Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

Who Am I?

With Christopher Titmuss recorded on March 10, 2019.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

“Who Am I?” is a fundamental question. You have to live the question, day in and day out. You cannot think through an answer.

The self (‘I’ and ‘my’) lands on objects, voluntarily or involuntarily. Primary objects of interest include forms, feelings, perceptions, formations of mind/speech/body and consciousness (mindfulness, awareness, concentration and meditation). The self also grasps onto people, places, goods etc. When ‘I’ and ‘my’ becomes involved in one or two areas to take up, it is not involved in other objects of interest. A whole life can be spent living under the spell of self – self-interest, self-help, self-enquiry, self-acceptance, self-compassion etc. The resolution to the deep question Who am I? never concludes with an answer starting with “I am…..” This response only expresses a view. There is a much greater depth to realize than that.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Stephen Fulder

    Welcoming the Beyond

    What is beyond the ordinary mind? What is beyond thought? How can we access a consciousness that is open, free and limitless? How can we dive into the ocean instead of being tossed by the waves? The dharma is in its essence a spiritual journey and the character of the path is to meet, engage…

    Read More

  • Deborah Eden Tull - Senior Dharma Teacher

    The Sacred No: Setting Conscious Boundaries Alongside Boundlessness

    To truly embody our Yes to life, we must equally honor our No. Liberating our minds and hearts and taking responsibility for our contribution to collective consciousness requires setting loving boundaries around authentic being. Sometimes, through spiritual bypass; concepts/ideas about mindfulness; or lack of distinction between being nice and being kind, we devalue the sacred…

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of January 15, 2024

    This week’s theme is “Tending to Fire – An Exploration of the Third Noble Truth”. The third of the four noble truths, which the Buddha offered as a framework, invites us to reflect on ways to tend to the inner fires or urges, which we all experience. ‘Nirodha’ is a concept which invites us to explore ways to handle that fire: to contain it, to create safe space around it and not to fuel it further, so that it eventually expires. This week, we explore concepts like ‘freedom of/from/to’ as well as letting go and letting be.

    Read More

  • The Happiness of a Liberated Heart

    What is pleasure and what is happiness? Why is my pursuit of happiness not working? Is there any lasting happiness? Together we inquire into the nature of happiness. We reflect on different attempts in our lives to find happiness and what stops us from being contented. Inspired by the Buddha’s own quest for a genuine…

    Read More

  • Deborah Eden Tull - Senior Dharma Teacher

    Dharma, Intuition, and Imagination in Times of Change

    In this session, we explore the power of intuition and conscious use of the imaginal realm, on behalf of collective awakening. We are utilizing our imaginations all the time, by feeding conditioned thoughts, limiting assumptions, duality, and fear. What is the value of exercising our moral imagination in this time of collective change, as we…

    Read More

  • Refuge, resilience and response in uncertain times

    By now, we can consciously acknowledge that our planetary state of emergency and ineffectual political response is impacting and fast changing our Dharma curriculum. We are being mercilessly shaken awake while at the same time facing overwhelming uncertainties. In this session, Thanissara explores how the Dharma, its practices and guidelines, can come to our aid…

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of March 22, 2021

    This week’s theme is: Resolve to Unbind the Heart

    The word resolve can embody many meanings. This week we will see how much it offers on a Dharma path of awakening. It is made of re & solve: ‘re’ as in ‘really’, fully, with intensity; ’solve’ as in loosen, undo, or dissolve. Such a poetic and insightful combination: to intensely loosen.

    The Buddha offered teachings and practices for a path of unbinding. A path of resolve to resolve, of dedication to undoing. For dukkha is a state of high activity and reactivity: a doing of distress. Meditations are practices of skilful and subtle activity that unbuild problematic senses of self and loosen missions of reactivity. An invitation to wake up to life, in life, for life, and there in the midst of it all to resolve: to fully unbind.

    Read More

  • Juha Penttilä

    Cittanupassana: Turning Towards the Heart-Mind

    The heart-mind (citta) is the aspect of our experience that is sensitive to our moods and mind-states, which we can skilfully turn towards. It is known in Buddhist teachings as the third Satipatthana – meaning a suitable foundation or domain for the…

    Read More