What Are You Without the Body

[Near silence] [One slow breath] You believe... When your body dies... You continue. So... You already believe... You are not the body. [Pause] Think about that. If the body can be left behind... And you remain... Then which one... Was ever you? [Long pause] You look at your hand. You say... My hand. Not... Me. My body. My face. My heart. My brain. We speak as though... We already know. There is the possessor... And there is... The possessed. So who... Is saying... My body? [Music slowly widens] Scripture says... "The body without the spirit is dead." Then which one... Was producing Life? The body? Or the Spirit? And if God... Is Spirit... And Spirit... Cannot be seen... What exactly... Have you been looking at... In the mirror? [Long pause] The vessel? Or... You? Close your eyes. Your reflection disappears. Your face disappears. The image you have called... Me... Is gone. Yet... You are still here. [Pause] What... Is still here? Don't name it. Don't picture it. Just notice. [Very long pause] Your body has changed... Since childhood. Your face has changed. Your thoughts have changed. Your beliefs have changed. Even the story... You tell about yourself... Has changed. Yet through every version... Something has quietly said... I AM. [Music becomes warmer and more spacious] Was the child... A different I AM? Will the elderly body... Contain another I AM? And when the body... Can no longer speak those words... Does I AM disappear... With the voice? Or was the voice... Only something... I AM... Was using? [Long silence] Perhaps... The hardest thing to see... Is the thing... We have been looking through. So for just a moment... Forget your name. Forget your face. Forget your age. Forget everything... The mirror has ever told you. And ask... Without answering... What am I... Without the body? [Music almost disappears] Don't search... For an image. Don't search... For a word. Just... Notice... What remains. [Two minutes of slowly dissolving ambient music] [End in silence]