#23 Who we are
Who I am - is probably a better title -it has no assumption that this is your truth!Plenty has been written about this.
And most of it here:
Dialogues of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
http://www.maharajnisargadatta.com/I_Am_That.pdf
but though wonderful the written word is just more thinking I suppose unless one actually looks.
I've have been watching thoughts,watching the mind.
And occasionally asking
Who am I?
What am I?
Ive experienced that the mind can only tell me what I am not
And looking without thought tells me who I am
There is knowledge here and answers -but they cannot be written -as this is the world of thought and the mind!
Things to practise
So rather than more words from me try these things -in addition to the #22 post "Getting into the Now"
1.
Watch all thoughts with ..er suspicion..lol
Do not get into them -just see them as 'mere thoughts -without meaning'
"Oh a thought"
...especially the ones that try to explain or query the 'Meaning of Life' and who you are!
Watch thoughts when they arise.
Don't worry if you follow them -just realise what happened when the thought stream stops!
Occasionally ask "Who am I? or what am I? as I've said
Distrust the mind.
2.
Look around and just see the shapes and colours.
Look around without a thought at all .
eg It's a cup, a chair. a table
..and don't 'label' things at all
eg yellow , smooth
Just look around and just see the shapes and colours.
See what happens!
3.
then there's this I wrote earlier!
Who we are
Look at a tree
See the pretty shapes and colours
But don't label it with a thought... 'a tree'
or anything
just look
Thats who you are
That which is looking is who you are
But it's not a "That" is it?
..and it's not really 'looking' is it?
It's nothing yet vast
Look at yr *whole life*....everything you ever were,did or had (be do have) ,everything you ever thought,every emotion you ever felt..
The whole thing..all the John-ness or Jane-ness
Can you see all your life?
all the running around doing stuff and experiencing?
Just look at it all
don't label it as 'has happened'
It just is.....but even that's a label -a thought
Don't label it as anything -
Take a moment -see all of your life...with no labels.
It's not a sucess or a failure or a journey or what I needed or something I attracted or something i created or good or bad or a manifestation of the Divine or a one of a multiplicity or a consciousness experiencing itself or anything that is a thought.
You may know what Life is all about -but I promise you it cannot be ever written!
Don't label anything!
Look at your life
Just look at it
Just look at it
Just look at it
There is only the perception
but less than that!
just look
Now ask yourself:
Who am I?
What am I?
There is no thought that can answer this question, so don't bother to try to find one-just smile :)
That's who you are!
It's so simple people miss it
5....
Er...
Keep doing the above - I wouldn't read about it - you've done that -you've probably read enough!
Stop the thoughts as best you can by simply looking -and when thoughts do arise just watch them without becoming involved, without following inside them perhaps and taking them seriously.
Once you've see the 'place' where there is no thought you can watch them more easily as the 'observer'
6.
See what happens!
It's very very groovy stuff !
Love
'Just looking'
Paloma Porta.
11th May 2012
