating off, or pretending the human stuff is not happening. The body still lives. The feelings still move, all the way. Grief still grieves and laughter still laughs and the whole messy human thing keeps going exactly like before. This is not dissociation. It is the opposite. When I am no longer crammed down inside all these passing things, scared of them defining me, I can feel them more fully than ever, because I am not afraid of being swallowed by them. Clear. Close. Awake. Unafraid.

So here I am, still writing about it, and that is fine, because there is no one writing it to become someone. It is just life moving, the way a tree does tree and a river does river. Expression happening with no one behind it taking the credit.

There is no one here who is enlightened.

There is only this. Awake. Already free. Never once trapped. Showing up as everything that appears.

That was the young man's answer to who he was.

It turns out it is the answer for all of us.

Art By Trent Kuhn

#spirituality #selfawareness #mindfulness #innerwork #nonduality