Identity Check
I’ve been thinking about the simplicity of Ramana Maharishi’s teaching lately:
If you inquire ‘Who am I?’
the mind will return to its source.
As you practice this more and more, the power of the mind to remain at its source increases.
So I’ve been looking into my self identity, and I’m finding it’s difficult to pin down.
Which seems to be the point.
I seem to be convinced there’s an entity identified as David to whom the term “I” applies. But on exploration there only seems to be a prefabricated construct somewhere in my mind which espouses that conviction without evidence.
Like someone built a conceptual robot named David and gave it a home in my mind. Then it drew boundaries around the limits of its robot perceptions and made itself the ruler of that tiny, arbitrary kingdom.
But in “my” explorations “I” haven’t found any geographic or conceptual limit to what “my” bodymind can experience. Which would make it a mistake to attach identity to that robot with its limited and therefore inaccurate perception of “me”. (“Me,” “my,” and “I” seem to be meaningless in this context.)
What Ramana Maharishi seems to say is by having the robot David look for this elusive sense of identity, the robot will unravel and deconstruct its own artificial inner workings until identity disappears and only awareness remains. Not awareness of “me”. Just awareness.
Like I said, it’s difficult to pin down.
Photo by Noah Buscher