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#Post#: 29428--------------------------------------------------
"Who am I?" - request for explanation of technique
DIR By: Inedible
Date: June 13, 2017, 4:16 pm
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When I first read about asking "Who am I?" it said that a person
should ask this question and then answer it. The answers could
come in the form of jobs, relationships with people, hobbies,
physical characteristics, and so on. All of these answers are to
be acknowledged and discarded. Deeper answers are supposed to
come, based less on surface features and playing roles. After a
couple of minutes, I didn't know what else to say. It was clear
that nothing really happened. I had no sense of where to go from
there. I have read many times that "Who am I?" is not a mantra,
and that the technique is not just in saying the words.
Actually, I have read much more about what "Who am I?" is not
than what it really is. Maybe that shouldn't be surprising for a
technique about cutting through layers of false identity, but it
is not helpful in explaining what to do.
What is "Who amI?", really?
#Post#: 29431--------------------------------------------------
Re: "Who am I?" - request for explanation of technique
DIR By: Jed McKenna
Date: June 13, 2017, 10:49 pm
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Hi There:
Welcome to the forum and thank you for you question. I
understand that asking ''who am I'' does tend to lead to
frustration rather quickly. Tell me a little about what and who
you have studied... a little background and I will come up with
some suggestions.
Talk soon,
Love ya, Jed.
#Post#: 29440--------------------------------------------------
Re: "Who am I?" - request for explanation of technique
DIR By: Inedible
Date: June 14, 2017, 2:17 am
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It started for me in 1985 when I realized that everything I
experienced came in filtered through my senses. The only thing I
had any hope of exerting any control over was my own mind. Get
that right, and the rest can take care of itself. Back then I
was already writing, to try to figure out things; it was long
before reading your books. Buddhism felt like coming home, in
1989 when I first started reading about it. It wasn't enough,
but it was a good start. In the beginning I really knew what
Enlightenment was and why I wanted it. It has been a long time
and I have tried lots of things. Now I don't know what
Enlightenment really is, or what it is for. It's just that there
doesn't seem to be anything else out there. I used to wonder if
there was something out there like money, alcohol, women, good
food, extreme sports, or whatever else that would make me change
my mind. If life were easier, maybe it would make me stop
wanting out of the dream. It has been a long time since it even
made sense that there could be something out there like that.
When I read your first book, it scared me and pissed me off. I
thought I would have to give up. It was actually exciting, and
once things fell into place I decided to try reading that book
again. The second time through it was neutral. The third time
was fun. The line about taking a swan dive into the abyss of
no-self is still one of the best things I have ever read.
The "Who am I?" isn't really something I feel drawn to do. It
just bothers me not to understand what it is. It was something
that felt like it was still missing from the books. You wrote
that it works, if a person actually does it. I want to know what
it means to do it.
#Post#: 29441--------------------------------------------------
Re: "Who am I?" - request for explanation of technique
DIR By: Jed McKenna
Date: June 14, 2017, 2:40 am
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Any good inquiry (who am I, what am I, what is another, what was
your face before you were born, what is the hound of one hand
clapping) has one purpose, to confuse your mind to such a degree
that is throws it's hands up in frustration and gives up. That
event can and often does open the door to what is sometimes
called a ''direct experience'' of Self in Enlightenment
Intensives.
No inquiry has a answer, by design.
Love ya, Jed.
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