Who and Why You Are: All You Need to Remember

By Roland Achenjang

In Who and Why You Are: All You Need to Remember, Roland Achenjang reveals timeless, universal truths you need to remember to appreciate why you act the way you do and why you perceive your Earth life experiences the way you do. By recognizi

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nti Nven
• Release date: Aug 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781733121828

Book preview

I dedicate this book to you, you brave soul. Your contributions to the current Earth life experience are responsible for creating this special moment — a moment in which you are reading this sentence; in which you are reading this book. And for that, I am eternally grateful (I know Consciousness is, too). Read it with joy as you remember more and more of who and why you truly are.

Epigram

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You are simple; you are complex. You are everything; you are nothing. But you are! And that you are, is enough! It’s more than enough.

Acknowledgements

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See book dedication smile.jpg

Preface

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It felt like my day at work lasted longer than it had on most other days. As soon as my shift ended, I left and began my walk home. The noise, commotion, and bustling activity of people rushing to work or to a doctor’s appointment early in the mornings had become background noise during my commute. Even noises produced by birds chirping had faded away and found a resting place in the backdrop of my conscious awareness. My perception of the noise produced by this morning’s activities was no different. I walked slowly with my head facing down and only looked up to ensure my safety before crossing road intersections. Looking down also provided me an illusionary escape from the sun’s rays as it began to make itself visible through the morning clouds. Eight minutes after I left work, I was home.

I tidied up by putting away my work items, took a warm shower, and sluggishly made my way to my bedroom, where I sat on the edge of my bed. Even with wide open eyes, I could barely see anything in my room or any part of my body. I had invested in very effective blackout curtains that were draped over my bedroom window. I loved how reliable they were at blocking out the light and heat produced by the sun. Blocking the sunlight was not my preference, and instead, a necessity since I worked the graveyard shifts at a very large hospital in midtown Nashville, Tennessee. I needed the darkness and colder room temperatures to help me sleep through the day.

It had been two years since I’d begun working the graveyard shift. Every other week, I felt jet lagged. I had come to a point where I was obliged to find a creative solution to adjust to the back-and-forth, week-in-and-week-out schedule, because it had become extremely harsh on my body. I felt tired, weary, and exhausted all the time and my cognition and overall mood deteriorated. At the same time, I had begun to grow frustrated with not finding answers to the universal truths and meanings of life—answers I had begun to search for when I was eight years old.

See, growing up in Cameroon, West Africa, I was raised in the Catholic faith. I never felt fully comfortable with some of its teachings and found others to be contradictory. Through the years, I developed the same feelings towards other religions I learned about. Their subtle practices of exclusion, or perpetuating the notion of only one way to finding salvation, never fully resonated with me. Besides my ever-growing skepticisms with religions, the unfairnesses I perceived in the world were difficult to accept. Suffering, diseases, violence, bullying, and death fascinated me, in a painful way. My limited understandings of these experiences, coupled with not finding the answers to the questions I began searching for when I was eight years old, and working the graveyard shift and dealing with its own challenges, resulted in my life becoming a grey experience. Funnily enough, since for over two years I seldom saw the sunlight, I began to welcome and appreciate the darkness.

I spent countless hours alone in the dark, thinking about my past experiences. Many colorful, fond memories would arise from deep within my subconscious, teasing me. Looking back, I appreciate how these memories were a beacon of hope for me. They reminded me that it was possible to experience Earth life from another perspective—one filled with color and excitement. The biggest challenge for me was figuring out a solution to realizing and maintaining these perspectives and feelings again. My attempts often led me back to the silence and solitude of my dark bedroom, which is where I found myself this morning.

After sitting on the edge of my bed, I let my hands rest on my thighs and thought a while about what I was getting ready to do. Honestly, I had looked forward to this moment and had thought much about it when I’d had some downtime at work earlier that night. This is why my shift that night felt longer than most others. This was additionally a special moment for me, and I need you to understand why. It had been a good while since I experienced a moment I anticipated with excitement.

Anyway, with my hands on my thighs and feet flat on the floor, I slowly closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, then exhaled. The exhale was slow and deep, and represented having nothing else to lose, and, therefore, deciding in that moment to embark on this new experience with everything I had to offer —with all of me. After exhaling, I began observing and listening to my breath, my heart rate, different parts of my body, and my thoughts.

