Are you lost in the world of ‘me’
by Vic Shayne
author
The Self is a Belief: The idea that causes suffering
Those familiar with Advaita-Vedanta, or the teachings of Ramana Maharshi or Jiddu Krishnamurti, may be familiar with the puzzling relationship of the seer and the seen. To understand this deeper, as we forge ahead, it is necessary to consider what the egoic self is — that which is also called “me,” “I,” the persona, the mask, the person, the sense of self, and so on. It is this sense of “me” that stands as the only obstacle to what is called enlightenment or being awake. The relationship between the seer and the seen is tricky business, because the egoic self deludes one into believing what it is not.
I am an accretion of thoughts
The egoic self, the “me,” is a belief that is created out of an accretion of thoughts. These thoughts condition the mind from a very early age to create a sense of self. The thoughts are beliefs and ideas passed on as knowledge from teachers, authority figures, parents, religious leaders, culture, and so on. In the end we are convinced that we are individuals who have bodies and see everything according to what it means to us personally. Thus, the “me” is formed out of knowledge, and knowledge is formed out of thoughts, and thoughts are all in the past. This means that the “me” is a figment of the past and does not exist in the present moment.
Who grows and who says ‘I have changed’?
We say that we have led lives, experienced various situations, seen much in all of our years, and have gained a lot of knowledge. We say we have grown, developed, suffered, failed, and triumphed. But the “me” who has experienced all of these things is no more than an image. The image of yourself is the “me.” Now, all of this is of little consequence unless you are interested in discovering what you are at the core of your existence, prior to the formation of the “me.” Otherwise, it’s just a jumble of ideas that have little practicality. Have you ever asked yourself, “Who am I?”? The question usually arises out of suffering — why do we suffer? why is life full of suffering?
Is there an independent ‘me’?
Is the “me” who thinks about, or remembers, its own continuity independent of thought? Look back on your own life and your experiences. Who is looking back and who had the experiences?
Theoretical physicist David Bohm posed an important question, although he already knew the answer, when he asked, “Is this ‘me’ who is looking, a reality that is independent of thought?” The answer is that the “me” is not real, and the perception of it is not real either — and neither is the subject matter that it perceives. Thus, memories, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, impressions, concepts, images, imaginings, and fears are no more real than the “me” who experiences them. In fact, they are all the products of the image we call “me” and they are formed out of the past.
It is only the “me” who believes itself, as well as its visions, images, and experiences, to be real. To be clear, however, this is not a negation that things “happened,” but rather that they happened to a “me.”
The seer is the seen
The seer and the seen are both images, and these images are produced by the “me,” which is no more than a belief. One is not possible without the other. We need a seer to see something, and whatever is seen can only be seen by a seer. And now we get into the idea of whether anything really exists at all, because it takes an experiencer to experience them. Does a tree that falls in a forest make a sound if there is no hearer? This koan challenges whether things exist independently or only relationally — whether there is really anything objective that exists. We can tackle this problem on another day.
Who am I?
If you say you feel that you’re really here looking at the past, are you really here? The “me” who is here now is looking back at the past — an image looking at an image. Thus, the rememberer is also the remembered.
The sage Ramana Maharshi taught that if you desire to know who you are independent of the “me,” then you should earnestly and persistently enquire into the nature of yourself by asking the question “Who am I?” Eventually, moving past the fear and resistance of the egoic self, it becomes obvious that there is no one there, because the “me” does not exist except as a memory. In the absolute presence it cannot exist, because it is fashioned out of thought, and thought is always of the past.
Krishnamurti said that a mind that is clear functions from fact to fact and not from idea to idea.
Who are you really? Find out by way of observing without judgment.
