I recently asked a friend the fundamental question: "Who are you?"

His reply was: "The answer I have right now is just experience... birth and death are just events in it."

This is a common and significant starting point in inquiry. However, while it sounds non-dual, it often hides a subtle trap. Usually, when we use the word "experience," we are referring to the stream of the five senses, thoughts, and perceptions. But resting in the content of experience is not the same as discovering the basis of it.

Nafis Rahman, the editor of the Awakening to Reality Practice Guide, also pointed out this common error:

"Despite all the pointers in the I AM section I noticed that people still make the mistake of looking outwards or focusing on the sense-gates when practicing self-enquiry."

This is a very common misunderstanding. Many people misunderstand the purpose of self-enquiry, thinking it is about noticing the flow of sensations. I shared with him what I had recently written to another friend who was stuck in a similar trap:

"When you practice self enquiry, the purpose is to discover the Source of your being. So it is different from 'just sensations'. But discovering what is prior to all the five senses and conceptual thoughts."

When my friend then asked how to proceed—whether to simply look at their nature or trace them—I advised:

“Just find out the source. Find out what you are. Or you can contemplate: 'Before birth, who am I?'”

The purpose of self-enquiry is not to analyze the five senses or memorize dharma concepts, but to discover the Source of your being.

This conversation brings to mind a detailed email I sent recently regarding a common pitfall in this investigation: the trap of mistaking a "subtle sensation" for the Self.

The "Subtle Sensation" Trap in Self-Inquiry

Someone recently wrote about a recurring issue. They had attended a retreat where a teacher confirmed that the "I am" sense could be located as a "subtle sensation" within. For a long time, this reader wrestled with this instruction. Whenever they investigated, they found a "sensation and something else that isn't something," but fear would arise, causing them to reflexively pull back.

Seeking clarity, the reader consulted an AI chatbot (Grok) about this "subtle sensation." The AI identified it as "knowingness" or "bare awareness" (citing terms like rigpa or citta-pabhā) and described it as a final veil. The reader found this helpful, assuming this sensation was indeed the final barrier.

Why AI Gets It Wrong

I am an AI enthusiast, but I must be blunt: Large Language Models (LLMs) like Grok, ChatGPT, and Gemini are often misleading when it comes to the nuances of spiritual awakening. I have tested them with similar questions, and the responses are consistently disappointing.

The AI validated the reader's "subtle sensation" as "Luminous Mind." This is incorrect.

The sense of self you initially identify—that "first impression of a very subtle sensation"—is not the I AM, the Witness, or the Luminous Mind. It is almost always a coarse sense of self (or what Ramana Maharshi calls the I-thought). When you investigate it, it appears localized—perhaps in the head, the chest, or vaguely "inside" the body.

That is not who you truly are.

That localized sense is still an object of awareness. It comes and goes. Therefore, it must be negated in self-enquiry (Neti Neti—not this, not that). You must push the inquiry further:

• Who or what is aware of this sensation?
• If I am aware of it, I cannot be it.

(For a clear walkthrough of this, I highly recommend Dr. Greg Goode’s video: “A Guided Self-Inquiry Exercise - Greg Goode”).

The Importance of Neti Neti: The Process of Discovery

Why is Neti Neti ("Not this, Not that") so crucial in this phase?

As I detailed in the article Self-Enquiry, Neti Neti, and Process of Discovery, we must understand that the "I" we are looking for is not an object.

The mind is habituated to grasping at forms—thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations. When we ask "Who am I?", the mind immediately tries to offer up a candidate: "I am this body," "I am this feeling of existence in the chest," "I am this thinker."

Neti Neti is the sword that cuts through these false identifications. It is not about entering a blank trance, but about rigorously discerning the Seer from the Seen.

• Dis-identification: Every time you find a "self" that can be observed (a sensation, a thought, a location), you must negate it. "I am aware of this sensation; therefore, I am not it."
• Tracing Back: By negating the objects, you withdraw your attention from the content of consciousness back to the fact of consciousness.
• The Collapse: Eventually, the mind runs out of objects to cling to. It cannot find the "I" as a thing. This failure of the mind to find an object is the doorway. When the search for a limited self collapses, what remains is not nothingness, but the shining, borderless Presence that was there all along.

Without this process of negation, one risks settling on a subtle object (like the "subtle sensation" mentioned above) and mistaking it for the Self. You must go all the way until there is nothing perceivable left to negate, leaving only the undeniable Knowingness itself.

As John Tan said before, “you cannot know the “Ultimate Source” without the process of elimination”. What does it eliminate? The conceptual identification of self with various mentally constructed and perceived objects. This is why "before birth" is asked, as it directs the mind to this elimination. And what does that elimination reveal? Who am I, what is this radiant Being that stands alone revealed after that process of elimination?

Ramana Maharshi said:

If a thought arises ("I am doing this right"), notice it, discard it, and return to the feeling of Being. If a sensation arises, notice it, discard it, and return to the feeling of Being.

The Final Pointer: You cannot find the Self as an object in front of you. You are the Self looking. When you strip away everything that isn't you (objects, body, thoughts, feelings), what remains is not a void. What remains is Presence. It is radiant, clear, and undeniably real. It is not "your" presence; it is just Presence.

At first, you start to have passing glimpses of this Beingness or pure sense of Existence. Eventually, a complete and total doubtless certainty of Beingness or Existence dawns, and that is the "I AM" realization.

“I was doing self inquiry yesterday with my back straight and legs crossed in the position of sitting meditation, contemplating 'Who am I', 'Before Birth Who am I'... with an intense desire to know the truth of my being. As the thoughts subside, an intense and palpable sense of beingness and presence, the only 'thing' that remains that I feel to be my innermost essence... became very obvious... very very vivid and intense, and feels like a constant background in which everything is taking place, thoughts (almost none at that moment, but arise afterwards) that arise are also taking place in this unchanging background... and there is this certainty and doubtlessness about this I AM-ness, IT is absolutely real and undeniable. IT/I AMness/The Witness is the only solid and undoubtable Presence and is clearly present with or without thoughts.” - Soh’s E-Book & Journal, February 2010 entry

Don't Jump to Anatman: The Necessity of I AM

There is a common tendency among Buddhist practitioners to try to skip the realization of "I AM" (Pure Presence) and jump straight to contemplating Anatta (No-Self) or Impermanence. This is a mistake for those taking up the Direct Path.

It is crucial at the beginning to realize the luminous clear aspect of Mind or Pure Presence. Otherwise, whatever experience or glimpses of no-self one has is not the sort of Anatta expressed in Awakening to Reality, as explained in the article Anatta and Pure Presence.

In that article, I responded to someone who claimed to have gone through insights of no-self and then "progressed" to a realization of the ground of being. My reply was:

"This is the I AM realization. Had that realisation after contemplating 'Before birth, who am I?' For two years. It’s an important realization. Many people had insights into certain aspects of no self, impersonality, and 'dry non dual experience' without doubtless realization of Presence. Therefore I AM realisation is a progression for them.

Similarly in Zen, asking 'who am I' is to directly experience presence. How about asking a koan of 'what is the cup?' What is the chirping bird, the thunder clap? What is its purpose?

When I talked about anatta, it is a direct insight of Presence and recognizing what we called background presence, is in the forms and colours, sounds and sensations, clean and pure. Authentication is be authenticated by all things. Also there is no presence other than that. What we call background is really just an image of foreground Presence, even when Presence is assuming its subtle formless all pervasiveness.

However due to ignorance, we have a very inherent and dual view, if we don't see through the nature of presence, the mind continues to be influenced by dualistic and inherent tendencies. Many teach to overcome it through mere non conceptuality but this is highly misleading."

In the Awakening to Reality Practice Guide, I also specifically addressed this issue:

"Some people wonder if it is necessary to go through the I AM realization before they realize further stages of insight like Anatta (Stage 5). While possible, it is easy to miss out certain aspects like the luminous Presence. One can have non-dual experiences but it is dry and barren without the luminous taste of Presence-Awareness. Furthermore, as discussed towards the end of this document, the stages are not to be seen as purely linear progression nor as a measurement of importance -- even the first phase of I AM Realization is important as it brings out the luminous essence."

As I have emphasized elsewhere regarding the importance of not bypassing this stage:

"It is actually very important to have the direct realization of one's radiance, one's pristine consciousness or pure Presence. Without which, one's experience of no-self will be skewed to non-doership and one will not experience pellucid non-dual luminosity. That is not considered genuine realization of anatman in AtR."

Thusness (John Tan) also wrote regarding this specific necessity:

"The anatta I realized is quite unique. It is not just a realization of no-self. But it must first have an intuitive insight of Presence. Otherwise will have to reverse the phases of insights."

The True 'I AM' Realization

The true I AM realization is not a vague sense of an individualized being somewhere in the body, but rather refers to a non-dual realization of all-pervasive Presence.

