“Just BE who you are… Express yourself….Be all you can BE.”

Those catchy phrases, are very superficial… but good sellers… They are easy to understand or misunderstand. Either way, they sell because they are not deep. Believe in them or not, they are like palliative medicine.

BEING is not possible until the layers of conditioning are realized, observed, when we become aware of them.

Notice that I am not stating: “ Work on that conditioning, get rid of it, conquer it, reject it, dissolve it.”

If I say that, then that is material for a “best seller.”
Why?
It is unreal. For those who are not aware, to reject something, to DO something in order to “solve the problem” is the “solution.”

Peter likes to drink beer.
Peter may think that “He is BEING himself” if he overdrinks, for that is “natural” for him at that moment. Peter has heard that he “needs to be natural” and he likes that “concept.”

Peter gets drunk and after a few times of this, he becomes addicted.
What is the solution?
Stop drinking. Don’t allow yourself to be close to a bar. Consider the urge to be a temptation of the Devil.
Fight against your desire. Don’t allow the “bad guy” to win.
Those solutions are considered to be “good,” “moral” in our society. Peter may be sober now, nevertheless; the cause behind his addiction hasn’t been discovered.

Superficially speaking, we may say that “Peter is an alcoholic.” Peter may believe that “alcohol is bad,” but looking deeply, we may find a psychological trauma, which could be forgotten through over-drinking.

With greater depth, we may discover that trauma as a conditioning of the mind. Many “horrible” things could have happened to Peter, but he is unable to let those things go. Peter is stuck in the past and unable to move forward despite Life changes.

That trauma will define Peter’s ego.

Intellectually we may understand what is going on and we could offer the “solution” to Peter, but things do not work in that way in Life.

It does not matter how much third party information someone may have to resolve his inner issues. It does not matter if that person changes his thoughts. It does not matter if that person changes his behavior to pretend “improvement.” Any so called “change” coming from ego, is an escape from  the opportunity to be completely aware of “what is.”

He is still the same addictive personality in repressed mode.

BEING is not changed by reading, listening or doing things. There is nothing the ego, the “I” can DO to change BEING.
“Why?”
Because the ego is not real, although paradoxically is very real for most of us. It is an illusion that we have taken for granted. We have created a society and belief systems based on that illusion. When we AWAKEN that illusion dissolves.
BEING changes all the time “naturally” for we are one with Life; so the “intelligent” question may be: “Why that traumatic experience isn’t changing now?”
Because there is a grudge, a mental wall unable to move.
The solidity of Peter’s ego depends on that trauma to thrive.

For such person, to “Be himself” is to bring a past trauma into the present.

“What can I do?”
Nothing. BE AWARE of it. Let it go through you without trying to stop it or to change it into something “good.”
Let go of that conditioning.
Merely become completely aware of it, like a “detached observer, “ let a distance between what is going on and the observer, without that distance there is no AWARENESS. Let the sensation move through you.

“It sounds good, but I do not understand… Are you saying that to be lazy, to do nothing about it, is what is needed?”

No. Please stop interpreting. Just look at yourself through the examples.

Carlos eats fast. Carlos overeats because he is eating fast all the time.
Superficially, we may say: “ Learn to eat slowly.” “Take one spoon, count until 10 and then take another.” “Take this pill to slow your anxiety.” “Eat less, so if you become hungry, it is your fault for eating fast and you will deserve your punishment.”

However, if Carlos was AWARE of his eating, of his anxiety, of how tense his stomach is while eating, on how his mind takes him away from the “now” to a dream world here or in the afterlife…there is no way he could eat fast or slow. Carlos needs to eat alone for this realization to occur, that is how the conditioning is realized and BEING comes back without DOING anything.
Leave Carlos alone, by himself in his own solitude so there is no escape from himself.
That is a “natural” remedy.

Nevertheless, Carlos may dread to be alone, to be left all by himself… He may want “methods” to deal with his issue while having the “support” of others… He may want to take a pill, to get treatment, to follow some code of conduct, etc.
All of that is palliative medicine, but if Carlos is not ready for observation of his own conditioning; those things will be his tools to deal with his issue.

His time for self-realization hasn’t arrived yet.