Being No One
Stephan Bodian
When you wake in the morning, you may
notice a brief period when you’re between sleep and waking, when
you’ve left the dreams of the night but haven’t yet entered into
the identities and plans of the day. The gap may be extremely
small, but if you pay attention you can catch it and prolong
it.
This gap has an unknown quality, perhaps a
sense of openness and nakedness; it’s a kind of liminal zone where
you still don’t know exactly who or what you are. You may feel
afraid of this openness and tend to rush back into the known, to
check your smartphone or open your computer to remind yourself who
you are. Instead, just lie still and be open to the
unknown.
Resist
the temptation to be someone once again. Allow yourself to be no
one; allow your mind to be empty of thought, unfurnished, until the
identities gradually filter back in. Notice the space between your
identities and the awareness of them. Notice if a similar gap
appears at other times during the day, an empty space that you may
have ignored before but can now lean into and prolong. Continue to
open to the openness.