In the last episode, we talked about the Addiction to Speed. We talked about stopping the momentum—stepping off the Jet Stream.
But the moment you step off the treadmill, you are faced with a new, much quieter terror. It is the terror of the mirror.
When the noise stops, and the doing stops, a question rises up from the silence: If I am not my utility, then who am I?
We spend the first half of our lives building a Scaffold of identity. We collect titles like armor. I am a Coach. I am an Author. I am a Founder. I am a Parent. I am a whatever, fill in the blank.
We wear these roles so tightly that they fuse to our skin. We forget they are costumes. We begin to believe they are Us.
But they are not us. They are just the things we do.
The Fusion of Role and Soul
The danger of living on the Scaffold is that we confuse our Function with our Essence.
If I believe “I am a Coach,” then what happens when I stop coaching? Do I cease to exist? If I believe “I am a Success,” then what happens when I fail? Do I evaporate?
This fusion makes us incredibly fragile. It makes us terrified of change, because every change feels like a death.
To find the solid Ground, we need a tool to separate the truth from the costume. We need a way to peel back the mask.
The Ancient Blade: Neti, Neti
There is an ancient Sanskrit practice designed exactly for this threshold. It is called Neti, Neti.
Translated, it means: “Not this, not this.”
It is a process of subtraction. It is a surgical inquiry based on one fundamental truth: The Observer cannot be the Observed.
If I can see my hand, I am not my hand. I am the one seeing it. If I can hear my thoughts, I am not my thoughts. I am the one listening to them.
The Practice
Let’s try this together. Let’s use the blade of Neti Neti to cut the ties between who you are and what you do.
Bring to mind a role you play. Perhaps, like me, you say: “I am a Coach.” But wait. You can observe yourself coaching. You can retire from coaching. Therefore, that is a function. It is not you. Neti, Neti. (Not this, not this).
Perhaps you say: “I am a Writer.” But you existed before the book was written, and you will exist after the pages fade. Neti, Neti. (Not this, not this).
Go deeper. “I am this body.” But you can observe your body changing. You can watch it age. You are the witness of the aging, not the aging itself. Neti, Neti.
“I am my thoughts.” This is the trickiest one. But close your eyes. Watch the next thought arise... and watch it disappear. If you saw it come and go, you are not the thought. Imagine the sky in which the thought floated. Neti, Neti.
But here is the final, most terrifying turn of the blade.
We become proud of our Witness. We build a new, subtle Scaffold—the identity of ‘The Observer.’ We hold this position tightly, believing: ‘I am the one who watches.’
But if you can observe yourself observing... if you can feel the slightest tension in the brow of the one who is trying to stay focused on the breath... then even that, too, is a product. Even the Witness is a costume.
In the ancient science of the mind, the true liberation is the moment the Observer collapses into the Observed.
So, we apply the final subtraction: I am not the one who watches the breath. Neti. Neti.
When the Witness dissolves, the two becomes one. The duality collapses. The localized filter shatters. And what remains is not a thing to be named, but the silent, infinite container of The Ground itself.
The Dive Into Infinity
This practice feels like a dive into the deep end.
When you remove the list of things you are not, you are left with only the Container. The Container is always more vast than the Content.
If your awareness can hold the concept of infinity... then your awareness must be capacious enough to contain infinity.
And what is the only thing that can possibly hold all of infinity? The Universe itself.
It follows, then, that if you are the witness of the world, you are not separate from it. You are it. You are the space in which it is happening.
And if you are that Space... and I am that Space... then beneath the different masks we wear, and the different scaffolds we climb, we are One.
The Invitation
When you have said “Not this” to everything that can be named, what remains is the Originless. It is the Silent Witness. It is the Ground we have been looking for.
This week, I invite you to play with this blade. When you feel stress about your job, whisper: Neti, Neti. This is my role, not my soul. When you feel separate or alone, remember: You are the space that holds it all.
We are not the mask. We are the Universe looking through the eyeholes.