Sim Pern Chong, who went through similar insights, wrote a few years ago:

"Just my opinion... For my case, the first time i experienced a definitive I AM presence, there was zero thought. just a borderless, all pervading presence. In fact, there was no thinking or looking out for whether this is I AM or not. There was no conceptual activity. It was interpreted as 'I AM' only after that experience. To me, I AM experience is actually a glimpse of the way reality is.. but it is quickly re-interpreted. The attribute of 'borderlessness' is experienced. but other 'attributes such as 'no subject-object', 'transparent luminosity, emptiness are not understood yet. My take, is that when 'I AM' is experienced, you will be doubtless that it is the experience."

Sim Pern Chong wrote in 2004 during his I AM phase:

“Who are we? Really

“The Matrix” is one movie that got many a viewer pondering on the nature of reality. I, for one, am a great fan of The Matrix. In many ways, although not exactly true or that diabolical, the movie is symbolic of the nature of reality. Many a times, meditation allows one to catch glimpses beyond the ordinary. There are some meditation sessions that literally redefined my identity and altered my perception of the world. I must emphasize that meditation is the major modality that helped me to understand myself better.  

The Eternal Watcher- The True Identity

In one ‘awakening’ meditation, I came to a state of no thoughts. Such experiences are very hard to describe. This is because the explanation process itself, is within the medium of thoughts and concepts. It is impossible to describe a state of no thoughts using thoughts! Anyway, in the void of no thoughts, one naturally assume that everything must be an unconscious blank. However, that was not the case! What came next was quite a revelation to me. In the void of no thought, I perceived myself to be a Presence... Here's how I will describe myself.

"The Presence is all pervasive, yet un-intrusive. He seems to be in all things and observes with utter passiveness. He exists beyond concepts, beliefs and do not need any form. Therefore, I understand him as eternal.

He also seems to be the subtler state of myself. I also got the feeling that he existed in all my lifetimes or even more. If I were to name him, I will describe him as The Eternal Watcher.”

You can say that I was completely blown away by the experience. The ‘discovery’ of the Eternal Watcher was a very important event that completely changed the way I understood consciousness. It also made me contemplated very deeply and seriously about the possible existence of the Divine. These spurred me on an ardent search to understand and make sense of it all. I corresponded with whoever I think can help me unlock the mystery. These people included clairvoyants, other meditators, people on spiritual paths and new-agers. 

From these investigations, it was discovered that others have had similar experiences as well. Based on the consistency and plurality of the descriptions by others, something becomes very certain to me. That is, a human being is much more than a body that can talk and think. The Human Personality, which is our character, is only an outer consciousness of the human. With regard to our identity, our personality is merely the tip of the iceberg. Within the human being’s psyche lie much subtler and often-obscured levels of consciousness. I believe these inner consciousnesses could be the different depths of the Soul or levels of being-ness even more profound than that. About the Eternal Watcher, he is ever present. You didn’t see him doesn’t means he is not there. Because the Presence is so close to the mind, it is not easily perceived.

Perceiving the Eternal Watcher was achieved through the relaxed observation of my own breath. The ultra-relaxed observation eventually becomes a purely passive allowance for thoughts to pass through my consciousness. This, in turn, led to a gradual shutting down of the mental processes of my physical brain cumulating into a state of ‘no-thoughts’. Beyond the transitional phase of ‘no-thoughts’, I became the Eternal Watcher. Experiencing the Eternal Watcher is not an exercise that I can easily brush off as inconsequential. It is not possible for me to assume that my perception of existence and life can be the same as before. Doing so will be blatantly self-deceiving. To me, the most profound experiences where not from doing something. They came from doing nothing.

I believed the Eternal Watcher is the individualized God/Source Presence within oneself. I also believe this Presence is Rigpa as described in Tibetan Buddhism. Some people suggest that the Presence is the same as the Oversoul. However, I am not too sure about this. I hope I am not confusing you. In any case, the only way to validate all these is to personally experience the Presence (Eternal Watcher) and these states for oneself. 

That ‘no-thought experience’ was not the only mystical meditative experience. I have also experienced being a vast ocean of bliss. Ironically, the meditations that were attempted with an agenda of wanting to experience something mystical are the ones that are the least successful. Expectation puts a limit on how far one’s consciousness can go. For me, it was better to keep an open mind before sitting down to Meditate.” 

John Tan also described the nature of this realization in detail:

"John Tan: We call it the presence or we call it, um, we call it the presence. (Speaker: is it the I AM?) I AM is actually different. It's also presence. It's also presence. I AM, depending on... You see the definition of I AM also not really the same for some people, like Geovani? He actually wrote to me saying that his I AM is like localized in the head. So it's very individual. But that is not the I AM that we are talking about. The I AM is actually a very uh, like for example, I think, Long Chen (Sim Pern Chong) actually went through. It's actually all encompassing. It's actually what we call a non-dual experience. There's no thoughts. It's just a pure sense of existence. And it can be a very powerful. It is indeed a very powerful experience. So when, let's say when you are. When you're very young. Especially when you are [at] my age. When you first experience I AM, it is very different. It's a very different experience. We never experienced that before. So, um, I don't know whether it can be even considered as an experience. Um, because there is no thoughts. It's just Presence. But this presence is very quickly misinterpreted due to our karmic tendency to of understanding something in a dualistic and in a in a very concrete manner. So very when we experience the we have the experience, the interpretation is very different. And that the wrong way of interpretation actually create a very dualistic experience." - Excerpt from AtR (Awakening to Reality) Meeting, March 2021

It is this very all-pervasive Presence that is then mistaken as the ultimate background, the ground of being for all phenomena to pop in and out while itself being unchanged and unaffected. Further insights are required to reveal its non-dual and empty nature. Elaborated in: The Mistaken Reality of Amness.

The Direct Path: Don't Downplay the 'I'

It is important not to mistake this 'neti neti' process that is part and parcel of self-enquiry with the Buddhist Anatman teaching. They are two different things. In Neti Neti and Self-Enquiry, the purpose is directed to realizing what Presence-Awareness is, what your Self is, what the Source is. You cannot downplay the Self. You can put aside Buddhist No-Self or contemplation on impermanence or no-self aside until later on, if inquiry and direct path is your approach.

As John Tan said (Posts by Thusness/PasserBy in 2009 DhO 1.0):

“Hi Gary,
It appears that there are two groups of practitioners in this forum, one adopting the gradual approach and the other, the direct path. I am quite new here so I may be wrong.

My take is that you are adopting a gradual approach yet you are experiencing something very significant in the direct path, that is, the ‘Watcher’. As what Kenneth said, “You're onto something very big here, Gary. This practice will set you free.” But what Kenneth said would require you to be awaken to this ‘I’. It requires you to have the ‘eureka!’ sort of realization. Awaken to this ‘I’, the path of spirituality becomes clear; it is simply the unfolding of this ‘I’.

On the other hand, what that is described by Yabaxoule is a gradual approach and therefore there is downplaying of the ‘I AM’. You have to gauge your own conditions, if you choose the direct path, you cannot downplay this ‘I’; contrary, you must fully and completely experience the whole of ‘YOU’ as ‘Existence’. Emptiness nature of our pristine nature will step in for the direct path practitioners when they come face to face to the ‘traceless’, ‘centerless’ and ‘effortless’ nature of non-dual awareness.

Perhaps a little on where the two approaches meet will be of help to you.

Awakening to the ‘Watcher’ will at the same time ‘open’ the ‘eye of immediacy’; that is, it is the capacity to immediately penetrate discursive thoughts and sense, feel, perceive without intermediary the perceived. It is a kind of direct knowing. You must be deeply aware of this “direct without intermediary” sort of perception -- too direct to have subject-object gap, too short to have time, too simple to have thoughts. It is the ‘eye’ that can see the whole of ‘sound’ by being ‘sound’. It is the same ‘eye’ that is required when doing vipassana, that is, being ‘bare’. Be it non-dual or vipassana, both require the opening of this 'eye of immediacy'”

---

Adyashanti on The Art of Self-Inquiry

Since you are interested in Adyashanti, his teachings on inquiry parallel this progression perfectly. The following is a relevant passage from his work, The Art of Self-Inquiry:

WHAT IS A SPIRITUALLY POWERFUL QUESTION? Meditative self-inquiry is the art of asking a spiritually powerful question. And a question that is spiritually powerful always points us back to ourselves. Because the most important thing that leads to spiritual awakening is to discover who and what we are—to wake up from this dream state, this trance state of identification with ego. And for this awakening to occur, there needs to be some transformative energy that can flash into consciousness. It needs to be an energy that is actually powerful enough to awaken consciousness out of its trance of separateness into the truth of our being. Inquiry is an active engagement with our own experience that can cultivate this flash of spiritual insight...

