Who is it that...? A powerful exercise
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Instructions:
- Ask yourself the following questions but do not try to answer them, do not try to respond in an intellectual manner, use them as mental pointers to pinpoint and sense the feeling of "I" that is always there in the substratum of your stream of consciousness and then observe this "I".
- Pause after reading each question and look mentally for the "I" pointed by the question. Jumping immediately from question to question will make the exercise completely ineffective.
- The first time you do the exercise is the most powerful and effective therefore start doing the exercise only when you feel relaxed and ready to it seriously. Doing some short meditation before starting the exercise is highly recommended.
- Do the exercise only when you are really in the mood for searching mentally for the "I". The mind is sometimes in a "too rational" state of mind in which case it is better to postpone the doing of the exercise.
- Do not glance at the questions before doing the exercise otherwise you will spoil their effectiveness.
- You don't have to do the exercise in one run. If you feel tired at some point then stop and resume later. When you resume the exercise, start from the beginning, you can fast forward the questions you have previously done.
- Lastly, it is important that you will not put any effort in the mental searching of the "I". You should do the exercise leisurely, leisurely but earnestly. Effort only strengthens the mind and thus may spoil the technique. Instead of making an effort, enjoy the exercise as if it is a game.
Are you sure you are now ready to perform the exercise seriously?
Who is it that reads this blog post now?
Who is it inside me that feels excitement from doing these questions stuff?
Who is it inside me that knows that this excitement is soon to end?
Who is it inside me that didn't pause and search inside enough after reading the previous question?
Who is it that worries now about the future?
Who is it that wonders right now if there is any logic at all in the order of the questions?
Who is it deep inside me that hates these stupid and selfish human beings?
Who is it inside me that is afraid of human beings?
Who is it that thinks now about these questions?
Who is it inside me that instructing me to read these questions and look for the "I"?
Who is it that while reading the question and searching for the "I", looks from my eyes backwards to inside, to the opposite direction to which the eyes normally look?
Who is it inside me that feels the connection to all past events?
Who is it inside me that wants to be alone?
Who is it that reads these words now?
Who is it that reads these words now and is a bit skeptical as to their effectiveness?
Who is it that is still expecting a reason for the irregular pointing finger which was painted red?
Who is it that reads these words now and is afraid to be disappointed again from a spiritual technique?
Who is it that always feels some level of boredom and nervousness, including right now?
Who is it that reads these words#@^ now?
Who is it inside me that is always "doing" my worries?
Who is it that noticed a typo just a moment ago and got a bit annoyed?
Who is it that laughs a bit right now?
Or that did not laugh and boasted that the questionnaire had not predicted my response?
Who is it inside me that forgets to pause enough after each question?
Who is it inside me that wants to impress whomever it meets?
Who is it inside me that is sick from this wanting to impress?
Who is it inside me that is a bit tired right now?
Who is it inside me that may feel that I don't do the exercise seriously enough and so blames me again for missing opportunities for spiritual development?
Who is it that while reading the question looks for my "I", deep inside myself, inside my body, inside my head, inside my center that does the looking?
Who is it that reads these words right now?
Who is it inside me that witnesses me reading these words now?
Who is it that notices right now the red arrow below and assumes that the stupid questions are over?
You can print the list of questions and do the exercise over again just before going to sleep and just after waking up. You can also add more questions that work better for you. When adding questions, always remember to formulate them to point to you, the subject, the doer, the perceiver, through an action, a feeling or a state that occurs right now.
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Who is it that created this brilliant exercise?
Brilliant! printed to do it again before sleep.
thanks, i printed it
thanks, i printed it, excellent approach to who-am-i
The right state of mind
Magic.
It is important to do this exercise in the right state of mind. You know this "right state of mind" from practicing the ordinary self inquiry: sometimes you ask yourself "who am i" and you are not really into it and sometimes wow it is magic - you are getting swallowed inside by the question while an intimate "I" is revealed to you deep within you... the latter is the right mood to do the above exercise for the first time...
A state of puzzlement
I agree. I call it a state of puzzlement. It is true for guided meditation as well as for any other "active" meditation. If you don't have it in a certain moment, you better postpone the active meditation and do some other more passive meditation such as observing your breath and then return to it in a later time.
I liked this "Who is it" technique a lot. I do very often the standard self inquiry and this variation is breaking the routine for me and feels clever in its construction.
Excellent excersize
Just went yesterday to a satsang with a local teacher. He talked about self inquiry and you could see that he had no experiential idea about it.
So it is excellent to see such a wonderful test that drills into the non-intellectual essence of the WHO AM I practice.
splendid
very smart and well crafted, very effective for those who practice self enquiry. Kudos for the special effort vested in the structure, spacings and graphics which make a difference.
smart
Smart application of self enquiry. Most efficient. Thank you!
More exercises that show the real YOU
Doing the exercises at www.headless.org will blow your mind.
No need, pure self enquiry is more than enough
I personally don't manage to connect with Douglas Harding's headless techniques. I tried but they seem as too artificial.
I think the pure self enquiry such as the variant above are the best as no analytical concepts are added which can serve as food for the mind and thus spoil the effectiveness of the enguiry.