Inner Work

For the week of: November 17, 2003

Where Does My I Come From?

Once we begin to be able to work at presence, to be present, to understand and know the taste of presence, new questions naturally arise. Notably, we may wonder who we really are. Am I out here, an independent unit of consciousness, related to the rest of the world only through my body, through its needs and its genetic makeup? Certainly that's how it usually feels: that I am inwardly isolated but able to reach out and connect. I am myself. No one else is me and I am not anyone else. And up to a certain level, this holds true.

But delve deeper into yourself and a different picture begins to emerge. First, you start to see your own boundaries as artificial, that you are not so utterly separate from others. We share something in the very core of who we are. We can, for example, have an intuition, a perception of what it is like to be each other. We see our common essence of being human, being aware, being ourselves.

Looking deeper still, we ask what is that core that we share? What is that core of who I am? By surrendering through and beyond our own most basic sense of ourselves, into and behind our own I, we discover a hint of what truly unites us all, an intimation of the Source, of the great Will that sustains the universe.

If we look toward where our attention comes from, we are led toward our I. And if we look toward where our I comes from, we are led toward the ineffable, silent, active spirit.

For this week, look as deeply as you can into and beyond yourself.

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