In this meditation I take the many things that I consider define me.  Some of them I will often assume are “biological givens,” like my gender, my species, my ethnicity.  Some I share with my society, like my culture, my era, and some I tend to consider as personal, like my likes and dislikes, my knowledge and views, my profession, my friends, etc.

I look at each of these and ask whether it really defines me.  Would I not exist if I were a different gender, a different sexual orientation, a different race, had different friends, different political views?  Some of these “definition” are easier to let go of and some are more strongly held onto.

I can also ask myself “am I sure I am X?”  I might think that my gender or race are a very sure factor, but there are many people who are very fluid with gender and with race, even if I am not, which suggests that the way I define even things like gender and race, are highly dependent on my definition and are not quite as “given” as we often assume they are.  And while I can say for certainty that I am a plumber, or an accountant, or a painter, in the sense that it is a profession I do, the real question is whether “I am a painter” or “painting is something that I do.”  In other words, there is always room for contemplating “no, I am not X, I am not defined by X.”

I allow myself to sit with no definitions, with all options equally available, without the wight of definitions, I can become all things…

I can only become all things if I am not identifying myself as “one thing.”