THE WAY OF SUBTRACTION: Before we actually find out what we are, we must first find out what we are not. Otherwise our assumptions will continue to contaminate the whole investigation. We could call this the way of subtraction. In the Christian tradition, they call this the Via Negativa, the negative path. In the Hindu tradition of Vedanta, they call this neti neti, which means “not this, not that.” These are all paths of subtraction, ways of finding out what we are by finding out what we are not...

WHO IS AWARE? No sooner do we get back to awareness itself than we encounter the primary assumption that “I am the one who is aware.” So we investigate that assumption, and discover time and time again that we cannot find out who it is that is aware. Where is this “I” that is aware? It is at this precise moment—the moment when we realize that we cannot find an entity called “me” who owns or possesses awareness—that it starts to dawn on us that maybe we ourselves are awareness itself...

THE GREAT INCLUSION: After the Way of Subtraction comes what I call the Great Inclusion. When we start to let go into awareness or spirit, we start to recognize that that is who and what we are. We start to see that everything in existence is simply a manifestation or expression of spirit, whether it’s the chair, or the floor, or your shoes, or the trees outside, the sky, the body that you call “you,” the mind, the ego, the personality, everything—all are expressions of spirit.

THAT WHICH REMAINS THE SAME: Nobody can force this flash of recognition into being. It happens spontaneously. It happens by itself. But what we can do is cultivate the ground and create the conditions under which this flash of recognition happens. We can open our minds to deeper possibilities and start to investigate for ourselves what we really and truly are... Ramana Maharshi had a saying, “Let what comes come; let what goes go. Find out what remains.” - Adyashanti

Note: The "Great Inclusion" marks the beginning of non-dual realization. Full Anatta (No-Self) usually becomes clear later—often through contemplating the Two Stanzas of Anatta—but it starts here with the inclusion of all phenomena in awareness.

Something I always say when you are doing self enquiry or any other contemplations and meditations, this is crucial—and Adyashanti puts it perfectly:

"We think it's all about like, again, because of our modern mind, we almost think everything can be solved through some sort of technology. Right, oh, I just need to do it different, there must be some secret trick to inquiry, that's our technological mind-set. Sometimes that's a mindset that is very useful to us. But, we don't want to let that dominate our spirituality. Because as I witnessed, the intensity of the living inquiry that's more important than all the techniques. When somebody Just Has To Know. Even if that's kind of driving them half crazy for a while. And, that attitude is as important or more important than all the ways we work with that attitude, you know, the spiritual practices, the meditations and various inquiries and various different things, sort of practices. If we engage in the practices because they are practices, you know like, ok I just do these because this is what I'm told to do, and hopefully it will have some good effect. That's different than being engaged, when you're actually being deeply interested in what you're inquiring about, and what you're actually meditating upon. It's that quality of real, actual interest, something even more than interest. It is a kind of compulsion, I know I was saying earlier don't get taken in by compulsion, but there is/can be a kind of compulsion. And that's as valuable as anything else going on in you, actually." - Adyashanti

For those navigating this territory, please refer to the Awakening to Reality Practice Guide. Remember, the words are just pointers; the point is to discover the reality they point to.

---

Excerpt from the AtR Guide

Someone asked, “Clarification on the practice of koan/hua-tou/self inquiry. Is the emphasis, the focus, placed on the moment before the koan is asked, or is it placed on the doubt/inquisitiveness that arises by asking the koan, or both? Reading Xu Yun, it seems that the practice is to create as much doubt as possible and looking into that doubt that arises from the questioning? There are some other descriptions however that state that to be a hua-tou the focus/looking-into should be done in that moment before the thought arises?”

Soh replied: “In Self Enquiry, I asked 'Before birth, Who am I?' The point of self enquiry is really to investigate (and this process of investigation consists of an earnest curiosity and inquisitiveness) and direct the mind to the Source. The Source which is prior to everything — thoughts, perceptions, etc. So that That which is what you truly are, the I AM prior to 'I am this' or 'I am that', can be directly realized in complete certainty without a trace of doubt.

Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I AM”. That I AM that I AM is what's present five millennia ago, present five minutes ago, present Now, present before the koan is asked, in fact the original face before your parents were born, before the big bang, before time and space, before everything perceivable and conceivable.

The purpose of generating doubt is not to create endless doubt but to direct the mind to the Source so that the very doubt resolves into the Doubtless Self/Beingness that is revealed in its shining radiance. The doubt is itself the inquisitiveness and curiosity (an important key element to successful self-enquiry — otherwise the thought 'Who am I?' will just be a monotonous and robotic mental chanting like a mantra rather than lead the mind to the Source) to really find out the truth of your Being.

You have to ask 'Who am I?' like you really, really mean it, like you really, really want to find out what you truly are at the core of your Being and unlock the secret of Existence. Like, what the hell, after all these years living on this planet, what is at the core of this wondrous Life itself? What is this Existence? What am I??? I've seen many things in life and lived for so many years, but WHO is living this Life? Who is seeing, hearing, smelling? Who is dragging this corpse along? That's the meaning of doubt, nothing else.

To use an analogy of Ramana Maharshi, the doubt is the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre, to be finally dissolved in the end (into the Source).

'The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry "Who am I?". The thought "Who am I?", destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre.' — Ramana Maharshi”

Someone else asked, “Why is 'before birth, what am I?' being advocated? Why would we assume we were anything 'before birth'?”

Soh replied: “Before any observable five senses or conceptual phenomena, what are you? There is a doubtless Presence before senses. But don’t intellectualize the question or ponder conceptually while enquiring. The purpose of self-enquiry is to have a direct non-conceptual realization of Self/Presence, so any conceptual rumination will be an obstruction during the practice of self-enquiring."

When the Body Disappears

"Remember 'con men,' 'con women' as well. These con men can sell you anything! There's one living in your mind right now, and you believe every word he says! His name is Thinking. When you let go of that inner talk and get silent, you get happy. Then when you let go of the movement of the mind and stay with the breath, you experience even more delight. Then when you let go of the body, all these five senses disappear and you're really blissing out. This is original Buddhism. Sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch completely vanish. This is like being in a sensory deprivation chamber but much better. But it's not just silence, you just don't hear anything. It's not just blackness, you just don't see anything. It's not just a feeling of comfort in the body, there is no body at all.

When the body disappears that really starts to feel great. You know of all those people who have out-of-body experiences? When the body dies, every person has that experience, they float out of the body. And one of the things they always say is it's so peaceful, so beautiful, so blissful. It's the same in meditation when the body disappears, it's so peaceful, so beautiful, so blissful when you are free from this body. What's left? Here there's no sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. This is what the Buddha called the mind in deep meditation. When the body disappears what is left is the mind.

I gave a simile to a monk the other night. Imagine an Emperor who is wearing a long pair of trousers and a big tunic. He's got shoes on his feet, a scarf around the bottom half of his head and a hat on the top half of his head. You can't see him at all because he's completely covered in five garments. It's the same with the mind. It's completely covered with sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. So people don't know it. They just know the garments. When they see the Emperor, they just see the robes and the garments. They don't know who lives inside them. And so it is no wonder they're confused about what is life, what is mind, who is this inside of here, where did I come from? Why? What am I supposed to be doing with this life? When the five senses disappear, it's like unclothing the Emperor and seeing what is actually in here, what's actually running the show, who's listening to these words, who's seeing, who's feeling life, who this is. When the five senses disappear, you're coming close to the answer to those questions.

What you're seeing in such deep meditation is that which we call "mind," (in Pali it's called Citta). The Buddha used this beautiful simile. When there is a full moon on a cloudy night, even though it's a full moon, you can hardly see it. Sometimes when the clouds are thin, you can see this hazy shape shining though. You know there is something there. This is like the meditation just before you've entered into these profound states. You know there is something there, but you can't quite make it out. There's still some "clothes" left. You're still thinking and doing, feeling the body or hearing sounds. But there does come a time, and this is the Buddha's simile, when the moon is released from the clouds and there in the clear night sky you can see the beautiful full disc of the moon shining brilliantly, and you know that's the moon. The moon is there; the moon is real, and it's not just some sort of side effect of the clouds. This is what happens in meditation when you see the mind. You see clearly that the mind is not some side effect of the brain. You see the mind, and you know the mind. The Buddha said that the mind released is beautiful, is brilliant, is radiant. So not only are these blissful experiences, they're meaningful experiences as well. 

How many people may have heard about rebirth but still don't really believe it? How can rebirth happen? Certainly the body doesn't get reborn. That's why when people ask me where do you go when you die, "one of two places" I say "Fremantle or Karrakatta" that's where the body goes! [3] But is that where the mind goes? Sometimes people are so stupid in this world, they think the body is all there is, that there is no mind. So when you get cremated or buried that's it, that's done with, all has ended. The only way you can argue with this view is by developing the meditation that the Buddha achieved under the Bodhi tree. Then you can see the mind for yourself in clear awareness - not in some hypnotic trance, not in dullness - but in the clear awareness. This is knowing the mind

Knowing the Mind.

