Read Be Nobody for Free Online Page B

Somebody!
    Crowd: Somebody!
    Rev. Jackson: I may be on welfare.
    Crowd: I may be on welfare.
    Rev. Jackson: But I am . . .
    Crowd: But I am . . .
    Rev. Jackson: Somebody!
    Crowd: Somebody!
    And on the chant went, reaching greater and greater pitches of enthusiasm:
    I may be small, but I am somebody!
    I may make a mistake, but I am somebody!
    My clothes are different, my face is different, my hair is different, but I am somebody!
    I am black, brown, white. I speak a different language.
    But I must be respected, protected, never rejected!
    I am God’s child!
    I am somebody!
    I AM SOMEBODY! 7
    And, of course, we all are indeed somebody, and we should all be a self-respecting somebody. Each of us has our own personality, shaped by our distinctive genetic makeup, personal history, life choices, and so on—what the Eastern traditions would regard as the fruition of our individual karma. Accepting the cards you’ve been dealt is the condition of possibility for playing them well in the game of life.
    We truly are, each and every one of us, special and unique like a snowflake, and we all should accept who we are with dignity and a certain sense of self-assurance and pride.
Y OU : Y OUR B EST F RIEND AND W ORST E NEMY
    The kind of healthy self-respect Mr. Rogers and Jesse Jackson encourage is unquestionably a positive thing. But feeling comfortable with one’s individuality is really just the starting point for more advanced forms of self-discovery. Like possessing enough food, proper shelter, and leisure time, having a strong positive sense about one’s distinctive individuality is a prerequisite for deeper spiritual pursuits.
    The spiritual quest begins, one might say, where many of the traditional therapeutic processes leave off. Mental health therapy in its myriad forms—from the rigors of psychoanalysis to the most user-friendly self-help book—has, at bottom, the same function. The fundamental purpose of the therapeutic approach is to make us feel better about ourselves —to make us feel that we’re all somebody special.
    And that’s great . . . as far as it goes.
    But the spiritual approach, as opposed to the merely therapeutic, should regard a strong, positive sense of one’s distinctive individual identity as the starting point, not the end result. “One should raiseup the self by oneself, and not degrade oneself,” as it says in the great Hindu classic, the Bhagavad Gita. But the text goes on to note, “For the self is its own best friend and its own worst enemy.” 8
    Building a good, healthy ego is a necessary step in the task of true self-realization, but it is not sufficient in and of itself. The affirmation of the lower, personalized, and individual self is not, according to the religious traditions, true self-knowledge. In the deeper search for one’s irreducible core, identifying with and clinging to the ego is in fact the obstacle. The best friend turns into the worst enemy.
    We must, as the saying goes, lose the self to find it. We must get beyond the ego—the “special somebody” self—if we are to discover our deeper, more genuine, and more universal identity. In such a quest, feeling special and unique repositions itself as the problem, not the solution.
    The journey to true self-knowledge is like climbing a ladder. One must start on the lower, foundational rungs. But to move higher, we must also be willing to ascend, leaving the lower rungs behind. Once we’ve established a proper sense of self-worth, individuality, and specialness, we are ready to take the next steps.
    We must, in a word, have a good, healthy ego in order to proceed with the ego-ectomy necessary to discover our real nature.
    â€œWhen there is no ‘I,’ there is liberation,” as it says in another ancient Sanskrit text of the Hindu tradition. “And when there is an ‘I,’ there is bondage.” 9 And this truth