Be Nobody by Lama Marut Read Free Book Online Page B

savior appears at the window and implores the assembled masses to stop being sheep and to think for themselves. Brian shouts to them, “You’re all individuals,” and the crowd, en masse, answers, “We’re all individuals.”
    But then one lonely little voice at the back says, “I’m not.”
    And he’s the one who got it right. It is truly an act of independence and freedom to recognize that we’re all alike and that nobody is really more somebody than anyone else. The one who realizes he’s no more special than others is the truly special one.
W E’RE A LL IN THE S AME B OAT : T HE G REAT E QUALITY
    The emphasis on being special—embracing our uniqueness and individuality as if true self-fulfillment were to be found in being somebody or, even worse, being more of a somebody than others—can blind us to the essential ways that we are fundamentally alike, and can serve to divide rather than bring us together in our shared humanity.
    Clinging to the particular and the individual precludes opening ourselves up to the general and universal. It is only by laying down the burden of individuality that we can begin to embrace our larger Self, the true core of our being that we share with all others. It is getting in touch with this universal part of ourselves that brings us joy, in large part because it relieves us of the strain of having to be somebody in particular by plugging us into what we have in common with others.
    As opposed to the modern, secular emphasis on individuality (which can so easily turn into narcissistic self-absorption and prideful superciliousness), the world’s spiritual traditions emphasize ourcommonalities and kinship. Rather than focusing on what sets us apart, the spiritual traditions highlight what binds us together.
    We can begin to receive intimations of a deeper sense of who we are—an identity that transcends the anxiety of being somebody—by recognizing that underlying our superficial differences is a great equality that links us with all others.
    The Dalai Lama likes to emphasize that although we are indeed unique individuals, there are two basic desires we all share as living beings:
    In our quest for happiness and the avoidance of suffering, we are all fundamentally the same, and therefore equal. . . . Despite all our individual characteristics, no matter what education we may have or what social rank we may have inherited, and irrespective of what we may have achieved in our lives, we all seek to find happiness and to avoid suffering during this short life of ours. 18
    Put simply, we all want to be happy and avoid pain, and we are all exactly alike in that we have these two fundamental wishes. And this, by the way, we share with all sentient life. It matters not if you’re a squirrel or a CEO, an insect or the president of the United States. Every living being just wants to attain happiness and evade suffering.
    But we are also equal in that we are not very savvy about how to obtain these goals. While we all want to avoid it, suffering is endemic to life. And while we all desire true happiness, few of us are very good at actually achieving it.
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    All religions are premised on the recognition that, in the absence of spiritual training, life will just repeatedly kick our helpless asses.Acknowledging this fact of life is the sine qua non for getting serious about finding an alternative to perpetual victimhood.
    If life just flowed merrily on for us, there would be no need for self-cultivation. We could just relax and enjoy ourselves, like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. But, as the myth in Genesis tells us, we are not in a paradisiacal garden anymore (in case you hadn’t noticed). We’re in a deep, dark, dangerous forest and need guidance to find our way out.
    This acknowledgment of our collective predicament was emphatically encapsulated in the first words that came out of