Question About Self Inquiry

[Max_V]

I've been doing self inquiry for about a month now. What I've noticed is that once I ask myself 'Who am I ?' Often nothing happens.

A good analogy would be how an arrow get's deflected when shot on a knight with heavy armor.

It feels like the question doesn't come through. It flows around for a bit and then it vanishes and my mind automatically goes into fantasing.

Should I eleborate this question for the mind or is this a normal thing in the process of self inquiry?

[AleksM]

@Max_V

What do you expect to happen? Nothing Will happen in the future because it's already happening in the now. When you make a distinction that something is not happening and expect something to happen, you are creating linear timeline with your mind, an illusion basicly.

Get in touch with the recognition that everything is already happening NOW and that it's only in the now that everything is happening.

Get in touch with the aspect of you that recognizes what's happening in the now, that observes that everything is coming and going in the now moment.

That recognition is the answer, it's the being state. You don't have to put your attention anywhere. You don't even need to ask a question to get in touch with it honestly.

A better question to ask in my opinion is What am I? I have made a post about this here:

 

[Danielle]

30 minutes ago, Max_V said:

I've been doing self inquiry for about a month now. What I've noticed is that once I ask myself 'Who am I ?' Often nothing happens.

 

Ofcourse nothing happens because the mind doesn't know the answer,it just gets back to fantasy. In that moment where there's seemingly no answer your true nature appears. Don't try to get the answer from your mind, simply ask who am I and be silent. 

There is a video about this by adya on youtube called the simplest thing, might be worth checking out. 

Edited September 13, 2017 by Danielle

[Joseph Maynor]

"What am I?" is better.  A who is a perspective.  A what is a thing -- or no-thing.  This is what Neti-Neti gets at.  Not this, not that.  What am I?  Am I this feeling that I am a thing?  No, because there are moments of Being where that feeling is absent.  Am I this wacky, conceptual Mind?  Well no, because there are moments where I experience no monkey-mind or thinking.  If Being exists without something, then that something is not me.  Stuff that can fall away and leave me be is not me.  

Get into a state of flow and watch all your distinctions vanish.  Notice that you become uncentered too in a flow state -- your boundaries about where you start and end disapear (causing a feeling of expansion, a feeling of one-ness with everything).  This is because you have arms-lengthed the Mind-Matrix.  Most of the time the Mind-Matrix has you by the balls (or ovaries for women reading this).  But get into a state of flow and just observe from that place.  It will change your life as it did mine.  Notice how much the Mind-Matrix interferes in Being when you settle-out of the natural state of flow -- where you start to want to look at reality as a duality instead of its natural non-duality.  Flow gets you pointed in the right direction to see how much the Mind-Matrix rubricizes reality and augments reality.  Instead of realizing these are overlays on top of Being, we believe they are Being itself.  The Ego uses the Mind-Matrix to paste the illusion of duality over non-duality.

When you are in a flow state ask -- what am I?  Where am I?  What is real?  How does the Mind influence what is real by adding in beliefs to Being?   How does the Mind carve up Being in arbitrary, human ways?  Also ask, Is Being physical?  What is physicality?  You'll see that the Mind overlays physicality on top of Being.  Start to look at reality as it is, not as the Mind is telling you that it is.

Edited September 13, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Max_V]

I will use ' What am I ?'

Rupert Spira has a cool twist on this ' Am I aware ?'

That one quiet interesting too

 

Language feels so limiting too though. In english asking these questions already is limiting but in my own language (Dutch) a lot of english words have no direct translation like ' the mind ' for example.

Should I ask these questions to myself in English or try to make my own question in Dutch? 

Edited September 13, 2017 by Max_V

[Shin]

It's hard to catch a fish, when you're the fish itself.

[Leo Gura]

@Max_V Make sure you're not just asking the question robotically, but actually paying attention to what you're asking and why you're asking it. This is a very profound question. You must ask it genuinely, with enormous focus and dedication.

Do you know what you are?

If not, how can you even go on living? Supposedly you're alive, yet you don't know what is alive.

[str4]

@Max_V The way I do self-inquiry is just that I concentrate on the inner feeling of "I". 

My understanding is that Ramana Maharsi first told his students to concentrate on the inner feeling of "I", and after that, if they couldn't do it, he provided an aid to get to that feeling by making them ask questions like: "what am I?".

But for me, this only confused me, since I too thought that you are supposed to just blatantly ask these questions in your mind and wait for an answer.

The most direct and practical way to do self inquiry — at least for me — is just concentrating on the "I" feeling that you have inside.

Notice that this may take a little bit of practice, but it's actually extremely simple once you get it.

It sort of feels like you are fixing your concentration inwards, and for me, when I do it eyes open, I actually notice that my eyes lose their focus, and my whole vision turns into once big peripheral vision. It feels like you are no longer looking at objects outside, but the there is just one big screen in front of you which is only "background noise."

Nowadays I do it hundreds of times per day, it takes only a second to concentrate on the inner feeling of "I", I let it be for a couple of seconds, then let go. Perfect to do even when working or studying. 

[Naturalist]

There is no essence in who or what you are.  There is no you in the so-called you in the first place.  Every event that arises, be it consciously or otherwise, is merely a continuum of orientating flux of energy in the cosmos.  The delusion of you arises because of the elements of memory; without it, there can be no consciousness in play.  Therefore, it is wise not to conceptualise anything if one were to discover the true nature of everything.

[Nahm]

@Max_V just a little thought, but, it might help to take a look biologically and discover that you're not alive at all. 

[Max_V]

@str4 I'd really like to try this. I have ADD though so I have a tough time concentrating on one thing for long.

Do you ever experience troubles on that department with this method?

[str4]

@Max_V Don't know how ADD will affect this, but it could probably make things harder. The way I experience this exercise though is that it is easier to concentrate on the inner feeling of "I" than objects in the outside world in which you usually apply your concentration power. 

One exercise that helped me to get that "I" feeling was this:

1. Keep your eyes open and fix your gaze on one spot in your vision. It can be anything.

2. Notice that you can actually "scan" your peripheral vision without moving your gaze. It sort of feels like you are moving your point of focus without actually moving your eyes.

3. When you are able to successfully do part 2, after that, try to move your point of focus behind your head — without moving your eyes. You know that funny feeling when you cross your eyes? It feels like that but on a very very subtle level.

When you are able to keep your attention fixed on the "I" feeling, all of your thoughts stop. Your attention is 100% fixed on the inner awareness itself.

[Vitamine Water]

@Max_VIn my experience it doesn't really mather whether you ask the question in your native language (for me it's Dutch too ) or in English. 

It's basically the same message. Only different words. Just try what works best for you.

When I build up enough focus/concentration I automatically tend to ask the questions in Dutch, instead of English.  

Edited September 14, 2017 by Vitamine Water