For me, a slight modification of the "Who am I?" question helped immensely. I added the phrase "before thought". So I do self inquiry by asking "Who am I before thought?". This little modification seems to help remind me to not answer the question with another thought.
Caught your latest installment on ZDoggMd on this very topic and it was very insightful. Self inquiry is really a means to get ruthlessly honest about looking directly at how it is that you take yourself to be this person, as most do. What is it that makes you feel you are this being, this character, person. Authenticity is the key. "What am I taking reference from?" What am I, without referencing a thought? It's so difficult to talk about, using language but I understand what you mean 😁 Stay there, you're already there, you're there, without a doubt that says you need to get there 😂 don't move...
Sometimes you have to open the window to let in the fresh air. Thanks so much for your commitment. 🙏 I’m so great full for the changes that are accelerating.
HERE is pure knowing and same time no knowing ,directly......no knowing about.....thoughts say "want to be always here" thoughts also are here directly👁
Spot on! Challenge is to be in same state for ex, "I don't know" Or " neutral" for ever...:(. When you say - stay here, it's profound. Keep working on my myself for quite long time to "stay here" . Thanks a lot.
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake also, one more q, sorry to ask this, all times, when I try to stay here, I kinda get a feeling that I'm losing something or others are getting ahead of me ...I'm aware this is mind trick..how to overcome this quickly?? Thanks a lot
@@AthishWaran1983 immediately notice “oh this is a doubt thoight! Ok so when I let that go.” Then ask “but who or what is aware of that thought? Who noticed it?” Then look there
I looked in the mirror today and my stomach dropped immediately like I was in shock. Then the next moment I realized that that literal self image I saw wasn’t identified at all. Almost like I didn’t recognize myself, not in a depersonalized way. Just clear. Like nobody looking at nobody. This stuff can be a little scary sometimes, and facing the shadow with no resistance. Just part of the process it seems. Thanks for being so clear and helpful ❤️💯
Thing about asking "Who am I?" is, even without thoughts I feel identified with the body. It feels absolutely self-evident that I'm a bunch of physical feelings in the body. Not thoughts, emotions, sights, sounds, only specific physical feelings in the head and torso. Very strange. I've been trying to relax into just being aware after asking the question, but even then there is no sense of "I am," just direct perception of experience within which only the aforementioned sensations feel like "me."
This is great. Thank you for posting as much content as you do. Also want to say thank you for the free app - Ive had it a few months now and been working my way though them. Was at 47 - Nothing Moves at All today where you talk about inviting thoughts and following them to their source along with the other sense perceptions. I found it very helpful and ties in with what you're pointing to here. Cheers!
There are a lot of questions that we can ask ourselves using the inquiry approach, many of which can trigger awakening or get it started. Here are some: Who am I? WHAT am I? WHERE am I? WHEN am I? Where is the universe located? What was there before the universe was created? What is beyond the edge of the universe? What is the uncaused first cause, the one without a second, the prime mover? How did existence come into existence? Did existence spring from nonexistence, or instead, is the uncaused first cause eternal and infinite, without a beginning? Why is there something instead of nothing? If a machine could instantly make an identical clone of you, is that also you? Where in your body is your identity located? Can a thing exist physically without the non-thing also existing? If your body had no boundary, no non-body, would your body exist? What is a person? How do you know you’re a person?
I don't think they are all great :) I will answer based upon my experience and knowledge, and anyone can correct me if I am wrong if course: 1. I'd say you are awareness, conscience, and a power of intent. Awareness reads the sense/dream faculties, conscience filters, and the power of intent optionally writes back to the mind/muscles. The medium of bidirectional communication is consciousness. 2. See #1. 3. Here, now, bound to the field of consciousness. 4. See #3. 5. Here. 6. There was no before. A universe is a manifestation in any area of emptiness. Emptiness and matter are a duality. 7. More universes. 8. Emptiness. 9. Emptiness is stressful, which causes vibrations that are the building blocks of matter. 10. No beginning. 11. See #9. 12. No, the field of consciousness must capture a spirit to mediate I/O. So it cannot be you. 13. You are the spirit bound to a field of consciousness, a radiant field of sensory input. 14. The amount of matter and anti-matter is equal. 15. Bad question. 16. Person = flesh + spirit. 17. You are bound to it.
Well any of them can be great IF one resonates with the question, takes it up authentically and truly goes where it points. Conceptual answers aren’t the point of self inquiry at all.
If you have questions about the micro/macro universe, see Brilliant Light Power. The whole universe has been figured out from top to bottom using classical physics. There's really no mysteries left in the understanding of the material universe.
For me the questions are like tools that we need to get a job done. It's important they are well crafted and fit for use but ultimately you put 'em down when you're finished .
When you say that “the source of questioning… is you” (at 7:17), does that mean that the true Self can question? I thought all it could do was observe. Isn’t questioning a type of thought or action?
