For a brief time (80 or 90 years), I am like an actor playing the role of myself in a movie called “My Life”. As Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage. And all the men and women merely players.”And this is very true. What I think of as myself is just a role, nothing more. For a good section of this movie, I believed this role was real. I believed I was this constantly changing role. And this delusion of course leads to suffering, as everything that is untrue must inevitably.
But now I am free. I still play this role but with full awareness that it is only this. Child, adolescent, greaser, rebel, bad boy, hippie, rock and roller, father, husband, lover, friend, artist, photographer, film director, spiritual teacher, victim and hero. These are all the roles played in this movie, on this stage. There will probably be several more before this movie ends.
What freedom to no longer believe this is more than a role. What joy to play and act and be completely intimate with all aspects of this role in each moment, to think all the thoughts, to feel all the feelings, fully and completely, almost as if they were real but knowing that they are not. It is just a role, like all the other roles.
And what is this actor playing all these roles? Ahh, that is beyond all roles. That is this ultimate freedom. That is the purpose of all roles. And yet it is far too intimate to be described. It is simply what I am beyond any role.
What a great blessing to be here to see all of this, to be all of this.
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