Who were you before your parents conceived you and before you were given anything?
Before being conceived you could call me a 'no body'. Since being conceived and born you could call me a 'some body'.
You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
Who were you before your parents conceived you and before you were given anything?
Before being conceived you could call me a 'no body'. Since being conceived and born you could call me a 'some body'.
Ah yes, but you are thinking it in terms of the collective. I'm genuinely asking you to tell me who you are? You can't just be a some body or a no body, because then everyone else is that too. What differentiates you from them? ;) I'm hoping everyone will come to the same conclusion without me giving an answer and rather by me asking more questions.
If you mediate on the phrase "I Am" long enough and try to sense what it is you are referring to (without accepting any of the ideas you come up with) what you are referring to will actually disappear, or at least disappear from your consciousness.
When I did this I felt like I disappeared and no longer existed, even though I was aware of "not existing". It is a really interesting experience.
The end result is realizing that I exist in the background of everything that I sense, experience, perceive and express. It can almost be described as a dark emptiness similar to when you close your eyes but lacking less content than that. It's a blissful experience.
I experienced it by following the lessons in this book:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_That
Wow awesome, really great share! That's a great way to describe it
Thank you @scottcbusiness It's an interesting realization but doesn't offer any advantages in life. It won't make a person a saint nor would it ensure their success. But I think our experiences and life events are largely shaped by our desires and the intensity of our desires. Being aware of that can definitely help a person succeed in life. It can also caution a person towards choosing their desires more wisely.
You're right about your life and your desires being more synonymous than people realize. One massive misconception about spirituality, realization, Nirvana, karma, consciousness, etc. is that it SHOULD improve you somehow or benefit you in some way. That is just your ego looking for another leg up and completely side steps the point
I think the misconception happens because of the popularity of the mainstream teachers. The ones I respect plainly say (and said) that there is no difference between them and us, and that self-realization doesn't offer an advantage in life. But their popularity makes it seem like it's their self-realization that got them popular. So people who want to be like them seek self-realization and continue seeking without end since it doesn't get them the results they want.
Agreed, @chrisrice. Ego can very quickly derail a spiritual practise... be it 'oh look at me and how long I can sit quuetly on a cushion' to 'that person in my yoga class does not look as flexible as me. I must get more flexible to be a better yogi'.
Very very true, there is a cost to all things
If you see The One as a collective, then perhaps.
Sure, but I'm just trying to dig further in. Who you are isn't just a no body or a some body, but much deeper than that
Agreed. They seem simply different forms of the same thing to me.
Yeah exactly, but what is under that or behind the form, the form that is formless?
If you knew that definitively and could express it in words then you could start a new religion. 😎
You are exactly right. This is part of the point. That if we CAN'T know. Then it shouldn't burden you. It burdens many. Many have an idea that if they knew, somehow everything would be fixed with that knowledge.
I don't think anyone can know anything with absolute certainty, but it's possible to think you know something and say you know something with absolute certainty (i.e. organized religion). But even if we cannot know anything for certain, it's possible to perceive the formless & nameless.
Another thing worth pointing out is that I don't have any qualities. As the background of all my perceptions, senses and experiences I am basically nothing, some Buddhists call it emptiness.
If everyone else is nothing and emptiness too, there is no one else, just me but witnessing multiple lives, thoughts, experiences, personalities, etc.
@scottcbusiness
Yeah 100%, there is more of no thing than there is of some thing in the reality we perceive.
This is also obvious scientifically. An atom is more than 99% empty space and the space that surronds the planets and stars is greater in size by a lot compared to the size of planets and stars.
100%