First, we
should investigate if we are the: body, mind, thoughts, emotions, feelings, past
life roles, or anything that we could perceive ourselves to
be.
We can’t be the perceived, we are that
which perceives.
Once we
understand that we can’t be any of these, we realize that we don’t know who we
are.
We
are not the person that we created for ourselves, and we should watch our person
and all the situations from a neutral
position.
There are two ways to get our attention
towards what we really are, suggested by Sri Ramana Maharaj, and by Nisargadatta
Maharaj.
Sri Ramana Maharshi advised asking the
question : “Who am I?”, for which there is no answer that could be expressed in
words.
This question will silence the mind, and
will turn it toward it’s source.
“You have to
ask yourself the question ‘Who am I?” This investigation will lead in the end to
the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind.”
Sri Ramana Maharshi
This question will end the questioner, the ego, the
mind.
It is not possible to find our true eternal, infinite Self,
and to look at it from the position of the mind, because we are always looking
from the position of our true Self.
“The one you are looking for is the One who is
looking.”
St. Francis of Assisi
Nisargadatta Maharaj advised to focus all our attention to the
feeling “I am”, the only fact that we know for sure.
“My Guru ordered me to
attend to the sense ‘I am’ and to give attention to nothing else.
I just obeyed. I did not
follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of
scriptures.
Whatever happened, I would
turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense ‘I am’.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj
The ultimate reality can’t be described in words, so all these
are just pointers :
“As you watch your mind, you discover your self as the
watcher. When you stand motionless, only watching , you discover your self as
the light behind the watcher. The source of light is dark, unknown it is the
source of knowledge. That source alone is. Go back to that source and abide
there.
Nisargadatta Maharaj, “I Am That”
