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Who Am I?

Quotes about who we are from written works related to Advaitism.


The life of individuality or the sense of being a separate self is really nothing more than a mistaken assumption. It is easily resolved through the application of a bit of clear seeing and investigation. It need not be a difficult or protracted affair if you keep the basics clearly in view.

-- John Wheeler in Shining in Plain View, pg 34


Even the sense of 'I' is a thought. So a thought arises. Where did it come from? Why did it arise? How does it exist? Of what is it made? What is my relationship to that thought? A penetrating investigation of these questions will quickly lead you to a realization of your real identity and the true nature of appearances as well. Investigate this a bit and see what you come up with.

-- John Wheeler in Shining in Plain View, pg 95


You can look for any independently existing person and see if you can find any such thing at all. There is existence. There is awareness. There are a handful of thoughts, perceptions, and feelings arising in the moment -- but that is all. All else is imagination, that is to say, it is not really present, except as a concept. 'Time', 'space', 'causality', 'me', 'you', 'good', 'bad', 'liberation', 'bondage' -- all of these are imaginary concepts. They are just words! None of them are given in direct experience.

Seeing that there is no separate person is something you can see for yourself by looking and investigating. Where is the separate, defective person? Have you ever seen any such thing? The mind may continue with this belief out of habit, but you have seen the true posiiton. There has never been any separate or substantial entity or person at all.

-- John Wheeler in Shining in Plain View, pg 49


... the question arose, 'What do 'I' know about this presence?' Then the loop was seen. The thought 'I', which is nothing but a reference or pointer to the presence, was supposedly asking what it knows about presence. The loop is -- you are what you seek.

-- A Questioner to John Wheeler in Shining in Plain View, pg 63


This reminds me of a situation a friend told me about. His daughter decided that she was actually a cat. She began acting like one and eating like one. She virtually lived like one. Then one day she told her father that she no longer wanted to be a cat, but she did not know how to stop being one and go back to being a person. ... he tried to explain to her that she was not a cat, that she did not need to do anything to become a person because that is what she already was.

-- A Questioner to John Wheeler in Shining in Plain View, pg 80


Even the sense of 'I' is a thought. So a thought arises. Where did it come from? Why did it arise? How does it exist? Of what is it made? What is my relationship to that thought? A penetrating investigation of these questions will quickly lead you to a realization of your real identity and the true nature of appearances as well. Investigate this a bit and see what you come up with.

-- John Wheeler in Shining in Plain View, pg 95


The real presence is there always, whether thought is present or not. Your existence does not increase or decrease if thought is present or absent. ... The thought 'I am' is just a thought. You exist whether you think that idea or not.

-- John Wheeler in Shining in Plain View, pg 141


There is nothing wrong with doing, thinking, acting or deciding. All of that goes on and will not stop till that body and mind give up the ghost. ... Then we think, 'I am here, but I am not supposed to be consciously doing anything'. But that is confusing and misses the mark.

This issue of the 'me' is the only point that needs clarity. As long as this is not precisely clear, we dance in agony around all the spiritual pointers and teachings.

So I would recommend that you forget all tangential issues and stick with the basic Question: 'Who or what am I? There are thoughts, feelings, perceptions, actions going on -- fine. Are any of these my real nature, my constant identity? If not, then what am I? Tossing all those overboard as 'not I', what is left? Is there a person, entity or thing anywhere in the picture that I can find and say: "This is myself"? I cannot deny my own presence, my own being. But what is it?

All of the conceptual problems hang on my assumed identity as a thing, a body, a person, a thinker, an agent -- but am I any of these? All of these depend on the idea that I am something, someone. If I am not a something or someone, then all of those problems have no basis or support. It is the belief in my being something or someone that keeps the whole show in operation.

Everything resolves smoothly when the identity of your true nature is absolutely clearly perceived without confusion. Everything goes on just as before, but the referencing of things to a self-center ceases. Then you stand as what you are and always have been.

-- John Wheeler in Shining in Plain View, pg 160


Every thought, action, feeling, every object or concept, arises spontaneously from Source like fragrance from a rose.

Source/IT does you, you do not do IT. This is already and always so. No need to remember or forget, just as you do not have to remember to be present while reading these words; and just as forgetting about being present does not erase the Presence that IS.

-- Leo Hartong in From Self to Self, pg 212


This is the open secret, which all can discover for themselves. We live our lives, as it were 'inside our' projecting the existence of an 'I' as separate from an external world which we try to manipulate to gain satisfaction. But as long as one remains in the dualistic state, one's experience has always underlying it a sense of loss, of fear, of anxiety, and dissatisfaction. When, on the other hand, one goes beyond the dualistic level, anything is possible.

-- Chogyal Namkhai Norbu in The Crystal and the Way of Light


I am not ... my life story, the mind, the body, feelings, experiences of pain or pleasure, struggle, success, or failure. I am not loneliness, stillness, frustration, or compassion. I am not even what I think is my purpose, the seeking, the finding, or anything which is called a spiritual experience.

When I don't know what I am I sanctify these experiences, take ownership of them and give them great significance. I believe they mean something which, once understood, will provide me with answers and formulas. But these experiences are only consciousness concealing and revealing itself in order to be recognized. When I know "what" I am I discover that I am not existence; I am the presence which allows existence to be. Existence either blossoms in that presence or reflects back my sense of separation.

-- Tony Parsons in As It Is - The Open Secret of Spiritual Awakening, pg 71


I am ... the divine expression exactly as I am, right here, right now. You are the divine expression exactly as you are, right here, right now. It is the divine expression, exactly as it is, right here, right now. Nothing, absolutely nothing, needs to be added or taken away. Nothing is more valid or sacred than anything else. No conditions need to be fulfilled. The infinite is not somewhere else waiting for us to become worthy.

I do not have to experience "the dark night of the soul", or surrender, be purified, or go through any kind of change or process. How can the illusory separate self practice something in order to reveal that it is illusory?

I don't need to be serious, honest, dishonest, moral or immoral, aesthetic or gross. There are no reference points. The life story that has apparently happened is uniquely and exactly appropriate for each awakening. All is just as it should be, right now. Not because it is a potential for something better, but simply because all that is is divine expression.

The invitation to discover that there is no one who needs liberating is constant. There is no need to wait for moments of transformation, to look for the non-doer, permanent bliss, an egoless state, or a still mind. I don't even have to wait for grace to descend, for I am, you are, it is already the abiding grace.

-- Tony Parsons in As It Is - The Open Secret of Spiritual Awakening, pg 73


The "secret" is that there is no separation, but it remains a secret as long as we believe we are someone.

You can't see it until you stop looking for it, and simply let "what is" be there.

-- Tony Parsons in As It Is - The Open Secret of Spiritual Awakening, pg 79


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