Do you find it difficult or easy to say or be I AM?

[Honza]

Yes I am still struggling with I AM. I have got the principles down and I am now practicing affirmations of I AM. But it does not come easy. There is a lot of resistance. Do you find saying or being I AM easy? Or do you find it difficult?

[Miss Hepburn]

I don't do any mantras myself ---they're finite ---can't get to the Infinite
using finite things.
Hows about just relaxing into looking out of your eyes and being aware
of Awareness ---as in, ''Who is this looking out of my eyes!!!!!!?"
Who's back there - what's behind there? Lol!

That's sure to give you a headache ---so don't try too hard if it does.

[Still_Waters]

QUOTE 2 EXCERPT:

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Hows about just relaxing into looking out of your eyes and being aware
of Awareness ---as in, ''Who is this looking out of my eyes!!!!!!?"
Who's back there - what's behind there? Lol!

Ramana Maharshi also recommended the above approach that you just mentioned.

He constantly recommended the "Who am I" self-inquiry.

If a questioner asked a question, he would frequently ask "Who is asking this question".

He would do this in various ways with the essential underlying question being "Who's back there -- what's behind there", as you duly noted.

I view the "I AM" as a variation of this alternate approach as meditating on "I AM" does eventually raise the question, "Who am I" or "Who's back there".

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

Ramana Maharshi also recommended the above approach that you just mentioned.

Well, ya know...great minds...

From the Kena Upanishad:

https://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacreds...arama/kena.asp

It is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech of the speech, the life of the life, the eye of the eye.

[Rah nam]

Can be a great tool at a certain stage of someones development.
If there is resistance, let it be. Don;t force it.

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Rah nam

Can be a great tool at a certain stage of someones development.
If there is resistance, let it be. Don;t force it.

I agree completely that I AM "can be a great tool at a certain stage of someone's development".

"I AM" .... with no other thoughts ... was reportedly Ramana Maharshi's definition of "Be Still" as in the Jewish Psalm "Be Still and know that I AM God" (Psalm 46:10).

Once one completes the sentence "I AM" with anything (such as "I am Still_Waters"), one creates mental separation at the very least.

Of course, Ramana added that "that which IS does not even say I AM". There is thus a point at which the I AM subsides quite naturally.

As Rah Nam duly noted, I AM "can be a great tool at a certain stage of someone's development". It can also be used even later during periods of distraction/entanglement as a "quickie" gateway back to the Absolute that lies beyond I AM. As a side note, Nisargadatta Maharaj indicated that concentrating on "I AM" was the instruction given to him by his guru shortly before his guru left the earth plane.

[Altair]

It's very easy, and you can do it too!

I AM.

There, that's done... OMG. That wasn't too difficult.

[lemex]

A question I haven't found a suitable answer to either. Thank you for asking it. Does I AM know itself. Is it aware of itself. Does it know about, that it is the body (illusion) and itself (spirit), knowing both illusion and realty. The spirit also experiences but at a different level of meaning. The body knows only itself, nothing more. Body isn't at the level of spirit and from what I have seen, body would make a very bad spirit, is I am I AM, or even soul. Is (I) spirit perspective aware it is both spirit and body both, where body's perspective does not know it is (also) spirit? Does spirit experience and know it is dimensional. I do find the question difficult because we are not suppose to know this. Maybe someone has an answer. A good question. Knowledge is not complete without experience. Obviously, I AM talking about separation that really doesn't exist at some level.

[Ewwerrin]

Originally Posted by lemex

A question I haven't found a suitable answer to either. Thank you for asking it. Does I AM know itself. Is it aware of itself. Does it know about, that it is the body (illusion) and itself (spirit), knowing both illusion and realty. The spirit also experiences but at a different level of meaning. The body knows only itself, nothing more. Body isn't at the level of spirit and from what I have seen, body would make a very bad spirit, is I am I AM, or even soul. Is (I) spirit perspective aware it is both spirit and body both, where body's perspective does not know it is (also) spirit? Does spirit experience and know it is dimensional. I do find the question difficult because we are not suppose to know this. Maybe someone has an answer. A good question. Knowledge is not complete without experience. Obviously, I AM talking about separation that really doesn't exist at some level.

Yeah, the I AM is eternally ever expandingly aware of itself.
The point of I AM is to also indicate, a releasing of resistance, towards existence, as all is one and one is all. And all exists here and now.

So to understand its purpose of releasing of resistance. You have to understand what resistance really is.
Let's say you want to understand something, but you don't know it. And so your desire is encompanied by resistance, a self contradictory energetic thought pattern, that limits/diminishes your consciousness/awareness. Like "it is difficult to understand this." You can always feel your degrees of resistance/misalignment/discord, by degrees of negative emotion, and feel your degrees of allowance/alignment/harmony/resonance/blending by degrees of positive emotion.

And then when you release resistance, you say "I simply am. I simply exist. I am existence. I am."
Now here there is less resistance in your consciousness and awareness. And so there would be less negative emotion. And this lower state of resistance, causes your awareness/consciousness to expand more in alignment with all that exists, or SOURCE CONSCIOUSNESS / infinite intelligence / eternal wisdom / unconditional love / infinite allowance, etc.
And as a result you feel better emotionally, the more you consistently hold that vibration consciously expanding your awareness in conscious alignment with the Source of Consciousness itself, Which is consciousness, consciously being aware of your own conscious existence and being.

You thus then expand into unconditional love, not by any deed or action, not resisting any deed or action either. But by simply allowing yourself to be what you truely are. Existence. Unconditional existence, beingness, unconditional love, bliss, etc.

So it is about allowing / resistance , which is indicated by your positive / negative emotions.

For you will never cease to exist. Because you are existence itself, and non existence, by definition, does not exist.

Therefor, you can only temporarily protest your existence "I DONT EXIST!" = negative emotion. For as long as you protest your existence.
Or allow your existence = "I AM" = positive emotion. = Releasing of resistence. And then the allowing of allowance naturally is allowed to be allowed. = Positive emotion.

That's all there is to it, really. But you can really tune into that state of allowing by allowing yourself to be the "I AM" more and more consistently and often and enjoy the positive emotion that must result from doing so, more and more aswell, and reach all the way to unconditional joy / bliss / knowledge / freedom / any and all things you may so desire to be do or have. Once this alignment with Source Consciousness is firmly allowed to be established in your life and allowed to permeate freely and joyfully and naturally and effortlessly and extatically and ever expandingly and blissfully through your evermore natural and effortless being and becoming evermore here and now, where and when all that exists is being and becoming evermore here and now, as all is one and one is all.