try to feel what it means to be, just to be

[Guest guest]

Questioner: I am what I know myself to be.

 

Maharaj: 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 bereavement, 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 '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 means 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 realise your limitless being.

 

I Am That, Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj