Padre's Corner - Who am I? Finding meaning in life

Wise men and women of all ages and of all generations have tried to find the essence of being. People who ask this sort of question are typically searching for a core sense of themselves. This is the struggle of every generation, and especially our own generation.

“The irony is the more you seek to uncover who you are, the more fragile you are likely to feel about yourself. There may be an inverse correlation between the question being asked and the ease with which you experience your life. The emphasis shouldn't be on discovering what is buried beneath or within, but on facilitating the emergence of what you would like to experience.” (Schwartz, 2010)

This is because life is not static, but a process of self-discovery. The more we live the more we learn about ourselves and the more we discover who we are.

Every human being with normal human faculty has wrestled or is wrestling with this one important question in life. Have you ever asked yourself, “Who am I?” Am I a father/mother, a husband/wife, a son/daughter, a friend, an engineer, a soldier, a passenger or a patient?

The truth is you are a father/mother because you have a son/daughter. You are a husband/wife because you have a wife/husband; a passenger because you are on a train. You are a soldier because you signed up to belong to the organization and you wear the uniform.

All your identities, everything you believe yourself to be, are all dependent on something else. So then, who are you?

By not knowing the answer to the question, “Who am I?” creates a strange sensation and a challenge that makes you keep on creating new identities of yourself, and consequently going farther away from your true self.

The mystery of life is imbedded in who you are as a human being, but because of not knowing your true identity, life remains a mystery to be uncovered. Until you come to terms with your identity and realize your true self, you will continue to search for what is already in you. St. Augustine once said, “Lord my hearts is restless until it rests in you.”

So, who are you? In reality, you are an eternal soul conceived in the mind of God from time immemorial as the scripture in prophet Jeremiah 1:5 purported: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Long before you were born, God conceived you in His mind. He thought of you first. It is not fate, nor chance, nor luck, nor coincidence that you are breathing at this very moment. You are not an accident. Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your existence is not by chance either; all is planned in the mind of God. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did.

Your soul has been hidden beneath a veil of ignorance, and due to this we have been unable to experience the true self. In other words, because of the ignorance of our individual identities we are unable to experience the true meaning of life and the true purpose of our existence.

You are able to uncover the mystery and essence of life only when you recourse to the source of your life itself, which is God. With the grace of the God of the universe, it is now possible to realize the true meaning of life. God is the spiritual master that enables you to understand your pure soul through which you experience your true identity and essence.

Our identity should be seen as an ongoing process. Rather than a static identity, we should embrace a flowing sense of self, whereby we are perpetually re-framing, re-organizing, re-thinking and re-considering ourselves (Schwartz, 2010).

How different would life be if rather than asking “Who am I?” we contemplate on how we would like to engage life? Life is a process that most of us continue to engage, examine and re-examine on a daily basis.

Socrates rightly said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” To examine life enables you to appropriate what is more important to you and to direct your energy towards it. As we continue to engage in the deepening complexity of understanding ourselves as human beings, we would fare much better to devote ourselves to the unfolding process of life. It makes perfect sense to seek a deeper sense of self.

To become intimately aware of your thoughts, feelings, hopes and fears is obviously commendable. It is said, “Those who look back and adjust to the present better their future.” This is possible only when we examine ourselves and become conscious of who we are in relation to the source of our being.

Citations: Schwartz, Mel 2010: Who Am I? | Psychology Today Canada