"There is no doubt HERE is just two places I think." This is important distinction. The more you get used to and give yourself permission to rest in the HERE the more peace that will be cultivated and the more identity will dissolve out of belief structures :)
When I ask “who am I?”, I wonder if it should be about the “I - awareness” or the “I - mind”? I know the mind is inside, or part of the awareness, but I feel that I can direct the question to either of them…
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake so .. the practice is? Practicing no sense of I? Practicing presence? Practicing the investigation 'who am I?' If I do XXXXX, for YYYYY days, I will attain the ultimate. Fill in the X and Y words.
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake I am zero dimensional, I am reading consciousness, a radiated field of sensory input, I filter with conscience, I optionally intend thought or muscle movement. I intend to understand freedom from flesh and birth and death and the associated stress and pain. I intend what/when I can toward liberation as you use the term, final knowledge, that I have done all that can be done and there is nothing left to be done. I initiate those kind of things with body+mind.
I would answer that having a good meditation on breathing practice for 2-4 hours/day where you never miss a single breath, and then being mindful of every breath for 14-16 hours, without missing a single breath, will put nearly anyone in range of their 1st awakening, or stream entry, or Cessation. And that if this can be done for 7 days, this would put one in the range of full enlightenment. Though, this takes a lot of dedication and time which most do not have in our society. I feel such sincerity to help people from SAA. I think his suffering played a big role, and it is an important factor most times. That is what provides the drive to uncover the truth at any cost and breaks thru the barriers. Many may downplay the arduous effort required because things always seem easier in retrospect than they were during the struggle. But for people that want a fair idea of the effort required, I think I offered a fair measure.
So from what I understand is that Self Inquiry, asking questions, investigating, is not needed if one can just rest as being, awareness, difussing the attention in such a way that you are in the gap...?
They are called Chinese handcuffs 👍 at least, when I was a kid. You talk a lot about thinking, and when responding to a question, some thinking will be initiated to answer. But what about people that are beyond thinking, people that can remain aware of what they are doing in the present moment, just experiencing it? Stopping overt thought is not enough. I am not in my big toe. I am some amorphous blob somewhere around the upper spine or brainstem. At least, it's difficult to sense any center of am-ness anywhere else. I try to keep digging for 'i am' in my daily activities, without thought. I just sense an area, no thought required. I've done it for several weeks without noticing change, but I'll go a few months. The reason I got interested is because I don't have time for lengthy meditation in the foreseeable future. It must be hard to try to teach so many people with different backgrounds and levels.
Chinese finger trap? Those little gimmicky toys? Edit: Ah OK - semantics 😂... When I was a kid we had the "Chinese bracelet" which hurt like hell. Like having your wrist in a vice. Also, I doubt thoughts are even the most important thing. They're not a problem in and of itself, it's just your relationship/identification with it that could be what's tripping you up. Not you, specifically - just speaking generally. Thinking is like another sense, it happens. Thoughts don't stop. The fixation on them can be halted though through direct observation as to their sticky ability to entangle a sense of identity around thought clusters (beliefs). Unlike the other senses, thoughts have an incursive, self-referential quality which can be unassumingly binding...
Ok so that is definitely progress. When sitting with that pure knowing/looking for I Am (or clarifying), when you notice an amourphous blob, what specifically are you referencing? Notice there is also non-conceptual thought and recognize that also cannot be you precisely because it is an object of knowing (even if a vague image) :) Nice work.
may i ask you a question??🙏🙏 I relate to everything you say in this video especially with regard to how asking who am I did not always feel like the true question for you, at least for a time. suffering has been my entry point as well and I have tried a lot of different questions and I find the mind struggling with finding the “right “ question because I can’t quite get down to what I’m wanting to know because it doesn’t feel like I want to know anything it just feels like I want to well be free of self criticism basically. So I do want to know my true nature but before I got on the “enlightenment path “I would not have even known to ask that question lol 🤦♀️ in short , ( nothing seems to be short with me I relate to the Chinese toy thing) is what is my true nature a good question? Sometimes I just ask where is peace. I realize the issue is sort of staring me in the face because it’s about trying to be correct and right but I really am trying to find the most effective and powerful and useful question for a mind like mine. Any thoughts? Now I’m just gonna start laughing because this sounds so convoluted as I write it but I think you know what I mean!! 😂😂 and I’d like to add it’s been roughly 4 years now and I have been obsessed with this every day and every night and since I’ve started listening to your videos the bodily sensations are so intense and the feeling in my heart just feels like it is going to explode!
In meditation staying in a thoughtless space, if my attention is on the breath but not the space, am I doing it wrong? Is it key to have attention directly on the gap between thoughts?
If trying to develop one pointed pure conscious experience, then just notice that noticing the breath is a thought and return to investigating what the next thought will be. If you are just meditating and it feels clear to you then by all means FEEL into the breath :)