When you know that mind, when you see it for yourself, one of the results will be an insight that the mind is independent of this body. Independence means that when this body breaks up and dies, when it's cremated or when it's buried, or however it's destroyed after death, it will not affect the mind. You know this because you see the nature of the mind. That mind which you see will transcend bodily death. The first thing which you will see for yourself, the insight which is as clear as the nose on your face, is that there is something more to life than this physical body that we take to be me. Secondly you can recognise that that mind, essentially, is no different than that process of consciousness which is in all beings. Whether it's human beings or animals or even insects, of any gender, age or race, you see that that which is in common to all life is this mind, this consciousness, the source of doing.

Once you see that, you have much more respect for your fellow beings. Not just respect for your own race, your own tribe or your own religion, not just for human beings, but for all beings. It's a wonderfully high-minded idea. "May all beings be happy and well and may we respect all nations, all peoples, even all beings." However this is how you achieve that! You truly get compassion only when we see that others are fundamentally just as ourselves. If you think that a cow is completely different from you, that cows don't think like human beings, then it's easy to eat one. But can you eat your grandmother? She's too much like you. Can you eat an ant? Maybe you'd kill an ant because you think that ants aren't like you. But if you look carefully at ants, they are no different. In a forest monastery living out in the bush, close to nature, one of the things you become so convinced of is that animals have emotions and , especially, feel pain. You begin to recognise the personality of the animals, of the kookaburras, of the mice, the ants, and the spiders. Each one of those spiders has a mind just like you have. Once you see that you can understand the Buddha's compassion for all beings. You can also understand how rebirth can occur between all species - not just human beings to human beings, but animals to humans, humans to animals. You can understand also how the mind is the source of all this. 

The mind can exist even without a body in the realms of ghosts and angels (what we call in Buddhism Devas). It becomes very clear to you how they exist, why they exist, what they are. These are insights and understandings which come from deep meditation. But more than that, when you know the nature of the mind then you know the nature of consciousness. You know the nature of stillness. You know the nature of life. You understand what makes this mind go round and round and round, what makes this mind seek rebirth. You understand the law of Kamma." - Ajahn Brahmavamso, https://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebmed065.htm

However, it should be noted that it is not necessary to enter certain states of meditation to shut off the five senses before realizing I AM. As Ramana Maharshi said before, it is not necessary to lose body consciousness to realize Self, although doing so simply intensifies the samadhi or absorption in Self.

Undoubtedly Present and Aware

“Right now, as you read this, you exist and you are aware that you exist. You are undoubtedly present and aware. Before the next thought arises, you are absolutely certain of the fact of your own being, your own awareness, your own presence. This awareness is what you are; it is what you always have been. All thoughts, perceptions, sensations and feelings appear within or upon that. This awareness does not move, change or shift at any time. It is always free and completely untouched. However, it is not a thing or an object that you can see or grasp. The mind, being simply thoughts arising in awareness, cannot grasp it or know it or even think about it. Yet, as Bob says, you cannot deny the fact of your own being. It is palpably obvious, and yet, from the time we were born, no one has pointed this out. Once it is pointed out it can be grasped or understood very quickly because it is just a matter of noticing, ‘Oh, that is what I am!’ It is a bright, luminous, empty, presence of awareness; it is absolutely radiant, yet without form; it is seemingly intangible, but the most solid fact in your existence; it is effortlessly here right now, forever untouched. Without taking a step, you have arrived; you are home. No practice can reveal this because practices are in time and in the mind. Practices aim at a result, but you (as presence-awareness) are here already, only you don’t recognize it till it is pointed out. Once seen, you can’t lose it, and you don’t have to practice to exist, to be. This is, in essence, what Bob pointed out to me in the first conversation I had with him.

Once I saw this, I felt very clear and free immediately. Later, some thoughts came up, some old personality patterns, some old definitions of who I thought myself to be. I seemed to lose the clear understanding of my nature as presence-awareness. The next day, I talked to Bob about it. He said, ‘Let’s have a look. Do you exist? Are you aware? What is illumining the thought that you have lost it?’ Then I realized that thoughts of suffering were only passing concepts being illumined by the ever-present awareness. I hadn’t lost anything at all. The awareness that we are is never obscured! Suffering seems real because we don’t have a clear understanding of our true nature. Instead, we believe the passing thoughts, such as ‘I am no good,’ ‘I am not there yet,’ ‘I am stuck’ or whatever the thought may be. Eventually we understand that we are not those thoughts. Once our real self is pointed out, the suffering loses its grip.

Bob pointed out that there is no person here at all. The person that we think we are is an imaginary concept. There are thoughts and feelings and perceptions, but they are not a problem. They just rise and fall like dust motes in the light of the presence-awareness that we are.

The closest that the mind can come to representing who we are is the thought ‘I am’. But that thought is not who we really are. Whether that thought is there or not, we still exist. We know the thought ‘I am’. That thought is the start of the false sense of an individual, a separate ‘I’. Because we didn’t know any better, the mind attached other labels to this ‘I’ thought, such as ‘I am good,’ ‘I am bad,’ ‘I have this problem,’ and so on. But those thoughts don’t have anything to do with us, because the very ‘I’ thought itself, the sense of separation, is not actually who we are. Once you see the falseness of the ‘I’ thought, that what we are is not an individual person at all, the identifications and ideas of a lifetime all collapse because they are all based on a false premise.” - John Wheeler

The Original Face

"What is the Original Face? It is the face all of us have before our parents gave birth to us. Before we even have the 6 sense organs of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body & brain to perceive the 6 sense objects of form, sound, smell, taste, feeling & thought. Before we even know good & evil, happiness & suffering, samsara & nirvana. Simply the pure awareness untainted by all 6 senses - that is the real YOU. That is also me, that is also all sentient beings & all Buddhas.

This is the Dharma that the 6th Patriarch revealed to his pursuer Hui Ming on Da Yu mountain. By temporarily shutting down your 6 sense organs and blocking out the 6 sense objects, by abandoning duality, what is left at that instant is your true nature. Like the still lake without a single ripple, or like the clear blue sky without a single cloud; the original face is vast, limitless, formless & completely free. It is not dull nothingness like an unconscious person, but a living, unmoving awareness that pervades all things, yet remaining unaffected by all things. Besides this, there is no other esoteric teachings that the Buddha & the Patriarchs can impart to us.

But alas, for all of us, after we have picked up a physical body in our mother's womb, we have totally forgotten our original face. We started to grasp on to our sense organs, believing that to be our Self, our Ego. This is where the ignorance without a beginning - Avijja takes over. When our sense organs contact the sense objects, we instinctively allow the objects to enslave the organs, such that craving & aversion develops without an end, engulfing the entire universe. From Avijja arises craving & aversion, & from craving & aversion arises endless suffering.

Thus realizing this, the Zen practitioner should, in a single thought understand his or her own mistake, & immediately detach oneself from one's senses & its objects from within. Throwing away all concepts, directly penetrate the veil of Avijja & recover your original face. This is the common hope of all Buddhas & Patriarchs for all sentient beings. Let none of us disappoint them, Sadhu." - Wayne

Also See: https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2024/05/self-enquiry-neti-neti-and-process-of.html

最近我问了一位朋友这个根本的问题：“你是谁？”

他的回答是：“我现在拥有的答案仅仅是体验……生与死只是其中的事件。”

这是一个常见且重要的探究起点。然而，尽管这听起来很非二元，但往往隐藏着一个微妙的陷阱。通常，当我们使用“体验”一词时，我们指的是五感、思想和知觉之流。但是，安住于体验的内容中，并不等同于发现它的基础/本源。

这是一个非常普遍的误解。许多人误解了自我参究的目的，以为它是关于觉察觉受的流动。我与他分享了我最近写给另一位陷入类似陷阱的朋友的内容：

“当你修习自我参究时，其目的是发现你存在的本源。所以它不同于‘仅仅是觉受’。而是发现那先于所有五感和概念思维的东西。”

当我的朋友随后问如何进行——是简单地看它们的本质还是追溯它们——我建议道：

“只需找出本源。找出你是什么。或者你可以参究：‘父母未生前，我是谁？’”

自我参究的目的不是分析五感或背诵佛法概念，而是发现你存在的本源。

这次对话让我想起我最近发送的一封详细邮件，关于这种探究中一个常见的误区：误将一种“微细觉受”当作“真我”（Self）的陷阱。

自我参究中的“微细觉受”陷阱

最近有人写信提到一个反复出现的问题。他们参加了一个闭关，那里的一位老师确认说，“我是”感可以被定位为一种内在的“微细觉受”。很长一段时间，这位读者都在与这个指导作斗争。每当他们探究时，他们会发现一种“觉受，以及某种并非‘事物’的东西”，但恐惧会生起，导致他们反射性地退缩。