In the hours and days leading up to this moment, the idea of listening to my being came to me as a potential solution for getting out of the grey world that had become my Earth life experience. Nothing else I had tried up to this moment had succeeded, so this was another attempt. And similar to how I questioned most things in life as far back as I can remember, I became curious about and interested in the thought (of listening to my body). I became eager to find out what would happen if I simply listened to my being. I wondered what I would learn or experience if I sat in silence and observed every part of me— my thoughts, autonomic nervous system, parts of my body, and body movements. I had never done anything like this before.

Interestingly, after mulling over the idea in the days leading to this moment, I began to feel sad for neglecting my body and mind for over twenty-eight years. This was particularly troubling because I have always had access to both. The sad feeling peaked on this morning when I sat on the edge of my bed and right after my exhale. I felt slightly comforted knowing that my actions were the beginning of the end of me ignoring myself.

So, for the first time in my life, sitting in my bedroom void of sunlight granted me by the blackout curtains hanging over my bedroom windows, exhausted but with enough energy to also be partly excited, with my eyes shut, hands on my thighs and feet flat on the floor, and with every part of my being, I meditated. As far as I can remember, I meditated for no more than five minutes before falling into deep sleep from physical exhaustion. Still, I had done it.

Nothing exciting or out of the ordinary happened to me during this first session. I wasn’t even sure that what I did was meditating. It was only after waking up that I laid in my bed and tried again. During the late afternoon session, I identified with the countless thoughts racing through my mind and noticed that I quickly switched from one thought to another. This went on for about ten minutes or so, before my responsibilities forced me to stop. I had to wake up and prepare for school and work.

I had no idea that the thought to bring awareness to my physical being and mind chatter, and the decision to act on it would turn out to be the beginning of the most beautiful adventure I have ever experienced. At the time of this writing, it has been a four-year adventure that, to this day, continues to provided me tremendous insight into who and why I am. I am gaining profound understandings about how my mind works, what my emotions are and where they come from, and why I behave the way I do. The icing on the cake is, I truly believe these understandings are universal. They are just as true for you as they are for me.

Further, my meditating practices continue to provide me with experiences I often find difficult to describe with words. I have come to accept they can only be experienced to be fully understood or appreciated by anyone else. Meditating continues to teach me the importance of being present in every moment in my life, regardless of what I am experiencing or how challenging I perceive the situation to be. Meditating helps me appreciate minute but significant changes taking place within and on the surface of my physical body.

As a pharmacist with a strong scientific background, I would have been skeptical if someone tried to introduce the notion of one being able to improve their overall health, well-being, and physicality by meditating. Today, I write from my personal experience that this is entirely possible, and much more. I continue to meditate every day, and the practice is still providing me access to an infinite amount of healing, knowledge, wisdom, and creativity.

Without a doubt, meditating, or the act of focusing my conscious awareness on my entire being, is the only practice I engage in that provides me answers to what I began searching for when I was eight years old. Meditating provides me answers to the universal truths about who and why we are, and the purpose and meaning of life on Earth. I am eternally grateful that I began remembering this information very early on the lovely morning of Tuesday August 21st, 2018. Nothing about my being, perceptions, and earthly experiences have been the same since.

What to Expect

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This book is based on my personal experiences, perceptions, and current awareness of who and why we all are. I believe these to be universal truths. In the book, I do my best to explain the truths, concepts, and understandings I introduce, believing they will grant you many opportunities to also remember them. The information can also provide you with valuable insight into how you can make your Earth life a more relaxed and joyful experience.

The book is set up in three parts. In the first part of the book, creatively titled Part I, I present information to help you remember and understand who you are. I have done my best to make this simple.

In the second part of the book, also creatively titled Part II, I present information to help you remember why you are. Part II constitutes the bulk of the book, because understanding why you are requires more explanations. I split the second part in to two sub-parts, parts II-A and II-B. In part II-A, I focus on why you are experiencing life on Earth and provide the universal truths that support my understanding. In part II-B, I focus on why experiencing life on Earth is beneficial for you after you transition from this current incarnation.

I want you to know that understanding the entirety of who and why you are is actually very simple, and I promise you will laugh out loud in the moment that you remember. I did.

In the last part of the book, Part III, I include my most effective and go-to methods or tools, and other valuable resources you can use anywhere and at any time to help you remember who and why you are. Not only are some of the tools and methods free, you also already have all the skills and abilities to do them. The most important takeaway from this section is that you use the tools and do the practices.

I would be sad if I did not take this moment to let you know there is no one right way to remember these universal truths, and what I share is limited to my experiences. Truth is, you will inevitably remember, whether in this lifetime or another, and most definitely after you die. Countless souls throughout mankind’s history on Earth have employed multiple means to remember these same universal truths. Instead of focusing your energy chasing the next fad, I implore you to be consistent with a practice that is unique to you, and that you find enjoyable.

