Self inquiry ... Am I doing this right?

[nowimhere]

I started simply, by asking who am I. I started at my toes, then my feet, then my shins, all the way up to my lower back, belly button, stomach, ribs then fingers, hands, forarms, bicepts, pecs, heart, throat, chin, tounge, nose, ears, eyes and head. At some point I also started asking "what is this" and "experience" seemed to come back as the answer. 

Then near the end, I made the shift and decided to just "sit in the awareness" and I felt a profound energetic peace. It was a great meditation. Was influenced by this video :

 

The Question here is, did I do "self inquiry" correctly? Has anyone else done it this way (start with the question who am I throughout your whole body, peice by peice, then just ended with "resting in your awareness?)

Any insights on this would be great!

Thanks all, and much love

[Peo]

Do you have a silent mind. I find self inquiry to be better when my mind is silent.

[nowimhere]

@Peo - besides the "mind" asking the question "who am I" I'd say yes. For this session, anyways. 

[How to be wise]

@nowimhere “The question ‘Who am I?’ is not really meant to get an answer, the question ‘Who am I?’ is meant to dissolve the questioner.” Ramana Maharshi

I would suggest you ask the question ‘who am I?’, and instead of searching for an answer, just wait for the answer to come to you. If you wait, silently and long enough, your identity will dissolve.

”God, Guru and Self are one and the same.” Ramana Maharshi

[nowimhere]

@How to be wise - Ramana Maharshi is so profound. I already know that I don't exist, but I am trying to push past the cocept of it and realize it fully.

Once I got to my tounge and nose... And asked "Who am I? Am I my tounge? Am I my nose?" I just started to laugh cause obviously you aren't your tounge or nose. 

[Inliytened1]

@nowimhere try to find out what you currently identify with most -- and eliminate that - for some people it's the body..for others it's the soul...i was most strongly identified with this idea of a soul but then i realized i was substituting that as an answer because the answer is that you are actually nowhere and nothing (awareness).  I realized the soul was just a concept of the mind.

And one day while doing self inquiry it just hit me like a giant epiphany. 

Don't try to force it because you can't.  It will just happen when it happens.  But you are on the right track.  

[Jkris]

@Inliytened1 when you say i am awareness or nothing.

Is awareness or nothing an experience?

Does self enquiry take one to nirvikalpa samadhi where the absence of body,mind and sense of me vanishes and experience of the

1.no-self

2. nothingness

Then the final enlightenment or realisation

Experience of the awareness or existence or suchness or isness happens ?

Please explain in detail.

???

 

[Inliytened1]

1 hour ago, Jkris said:

@Inliytened1 when you say i am awareness or nothing.

Is awareness or nothing an experience?

Does self enquiry take one to nirvikalpa samadhi where the absence of body,mind and sense of me vanishes and experience of the

1.no-self

2. nothingness

Then the final enlightenment or realisation

Experience of the awareness or existence or suchness or isness happens ?

Please explain in detail.

???

 

Yes self inquiry can do it.   You become the Absolute - the formless - so experience is just a relative word that we give it as it cannot be captured with language.   Or you can say it's not an experience of the ego it is experience as in raw Being.   It will be pure bliss which is where the Love part comes in.

 

 

Edited August 22, 2019 by Inliytened1

[Jkris]

@Inliytened1 Thats beautiful.Thanks for clarifying the confusion created as some say it is experience others it is not.

 

 

[Inliytened1]

@Jkris

[nowimhere]

@Inliytened1 - Beautiful ! Glad to know I am on the right track

[Guru Fat Bastard]

Go here , (excellent PDF by Sri Sadhu Om), and read what self inquiry is really meant to be in accordance with Ramana's teaching. It does away with many  mis-conceptions regarding self inquiry and it's practice. Real self inquiry is Self-Attention,which means keeping the attention on the already inherent,unlearned,natural knowledge/knowing "I AM". It's to Be aware of Being i.e.,Be aware of your own primordial existence (amness). Minus objective thoughts (i.e.,mind), body,breath and the 5 senses(tasting,feeling,smelling,hearing,seeing). The already  abiding knowledge "I AM" ,that is prior to any words,thoughts or feeling.The silent,empty background of awareness.  This silent, thoughtless "I Am", is pure consciousness,Pure Being,devoid of objectness or self- individual identification. Attending to this "awareness of  pure existence"  is what Nisargdatta Maharaj referred to as "abiding in the knowledge/knowing (i.e.,the awareness) "I Am"  , to the exclusion of all else. This is proper self inquiry or Self-attention. Who or What am I?,is a question to bring one directly to the 'emptiness" of "self" or the "small I-ego" also known as the "I-thought". Abiding in that "emptiness" of "no individual self" or "I"-thought, is an effortless relaxing of attention,and a resting (i.e.,abiding),in Pure Being. "Emptiness" or "empty" means,free of the conditioned attachment to a conflicting, dualistic and presupposed  concept of a non-existent, personal identity (ego).

The link above should clear up a lot of questions regarding Ramana's self inquiry. The guide also clears up the differences in his more direct teaching vs. Vedantic self inquiry. Both approaches are valid,but Raman's is more direct in avoiding a lot of the "neti,neti(not this,not this)" process involved in traditional Vedantic inquiry.

Note that for self inquiry, or any contemplative technique or exercise,a quiet-silent mind is conducive and the majority opinion of those experienced with such. An agitated,busy mind is highly counterproductive to self inquiry. This is where meditation and/or pranayama as a means to quiet the inner workings/activity of the mind are invaluable.

The gate-less gate to God, is in our own inner silence and stillness.

Edited August 23, 2019 by Guru Fat Bastard

[nowimhere]

@Guru Fat Bastard - What a fantastic resource ! Thank you so much !