When most of us are confronted with the question of who we are, we respond with such things as “I am a student, writer, brother, mother, sister, etc.” We expand this tendency to states of consciousness, “I am sad, I am happy, I am excited, etc.” We even apply it to negativity, “I am sick, I am depressed”. Some will even completely own that sickness or that depression fully, by which I mean it becomes a primary source of their identity. They no longer consciously identify themselves as someone separate from the state that is happening in their body (sickness), minds (anxiety), or roles (student). We say we indeed ARE these things. These states and roles that are transitory and ephemeral. Our identity is attached to these states rather than these states being attached to our identity. Our identity is tied to things and circumstances that are transient, lying in the namarupa, the realm of name and form— anything with form or thought. We tend to completely forget that there is something under these states. Something that is experiencing these experiences. Something which is boundless and not contained by labels. And it is this lie of identity that causes us to suffer. We are not depressed. Rather, there is depression in our mindstream at this time. We are not a student. Rather at this time, we are playing the role of a student. Of course, we don’t have to change our languaging about them in our everyday conversations and make it more awkward, but I do invite us to cease in identifying with these ephemeral states. Instead, place identification on the eternal, still, presence — that which you truly are. Then, happiness will unfold and you will begin to experience this realm much more deeply, fully, and powerfully.