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

  • Being Real Together

    Let’s pause. How are you doing in this time as all is showing up for reckoning at the same moment? Take some kind breaths, and have a moment of compassion for your self, others, and for it all. In today’s session let’s pause quietly, recalibrate, and check in. 

    Read More

  • Antonia Sumbundu

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Antonia Sumbundu – Week of 24 February, 2025

    We are delighted to have Antonia Sumbundu leading our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and enrich your practice.

    This week’s theme is:

    Compassion in Action, Wisdom in Practice – Living the Six Paramitas

    This week we will be exploring how the Six Paramitas offer a pathway to living with more awareness, wisdom, and compassion by nourishing the qualities of generosity, integrity, patience, diligence, collectedness, and wisdom. Each day focuses on one or two paramitas, combining instructions for our sitting practice and reflections on how to integrate these qualities into daily life.

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  • Kaira Jewel Lingo

    Staying Open Through Change, Loss and Disruption

    When we are faced with suffering and uncertainty or life becomes overwhelming we can tense up, resist or try to control. But when we open and let go in the midst of change and release expectations we get in touch with enormous possibility and a powerful freedom.

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of Feb 27, 2023

    This week’s theme is “Samadhi – Doors of Harmony”. The Buddha encouraged us to nourish, calm, gladden and liberate our heart-mind (citta). To know ways to inner harmony, stillness and contentment independently of outer circumstances is a precious resource. It contributes to resilience, allows steadiness in challenging situations with others and brings confidence into our lives. Yet the path towards samadhi can be easily misunderstood and contribute to more pressure and self-doubt. We dedicate this week to exploring kind and nourishing ways to practice.

    Read More

  • Your Most Expensive Resource

    There is a substance we need for every meaningful part of our life. We only have a small amount of it, it’s being spent constantly, we can’t get more, and we’re surrounded by predators hungry for it. Attention: every moment we give it to something, and if we don’t choose wisely, a salesperson or an…

    Read More

  • The Whole of the Holy Life: Celebrating Buddhist Community on Māgha Pūjā 2567

    This weekend is the Buddhist full moon ritual known as Māgha Pūjā, one of the three great festival days in the Theravāda Buddhist calendar, also known as “Saṅgha Day,” celebrating the spiritual community. The tradition remembers a day when the first 1,250 arahant (fully awakened) disciples all spontaneously returned from their travels and came together with the…

    Read More

  • Miles Kessler

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Miles Kessler – Week of July 25, 2022

    This week’s topic is “The 4 Noble Practices”. The 4 noble practices are practical instructions given by the Buddha in relation to the 4 noble truths. Namely, 1) The Noble Practice Of Acceptance, 2) The Noble Practice Of Letting Go, 3) The Noble Practice Of Realization, and 4) The Noble Practice Of Development. This week, Miles will lead you through these 4 noble practices, helping you to see how these 4 injunctions from the Buddha contain the entirety of the practical Dharma.

    Read More

  • Stephen Fulder

    Trust and Faith (Saddha) – The World is Not Against Us

    How can we develop trust, steadiness and inner freedom, qualities which contribute to our well-being and resilience, and help us to help others? Trust (saddha in Pali) is the first of the Five Spiritual Powers, which are Trust, Energy, Mindfulness, Calm, and Wisdom. Trust is the primary means to dissolve and transform our anxieties, fears,…

    Read More