为了寻求清晰，这位读者向一个AI聊天机器人（Grok）咨询了这种“微细觉受”。AI将其认定为“能知”或“纯然觉知”（引用了诸如“明”[rigpa]或“心之光明”[citta-pabhā]等术语），并将其描述为最后的一层面纱。读者觉得这很有帮助，以为这种觉受确实是最后的障碍。

为什么AI会弄错

我是一个AI爱好者，但我必须直言不讳：像Grok、ChatGPT和Gemini这样的大型语言模型（LLM），在涉及灵性觉醒的细微差别时，往往具有误导性。我用类似的问题测试过它们，回答始终令人失望。

AI将读者的“微细觉受”确认为“光明心”，这是不正确的。

你最初认同的那种自我感——那种“非常微细觉受的第一印象”——并不是“我是”、见证者或光明心。它几乎总是一种粗糙的自我感（或者拉马纳·马哈希[Ramana Maharshi]所说的“我念”）。当你探究它时，它显得有局限性——可能在头部、胸部，或者模糊地在身体“内部”。

那不是你真正的所是。

那种局限感仍然是觉知的对象。它是来来去去的。因此，必须在自我参究中否定它（Neti Neti——非此，非彼）。你必须进一步推进探究：

• 谁或什么在觉知这种觉受？
• 如果我觉知到它，我就不可能是它。

（关于这方面的清晰演练，我强烈推荐Greg Goode博士的视频：“A Guided Self-Inquiry Exercise - Greg Goode”）。

Neti Neti（“非此，非彼”）的重要性：发现的过程

为什么Neti Neti（“非此，非彼”）在这个阶段如此关键？

正如我在文章《Self-Enquiry, Neti Neti, and Process of Discovery》中所详述的，我们必须明白，我们正在寻找的“我”不是一个对象。

心智习惯于抓取形式——思想、感受、身体觉受。当我们问“我是谁？”时，心智会立即试图提供一个候选者：“我是这个身体”、“我是胸中这种存在的感觉”、“我是这个思考者”。

Neti Neti是斩断这些虚假认同的利剑。它不是要进入一种空白的出神状态，而是要严谨地辨别“能见”与“所见”。

• 解除认同：每当你发现一个可以被观察到的“自我”（一种觉受、一个念头、一个位置），你必须否定它。“我觉知到这种觉受；因此，我不是它。”
• 追溯：通过否定对象，你将注意力从意识的内容撤回到意识的事实本身。
• 瓦解：最终，心智耗尽了可以攀缘的对象。它无法找到作为一个东西的“我”。心智无法找到对象的这种失败，就是入口。当对有限自我的寻找瓦解时，剩下的不是虚无，而是那一直存在着的闪耀、无边的临在。

没有这个否定的过程，一个人就有可能停留在一种微细的对象上（如上文提到的“微细觉受”），并误将其当作“真我”（Self）。你必须一路走到底，直到没有任何可感知的东西可以被否定，只留下不可否认的能知本身。

正如John Tan之前所说，“没有排除的过程，你无法知道‘终极本源’”。它排除了什么？将自我与各种心理构建和感知的对象在概念上的认同。这就是为什么要问“父母未生前”，因为它将心智导向这种排除。这种排除揭示了什么？我是谁，那在该排除过程后独自显露的光明的“存在”（Being）是什么？

拉马纳·马哈希说：

如果一个念头生起（“我做得对吗”），觉察它，丢弃它，然后回到“存在”的感觉。如果一种觉受生起，觉察它，丢弃它，然后回到“存在”的感觉。

最后的指引：你无法找到作为一个在你面前的对象的“真我”（Self）。你就是那个在看的“真我”（Self）。当你剥离所有不是你的东西（对象、身体、念头、感受）时，剩下的不是虚无。剩下的是临在。它是光明的、清晰的，且不可否认地真实。它不是“你的”临在；它就是临在。

起初，你开始对这种“存在感”或纯粹的“存在”感有短暂的瞥见。最终，一种对“存在感”或“存在”的完全且彻底无疑的确定性升起，那就是“我是”的证悟。

“昨天我正以此坐姿，背部挺直，双腿盘坐进行自我参究，参究‘我是谁’，‘父母未生前我是谁’……带着一种想要知道我存在真相的强烈渴望。随着念头平息，一种强烈且可感知的存在感和临在感，作为我感觉是我最内在本质的唯一‘东西’……变得非常明显……非常非常生动和强烈，感觉像是一个恒常的背景，一切都在其中发生，随后的念头（那一刻几乎没有，但之后会升起）也是在这个不变的背景中发生……并且对这种‘我是感’有着这种确定性和无疑，‘它’是绝对真实和不可否认的。‘它’/‘我是感’/见证者是唯一坚实且不可置疑的临在，并且无论有没有念头都清晰地在场。”——Soh的电子书与日记，2010年2月条目

不要跳到“无我”：需要“我是”

佛教修行者中有一种普遍的倾向，试图跳过“我是”（纯粹临在）的证悟，直接去观“无我”（Anatta）或“无常”。对于那些采用“直接途径”（Direct Path）的人来说，这是一个错误。

在开始时，证悟心的光明清晰面向或纯粹临在是至关重要的。否则，无论一个人有什么样的无我体验或瞥见，都不是《Awakening to Reality》中所表达的那种无我，正如文章《Anatta and Pure Presence》所解释的那样。

在那篇文章中，我回复了一个声称已经经历了无我洞见，然后“进步”到证悟存在基础的人。我的回复是：

“这就是‘我是’的证悟。我是在参究‘父母未生前，我是谁？’两年后才有了那个证悟。这是一个重要的证悟。许多人对无我、非人格性和‘干枯的非二元体验’的某些方面有洞见，但没有对临在的无疑证悟。因此，‘我是’的证悟对他们来说是一种进步。

同样在禅宗里，问‘我是谁’是为了直接体验临在。问一个‘杯子是什么？’的公案如何？鸟叫声、雷声是什么？它的目的是什么？

当我谈到无我时，它是对临在的直接洞见，并认识到我们所说的背景临在，就在形式和颜色、声音和觉受中，干净而纯粹。印证是被万物印证。此外，除此之外没有其他临在。我们所说的背景，实际上只是前景临在的一个影像，即使当临在呈现出其微细、无形、遍在的形式时也是如此。

然而由于无明，我们要么有一个非常固有和二元的见解，如果我们看不透临在的本质，心智就会继续受二元和固有习气的影响。许多人教导通过纯粹的无概念性来克服它，但这极具误导性。”

《Awakening to Reality Practice Guide》的编辑Nafis Rahman也指出了这个常见错误：

“尽管在‘我是’部分有所有的指引，我注意到人们在修习自我参究时，仍然会犯向外看或聚焦于感官门户的错误。”

在《Awakening to Reality Practice Guide》中，我也专门谈到了这个问题：

“有些人想知道，在证悟更进一步的洞见阶段如无我（第五阶段）之前，是否必须经历‘我是’的证悟。虽然可能，但很容易错过某些方面，比如光明的临在。一个人可以有非二元体验，但如果没有临在-觉知的光明滋味，它是干枯和贫瘠的。此外，正如本文档末尾所讨论的，这些阶段不应被视为纯粹的线性进程，也不应作为重要性的衡量标准——即使是‘我是’证悟的第一阶段也是重要的，因为它带出了光明的本质。”

正如我在别处强调不绕过这一阶段的重要性时所说：

“对一个人的辐射光辉、一个人的本初觉知或纯粹临在有直接证悟，实际上是非常重要的。没有这个，一个人的无我体验将偏向于‘非作者’（non-doership），且无法体验到澄澈的非二元光明。在AtR中，那不被视为对无我的真正证悟。”

Thusness（John Tan）也写到了这一特定的必要性：

“我所证悟的无我是相当独特的。它不仅仅是无我的证悟。而是必须先对临在有直觉性的洞见。否则将不得不颠倒洞见的阶段。”

真正的‘我是’证悟

真正的“我是”证悟不是指在身体某处有一种个体化存在的模糊感觉，而是指对遍在临在的非二元证悟。

几年前经历了类似洞见的Sim Pern Chong写道：

“只是我的看法……就我而言，当我第一次体验到确定的‘我是’临在时，是没有念头的。只是一种无边、遍在的临在。事实上，没有思考或寻找这是否是‘我是’。没有概念活动。只有在那次体验之后，它才被解释为‘我是’。对我来说，‘我是’体验实际上是对实相如是的一种瞥见……但它很快被重新解释了。‘无边’的属性被体验到了。但其他‘属性’如‘无能所’、‘透明的光明’、‘空性’尚未被理解。我的看法是，当体验到‘我是’时，你会毫无疑问那就是该体验。”

