WHO AM I?
‘Who Am I’ [A dialogue between this writer and ‘Cyril the Cynic’]
CC: O.K. what shall we discuss this morning Mr. Writer?
ME: Well how about the mother of all questions, Who am I?
CC: What do you mean, “who am I?” Don’t you know who you are?
ME: Do you?
CC: Of course I do, and even if I was suffering from amnesia, my name is written on my birth certificate, my driver’s license, and of course my credit card. This is a ridiculous question, so lets have a more intelligent enquiry shall we?
ME: Patience Cyril, just bear with me for a little while and see if we can discover the importance of posing this simple question to oneself. After all did not the great and illuminated sage Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi use this very means of Self-enquiry to attain Self-realisation?
CC: All right then, but just for a short while. So the question is ‘WHO AM I?” and my simple and direct answer is, “I AM ME” [pointing his finger to his chest]. So there you have it. The mystery is over, the amnesia has lifted, and I have identified myself. So what’s the problem?
ME: In identifying yourself Cyril you pointed to your chest and said, “I am me.” Does this mean that you believe yourself to be your thorax?
CC: Of course not, that’s stupid.
ME: Oh, perhaps then you indicated that you are the heart?
CC:Well….well no…not exactly.
ME: Ah, now I understand, you mean that you are the entire physical body, is that it?
CC: In a way… I suppose you could possibly say that.
ME: Good, now we are making progress. So you say that you believe that you are this mobile bag of fat, protein, carbohydrate, minerals, and vitamins bones and blood,
which are in turn composed of an estimated 10 28 atoms. So this Cyril is the totality of your good self is it?
CC: Hey wait a minute! You don’t need to be so insulting, calling me a mobile bag of fat…. I mean….well yes I am a little overweight,ok a lot over weight, but you needn’t…
ME: Sorry Cyril, but lets continue shall we. If you say that you are this physical body, then where will ‘you’ be in five years time when the entire atomic formation of this body has been totally and completely recreated? Because, if as you maintain you are this multitudinous assemblage of atoms alone, then 5 years from now when your physical atomic structure has been totally replaced you will cease to be.
CC: What do you mean fat, atoms, …I’m … yes I’m a person, a real, regular, intelligent person.
ME: Yes indeed Cyril you have a good body and a sound intellect, the question however is not do you HAVE a good body and intellect, but ARE you that body and intellect?
CC: I don’t follow.
ME: Some philosophers have pointed out that there are two categories in our experience____ ‘I’ the Knower or ‘Seer’ and the ‘not I’, the known or ‘Seen’ which is other than the ‘I’. So lets use this knowledge to see if will help us to discover exactly who I am. For instance, it is quite clear that I am not this pen that is being used to write with, because it is a “SEEN’ object and not the ‘SEER’ subject. Do you agree Cyril?
CC: I think so….
ME: Good. So if we continue to apply this same method to analyze ourselves, then hopefully we will eventually answer this haunting question WHO AM I? We have determined that the ‘SEER’ is the true ‘I’ who sees an object that is ‘not I’. I know for instance that the table and the chair are not ‘I’ because they are both seen by the conscious ‘I’. Are you still with me Cyril?
CC: Yes. You mean that there is a conscious subject, which is ‘I’, and an unconscious object that is seen, that is not ‘I’. Is that correct?
ME: Correct! And the same applies to the physical body, it also is seen by the Seer, and hence ‘NOT I’. We will, after continued analysis be forced to conclude also that “I am not the intellect, ego, senses, emotions, because they are all of them seen or known to the ‘Seer’. THEY ARE NOT ‘I’. It is axiomatic that the SEER and the SEEN cannot be identical. What is the REAL ‘I’ then?
The Real ‘I’ is the Consciousness, the knowing Self-Atman. If we pursue this line of enquiry, and extrapolate from it, we arrive at some quite astounding conclusions that can and will change our lives. We will discover for instance that our Real Self exists outside of Space and Time, ‘IT’ is in reality the detached witness of Space and Time, and therefore is restricted by neither.
There can be no birth or death for the Self, for if ‘I’ exists outside of Space then ‘I’ must be infinite and if ‘I’ exists outside of time ‘I’ must be unborn, eternal, and unchanging. This philosophy of ‘I’ and ‘not I’ is the Raja Yoga philosophy of Patanjali which terminates in these two ultimate divisions of ‘I’ and ‘not I’[Purusha and Prakriti]. Patanjali’s system is dualistic.
Advaita Vedanta however goes even further, It unifies the ‘I’ and the ‘not I’ in the intuitive realisation that ALL IS ONE! ALL IS BRAHMAN!
“This Supreme Self that perceives everything is Brahman. This is the sum and substance of all teachings.”
The solution to the question “Who am I?” is not one to be answered intellectually, but one that is experienced in Intuitive Self-realisation.
