Reflection: On a very deep, core level we are a point of awareness in a universe of bliss and compassion. But we don't stay in paradise very long. Being awareness gives way to self awareness which in turn gives birth to personhood. We are now a self with the need for purpose and meaning, respect and value. Being awareness is soon forgotten, hidden beneath the noise of its creation.
Having lost touch with our real center we become a complex web of feelings and thoughts. Our identity shifts from awareness to our body and mind as our true self, leaving us frightened by our mortality, intimidated by the infinity of space and time. We quickly assume a cosmic defensive posture, ready to ally our self with any group or idea offering relief. We are ready to believe and follow, giving up freedom for power, justice for security, love for righteousness, allowing culture to become cult. Paradise wasn't lost. It was simply abandoned for safer ground.
Let's return. Clear away all but awareness. Be nothing more than being and watch compassion and bliss once again fill the emptiness.
Exercise: In this exercise we will continue to ground our self in the experience of "I am."
Intention: I will come to know who I am beneath my personality by consciously experiencing myself as "I am."
Meditation: Once again, as in the previous exercise (see There Is a Beauty Within You #11: Are You More Than Culture Can Speak ), become conscious of the location of yourself in the area of the frontal lobe, just behind the center of your high forehead. As we saw in the last exercise we each are a point of awareness capable being self-aware and generating thoughts. The thought we are going to center on now is "I am." Let everything else go - your problems and successes, your fears and your loves. For the moment just stay with the thought, "I am." Appreciate the mystery of yourself - a point of awareness that is self-aware and capable of thinking. You are a point of consciousness. Let yourself rest in the miracle of your existence - "I am."
Inquiry: What was it like to let go of everything except the fact of your existence, of being a point of awareness, of "I am?"
Intention Renewal: Renew your intention for this exercise. I will come to know who I am beneath my personality by consciously experiencing myself as "I am." Give this intention permission to unfold within you.
Service: Practice honoring the being of each person you meet, appreciating the miracle of their existence first and foremost. Let their relationship with you, their role, or function in your life come second.
Background Reading: I Am That, Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, The Acorn Press, 2008.
Spirituality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
spirituality.com | from The Christian Science Publishing Society
What's Your Spiritual Type - Beliefnet Quizzes
Holistic Living - Beliefnet.com
Spirituality: Muslims and Christians may one day get along
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"...allowi
by talking about how this "I Am" exercise helps us step back from the cult of culture to regain not just our true self but the bliss of paradise! it's such an important point, i'd love to hear more of your thoughts on it!!
thanks again
william
I'm not sure that's the whole story - wasn't there something about quickening power?
Bob
'We know no time when we were not as now;
Know none before us, self-begot
By our own quick'ning power, when fatal course
Had circl'd his full Orb, the birth mature
Of this our native Heav'n, Ethereal Sons.
Our puissance is our own, our own right hand
Shall teach us highest deeds, by proof to try
Who is our equal.'