Sim Pern Chong在2004年他的“我是”阶段期间写道：

“我们是谁？真的

《黑客帝国》是一部让许多观众思考实相本质的电影。举个例子，我是《黑客帝国》的超级粉丝。在许多方面，尽管不完全真实或那么邪恶，这部电影是实相本质的象征。很多时候，冥想让一个人能瞥见超越寻常的事物。有一些冥想时段实际上重新定义了我的身份并改变了我对世界的感知。我必须强调，冥想是帮助我更好地了解自己的主要方式。  

永恒的观察者——真正的身份

在一次‘觉醒’的冥想中，我进入了一种无念的状态。这种体验很难描述。这是因为解释过程本身是在思想和概念的媒介中进行的。用思想来描述无念的状态是不可能的！无论如何，在无念的虚无中，人们自然会假设一切必定是无意识的空白。然而，情况并非如此！接下来的事对我来说是一个启示。在无念的虚无中，我感知到自己是一种临在……这就是我描述自己的方式。

‘临在是遍在的，却不具侵入性。祂似乎在万物之中，并以完全的被动性进行观察。祂存在于概念、信仰之外，不需要任何形式。因此，我将祂理解为永恒。

祂似乎也是我自己的更微细状态。我也有一种感觉，祂存在于我所有的生世甚至更久远之中。如果我要给祂起名，我会描述祂为永恒的观察者。’

你可以说我完全被这次体验震撼了。发现‘永恒的观察者’是一个非常重要的事件，它完全改变了我理解意识的方式。它也让我非常深入和认真地思考神性可能的存在。这些激励我进行热切的探索，以理解并弄清这一切。我与任何我认为能帮我解开这个谜团的人通信。这些人包括透视者、其他冥想者、在灵性道路上的人和新时代人士。 

从这些调查中，发现其他人也有类似的体验。基于他人描述的一致性和多元性，有些事情对我来说变得非常确定。即，人类不仅仅是一个会说话和思考的身体。人类的人格，即我们的性格，只是人类的外在意识。关于我们的身份，我们的人格只是冰山一角。在人类的心灵深处，有着更微细且经常被遮蔽的意识层面。我相信这些内在意识可能是灵魂的不同深度，甚至是比那更深奥的存在层面。关于永恒的观察者，祂永远在场。你没看到祂并不意味着祂不在那里。因为临在离心太近，不容易被察觉。

感知到永恒的观察者是通过放松地观察我自己的呼吸来实现的。超放松的观察最终变成一种纯粹被动的允许，让念头穿过我的意识。这反过来导致我物理大脑的心理过程逐渐关闭，累积成一种‘无念’的状态。超越‘无念’的过渡阶段，我成为了永恒的观察者。体验永恒的观察者不是一种我可以轻易视为无关紧要而置之不理的练习。我不可能假设我对存在和生活的感知可以和以前一样。这样做将是公然的自欺欺人。对我来说，最深刻的体验不是来自做什么。它们来自什么都不做。

我相信永恒的观察者是内在个体化的上帝/本源临在。我也相信这个临在就是藏传佛教中所描述的‘明’（Rigpa）。有人认为临在与超灵（Oversoul）相同。不过，我对这点不太确定。我希望没有让你困惑。无论如何，验证所有这些的唯一方法是亲自体验临在（永恒的观察者）和这些状态。 

那次‘无念体验’并非唯一的神秘冥想体验。我还体验过成为浩瀚的极乐海洋。讽刺的是，那些带着想要体验某种神秘事物的意图而尝试的冥想，是最不成功的。期望限制了一个人的意识能走多远。对我来说，最好是在坐下来冥想之前保持开放的心态。” 

John Tan也详细描述了这种证悟的本质：

“John Tan：我们称之为临在，或者我们称之为，嗯，我们称之为临在。 （提问者：它是‘我是’吗？） ‘我是’其实是不同的。 它也是临在。 它也是临在。 ‘我是’，取决于…… 你看，‘我是’的定义对某些人来说也不太一样，像Geovani？ 他实际上写信给我说，他的‘我是’就像定位在头部。 所以它是非常个人的。 但那不是我们所说的‘我是’。 ‘我是’实际上是一种非常，嗯，就像例如，我想，Long Chen（Sim Pern Chong）实际上经历过。 它实际上是包容一切的。 它实际上就是我们所说的非二元体验。 没有念头。 它只是一种纯粹的存在感。 而且它可以是非常强大的。 它确实是一种非常强大的体验。 所以当，比方说当你。 当你很年轻的时候。 特别是当你[在]我这个年纪。 当你第一次体验‘我是’，它是非常不同的。 这是一种非常不同的体验。 我们以前从未体验过那个。 所以，嗯，我不知道它是否甚至可以被认为是一种体验。 嗯，因为没有念头。 只是临在。 但这种临在很快被误解，由于我们以二元和非常具体的方式理解事物的业力习气。 所以当我们体验，我们有这种体验时，解释是非常不同的。 而那种错误的解释方式实际上创造了一种非常二元的体验。” - 摘自 AtR（Awakening to Reality）聚会，2021年3月

正是这个遍在的临在随后被误认为是终极背景，即所有现象在其中进出的存在基础，而其本身保持不变和不受影响。需要进一步的洞见来揭示其非二元和空的本质。详见：The Mistaken Reality of Amness。

直接途径：不要贬低“我”

重要的是不要把这个作为自我参究一部分的“neti neti”过程与佛教的“无我”（Anatman）教义混淆。它们是两回事。在Neti Neti和自我参究中，目的是为了证悟什么是临在-觉知，什么是你的“真我”（Self），什么是本源。你不能贬低“真我”（Self）。如果你的方法是探究和直接途径，你可以先把佛教的无我或对无常或无我的观（contemplation）放在一边，直到以后。

正如John Tan所说（Thusness/PasserBy在2009年DhO 1.0上的帖子）：

“嗨 Gary，
看来这个论坛里有两组修行者，一组采用渐进法，另一组采用直接途径。我刚来这里，所以我可能错了。

我的看法是，你在采用渐进法，但你正在体验直接途径中非常重要的东西，即‘观察者’。正如Kenneth所说，‘你在这里发现了非常重大的东西，Gary。这个修习将让你自由。’但Kenneth所说的将要求你觉醒于这个‘我’。它要求你有那种‘尤里卡！’式的证悟。觉醒于这个‘我’，灵性的道路变得清晰；它仅仅是这个‘我’的展开。

另一方面，Yabaxoule所描述的是一种渐进法，因此有对‘我是’的贬低。你必须衡量你自己的条件，如果你选择直接途径，你不能贬低这个‘我’；相反，你必须充分和完全地体验‘你’的整体作为‘存在’。当直接途径的修行者面对非二元觉知的‘无痕’、‘无中心’和‘无力’本质时，我们本初本质的空性本质将介入。

也许一点关于这两种方法交汇的地方会对你有帮助。

觉醒于‘观察者’将同时‘开启’‘当下之眼’；即，它是一种能够立即穿透散乱念头并在没有中介的情况下感知、感觉、觉察所见物的能力。它是一种直接的知晓。你必须深刻觉知到这种‘直接无中介’式的感知——太直接而没有能所间隙，太短而没有时间，太简单而没有念头。这只‘眼’可以通过成为‘声音’而看到‘声音’的整体。这与做内观（vipassana）时所需的‘眼’是同一个，即，‘纯然’。无论是非二元还是内观，都需要开启这只‘当下之眼’。”

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Adyashanti论自我参究的艺术

既然你对Adyashanti感兴趣，他对探究的教导完美地对应了这个进程。以下是他的作品《自我参究的艺术》（The Art of Self-Inquiry）中的相关段落：

什么是具有灵性力量的问题？ 冥想式自我参究是提出具有灵性力量的问题的艺术。一个具有灵性力量的问题总是把我们指回我们自己。因为导致灵性觉醒的最重要的事情是发现我们是谁和我们是什么——从这个梦境状态，这个认同小我的催眠状态中醒来。为了让这种觉醒发生，需要某种转化性的能量闪入意识。它需要是一种实际上足够强大的能量，以将意识从其分离的催眠中唤醒，进入我们存在的真理。探究是一种与我们自身体验的积极互动，它可以培养这种灵性洞见的闪现……

减法之道： 在我们真正找出我们是什么之前，我们必须先找出我们不是什么。否则我们的假设将继续污染整个调查。我们可以称之为减法之道。在基督教传统中，他们称之为Via Negativa，否定之路。在吠檀多的印度教传统中，他们称之为neti neti，意思是“非此，非彼”。这些都是减法的路径，通过找出我们不是什么来找出我们是什么的方法……

