Recently Mooji has been advocating ‘I’ watching. It is always enjoyable to see these awakened teachers play with new ways to say what they have always been saying. Mooji suggests when we make verbal or thought-based declarations that include ‘I’, we appreciate who or what is being referred to, or what we are speaking or thinking as. This is another flavor to Self-inquiry.
Self-inquiry has been around for centuries. Ramana’s foundational teaching was focused on “Who am I?”, “Who thinks this?”, etc. This approach of Mooji’s and Ramana’s teachings bring Self-inquiry to our daily life.
Ananta encourages us to ask, “Am I aware?” We all can acknowledge we are aware, and from this recognition that we are aware, we are pointed to look at this ‘I’ that is aware. Can we find any place where ‘I’ is and awareness is not, or where awareness is and ‘I’ is not? Awareness is self-evident and self-assertive. To be gently aware of this natural self-evident existence (‘I’) or awareness again and again is self-inquiry.
Notice the sense that “I am here.” “I exist.” Who is aware of even this presence or this sense of existence? How far am I from this Awareness that is aware of sense of existence? Without Awareness does anything exist?
Awareness always is. Something that is coming and going cannot confirm the existence of That, which always is. Only That, which always is . . . can confirm the existence of That, which always is. This is what Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi] was pointing to when he pointed in Self-inquiry, “The ‘I’ removes the ‘I’ and yet remains the ‘I’. So, the false ‘I’ is removed, but the true ‘I’, which is Awareness, remains.”
No term can encapsulate all of what is being recognized in Self-inquiry. A variety of terms are used as pointers, including Awareness, Self, God, Truth, Grace, Absolute, I, Stillness, Nothing. Returning to a quote we have often referred to by Saint Francis of Assisi, “What you are looking for is what is looking.” We can label what we are looking for as Self, God, Truth, Grace, Absolute, I, Stillness, Nothing and the pointer remains True.
Years ago, Adyashanti spoke of a form of inquiry he had practiced. He would write everything he knew to be true about terms such as these until he could write nothing more he could intuitively and experientially confirm. In each case, he ended with “I am . . ..” In this case, ‘am’ is referring to the lack of distinguishing between I and Self, God, Truth, Grace, Absolute, etc.
Our mind wants to make a concept out of I, Self, God, etc. The mind wants to take ownership of Awareness so it can declare, “Yes, I see Awareness is aware and I see nothing happens to it.” In this manner, the mind tries to convert pure subject to an object that it can understand. The mind does the same with God, Truth, Grace, etc.
Ananta has shared this recognition as, “You cannot know Awareness as the mind; you cannot know it conceptually. To recognize it is the only way to Know It. I am aware . . . Awareness is the Knowing of Knowing Itself. The Knowing is Aware. Nothing else is aware. I am that Awareness.”
Another pointer to Mooji’s ‘I’ watching is to substitute Awareness, Self, God, Truth or Grace for I. This can awaken the intuitive insight to what has always been. A final quote from Ananta, “God is already running this life and experiencing this life. God is not waiting for your surrender to run your life; it is already so. It is only the false-presumption that is taken away in this surrender.”
The substitution of God for I in our thoughts is not blasphemous; it is recognition there never was a personal I. God and I have never been divided. The identification as the personal I is the delusion we wake from.
Reality does not have to be attained. Only ignorance needs to be removed. When the belief in the false belief of a personal I is dropped, what remains is the unchanging, that which is beyond name, form, or any limitations. Truth is beyond separation or union. Truth has no distance from I. It is not subject to time or space. It is beyond concepts. It is the only non-phenomenal experience. What Is always Is.
Self-inquiry points to recognition as Truth.
May Peace Be Yours, Steve and Bec