Wednesday, May 13, 2009
I Am not I (poem by Juan Ramon Jimenez)
(Above Portrait of Juan Ramón Jiménez, by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida. Found on Wikipedia.)
I am not I
I am not I. I am this one
Walking beside me whom I do not see,
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And whom at other times I forget;
The one who remains silent when I talk,
The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
The one who takes a walk where I am not,
The one who will remain standing when I die.
(In this poem, the Spanish poet Jimenez (1881-l958) is describing the relation of the "little self" (ego/identity) to the "larger Self" (higher Self, spirit, soul--that part that is central to our being, but that we are in touch with only from time to time.) This higher part of our essential nature is immortal, and will continue to exist even after the body and local identity perish.)
The saints and highly realized beings are those who are in effect one with (merged with) this inner self, and the rest of us get only occasional glimpses of this transcendent reality.