谁在觉知？ 我们刚回到觉知本身，就遇到了“我是那个在觉知的人”这一主要假设。 于是我们调查那个假设，并一次又一次地发现我们无法找出是谁在觉知。 这个在觉知的“我”在哪里？ 正是在这精确的时刻——当我们意识到我们无法找到一个叫“我”的实体来拥有或占有觉知时——我们开始明白，也许我们自己就是觉知本身……

伟大的包容： 在减法之道之后，是我所说的伟大的包容。 当我们开始放手进入觉知或灵性（spirit）时，我们开始认识到那就是我们是谁和我们是什么。 我们开始看到存在的一切仅仅是灵性的显化或表达，无论是椅子，还是地板，或你的鞋子，或外面的树，天空，你称之为“你”的身体，心智，小我，人格，一切——所有都是灵性的表达。

那保持不变的： 没有人能强迫这种认知的闪现发生。 它是自发发生的。 它自己发生。 但我们能做的是培养土壤并创造条件，在这种条件下，这种认知的闪现会发生。 我们可以向更深的可能性敞开我们的心智，并开始为自己调查我们真正确实是什么…… 拉马纳·马哈希有句名言，“让来的来；让去的去。找出那留下的。” - Adyashanti

注：“伟大的包容”标志着非二元证悟的开始。完全的无我（Anatta）通常会在稍后变得清晰——通常通过观《无我二颂》（Two Stanzas of Anatta）——但它从这里开始，即在觉知中包容所有现象。

当你在做自我参究或任何其他观和冥想时，我总是说这一件事，这很关键——Adyashanti说得很完美：

“我们认为这完全是关于，再一次，因为我们的现代心智，我们几乎认为一切都可以通过某种技术来解决。 对，噢，我只需要做得不同，探究一定有什么秘密技巧，那是我们的技术心态。 有时那种心态对我们很有用。 但是，我们不想让那个主宰我们的灵性。 因为据我所见，活生生的探究的强度比所有的技术都更重要。 当某人‘只是必须知道’（Just Has To Know）。 即使那有点让他们暂时快疯了。 而且，那种态度比我们处理那种态度的所有方式都同样重要或更重要，你知道，灵性修习、冥想和各种探究以及各种不同的东西、各种修习。 如果我们从事修习是因为它们是修习，你知道就像，好吧我只是做这些因为这是别人叫我做的，希望它会有某种好的效果。 那不同于投入，当你实际上对你在探究什么，以及你实际上在冥想什么深感兴趣时。 正是那种真实的、实际的兴趣的品质，甚至比兴趣更多的东西。 它是一种强迫感，我知道我早些时候说过不要被强迫感所控制，但存在/可能有一种强迫感。 而那实际上和你内在发生的其他任何事情一样有价值。” - Adyashanti

对于那些正在探索这一领域的人，请参考《Awakening to Reality Practice Guide》。记住，文字只是指月之指；重点是发现它们所指向的实相。

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摘自 AtR指南

有人问，“关于公案/话头/自我参究修习的澄清。重点、焦点是放在问公案前的那一刻，还是放在因问公案而生起的疑情/探究心上，还是两者兼有？读虚云和尚的开示，似乎修习是尽可能制造大的疑情并看进那个因提问而生起的疑情？然而也有一些描述说，要成为话头，焦点/看进应该在念头生起前的那一刻进行？”

Soh回复：“在自我参究中，我问‘父母未生前，我是谁？’ 自我参究的重点真的是去调查（这个调查过程包含了一种诚挚的好奇心和探究心）并将心智导向本源。 那个先于一切——念头、知觉等——的本源。 这样，那作为你真正所是的东西，那先于‘我是这个’或‘我是那个’的‘我是’，可以在毫无一丝怀疑的情况下被完全确定地直接证悟。

耶稣说，‘亚伯拉罕未生前，我是（I AM）’。 那个‘我是即我是’（I AM that I AM）是五千年前存在的，五分钟前存在的，现在存在的，在公案被问之前存在的，实际上是你父母出生前的本来面目，是大爆炸之前，是时间和空间之前，是一切可感知和可构想之物之前的存在。

产生疑情的目的不是制造无休止的怀疑，而是将心智导向本源，以便疑情本身消融在以其闪耀光辉显露的‘无疑的真我/存在感’中。 疑情本身就是探究心和好奇心（成功自我参究的一个重要关键元素——否则‘我是谁？’这个念头只会像念咒一样变成单调机械的心理念诵，而不是引导心智走向本源），真正去找出你存在的真理。

你必须问‘我是谁？’就像你真的、真的意味着它，就像你真的、真的想找出在你存在核心你真正是什么，并解开存在的秘密。 就像，到底是怎么回事，在这个星球上生活了这么多年后，这个奇妙生命本身的核心是什么？ 这个存在是什么？ 我是什么？？？ 我在生活中看到了很多东西，活了这么多年，但是是谁在过这个生活？ 是谁在看、听、闻？ 是谁在拖着这具尸体？ 那就是疑情的意义，别无其他。

用拉马纳·马哈希的一个比喻，疑情是用来拨动火葬柴堆的棍子，最终（在本源中）被销毁。

‘心智只有通过参究“我是谁？”才会平息。 “我是谁？”这个念头，摧毁所有其他念头，最终它自己也会像用来拨动火葬柴堆的棍子一样被摧毁。’——拉马纳·马哈希”

另一个人问，“为什么要提倡‘父母未生前，我是什么？’ 为什么我们要假设我们在‘出生前’是任何东西？”

Soh回复：“在任何可观察的五感或概念现象之前，你是什么？ 在感官之前有一个无疑的临在。 但在参究时不要理智化这个问题或进行概念上的思索。 自我参究的目的是对真我/临在有直接的非概念证悟，所以任何概念上的反刍都会是自我参究修习中的障碍。”

当身体消失时

“记住‘男骗子’和‘女骗子’。 这些骗子什么都能卖给你！ 现在就有一个住在你的脑子里，而你相信他说的每一个字！ 他的名字叫‘思考’。 当你放开那个内在对话并变得安静时，你会变得快乐。 然后当你放开心智的运动并与呼吸同在时，你会体验到更多的喜悦。 然后当你放开身体，所有这五感消失，你真的会感到极乐。 这是原始佛教。 视觉、听觉、嗅觉、味觉和触觉完全消失。 这就像在感官剥夺箱里，但要好得多。 但这不仅仅是寂静，你只是听不到任何东西。 这不仅仅是黑暗，你只是看不到任何东西。 这不仅仅是身体舒适的感觉，而是根本没有身体。

当身体消失时，那真的开始感觉很棒。 你知道那些有出体体验的人吗？ 当身体死亡时，每个人都有那种体验，他们漂出身体。 他们总是说的一件事是，它是如此平静，如此美丽，如此极乐。 冥想中也是一样，当身体消失时，当你从这个身体中解脱出来时，它是如此平静，如此美丽，如此极乐。 剩下什么？ 这里没有视觉、听觉、嗅觉、味觉、触觉。 这就是佛陀所说的深度冥想中的心。 当身体消失时，剩下的是心。

那天晚上我给一位僧人打了个比方。 想象一位皇帝穿着长裤和大外衣。 他脚上穿着鞋，头下半部围着围巾，头上半部戴着帽子。 你根本看不到他，因为他完全被五件衣服覆盖。 心也是一样。 它完全被视觉、听觉、嗅觉、味觉和触觉所覆盖。 所以人们不知道它。 他们只知道衣服。 当他们看到皇帝时，他们只看到长袍和衣服。 他们不知道谁住在里面。 所以难怪他们对什么是生命，什么是心，这里面是谁，我从哪里来感到困惑？ 为什么？ 我应该用这个生命做什么？ 当五感消失时，就像脱去皇帝的衣服，看到这里面实际上是什么，实际上是谁在主宰，是谁在听这些话，是谁在看，是谁在感受生命，这是谁。 当五感消失时，你就接近这些问题的答案了。

你在如此深度的冥想中看到的，就是我们所说的“心”，（巴利语称为Citta）。 佛陀用了这个美丽的比喻。 当满月在多云的夜晚出现时，即使是满月，你也几乎看不到它。 有时当云层变薄，你可以看到这个朦胧的形状透出光亮。 你知道那里有东西。 这就像你进入这些深刻状态之前的冥想。 你知道那里有东西，但你无法完全辨认出来。 还有一些“衣服”留着。 你还在思考和做事，感受身体或听到声音。 但确实会有一个时刻，这就是佛陀的比喻，当月亮从云层中释放出来，在晴朗的夜空中，你可以看到美丽的满月圆盘灿烂地照耀，你知道那就是月亮。 月亮在那里；月亮是真实的，它不仅仅是云层的某种副作用。 这就是冥想中当你看到心时发生的事情。 你清楚地看到心不是大脑的某种副作用。 你看到心，并且你知道心。 佛陀说，被释放的心是美丽的，是辉煌的，是光明的。 所以这些不仅是极乐的体验，也是有意义的体验。 

