A guide for staying the I Am

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Practice. JASG often steals my lines.

Well now, if we get down to brass tacks I'm just stealing from myself. LOL!

[MikeS80]

Originally Posted by Mak6831

Hello, I've read a lot of stuff here that I dont seem to resonate with a lot, so i thought I would set up this thread in order to for people to share truth along our path to freedom. I have read much of I Am That, I have read some of ramana maharshi, I enjoy listening to rupert spira and mooji. can people please give me more advice to stay as 'I am', I am constantly getting distracted. I know this is my mind but i haven't been able to become established within I am
Any advice dudes?

Resonate presonate! what you resonate with, may not be true anyway, so don't worry about resonating with anything or anyone.

You do not need to stay as "I am" because you are and you already have the inner feeling sense of I AM or Self/self. You are not conscious/consciousness, your inner feeling sense of I AM or Self/self is conscious/consciousness, and that is all there is.

[pixiedust]

Originally Posted by Mak6831

Hello, I've read a lot of stuff here that I dont seem to resonate with a lot, so i thought I would set up this thread in order to for people to share truth along our path to freedom. I have read much of I Am That, I have read some of ramana maharshi, I enjoy listening to rupert spira and mooji. can people please give me more advice to stay as 'I am', I am constantly getting distracted. I know this is my mind but i haven't been able to become established within I am
Any advice dudes?

You will have to meditate. Resonate with the great teachers for they all speak the language of the eternal.

[Mak6831]

Ok guys, first off i would like to thank all three of you for your help. I realised that if i kind of accept and notice it, it loses it hold over me. In addition, when I notice its arrival and not humour it, it tends to die off. I am quite scared of going down the wormhole of trying to end my suffering as it creates so much ego. Instead I want to reign in my suffering to the extent to which i can carry out self inquiry without too much difficulty. what I am having considerable trouble in is asking the question, what is the self?

If i do an inquiry to the self, I ask myself what is permanent in my experience? and the answer I get is Nothing.(and i try to really slow it down and see for an intuitive answer). So I am kind of staying in the presence of everything in my experience rather than to try and find the 'I' that is completely unadulterated from thought and belief. Is this ok? Ive also noticed when i try to remove myself self from any attachments my mind smuggles a thought in without me noticing. does anybody have any advice about this?

Again, thank you so much for your advice, all the other threads seem a bit intellectualised (at least for me) and its incredibly nice to receive knowledge which is intuitive and truthfully piercing.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Mak6831

*excerpts*.... what I am having considerable trouble in is asking the question, what is the self?

So I am kind of staying in the presence of everything in my experience rather than to try and find the 'I' that is
completely unadulterated from thought and belief. Is this ok?

Ive also noticed when i try to remove myself self from any attachments my mind smuggles a thought in without me noticing.
does anybody have any advice about this?

Hi Mak, I'm weird I guess - I've never asked, "What is Self"?
When I was 5 - this 'thing', ha, made itself known to me as behind my little mischievous brain observing and
was there looking out from inside me....isn't that weird?
Hahaha I'm laughing.
Of course, now I call it this ''Consciousness''** ---it's like it was yesterday...it was not the mind of some 5 yr old ---
it was an 'adult's mind' ( from my little perspective) ---and, I suppose, oddly - kinda masculine.
I suppose 'power' is felt as masculine - a bit fatherly. (There was no love, no judgment, just an observing Consciousness, just 'there'...
of course, now have others saying,'The Observer or The Witness'.)
Best, I can explain it.

Good word 'smuggles' ---I might say 'slips in', ha. I stood sentry on my thoughts 24/7 for a while...then it got easier -
I call being on 'auto-pilot'.
Do you know what happens when a sentry falls asleep? It's not good.
The battlefield is in the mind...I thought of myself as a spiritual warrior - that was a long time ago.

So, it's a choice ya practice Thought Control or you let any ol' thought come in you don't want that steers your boat.
That's how I see. And so far so good.
My 2 cents.

**Pause...yup, still there.

[Mak6831]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Good word 'smuggles' ---I might say 'slips in', ha. I stood sentry on my thoughts 24/7 for a while...then it got easier -
I call being on 'auto-pilot'.
Do you know what happens when a sentry falls asleep? It's not good.
The battlefield is in the mind...I thought of myself as a spiritual warrior - that was a long time ago.

So, it's a choice ya practice Thought Control or you let any ol' thought come in you don't want that steers your boat.
That's how I see. And so far so good.
My 2 cents.

