There is a traditional thought exercise that… consists of asking yourself who you are and then systematically eliminating every answer you come up with. Am I my name? No, for I could legally change my name tomorrow and still have the same sense of identity. Am I my profession? No, for I could have studied something else, or get another job, and still be me. Am I my body? Well, if I lost a limb or had a heart transplant tomorrow I would still have the same sense of identity, so this can’t be it either. Am I my genetic code? No, for I could have an identical twin with the same genetic code and I wouldn’t be him. Am I my particular life history, as encoded in my brain? Well, wouldn’t I still have the same sense of ‘I’ if I had made different choices or had had different experiences in the past? And so on. It is possible to eliminate every answer conceivable. The conclusion of this exercise is that our inner sense of ‘I’ is fundamentally independent of any story we could dress it up with. As such, it is entirely undifferentiated and identical in every person. It is formless. This undressed, naked, ‘amorphous I’ is inherent to the membrane of mind at large, the sole subject of existence. Not only does every person have the same inner sense of ‘I,’ I contend that every conscious being has it: cats, dogs, fish, etc. At the deepest, narrative-free levels, they must all feel exactly like us. 

This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.   Buddha

Source:  Bernardo Kastrup

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• If your brain was transplanted into another body (imagine it were possible), would you still be there? Yes? Then you are not a physical body. You are that which is aware of the physical body.
• If you got permanent amnesia and lost all your memories, would you still be there? Yes? Then you are not a bundle of memories or the “story of self” you create out of them. You are that which is aware of memory.
• If you damaged your brain and your personality completely changed, would you still be there? Yes? Then you are not a bundle of personality traits. You are that which is aware of personality traits.
• If you damaged your brain and could no longer feel emotions, would there still be you there? Yes? Then you are not a bundle of emotions. You are that which is aware of emotions coming and going.
• If you completely changed your belief system, would there still be you there? Yes? Then you are not a bundle of beliefs. You are that which is aware of beliefs.
• If you change your gender, is there still you there? Yes? Then you are not your gender. You are that which is aware of gender.
• If you radically transform your ways of thinking, is there still you there? Yes? Then you are not a bundle of thoughts or a way of thinking. You are that which is aware of thoughts coming and going.
• If you undo all your conditioning and habits, is there still you there? Yes? Then you are not a bundle of habits or mind patterns.
• If your only true skill were playing tennis player but you lost this ability due to old age, would there still be you there? Yes? Then you are not a bundle of skills. You are that which is aware of skills.
• If through scandal, you lost your possessions, job and reputation, would there still be you there? Yes? Then you are not your possessions, job or status. You are that which is aware of these things.
• If you were in an accident, and your brain became damaged, permanently unconscious and lacking in self-awareness, would you still be there. No? Then you are not a physical brain.

Who are you then?

• You are that which is aware of personality, memories, beliefs, emotions, skills, possessions, sense perceptions and the sense of having a body. But you are independent of these things for they can be subtracted from you and there is still you there.
• You are that which is aware of your experiences arising now, including the experience of thinking, feeling, sensing, perceiving – and the intuitive sense of existence that arises as a result.
• You are awareness itself, independent of the content that comes and goes in it.
• You are that which experiences the arising of body sensations, thoughts, memories, beliefs, sense perceptions but you are ultimately independent of them.

Source: Anthony Lambert

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Imagine you go deeply into a state of pure awareness through meditation. For a time, your awareness becomes empty of all content, including all thoughts, beliefs, emotions, sense perceptions and bodily sensations. All disappears and only awareness, a pure sense of being, remains. In other words, only the essence of you (pure awareness being) remains.

Imagine you are not alone. In the room, a friend is meditating also. He too goes into a state of pure awareness. Only the essence of him (pure awareness being) remains, also free of all content.

Now answer this:

• Is there any difference between the pure, empty awareness that you are and the pure empty awareness that he is? Or are they in fact the same awareness?
• Is there any true separation between these two awarenesses? Or is there in fact, just one awareness?
• In essence, is there any difference between the awareness you are and the awareness your friend is? Or are you, in essence, one awareness?
• If your body and brain were to die, would you die too – or would the awareness you are continue to exist as your friend, and as all living beings?

Source: Anthony Lambert

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