The journey of Who am I? from Body to Mind to Being

The journey of Who am I? from Body to Mind to Being

When I first became interested in Self realization, possibly at the tender age of about 16. I did not then realize the most important and direct means to Self realization was to answer the question Who am I?

I first became interested in disciplines or method to attain my goal that focused on the physical body. 

So I started getting involved in Tai Chi, aikido, martial arts, yoga, shiatsu, chinese medicine, ayurvedic medicine. 

NON-DUALITY                 SELF                       SURRENDER


                                           MIND                        RESPONSIBILITY AS EMPOWERMENT


DUALITY                           BODY                       VICTIM


When I realized that I still did not have any answers to the quest for Who am I? then I abandoned the BODY focus and then turned to MIND. to try understand how the mind functioned. 

I started studying psychology, cognitive behavioral therapy, and many other schools. Eventually I started to make some progress and I ultimately came to the conclusion that MIND is only THOUGHT and thought is essentially illusion. The MIND is deceptive and delusive. It is simply a story making machine, inventing stories that are complete fiction! When you believe your thoughts and take them to be real or facts, then you suffer. When you realize that all your thoughts are simply illusion, then you will not believe them and they will get you. The mind will not rule you! At this stage, you are no longer being the victim as before wen you were so identified with your thoughts and you start to be happier and freer as you stop identifying with MIND. You start to take responsibility for your relationship with your MIND and you realize that you are the cause of your own suffering. Since all suffering comes from the MIND. At this level, you understand that when you believe a thought, you suffer from it and when you do not believe your thoughts, you are free from suffering. All suffering is MIND created. 

But then I still had not been able to answer satisfactorily the question, who am I?

From there, will the help of inquiry into the nature of the 'I' and through GRACE, I was able to dismantle and see through the illusion of the I-thought, which I was previously taking to be my identity. I realized that I did not exist, there was no separate individual. The idea that I was a separate individual, who thinks and does was seen through, and then it fell away, and with that all concepts of separation and otherness fell away with it and I realized the Self. 

At this level, I have put SURRENDER on the chart above, this is because one realizes at this level, that there is ONLY the SUPREME SELF, there is nothing else. There is no separate person who thinking or acts, there is only the SELF who does everything. There is no thinker, there is no doer, there is only the SELF. There is surrender because there is no one to resist anymore. Only the SELF exists at this stage. 

So I moved from BODY to MIND to SELF. 

At the BODY level one is fully identifying one's self as a separate body which is distinct, and that distinct body thinks and acts and has free will. There is SEPARATION and OTHERS at this stage. 

At the MIND level, one starts to realize that MIND is senior to BODY and that the MIND is creating its own fictional reality in the form of labels, concepts, ideas, beliefs. Eventually one realizes that these mental constructs are simply thoughts, which are illusion in their very nature. One is empowered and taking responsibility for one's MIND, one is no longer a VICTIM. 

At the SELF level, one realizes that the separate individual is a thought created concept only. 'He' or 'she' does not exist, and never ever did exist. The individual I -concept is seen as an illusion. Then the concept of 'Other' is also seen as an illusion, and then the SELF is realized. The 'I am the body' idea is seen as false and seen through. One realizes that there is no separate distinct individual which is identified with a body and there are no separate others or world. There is only the SUPREME SELF now. No separation, no other, only the SELF. This is the level of true surrender, because resistance to what is, only occurs when there is someone to resist what is. At this level, there is no separate individual at all, hence there is no one to think, decide or do or resist anything. There is spontaneous SURRENDER to what is.EXISTENCE itself is being the human being tthrough you. All is GOD, All is ONE, All is NOW.