Am I Doing Neti Neti Properly And How To Progress In It?

[Wills]

Hey everyone, I've been meditating for about 4 months and recently began to do the Neti Neti method. What I've been doing is wait until a thought arises and ask to myself who am I or where are these thoughts arising from and who is listening to these thoughts. Usually I understand it logically and somewhat makes sense but this time I truly believe that what I thought was myself was wrong. I was watching a video on YouTube in my bed, preparing to go to sleep when a video caught my eye. The title was 'Are we all related?' and basically summarised that we all are, following the human family tree all the way back. After the video ended, I began to think a bit deeper about it, that we all can trace ourselves back to the simplest form of life on earth. At this point, I chose to sit in a meditative posture and meditate on this. 

 

I began to ask the question, so where did this simple life form that started life on earth come from? Did it come from another planet? I really had no idea. At this point I began to realize perhaps we're no more significant than a grain of sand, after realising this I began to ask myself the important question, if we're no more significant than a grain of sand, who am I? For a long time I literally thought I was my thoughts and feelings but came to the realization that my thoughts and feelings are nothing, so the me that I thought I am was nothing but a thought. 

 

I'm about an hour in and completely confused, I felt as if I really had no idea who I really am, after about an hour and a half of meditating, I came out with a new understanding. It was the deepest most insightful meditation I've ever done. I was feeling waves of euphoria every once in a while during practice, which I've never experienced and had no idea why this happened. Am I doing the Neti Neti correctly? How do I progress and can someone give me some insight into what was experienced?

Edited May 10, 2017 by Wills

[Prabhaker]

27 minutes ago, Wills said:

Am I doing the Neti Neti correctly?

Neti Neti is a Sanskrit expression which means "not this, not this", or "neither this, nor that" 

"Who am I?" is not really a question because it has no answer to it; it is unanswerable. It is a device, not a question. It is used as a mantra. When you constantly inquire inside: "Who am I? Who am I?" you are not waiting for an answer. Your mind will supply many answers; all those answers have to be rejected. Your mind will say: "You are the essence of life. You are the eternal soul. You are divine," and so on and so forth. All those answers have to be rejected:neti neti -- one has to go on saying: "Neither this nor that."

When you have denied all the possible answers that the mind can supply and devise, when the question remains absolutely unanswerable, a miracle happens: suddenly the question also disappears. When all the answers have been rejected, the question has no props, no supports inside to stand on any more. It simply flops, it collapses, it disappears.

When the question also has disappeared, then you know. But that knowing is not an answer: it is an existential experience. Nothing can be said about it, or whatever will be said will be wrong. To say anything about it is to falsify it. It is the ultimate mystery, inexpressible, indefinable. No word is adequate enough to describe it.

[Dodo]

44 minutes ago, Wills said:

Hey everyone, I've been meditating for about 4 months and recently began to do the Neti Neti method. What I've been doing is wait until a thought arises and ask to myself who am I or where are these thoughts arising from and who is listening to these thoughts. Usually I understand it logically and somewhat makes sense but this time I truly believe that what I thought was myself was wrong. I was watching a video on YouTube in my bed, preparing to go to sleep when a video caught my eye. The title was 'Are we all related?' and basically summarised that we all are, following the human family tree all the way back. After the video ended, I began to think a bit deeper about it, that we all can trace ourselves back to the simplest form of life on earth. At this point, I chose to sit in a meditative posture and meditate on this. 

 

I began to ask the question, so where did this simple life form that started life on earth come from? Did it come from another planet? I really had no idea. At this point I began to realize perhaps we're no more significant than a grain of sand, after realising this I began to ask myself the important question, if we're no more significant than a grain of sand, who am I? For a long time I literally thought I was my thoughts and feelings but came to the realization that my thoughts and feelings are nothing, so the me that I thought I am was nothing but a thought. 

 

I'm about an hour in and completely confused, I felt as if I really had no idea who I really am, after about an hour and a half of meditating, I came out with a new understanding. It was the deepest most insightful meditation I've ever done. I was feeling waves of euphoria every once in a while during practice, which I've never experienced and had no idea why this happened. Am I doing the Neti Neti correctly? How do I progress and can someone give me some insight into what was experienced?

Looks like a nice start. Continue self inquiring and add not only the thinker of thoughts, but the perceiver of absolutely all your perceptions. Focus on the sensations in your body, who is the one experiencing?

Let thoughts go silent, you don't need them for this inquiry. Do not inquire the mind about who you are, because it got no clue. The mind is your tool, not who you are, it doesn't have the answer you seek.

The answer you seek is who you are. No need thinking what happened in past or what will happen in future. Isolate the present moment and tackle this investigation. "Leave all baggage out of the room and enter" as Mooji says - this is the best soil for self inquiry (let go of your beliefs and stories for a moment to investigate from scratch, who are you really). You already are who you are, just not what you think! Keep looking.

Edited May 10, 2017 by Dodoster

[Gailan]

2 hours ago, Wills said:

Hey everyone, I've been meditating for about 4 months and recently began to do the Neti Neti method. What I've been doing is wait until a thought arises and ask to myself who am I or where are these thoughts arising from and who is listening to these thoughts. Usually I understand it logically and somewhat makes sense but this time I truly believe that what I thought was myself was wrong. I was watching a video on YouTube in my bed, preparing to go to sleep when a video caught my eye. The title was 'Are we all related?' and basically summarised that we all are, following the human family tree all the way back. After the video ended, I began to think a bit deeper about it, that we all can trace ourselves back to the simplest form of life on earth. At this point, I chose to sit in a meditative posture and meditate on this. 

 

I began to ask the question, so where did this simple life form that started life on earth come from? Did it come from another planet? I really had no idea. At this point I began to realize perhaps we're no more significant than a grain of sand, after realising this I began to ask myself the important question, if we're no more significant than a grain of sand, who am I? For a long time I literally thought I was my thoughts and feelings but came to the realization that my thoughts and feelings are nothing, so the me that I thought I am was nothing but a thought. 

 

I'm about an hour in and completely confused, I felt as if I really had no idea who I really am, after about an hour and a half of meditating, I came out with a new understanding. It was the deepest most insightful meditation I've ever done. I was feeling waves of euphoria every once in a while during practice, which I've never experienced and had no idea why this happened. Am I doing the Neti Neti correctly? How do I progress and can someone give me some insight into what was experienced?

I had a similar experince today, but not with euphoria. I'm doing Leo's slef inquiry.

It's like there is something that happening, and you are not part of it. Maybe you are like a background to what's happening.

also i was fully aware of that Space, it was just like complete Space and nothing else. Through that there was my mind doing it's monkey job, but much better than before. But i think this is just the begining.