I AM THAT

This famous line of Nisargdatta Maharaj has been quoted more often by spiritual masters and students than any other I know or  at least  so it seems in the circles I touch. And yet, this is the one that has given me a problem. I find that in a way this is the essence of nearly all teachings form Sufi to Buddhism; all referring to That Self which we are. My biggest problem has been trying to meditate on this.

 If I am That and lets not mince words, if I am God then why can I not vaporise you or the rock in front of me as I have seen it done in movies, mythologies and stories. The power and miracles of That God has been the key driver of most faiths and continues to be so today. Any time I have tired to converse with a good christian or a Hindu or a Buddhist on my spiritual views, we get hung up on the same item. Jesus is real and performs miracles for His children as we speak. If I Am That then I should also be able to do the same.

It recently occurred to me that the sentence "I AM THAT" is incomplete. It really means we are all That and that nobody is left behind. This is an all inclusive statement. When I go further into Nisargdatta Maharaj's teachings, I find that he says that even this is not true. In fact no one is That, no one is at all. This is just a pointer to get us home. Once you have comprehended this, there is no conflict for I am you and the rocks and the trees and That. How can I possibly do anything like a miracle to all of these, if there is no difference, there are no others? A miracle involves two parties but there is just One. I still can't answer to the miracles among my religious friends other than that all miracles are my doing, as I AM THAT too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Only the body is in the now

In spacetime, now is time zero, relative to itself. Now is now everywhere at time zero.Any movement, tactile or conceptual, changes the time coordinate, taking the mind away from the body to the past or the future. Reality is the present moment thus has no time associated with it. Awakening to this reality can only happen at the present moment. Reality can not be at any time other than zero, i. e. It can not be in the past or the future. Emotions like fear or anger are body's reaction to thoughts, often from the past or about the future. They can not happen at any other time only at time zero or now. So when mind goes to the future or the past, it brings all of the resulting emotions  to the present. The clear antidote for suffering from such emotions is not to stop thinking, an impossible task, but to bring the mind back to the present exactly where the body is. Mindfulness meditation or yoga alleviates suffering by bringing the mind back to reality which exists only in the presen
Read more

Touching the Earth.

One day Siddhartha, the Buddha-to-be, felt that he was about to have a breakthrough. Meditating under a beautiful pippala tree, he had the sense that sometime that night he would realize full enlightenment and become a Buddha. Suddenly, Mara appeared. Mara sometimes appears as doubt, sometimes as anger, darkness, jealousy, craving, or despair. When we feel doubtful or skeptical, he is there. When we feel angry, irritated, or lacking in self-confidence, that is Mara. Siddhartha had been visited by Mara many times before, and he knew that the best way to treat him was to be very gentle. That day Mara came in the form of skepticism. He said, "Who do you think you are? Do you think you can attain great enlightenment? -- Don't you realize how much darkness, despair, and confusion there is in the world? How can you hope to dissipate all of it?" Siddhartha smiled, expressing great confidence. Mara continued, "I know you have practiced, but have you practiced enough? Who wil
Read more

My Buddha Nature

Who am I, what am I are the central queries of most spiritual practice. Instead of answering this question with words which is an impossible task as millions of words have failed over the millenia, the Buddha answered it by becoming it. All we can know is that our Buddha nature is as demonstrated by Gautama of Sakiya village on the foothills of Himalayas. Following his life and his teachings will give you what need to know your true nature, many have and termed it the Buddha nature. Many claim to know or have experienced the answer to the question who am I and have gone on to teach others as well. But the language still fails us in describing this our reality of being. This should not come as surprise as there are many other things especially our internal feelings and emotions which are impossible to describe precisely. A simple headache or the experience of joy are indescribable. This is our first clue and last observation to stop this impossoble quest.
Read more