Why I Am Not Authentic Anymore!

Tom Wright

In a conversation with a woman the other day, she told me that she was "authentic" when in my opinion, she was anything but. Oh, oh! What mirror was I looking into! Wow! Was that an eye opener. The third eye, for certain. That's when I realized that people (and yes, I am a 'people') often hide behind the term "authenticity" and even more importantly, I realized that horrors of horrors, that I was doing that myself!

Hide behind a term? How so? For starters, the thing about humans and their propensity, no, their literal obsession to categorize, chart, and then after doing so, proclaim the "truth" about anything, is that once done, it's done. Truth is, truths, at least our human ones, tend to limit our abilities to perceive the Truth! Because once we intellectually decide we "know" the truth about what something is, what happens is, that we know what that something is, therefore, we are certain of what it isn't. Once certain, there you go. We have that "thing" in a box, all tied up and categorized to perfection, so much so that we can't let it out of our insanely hierarchical indoctrination system of thought. And it's our system of thought that determines how we think, feel, and act in relationship to ourselves, and to others. Change that system, therefore, and then you change the world. We do this hierarchical categorization thinking with ourselves, and certainly with other people, all the time, and therein lay our dilemma. A dilemma, because this entirely learned process limits our options, and it's options that provide us with freedom. What is freedom? It's the freedom to be, do, or have, whatever we desire in our lives, bar . . .nothing.

What? Bar nothing? But I don't have this and I don't have that, and I can't do this, and I can't do that, and gosh, well, I've tried and tried, and it still isn't here and. . .whoa, just wait a minute there, Nellie! What authentic guru told you that? Oh, you told yourself. And it must be true, because, after all, you're authentic, aren't you? Therefore you must know what you're talking about, then, right? Right? Well then, by all means trust the mind that also once told you that the Earth was flat, why don't you? Yes, that was your mind, because it was certainly a human one, and it's the one you have inherited. And it's the one that we have all inherited through our extensive indoctrination system of categorized hierarchy that has been thoroughly trained into us through our compulsory "education" system, the news, religions, science, and our parents, peers, and presumptions, myself included. And that's the point. We have inherited a system of thought that presumes that because we have "thought of it" it simply must be true. Including the thought of our "authenticity."

Think about that for a minute. What is our authenticity, anyway? How do you even feel when you say that? Better than others, perhaps, who are not quite as "authentic" as you are? Wow, if that doesn't tell you something, than nothing will. When that woman told me that she was authentic, I felt that she was saying that I was not, and in my own ego world I was offended. How dare she say that to someone who was as authentic as I am! Why, the nerve of her! How inauthentic!
Thank God, she did say that. Because that's when I realized that when I say that about myself to others, what I had been doing was comparing myself to them, or really, anyone else, and then coming up with the statement that I was "authentic" compared to them. How could it be anything else? Someone had to be less authentic, if someone is authentic in the first place, because in our highly hierarchical organizational categorization scheme, that's just how things work. No, I don't mean, "this is a leaf, and this isn't a leaf" in the same way as we say, "I am a human, and that is not a human" but rather, in the way of saying anything about our humanity. For instance, rather than saying I am a human, saying "I am a good person." That would be the authentic me, telling everyone how good I am, because I just know there are "bad" people out there, and I am certainly better than them.

Better than them? When each one of us was born into a world where we don't know where we came from really, we don't know why we are here really, and we don't know where we are going really, with only one life each, and then at the end of this most remarkable and astounding journey, one death, how on earth can any one of us ever think that we are in any way whatsoever, better than anyone else, or anything else for that matter? And yes, not better than even ants, because for their lives, they are in the same exact boat that we are. What? You think that they know why they're here? Maybe they do, and wouldn't that be a kicker! Yes, of course we can give ourselves permission to categorize them as being less than us because of yet another authentic type word, "self-aware" but in truth, would a truly "self-aware" being, do that? Wow, again!

With the overall point here being that we use terms like "authentic" as barriers to our intimacy in relationship with others, because by doing so, by simply uttering the words "I am authentic" we are putting up a hierarchical type categorization shield between us and other people, that says that I am something to some degree, that you are not, and therefore, I must be better than you. Given that this is the case, this is why I'm never going to tell people, or even think, anymore, that I am "authentic." We are all one in the greatest truth of all that says that we are all parts of Source seeking to regain our Godness through our humanity by connecting with each other in so many ways that living as modern humans in modern society seeks to disallow. To disallow through the use of its huge impetus, no, ingrained obsessive lust, to box us all up into the smallest spaces possible through this insane categorization and organizational hierarchy system of thinking. One that is entirely made up through the use of so many inane terms such as "authenticity" so that we can all be dominated and controlled into believing that we are limited beings, when in truth, we are anything but. Not, me, and not you. And that's as authentic a thought as I can leave you with. Let that thought be so from now on, not me!

Tom Wright is the author of the book One which provides you with the one agreement we all have with ourselves, the breaking of which has caused more pain and suffering than any other action we have ever taken up. Now you can find out what our one agreement is, so that you can live the life you have always wanted to live, without pain, and without suffering. One can be found at www.onepennymillionaire.com.