There is a story in the Bible that discusses Master Jesus teaching his followers about the importance of consistency. In the story, Master Jesus explained that only few people would find life because the road that leads to it is narrow and the gate guarding it is small. In other words, consistency will provide you with your most significant opportunities for personal growth and for remembering these universal truths.

By the way, I call Jesus Christ Master Jesus because I believe he understood these same universal truths and his teachings were his attempts to explain them while he was incarnate on Earth. In effect, he was a teacher, and a great teacher he was. He was a master in his understandings, application, and ability to explain this knowledge. You know, there have been many such teachers incarnate on Earth over the years. Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha, was one such soul. So, because Jesus held a high degree of understanding of this information, I refer to him as Master Jesus.

Interpretations Are Your Own Only

I am confident you are aware of how personal beliefs and environmental influences cause people to experience miscommunications and misunderstandings. I am confident you can recount personal experiences in your life when your word choices and or beliefs led to embarrassing, comical, or even catastrophic interactions with others. If you have been so fortunate as to have never experienced this first-hand, you can examine what has resulted from different people’s readings and interpretations of the metaphoric verses in the Bible.

Now, please know that I am in no way comparing this book to the Bible. I have no intention of writing a metaphoric book about who and why we are. However, I do present this point to help you appreciate how interpretations of the written word might stray from the author's intentions. This is true, and this book will be subject to the same reality. It is inevitable that someone else reading this book will ascertain a different message from it than you or even me. This is perfectly fine, and I expect it to occur.

To remedy this problem and help you instead focus on the overarching message (and not the choice of words), I include scenarios, examples, or situations that describe the concepts I present. Some of them will be made-up stories, based on my personal experiences or mainstream information. Others will require you to assess how you will act or react if you found yourself in the hypothetical situations. This will require you to be creative, and I ask that you are always honest in your assessments and decisions on the behaviors you choose to act on. I know you are infinitely creative, and that makes me believe you will do great no matter the scenario or situation. You will also learn something about who you truly are and might even surprise yourself in the process!

Now that you are fully in the know about what to expect, I would like to take this opportunity to ask that you accept my sincere appreciation and gratitude that you’ve chosen to read this book. It means the world to me!

Read it with joy.

Enjoy!

Connection to Consciousness Assessment

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Everything you currently believe about who and why you are, and your current assessment of your personal life and the world at large, is directly related to your current level of awareness of your connection to Consciousness, or Oneness. What you currently believe, or your current perceptions of who and why you are, provides you altered understandings of the truths about who you truly are and why you truly are. These altered understandings are neither right nor wrong. Again, they merely reflect your current level of awareness of your connection to Consciousness.

As you read through this book, your understandings will change. They will change not solely because you read this book, but also because you continue to experience life on Earth. It is inevitable that this happens. In fact, this has been happening to you throughout your entire earthly existence, unfortunately, without your conscious awareness. As your understandings change, so will your awareness of your connection to Consciousness. Beginning today, I encourage you to track the changes by using the simple assessment tool I created below. Use the results from you first assessment as a benchmark for you going forward.

You may complete the assessment as many times as you like while reading this book. I recommend that after completing it (the assessment) today, you at a minimum, complete it again when you finish reading the book. You may also return to the assessment at any time in your life should you feel the need. There are no limits to how often you can take it.

To accurately assess your personal growth and reap the benefits of this assessment, it is worthwhile that you always answer the questions honestly. Do not worry; there is no right or wrong answer!

Self-Awareness Assessment

On a scale from one to ten, how content are you with who you are as a person, considering everything good/heavenly about you and everything bad/hellish about you, in this moment?

Is there anything about you that you do not like and want to change in this moment?

If you answered YES to the question above, do you believe you cannot change the thing beginning from this moment?

World-Awareness Assessment

On a scale from one to ten, how content are you with the current state of the world, considering everything good/heavenly about it and everything bad/hellish about it, in this moment?

Is there anything about the world that you do not like and want to change in this moment?

If you answered YES to the question above, do you believe you cannot change the thing beginning from this moment?

Part I:

Who You Are

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1

You Are Consciousness

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Although you appear in Earthly form, your essence is pure Consciousness. —Rumi

Consciousness is not only alive, but it is also the most basic and fundamental essence of every single thing that exists. Also, Consciousness as it is in its current form is always perfect! This is true, and since it is true, every single thing that exists throughout the cosmos, as it does in its current form, is a unique form of Consciousness and is always perfect!