I AM THAT: To know what you are, find out what you are not

[Guest guest]

18 To Know What you are, find out what you are not

 

M: All I know is that whatever depends, is not real. The real is

truly independent. Since the existence of the person depends on the

existence of the world and it is circumscribed and defined by the

world, it cannot be real.

Q: It cannot be a dream, surely.

 

M: Even a dream has existence, when it is cognized and enjoyed, or

endured. Whatever you think and feel has being. But it may not be

what you take it to be. What you think to be a person may be

something quite different.

Q: I am what I know myself to be.

 

M: You cannot possibly say that you are what you think yourself to

be! Your ideas about yourself change from day to day and from moment

to moment. Your self-image is the most changeful thing you have. It

is utterly vulnerable, at the mercy of a passer by. A bereave-ment,

the loss of a job, an insult, and your image of yourself, which you

call your person, changes deeply. To know what you are you must first

investigate and know what you are not. And to know what you are not

you must watch yourself carefully, rejecting all that does not

necessarily go with the basic fact: `I am'. The ideas: I am born at

a given place, at a given time, from my parents and now I am so-and-

so, living at, married to, father of, employed by, and so on, are not

inherent in the sense of `I am'. Our usual attitude is of `I am

this'. Separate consistently and perseveringly the `I am' from `this'

or `that', and try to feel what it mean to be, just to be, without

being `this' or `that'. All our habits go against it and the task of

fighting them is long and hard sometimes, but clear understanding

helps a lot. The clearer you understand that on the level of the mind

you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker you will

come to the end of your search and realize your limitless being.

 

 

I AM THAT

Chapter 18, TO know what you are, find out what you are not

PG59

 

Acorn Press