**Pause...yup, still there.

i think ill have to agree with you and practice all the time. is there anyview on practicing while doing things that are intellectually intensive, Im studying chemistry and I cant seem to be present when im watching lectures or answering questions. Is there some sort of ignorance there that im believing which makes me unable to be present during studying?

Originally Posted by Mak6831

i think ill have to agree with you and practice all the time. is there anyview on practicing while doing things that are intellectually intensive, Im studying chemistry and I cant seem to be present when im watching lectures or answering questions. Is there some sort of ignorance there that im believing which makes me unable to be present during studying?

It's no different than physical activity. One doesn't learn how to hit a 95 MPH fastball or 12-6 hook, clean and jerk 400+ pounds or run a marathon overnight. It takes a lot of practice.

There's formal practice and informal practice. Work on both and don't neglect the informal practice as that's the practice one engages throughout the day and while engaged in worldly activities.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Mak6831

i think ill have to agree with you and practice all the time. is there anyview on practicing while doing things that are intellectually intensive, Im studying chemistry and I cant seem to be present when im watching lectures or answering questions. Is there some sort of ignorance there that im believing which makes me unable to be present during studying?

Maybe this example will help:
Say, you're in love, I mean really nutty in love ...with your new baby, you're new puppy at home,
a lover....or maybe your new red convertible waiting for you after class.
How hard is it to listen in class, yet ---your heart of hearts is inwardly smiling, remembering that thing that you love so much.

This Path is actually quite easy...when you learn some tricks ---better tricks than the mind has.

[Unseeking Seeker]

Hello Mak!

We are spoilt for choice here on paths to adopt! Go with what resonates!

Possibly, seeing that you have an inquiring mind, you may discern that there are two main aspects to us: lower mind and higher mind. Let us call the lower aspect those urges which are identity or ego driven, basically fears, desires, rage which you talked about, lust, anxiety and the like. Basically self serving or animal/feral thought patterns, embedded at our core, as a reflex instinct, if you will.

Then there is the higher aspect. Love, an outpouring, exuberance, empathy, uninhibited laughter, deep tranquil silence, where identity recedes, conscious thought takes a back seat and we gently flow, melding with the continuum.

Rephrased, we may say it is head vs heart although in truth not quite so, for one day both come into alignment with the flow of loving presence.

If we mindfully soften attention, shifting from grasping to connecting, exiting stagnation, as it were, recognising that our true self is independent of mind body, then we are slowly able to recognise the impulses arising from the ego/identity vs universal consciousness.

We are both the aspects. We are as we choose to be. We may choose to languish in the external ephemeral or we may shift into the internal eternal.

It is easy to see that forced practices are self limiting. What is needed, is a voluntary shift of focus, a shift in our priority. We get what we prioritise. In this case, by letting go, of all that we are not. After all, if we choose to be in hypnotic trance amidst fleeting illusions, no harm ... as long as we know we are deliberately playing the video game a while longer!

In fact, speaking of delusion, imagine we are an actor assigned a certain role in a play or a movie. We ‘get into the character’ to act better. Problem arises, when we self hypnotise ourselves, believing ourselves to be the character, forgetting that it is but an act, a game. Who wins ... Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?

Ah! Where were we? The I AM ... save it for the cocktail circuit. One microscopic self improvement in thought, word and deed is better than reading a thousand books.

One last point ... let us have fun, while we live out this life, breath by breath, moment by moment, with childlike innocence, flowing like the breeze, in embrace-hold-release!

[tom63376]

I believe that we all have an I AM Presence and that we, here on earth are extensions of our I AM Presence. The Creator is Spirit and our I AM Presence is Spirit. Scripture says that the “fruit of the Spirit” is: “..love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control”. If we look around at others and ourselves, does anyone exhibit these “fruit of the Spirit” unconditionally as Jesus and the Buddha? Personally, while I firmly aspire to continuous growth and have experienced some growth toward unconditional love, joy, peace, etc, I can see that I still have quite a way to go. But I have experienced an almost continuous joy on the journey, especially whenever I identify and let a separate self (one aspect of my ego) die that I have created with quite often ridiculous expectations of myself, of life and of other people as well as the conditions I have created or accepted for judgment of myself and others.

So maybe the goal is not so much “Staying I AM” but “Becoming I AM”—gradually transcending our current limited self, continually letting go of our expectations of life, of other people and the standards we have created or accepted by which we judge ourselves and others resulting in continually rising higher and higher in consciousness AND oneness with our I AM Presence until we ARE one with our I AM Presences, and we can say, “I and my Father are One” as Jesus did.