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Do you know who you really are? Have you ever had an identity shift take place in a crisis? If so, then you have an insight into the Tao saying that a crisis is an opportunity. And the opportunity is getting to know yourself a little better.

I remember years ago rafting down some white-water rapids and being thrown from the raft. There was no chance to get out of the water. There was no chance to be pulled back into the raft. All I could do was go with the flow. I didn’t have a chance to complain, or be afraid. I remember the swift current carrying me across boulder after boulder. I used my hands and feet to guide myself around and over the boulders that were in my path.

It sounds very challenging but the experience of it was one of effortlessness. I was forced into the present moment. I was using every sense perception I had to navigate safely through the rapids. I met my friends when it was all over-safe in calm waters. Their experience from inside their rafts was very different from mine without a raft.

There was nothing I could do in that situation except be aware. Resistance was impossible. The current had me. All I could do was try to establish harmony with it and not smash my head into a rock. To resist what was happening would have resulted in a smashed skull.

That is a perfect metaphor for life and what happens to us. We cannot resist it. To be in harmony with it requires non-resistance. It is only in this non-resistant approach to life that we can ever find peace.

Who was I when I was cascading down those rapids? The content that made up my identity did not matter at that time. The only thing that mattered was to be one with the river. I had to go with the flow.

In moments like those, the past and the future are totally useless. Nothing matters but intense awareness of the present moment.

Who are you? Not your name. Not your career. Not your successes. Not your failures. Not your degrees. Not your financial status.

That is all information about you-but it is not you. That’s like confusing your television with a television show that happens to be on. The show is nothing but content. It’s going to be over soon. Then you can watch another show. And then another. The shows are never the television. And you are not a show either. You are much more than content. You are that which makes content possible.

All of the millions of lifetimes we go through in the process of reincarnation are nothing but attempts to answer the question, “Who am I?”

If you are born in America this lifetime but China in your next lifetime, will you be any different? You might look different and you might act different, but you are the same consciousness-still endeavoring to discover who you are. A drop in the ocean off the coast of California is in essence no different that a drop off the coast of China. Both drops are part of the same ocean.

When we identify ourselves with form and content we limit ourselves and cause ourselves suffering. We are identifying with the transitory, something that we have to sooner or later relinquish. We are more than anything we can conceive of with the mind. We are that which creates form, which creates content. We are consciousness. But when we get tangled up with the crises of form we lose sight of that.

That’s why poise and acceptance of the present moment is so important. That is the key to transcending form. That was the self-professed secret of Krishnamurti-”I don’t mind what happens.”

That is what Buddha was pointing to-the end of suffering. Attachment brings suffering. The end of attachment brings the end of suffering.

Today Maggie had a noon lunch appointment. She goes out and the car doesn’t start. First time that has ever happened. No problem. We roll the car out of the driveway. Then I go and start the other car. It doesn’t start either. What are the odds of that happening? Two good cars not starting on the same morning? What could we do but accept it? And try the ignition one more time. Finally, I got the first one going.

Why is life so hard? It’s hard so that we can find out who we are. In drama, character is revealed by conflict. As Einstein said, “nothing happens until something moves.” But to reveal character, something not only has to move but move in the wrong direction. “Life’s a bitch, then we die.” But let’s hope we find out a little bit about ourselves before then.

The only real and lasting happiness comes from a connection to the eternal now-connecting to that source of being-consciousness. This is a state of happiness that never has to be relinquished. Life has taught this to me more than once.

When you find yourself being buffeted over boulders by the river of life, enjoy it. Forget about tomorrow. Forget about yesterday. Just enjoy the ride. Maybe you can get through it without cracking your skull. And when it’s over you’ll have a glimpse of who you really are.