Dear Rupert,
Can you provide me with techniques or direct experiences to feel or witness the beingness ‘I am’? I know I am more than this body, but it is elusive to try to feel it. I have read Advaita, so I am familiar with it, and I have been reading On Having No Headby Douglas Harding, with his idea of pointing to your head and noticing nothing is really there. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. I am tired of being the ‘me’, if you get my meaning.
Paul
Dear Paul,
It is not possible to feel or witness the beingness that I am. Your question is like one who, standing in the middle of a room, asks, ‘How can I take a step closer to myself?’
Beingness is the witness, not the witnessed. Therefore, in all experience, beingness is present as the knower, witness or experiencer. There is no part of experience that is not permeated by beingness or consciousness. See this clearly and all attempts to ‘see’ or ‘know’ beingness cease.
I understand being tired of being ‘me’. Just see clearly that the ‘me’ you are tired of being is a witnessed object like the sound of traffic, the smell of dinner or the image of a friend. You do not think you are the sound of traffic, the smell of dinner or the image of a friend, precisely because they are witnessed or known and you intuitively know yourself as the witness or knower of them.
Simply see that the ‘me’ you are tired of being is only experienced as a thought, image or sensation. In other words, it is a witnessed object just like the sound, smell and the image. It is not you. You have never been the ‘me’ that you are tired of being. In fact, even the feeling of being tired is witnessed by you.
Simply be the witness knowingly. Take your stand ‘there’, which simply means see clearly that that is what you always already are. In time, the apparent distance between the witness and the witnessed dissolves and we find ourselves not simply the witness of all seeming things but also their substance.
Kind regards,
Rupert
