Who are we?
To know love is to know our self
To know fear is to know what we are not
Our trust, strength and direction should be placed in who we are
No more than awareness should be placed in who we are not.
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Messages to Myself 
Keep exploring what it takes to be the opposite of who you are. -Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Is that in context to who we are being or who we actually are beneath the surface?
Or is it a means to empathy and understanding those who are different than us?
The context of things can go so many ways with these aphorisms!
That was delivered by my favorite authoring quoting Mihaly. Ron Brezsny’s direct statement is:
[“Keep exploring what it takes to be the opposite of who you are,” suggests psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of the book Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. This advice is one of his ideas about how to get into attunement with the Tao, also known as being in the zone.
How would you go about being the opposite of who you are? Try it and see if it drives you into a state of euphoria. ]
For me, I look at my choices, my thoughts, my actions. As there is no opposite to our spirit, no opposite to source. I bring awareness to how each moment defines and labels me in ego. An actually I have heard of a sect of tantric yogis that shake up their energies by conciously eating meat, using substances or having sex.
In these terms of “who am I?”, there are absolute opposites. I am: love, centeredness, passion, mindful, purposeful, and alive.
I choose to explore who I am and follow that path deeper; for if the process of becoming were intended to be reversed we would be born wise and die young. We do not experience the pain of humility only to learn how to feed our ego more effectively; it is the opposite. Our ego is the most primitive aspect of our psycho. I do not aim to offend tantric yogis here, I simply share my own insight to inspire debate.
If life’s purpose was a quest of becoming who were are not, would it not be a hopeful scenario that we should be born evil? I am compassionate, for example. I am careful while driving. Would you encourage me to keep exploring whatever it takes then, to become who I am not?
I suppose this also depends on how we identify “who” we are… Are we simply the sum of our motivating forces (as suggested in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) or are we a soul, a frequency, an energy in motion?
Wonderful points! So well put together. How else do we learn but question.
As for the tantric yogis, it is a deliberate act of energy changing. I have done that once. Done one act so completely opposite of me. One small act. It has changed my life.
But as a daily practice, as I’ve said, source has no opposite, so if you are questioning your divine , what can be your answer? It transcends right and wrong; good and bad. The point of looking into who we are is to grow. Source needs no growing, only expanding. I question my ego responses, my human self. Even the “good” I do. Not to do the opposite of good but to do it in an opposite way. When you get into minutia, opposites are infinite.
In response to “Who are we?,” I would simply like to acknowledge the power in how your blog categories are arranged. They are all one category. They are all “energy”. Everything is energy, and that makes the most sense of anything I’ve considered within the last seventy-eight days. Or so. 😉