I AM THAT. (3nd quarter) Chapter One.

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Excerpt From Message 187.

" I AM THAT. " (3nd quarter) Chapter One.

 

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Q:

What benefit is there in knowing

that I am not the body?

 

 

A:

Even to say that you are not the body

is not quite true.

 

In a way you are all the bodies,

hearts and minds and much more.

 

 

 

Go deep into the sense of `I am'

and you will find.

 

How do you find a thing you

have missed or forgotten?

 

You keep it in your mind

until you recall it.

 

The sense of being, of `I am',

is the first to emerge.

 

Ask yourself whence it comes,

or just watch it quietly.

 

When the mind stays in the `I am',

without moving, you enter a state

which cannot be verbalized

but can be experienced.

 

All you need to do is to try

and try again.

 

After all, the sense of `I am'

is always with you,

only you have attached all kinds

of things to it –

 

body, feelings, thoughts, ideas,

possessions etc.

 

All these self-identifications are

misleading.

 

Because of them,

you take yourself to be

what you are not.

 

 

 

 

Q:

Then what am I?

 

 

A:

It is enough to know what you are not.

 

You need not know what you are.

 

 

 

 

For, as long as knowledge means

description in terms of what is

already known, perceptual, or conceptual,

 

there can be no such thing

as self-knowledge,

 

for what you are cannot be described,

except as total negation.

 

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