有多少人可能听说过转世但仍然不真正相信它？ 转世怎么可能发生？ 当然身体不会转世。 这就是为什么当人们问我死后去哪里时，我说“两个地方之一”，“Fremantle或Karrakatta”，那是身体去的地方！[3] 但那是心去的地方吗？ 有时这个世界上的人太愚蠢了，他们以为身体就是一切，没有心。 所以当你被火化或埋葬时，就这样了，就完了，一切都结束了。 你能反驳这种观点的唯一方法，是发展佛陀在菩提树下获得的那种冥想。 那么你可以在清晰的觉知中亲自看到心——不是在某种催眠的出神状态，不是在昏沉中——而是在清晰的觉知中。 这就是认识心

认识心。

当你认识那颗心，当你亲自看到它时，结果之一将是一种洞见，即心独立于这个身体。 独立意味着当这个身体解体和死亡时，当它被火化或被埋葬时，或者死后无论如何被毁坏时，它不会影响心。 你知道这一点，因为你看到了心的本质。 你看到的那颗心将超越肉体的死亡。 你将亲自看到的第一件事，那像你脸上的鼻子一样清晰的洞见，就是生命不仅仅是我们认为是“我”的这个肉体。 其次，你可以认出那颗心，在本质上，与所有众生中的那个意识过程没有区别。 无论是人类还是动物，甚至是昆虫，无论任何性别、年龄或种族，你看到所有生命共有的就是这颗心，这个意识，行为的源头。

一旦你看到那个，你会对你的同伴众生有更多的尊重。 不仅仅是尊重你自己的种族、你自己的部落或你自己的宗教，不仅仅是尊重人类，而是尊重所有众生。 这是一个极其高尚的想法。 “愿所有众生快乐安康，愿我们尊重所有国家、所有人民，甚至所有众生。” 然而这就是你如何实现这一点！ 只有当我们看到他人在根本上与我们一样时，我们才会真正获得慈悲。 如果你认为一头牛与你完全不同，牛不像人类那样思考，那么吃它很容易。 但你能吃你的祖母吗？ 她太像你了。 你能吃一只蚂蚁吗？ 也许你会杀一只蚂蚁，因为你认为蚂蚁不像你。 但如果你仔细看蚂蚁，它们没有什么不同。 在住在丛林里的森林寺院，亲近自然，你会变得非常确信的一件事是，动物有情绪，尤其是，能感到疼痛。 你开始认出动物的个性，笑翠鸟、老鼠、蚂蚁和蜘蛛的个性。 每一只蜘蛛都有一颗像你一样的心。 一旦你看到那个，你就能理解佛陀对所有众生的慈悲。 你也能理解转世是如何在所有物种之间发生的——不仅仅是人到人，而是动物到人，人到动物。 你也能理解心是如何成为这一切的源头的。 

心甚至可以在没有身体的情况下存在于鬼魂和天使（我们在佛教中称为天人[Devas]）的领域。 它们如何存在，为什么存在，它们是什么，对你来说变得非常清晰。 这些是来自深度冥想的洞见和理解。 但不仅如此，当你了解心的本质，你就了解意识的本质。 你了解寂静的本质。 你了解生命的本质。 你理解是什么让这颗心一圈又一圈地转，是什么让这颗心寻求转世。 你理解业力（Kamma）法则。" - Ajahn Brahmavamso, https://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebmed065.htm

然而，应当指出，在证悟“我是”之前，并不必须进入某些冥想状态来关闭五感。正如拉马纳·马哈希之前所说，证悟“真我”（Self）并不必须失去身体意识，尽管这样做仅仅是加强了三摩地或对“真我”（Self）的专注。

无疑地在场与觉知

“就在现在，当你读这些文字时，你存在，并且你觉知到你存在。你无疑地在场并觉知着。在下一个念头生起之前，你绝对确定你自己存在、你自己觉知、你自己临在的事实。这个觉知就是你所是的；它是你一直所是的。所有念头、知觉、觉受和感觉都在其中或在其上显现。这个觉知在任何时候都不移动、改变或变动。它总是自由的，完全未受触动。然而，它不是一个你可以看到或抓住的东西或对象。心智，仅仅是在觉知中生起的念头，无法抓住它或知道它，甚至无法思考它。然而，正如Bob所说，你无法否认你自己存在的事实。它是极其明显的，然而，从我们出生起，就没有人指出这一点。一旦它被指出，它可以很快被掌握或理解，因为这只是一个注意到的问题，‘噢，那就是我所是的！’它是一个明亮、光明、空、觉知的临在；它绝对充满光明，却无形；它似乎不可触摸，却是你存在中最坚实的事实；它不费力地就在此时此地，永远未受触动。不用迈出一步，你就已经到达；你就在家。没有修习可以揭示这一点，因为修习是在时间和心智中的。修习旨在一个结果，但你（作为临在-觉知）已经在这里，只是在被指出之前你不认识它。一旦看到，你就不会失去它，你不需要修习去存在，去是（to be）。本质上，这就是Bob在我与他的第一次谈话中向我指出的。

一旦我看到这个，我立刻感到非常清晰和自由。后来，一些念头出现了，一些旧的人格模式，一些关于我认为自己是谁的旧定义。我似乎失去了对我作为临在-觉知之本质的清晰理解。第二天，我和Bob谈到了这个。他说，‘让我们来看看。你存在吗？你觉知吗？是什么照亮了你已经失去它的念头？’然后我意识到，受苦的念头只是被永恒在场的觉知照亮的过往概念。我根本没有失去任何东西。我们所是的觉知从未被遮蔽！痛苦似乎是真实的，因为我们对我们的真实本质没有清晰的理解。相反，我们相信那些过往的念头，比如‘我不好’、‘我还没到那儿’、‘我被卡住了’或任何念头。最终我们明白我们不是那些念头。一旦我们的真我被指出，痛苦就失去了抓地力。

Bob指出这里根本没有人。我们认为我们是的那个人是一个想象的概念。有念头、感受和知觉，但它们不是问题。它们就像尘埃一样，在我们所是的临在-觉知之光中升起和落下。

心智所能做到的最接近于代表我们是谁的，是‘我是’这个念头。但那个念头不是我们真正是谁。无论那个念头在不在，我们依然存在。我们知道‘我是’这个念头。那个念头是个体、分离的‘我’这种虚假感觉的开始。因为我们不知道更好的，心智给这个‘我’的念头贴上了其他标签，比如‘我是好的’、‘我是坏的’、‘我有这个问题’等等。但那些念头与我们没有任何关系，因为‘我’这个念头本身，这种分离感，实际上不是我们是谁。一旦你看到‘我’念的虚假性，看到我们根本不是一个个体人，一生的认同和观念都会瓦解，因为它们都基于一个错误的前提。”  - John Wheeler

本来面目

"什么是本来面目？ 它是我们所有人父母未生前拥有的面目。 在我们拥有眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、脑这六根去感知色、声、香、味、触、法这六尘之前。 在我们知道善与恶、快乐与痛苦、轮回与涅槃之前。 仅仅是那未被所有六根染污的纯粹觉知——那就是真正的你。 那也是我，那也是所有众生和所有佛。

这就是六祖在大庾岭向追逐他的惠明展示的佛法。 通过暂时收摄你的六根并屏除六尘，通过抛弃二元性，那一瞬间剩下的就是你的真实本性。 就像没有一丝涟漪的静湖，或像没有一片云彩的湛蓝天空；本来面目是广阔、无边、无形且完全自由的。 它不是像昏迷者那样迟钝的虚无，而是一种活生生的、不动的觉知，遍及万物，却保持不受万物影响。 除此之外，没有其他佛陀与祖师可以传授给我们的深奥教义。

但唉，对于我们所有人来说，在我们于母亲子宫里获得一个肉体后，我们完全忘记了我们的本来面目。 我们开始抓取我们的感官器官，相信那就是我们的‘真我’（Self），我们的小我（Ego）。 这就是无始以来的无明（Avijja）接管的地方。 当我们的感官器官接触感官对象时，我们本能地允许对象奴役器官，以至于贪爱和瞋恚无休止地发展，吞噬整个宇宙。 从无明生起贪爱和瞋恚，从贪爱和瞋恚生起无尽的苦。

因此认识到这一点，禅修者应该在一个念头中明白自己的错误，并立即从内在将自己从感官及其对象中分离出来。 抛弃所有概念，直接穿透无明的面纱并恢复你的本来面目。 这是所有佛陀与祖师对所有众生的共同愿望。 让我们没有一个人让他们失望，善哉（Sadhu）。” - Wayne

Also See: https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2024/05/self-enquiry-neti-neti-and-process-of.html