“Of all knowledge the wise and good seek most to know themselves”___Shakespeare.
CC: O.K. what shall we discuss this morning Mr. Writer?
ME: Well how about the mother of all questions, Who am I?
CC: What do you mean, “who am I?” Don’t you know who you are?
ME: Do you?
CC: Of course I do, and even if I was suffering from amnesia, my name is written on my birth certificate, my driver’s license, and of course my credit card. This is a ridiculous question, so lets have a more intelligent enquiry shall we?
ME: Patience Cyril, just bear with me for a little while and see if we can discover the importance of posing this simple question to oneself. After all did not the great and illuminated sage Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi use this very means of Self-enquiry to attain Self-realisation?
CC: All right then, but just for a short while. So the question is ‘WHO AM I?” and my simple and direct answer is, “I AM ME” [pointing his finger to his chest]. So there you have it. The mystery is over, the amnesia has lifted, and I have identified myself. So what’s the problem?
ME: In identifying yourself Cyril you pointed to your chest and said, “I am me.” Does this mean that you believe yourself to be your thorax?
CC: Of course not, that’s stupid.
ME: Oh, perhaps then you indicated that you are the heart?
CC:Well….well no…not exactly.
ME: Ah, now I understand, you mean that you are the entire physical body, is that it?
CC: In a way… I suppose you could possibly say that.
ME: Good, now we are making progress. So you say that you believe that you are this mobile bag of fat, protein, carbohydrate, minerals, and vitamins bones and blood,
which are in turn composed of an estimated 10 28 atoms. So this Cyril is the totality of your good self is it?
CC: Hey wait a minute! You don’t need to be so insulting, calling me a mobile bag of fat…. I mean….well yes I am a little overweight,ok a lot over weight, but you needn’t…
ME: Sorry Cyril, but lets continue shall we. If you say that you are this physical body, then where will ‘you’ be in five years time when the entire atomic formation of this body has been totally and completely recreated? Because, if as you maintain you are this multitudinous assemblage of atoms alone, then 5 years from now when your physical atomic structure has been totally replaced you will cease to be.
CC: What do you mean fat, atoms, …I’m … yes I’m a person, a real, regular, intelligent person.
ME: Yes indeed Cyril you have a good body and a sound intellect, the question however is not do you HAVE a good body and intellect, but ARE you that body and intellect?
CC: I don’t follow.
ME: Some philosophers have pointed out that there are two categories in our experience____ ‘I’ the Knower or ‘Seer’ and the ‘not I’, the known or ‘Seen’ which is other than the ‘I’. So lets use this knowledge to see if will help us to discover exactly who I am. For instance, it is quite clear that I am not this pen that is being used to write with, because it is a “SEEN’ object and not the ‘SEER’ subject. Do you agree Cyril?
CC: I think so….
ME: Good. So if we continue to apply this same method to analyze ourselves, then hopefully we will eventually answer this haunting question WHO AM I? We have determined that the ‘SEER’ is the true ‘I’ who sees an object that is ‘not I’. I know for instance that the table and the chair are not ‘I’ because they are both seen by the conscious ‘I’. Are you still with me Cyril?
CC: Yes. You mean that there is a conscious subject, which is ‘I’, and an unconscious object that is seen, that is not ‘I’. Is that correct?
ME: Correct! And the same applies to the physical body, it also is seen by the Seer, and hence ‘NOT I’. We will, after continued analysis be forced to conclude also that “I am not the intellect, ego, senses, emotions, because they are all of them seen or known to the ‘Seer’. THEY ARE NOT ‘I’. It is axiomatic that the SEER and the SEEN cannot be identical. What is the REAL ‘I’ then?
The Real ‘I’ is the Consciousness, the knowing Self-Atman. If we pursue this line of enquiry, and extrapolate from it, we arrive at some quite astounding conclusions that can and will change our lives. We will discover for instance that our Real Self exists outside of Space and Time, ‘IT’ is in reality the detached witness of Space and Time, and therefore is restricted by neither.
There can be no birth or death for the Self, for if ‘I’ exists outside of Space then ‘I’ must be infinite and if ‘I’ exists outside of time ‘I’ must be unborn, eternal, and unchanging. This philosophy of ‘I’ and ‘not I’ is the Raja Yoga philosophy of Patanjali which terminates in these two ultimate divisions of ‘I’ and ‘not I’[Purusha and Prakriti]. Patanjali’s system is dualistic.
Advaita Vedanta however goes even further, It unifies the ‘I’ and the ‘not I’ in the intuitive realisation that ALL IS ONE! ALL IS BRAHMAN!
“This Supreme Self that perceives everything is Brahman. This is the sum and substance of all teachings.”
The solution to the question “Who am I?” is not one to be answered intellectually, but one that is experienced in Intuitive Self-realisation.
“Of all knowledge the wise and good seek most to know themselves”___Shakespeare.