Who we really are.

[sky]

I have noticed a lot of " teachers " that state we need to know who we really are, my understanding of Buddism is that to realize who we are not is the way. My feelings are that to know who we really are involves ' self ' but to realize who we are not is ' non self ', this is my homework for today

Thoughts please...

[naturesflow]

Depends where one is within their own process of this I would say.

Remembering who I really was, was only discovered when I let go of what I thought I was. So yes letting go of what you are not was my way. But then from that point of emptiness I opened to allow myself be myself without all that.

My self is simply aware of itself as it was and as it is now without conditioning and the pain body making me believe I was something else.

The non self as you call it, for me is simply open clear state of being.

Non attached and aware of itself aware now.

I recal the point of emptiness and the realization that I was a blank slate to create with once more. Call it a rebirth ( of which I did walk through again, when the time was right) in body or whatever you wish to call it, this is a point of realization that the self I was, was no longer.

I was starting over you might say.

Am I still the same person I was before all this process? I am and I am not, yet I am aware of myself through all that process to know what I am now being. My process and journey and where I am now in myself is all that becoming continuously as life goes on through the known and unknown of life.

[Gem]

I relate to 'really are' but I become concerned that people will regard it as a desirable state of some kind, and I don't tell anyone what they 'really are'.

My comment is, it 'just happened' as though completely accidental, and I have no clue as to why or 'how to make it happen'. I maintain that there is no way to 'make it happen'... if it did happen, as I wonder how to quantify this as an event.

The effect on me was I found a sort of purpose, which is to bring the essential purity through the mind and body so that it can be expressed through me in the world. The issues are, there exists in the mind and body some impurities, "sankaras" or "defilements" or obstacles etc. which restrict that full free expression.

'That I am' is what I call 'the true state of consciousness'. Importantly, 'the true state of consciousness' is just you as you are right now, and I usually say, you are as you are, and not some other way.

My view is, the meditation is not 'a way there', but a way of being that enables the sankara, impurity, defilement, obstacle, or other description, to arise into conscious awareness and thereby undergo change and pass away.

It is this harbouring of 'aversions and cravings' (as Buddhists describe it) or maybe clinging and resistance, and I merely say 'reactivity', that creates, holds and is the 'sankara...' as though stuck there like an obstacle to the free flow of loving purity. Meditation might be described as an ability to be purely aware without judgment, clinging, resistance, craving, aversion etc. so as to allowing these 'obstacles' to surface in conscious awareness, "come to light", and be changed and cleared away. In short, stop the reactivity, and the creation of defilements also stops. The old ones come to the surface and then they pass away. That's how I summarise the process.

My summary of this is, "I am that" is 'as I am now' including impurities or defilements or blocks or whatever the case might be, and meditation is more like a process of purification that enables the purity of love to flood through the whole life-form, and be expressed through all aspects of individual's lives.

[CSEe]

Originally Posted by sky123

I have noticed a lot of " teachers " that state we need to know who we really are, my understanding of Buddism is that to realize who we are not is the way. My feelings are that to know who we really are involves ' self ' but to realize who we are not is ' non self ', this is my homework for today

Thoughts please...

Perhaps for human Buddhism is a natural process leading to realize we are emotion ......as simple as that.

[sky]

Originally Posted by CSEe

Perhaps for human Buddhism is a natural process leading to realize we are emotion ......as simple as that.

I am not my emotions CSEe I realized this many moons ago

[CSEe]

Originally Posted by sky123

I am not my emotions CSEe I realized this many moons ago

Yes ... i could easily agree with you .... you are not " your emotion".....as you never owned it .....emotion is you , never other than you , not something you owned .

[sky]

Originally Posted by CSEe

Yes ... i could easily agree with you .... you are not " your emotion".....as you never owned it .....emotion is you , never other than you , not something you owned .

No CSEe emotion is not me either. Seems like we have very different ideas on what is Buddhism, not to worry though....

[CSEe]

Originally Posted by sky123

No CSEe emotion is not me either. Seems like we have very different ideas on what is Buddhism, not to worry though....

Great.....let's continue and I will certainly learn from you especially there is differences .

[RyanWind]

Originally Posted by sky123

I have noticed a lot of " teachers " that state we need to know who we really are, my understanding of Buddhism is that to realize who we are not is the way. My feelings are that to know who we really are involves ' self ' but to realize who we are not is ' non self ', this is my homework for today

Thoughts please...

Without a self, me and you are the same.

[sky]

Originally Posted by RyanWind

Without a self, me and you are the same.

So I'm the winner too