I don't know who I am

[DreamBliss]

So I am reading the book, "Seven Steps To Inner Power" by Tae Yun Kim. On page 31, the beginning of Chapter 2, the author says, "Who am I? If I asked you to answer that question right now, what would you say?"

 

So, gamely, I asked myself this question, and the answer I immediately received was, " I don't know." Of course I could give the "correct" answer - I am a physical manifestation of source energy, and perhaps this is what we all truly are in our base essence. But who am I as an individual manifestation of source consciousness? Who is this person in a male body identified with, labeled with and known by a name?

 

The author goes on to say that our answer to the question who am I will be reflected in the lives we live. I can not see the correlation here very clearly, but I suspect I am living a life that is out picturing itself as a the life of a nobody. What I mean by that is I go through life virtually unnoticed by others. I could stand in a room with a group of you Dao Bum members and it is likely that many if not all of you wouldn't even know I was there!

 

So my answer to this question troubles me, and I am not sure what to do about it. Any suggestions?

 

P.S. I am like the character Therese in this scene:

 

Edited February 16, 2019 by DreamBliss

[rideforever]

Perhaps you do know.
Don't rush.   Do you meditate, do you sit with yourself, do you merge with yourself ?
One has to bring oneself out into being, from potential to actual.

This is done partly by sitting with oneself; and partly by meeting life's challenges by expressing oneself.

So, one lives through the wish to become oneself, and more deliberately and consciously, not just drifting.

All the images you had, put them aside.

And deal with actuality, what am I like in action ?   What do I do, and does it feel authentic ?
Notice yourself.
With people you might try pushing a little more, but growing has its own pace and season, but it won't happen by resisting it.

Wishing to become what one is, rather than an image borrowed from others should make things easier.

It is a joy to be what I am.

It is good to do more physically, and emotionally, and with people, but deliberately ... set a programme of self exploration for oneself.

It is good to be a crocodile; then be a mouse; then be an eagle; then be a donkey.
Try, see what happens.

Sing loudly in the shower and don't pretend that you don't piss in the shower like everyone else.

Another thing is that existence can see you, always and everywhere, every thing you do.

So you can speak to existence .... you cannot hide from it.

 

[Fa Xin]

It’s good to say “I don’t know”. It leaves us open to infinite possibilities. 

[sustainablefarm86]

Answer this in the self pity way, the new agey sparkly way, the normal way, the humble way, or what?

 I'm a random guy, just some sort of Thing, I don't know.

 

 

[dawei]

Questioning, "who am I", with emphasis on "I" is a trick question that gets one stuck on duality stuff.  

 

If you answer, "I am the universe..."  what sense do you get ?

 

But you are still using "I"...   so try to answer, "The Universe".  What sense do you get?

 

But you are still using the universe in a dualistic world meaning of concepts... 

 

Who am I?

 

 

 

[DreamBliss]

Well... That cleared that right up!

 

 

I needed to smile, so thank you all for your replies. But I am still troubled by this. Maybe it's a belief thing I adopted from parents/society/religion but I really feel that at 43 orbits around the sun I should know who I am.

 

I don't want to be the person in the room nobody notices anymore, and I don't want to continue living the life I am currently experiencing.

Edited February 17, 2019 by DreamBliss

[Guest ezza]

Mate, if you believe any of the ancient sages, texts, or religions, many of us have been around the block for far more than 43 orbits around the sun. In fact it could be perhaps thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of orbits and we still haven't figured out the answer to the age old question of "Who am I?"

 

That is IMO what the big E of enlightenment is supposedly all about... Who are we really.. Really. hmmm  

 

On a more down to earth level, knowing who you don't want to be is good, as it gives you a starting point for knowing who you do want to be. That's the first slippery slope, but once you have that down you're on to the next slippery slope. Becoming that person..

[Stosh]

I suggest, that you do not believe your answer.

[thelerner]

There are lots of ways to approach Who am I.  I've been working on Adyashanti's I meditation lately.  Feeling the spaciousness of my body and perhaps a little beyond.  On an outbreath saying 'I' and then keeping silent for 2 breaths then repeat.  Not worrying too much about getting the timing right.  The real secret is the emptiness, feeling the echo of I.

 

For me, so far, the lesson is in spaciousness and seeing an egoic I that is a tangle of If/Then programming.  Useful, but a small piece of the greater spaciousness and awareness; my original face. 

 

Know thyself but don't get overly intellectual.  Seems to me the less you blame the past and circumstances the more power you have.   Most of what we are is what we're doing right now. 

 

I thought the first season of Westworld (HBO) was (among other things) an interesting meditation on the 'I' in humanity.  The 2nd got too pointlessly bloody for me. 

[Aaron]

You are the person breathing right now. You know you. Maybe you don't like the you you know and want to be someone different. In the end you will always be you, so embrace yourself and then you can see without ego who you are.

[Everything]

Who I am is constantly changing.
Which is exciting.
Every moment a new gift.
Of a new never before had experience.
Evermore.

[dawei]

22 minutes ago, Everything said:

Who I am is constantly changing.
Which is exciting.
Every moment a new gift.
Of a new never before had experience.
Evermore.

 

That sounds like the existentialist, Sarte.. we are always becoming... 

 

The mind likes such becomings...

[rene]

Who am I?

A woman that lives in the mountains

I breathe the snow and sing the forests

I merge with the rocks and listen

All I am - is what I do.

And it is enough. (-:

[Apech]

On 2/17/2019 at 8:42 AM, DreamBliss said:

Well... That cleared that right up!

 

 

I needed to smile, so thank you all for your replies. But I am still troubled by this. Maybe it's a belief thing I adopted from parents/society/religion but I really feel that at 43 orbits around the sun I should know who I am.

 

I don't want to be the person in the room nobody notices anymore, and I don't want to continue living the life I am currently experiencing.

 

 

Very, very few people know who they are.  This is because the 'who' that we are is beyond concept and form.  We don't really get to know until our consciousness or spirit turns back to itself in self-recognition.  But most of us have not actualised this potential even if we are able to formulate it ourselves.

 

The problem is identification.  Identification tends to lock you into a set of ideas about yourself and the resulting set of emotional tensions around these ideas - or self-concepts.  We are persuaded by the knocks of life into a particular shape - into a mode of activity which is preserving the bundle of concepts and so on which form our ego - like a little prison of our own making.  This makes us feel uncomfortable when the ego is threatened and reduces our scope of action to those which remain in our 'comfort zone'.

 

If you have the feeling of being the person in the room no-one notices then you have to recognise this as an ego power play, its an act of self preservation at a basic level.  It is difficult to jump out of this right away because it is a ring bounded by fear - and fear is energy.  In order to escape you need to run down this energy barrier by taking little steps.  Each time you take a little step then you gain some energy back which sets you up for the next step.  You need to decide quietly in your own place to put yourself deliberately in situations where this feeling is challenged.  Decide on one small step - do it - and then review - with the overall goal of breaking identification with the set of responses you have been dealt (by your parents, your upbringing, society, religion .. what ever).

 

Getting to the point where you don't feel you can continue as you habitually have been doing - is actually, although it might not feel like it, a great opportunity, as few of us genuinely change anything without reaching a state of total dissatisfaction.  Its a ground for change.  If you want to change then start with simple things, change your routines, decide on things you can do to alter your immediate environment and confront uncomfortable situations one by one starting with the 'easiest'.  

 

Just my thoughts as ever

[3bob]

who am I not...?

[whitesilk]

Eye a I?

[manitou]

Say you're the only person sitting in the front row of a movie theater.  The movie that is playing is Your Life in real time.  YOU are the watcher.  The movie is the dream.