Who Am I

[Guest guest]

The famous question " Who am I " postited by Ramana Maharshi, was given

to turn the mind back on itself, to make the mind subject and to

continuously return to that subject from the outward, myriad forms

perceivable. There seems to be an assumption that one can reach a

point in practice for asking that during one's whole waking time but

I wonder if there wasn't an unspoken assumption that when one is

engaging the mind, concentrated, that it would be also impossible to

ask the question at the same time.

 

In the book " I Am That " , Nisargatta, I came across the statement that

he meant the statement " I am " (that was his method) as a default

statement. The implication is that when one is concentrated on

something " in the world " that that concentration would necessarily

preclude the statement " I am " . Therefore, when one is finished with

whatever engages the mind then the statement " I am " is taken up again.

 

This does seem correct. I can't be working albebra problems, engaging

in conversation, concentrating on a movie and at the same time

as " Who am I " or " I am " ...

 

Yet, the statements by Maharshi appear as if " Who am I " could be asked

every single moment one is awake. I'm just wondering if this is a

case where " people in the know " would have understood something

behind the words, that he didn't really mean it as it was stated.

 

Attention is a limited commodity. I can't attend to or concentrate on

more that one thing at a time.