Self Inquiry: "Who am I?" or "What am I?"What yields better results

[Schahin]

Hello dear people, 

 

With which phrase have you had better results in self inquiry? 

[Endangered-EGO]

@Schahin What Am I is more fundamental than who am I. "What am I" you sense the senses of selves (multiple) in the Body, and "Who am I" refers to the self-feeding thought loops refering to the sense of self in the body in stories.

I've only had one awakening during meditation where everything disappeared except the feeling of my left hand, and the thought occurred "What am I, if there's only "this". and boom paradise (for a while).

[nistake]

You can experiment with other questions as well. One of my favorites: "What is this?"

[Rilles]

Forget verbalizing questions. Just look inside yourself at what you are. Youre aware all the time. Use it to your advantage. 

[The0Self]

It's a direct process, not a verbal one. Not saying you should do self inquiry (there's no you to decide to do it or not), but I can describe what it is: inquiring directly (with experience, not words) into how you know you're experiencing anything at all -- it's the most obvious thing, but "where is the knower? Anything I see can't be the I since I'm the one who sees it." Keep hunting the I incessantly, even when amazing states present -- just keep turning away from every object, toward what knows it.

That's how it's done. It never leads to this but there's no reason to not do it either. There's no reason for anything, really -- this is just chaos appearing, utterly without limit or control or direction.

Edited September 28, 2021 by The0Self

[Flyboy]

People skip over the work part of this process too often.  Ultimately, you want to dwell in the pure "I am" sense.  But before you get there, you need to find EVERY sensation, thought, feeling, etc. that you identify with.  It takes some practice to start recognizing "self-ness", but when you know what to look for, you will find it EVERYWHERE.  Like in every part of your body, in your mind, your thoughts, your beliefs... there's a lot of work to do here before you are left with nothing but "I am".  As you do this work though, the "subject" in your experience will start to hollow out and get thinner, wispier, less concrete.  This will open a sense of spaciousness and freedom.

Just remember, this is complementary to finely observing your sensations (vipassana).  Vipassana works to de-reify the Objects in perception, while self-inquiry de-reifies the Subject.  Both collapse eventually, but the clarity you develop through one helps take the other further.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Flyboy

[Consilience]

Some great replies above.

In my experience, asking “what am I?” Feels more existential, and therefore more direct and to the heart of the matter if directly experiencing absolute truth is the goal.
 

“Who am I?” has lead more to a sense of discovering the meta context of self-survival activity… almost like feeling the blue prints of the soul. Very profound but not the ultimate. 

[Staples]

Om is pretty cool. Or Chee, or Looloo, or Wacky-tacky. They're all equally useful.

Better thing to ponder might be;

Stare at an object, I often use my water bottle. Then ask without thinking; "Why is this taking this form and not some other form?" All forms are equally valid. Why is it that one in particular? Could it be free to assume another form? And if it is free, what is the process of form selection? How does that come to be?

[BlackMaze]

Drop the phrases. Self inquiry is not about asking and answering, is about being meta and recognizing what this feels like and staying there as long as possible until it's your normal state. 

[Guru Fat Bastard]

This article by Rupert is a good place to start and simplifies self inquiry down to it's essence.

 

[Leo Gura]

I prefer the What question because Who is still too much in the domain of the human. Your mind will go looking for a sort of persona/character Who. Which of course it will never find, leading you on a wasteful and maddening wild goose chase.

What are you?

What is consciousness?

What is reality?

What is God?

What is Self?

What is the I?

These all need to be contemplated and clarified. The answer is not logical or verbal, it is your entire field of experience, recontextualized.

You have to see the same old shit (your field of experience) as something radically new and alien. This is hard to do.

Psychedelics help enormously to cleae up confusion. Then it's much easier outside your trip because you are not so confused.

[Raze]

On 9/28/2021 at 8:43 AM, Schahin said:

Hello dear people, 

 

With which phrase have you had better results in self inquiry? 

Look into the work of Gary Weber. He suggests 'where am I?' and 'who hears?'

[The0Self]

I did find that the clearest and most effective instructions for me were from

https://www.youtube.com/c/SiftingtotheTruth

One point of confusion might be when he says "ignore all thought" -- What he actually means, said a different way, is ignore all experienced objects (everything).

 

It's just self inquiry. Energy appearing as self inquiry. But those instructions will likely involve more insights and less confusion than many other instructions. Not saying it's the best possible instruction that is or can be but it's the best I found, apparently. If you don't know how to do it, I'll just say: it's almost always simpler than you think, and takes more effort than you think. In general that's just how I see it, NOT saying it's right or wrong.

Edited September 29, 2021 by The0Self

[Moksha]

Rather than asking, "What am I?", consider asking, "What am I not?".

Neti neti means "Not this, not that". It as an ancient process of Self-inquiry, where you gradually peel away the layers of the onion until you arrive at your ultimate nature.

Is the essence of what you are your physical body? Is it your thoughts? Is it even the idea of "you" as a separate entity? Meditate, and find out for yourself. ?‍♀️

[Flyboy]

19 minutes ago, Moksha said:

Is the essence of what you are your physical body? Is it your thoughts? Is it even the idea of "you" as a separate entity? Meditate, and find out for yourself. ?‍♀️

This part is wildly underestimated, I think.  Once I finally started realizing the "flavor" of self-identification and was able to sense it in my body, I was astounded to realize it is absolutely everywhere, embedded in every inch of my sensation, thought, and feeling.  You need to disidentify from all of this micron by micron.  At the beginning it just feels like a little bit of sensation in the chest or head... but that's only because your sensitivity to self-ness is so low.  The more subtle you get, the more you can sense and then burn through.

There's a LOT of work here before you rest in "I am" (and even this is more like empty awareness, not really "I am", which itself is a thought).  Initial awakening will occur when your identity finally shifts, and should be undeniable.  This last part you have no control over, you must simply rest in emptiness and not knowing until it happens.

[Breakingthewall]

question: who am I? to understand what the ego is. who you are is your preferences. identify self with preference. understand that preference is relative, survival. Take it out of the equation and there will be the "what are you" which is not a what. Is the present , indefinable and unfathomable

Edited September 29, 2021 by Breakingthewall

[Moksha]

@Flyboy Well said. Meditation jailbreaks the mind. You see beyond the screen, to the machinery in the underworks, making the movie happen. As awareness, it becomes clear that thoughts and emotions come and go, and are not your essence. There is only serene spaciousness.

[kieranperez]

It depends on how you’re using the questions. Ultimately though the question really is irrelevant. 

I could say if you go about using the Who & What as separate questions as is done in enlightenment intensives like Peter’s then, as far as a technique goes, yes they are different questions. 

If you’re doing self inquiry then, ultimately, it’s not really about the question.