Conversation — 9 August 2025

Sim Pern Chong: 

Yah.. saw the video on Weiyu's FB post. Really interesting guy

His vertical experiences are amazing.

….

Sim Pern Chong:

What he [Yang Ding Yi] is saying is exactly the I AM stage. I would have been talking like that at age 27 when I had the definitive I AM Presence. At this stage, non-duality is not understood yet, although he seems to be talking about subject and object. Even if there is remembrance of past lives, the dynamics of rebirth will not be fully known yet, as the mechanism of rebirth is self. The mechanism of rebirth becomes very clear when anatta is realized and the alaya stage of rebirth linking can be perceived. That was my experience.

Soh Wei Yu: Yes, just the I AM. I flipped through his books before; it's just self-enquiry and I AM.

William Lim: "Just"?

Soh Wei Yu: Yes, because we shouldn't overemphasize or elevate the I AM-ness. It is an important beginning realization, but it does not liberate us from samsara.

Soh Wei Yu: Thusness:

"14 Apr 2007, 8:47 AM

Many Advaita masters have advised people to experience the 'Self', but the essence of liberation is not in experiencing the ‘Self’. One can experience the “I AM-ness”—the pure sense of existence—a million times, yet it does not help in any aspect of enlightenment, regardless of how mystical and transcendental the experience can be.

More harm is done if such an experience enhances our dualistic thought. In fact, the wrong conclusion that awareness is a changeless, permanent entity is the result of distorting a non-dual experience due to the inability of our mind to go beyond its habitual dualistic thinking mechanism. When the dualistic mind attempts to understand this experience, it projects this ‘Self’ as the background to fit the non-dual experience into its dualistic framework. Such an experience cannot lead to liberation because it is dualistic in nature. Any form of separation is non-liberating.

Therefore, emphasis must be placed correctly on the 'no-self' aspect of awareness. Awareness is by nature non-dual. Being non-dual, it is impermanent, ceaselessly and spontaneously manifesting as All. This is the clarity that must come from direct experience. There is no compromise regarding these aspects of our pristine nature. It must be thoroughly clear to experience the self-liberating nature of awareness."

(Also see: Buddha Nature is NOT "I Am")

Soh Wei Yu: In January 2005, John Tan wrote:

<^john^> Learn how to experience emptiness and no-selfness. This is the only way to liberate. Not to dwell too deeply into the minor aspect of pure awareness. Of late, I have been seeing songs and poems relating to the luminosity aspect of Pure Awareness. Uncreated, original, mirror-bright, not lost in nirvana and samsara, etc. What use is there?

<ZeN`n1th> I see...

<^john^> We have been so from the very beginning, and yet lost for countless aeons of lives. Buddha did not come to tell only about the luminosity aspect of pure awareness. This has already been expressed in the Vedas, but it becomes Self: the ultimate controller, the deathless, the supreme, etc. This is the problem. This is not the ultimate nature of Pure Awareness. For full enlightenment to take place, experience the clarity and emptiness. That's all.