Meditations on Nisargadatta Mahara's 'I AM THAT'
The author says: ''The only true statement is ‘I am’. All else is mere inference''.
The statement 'I AM' implies the identification to the subjective 'I', as well as the projection of this subjective form - AM-NESS - onto the canvas of an allegedly objective world.
In the process of finding out what is not true, why stop at 'I AM'?
Is there really a world separate from the subject, a world which is the condition to the 'AM'?
Is there really an 'I' remaining when there is no-thing else left?
Is there really an 'I' remaining when the mind is no longer in the way?
'I AM' may be the realization of a deep search, yet the search may continue deeper.
Truth cannot be a made a statement, for a statement is a form;
and form is a containment, and Truth cannot be contained;
and form can be destroyed, and what can be destroyed cannot be Truth;
and form is fixed, and Truth flows;
therefore a statement isn't the appropriate expression of Truth;
a positive statement is but an arbitrary conclusion to a journey which is otherwise beginningless and endless;
a positive statement reassures the mind that something is found ultimately, something which is still identifiable, conceivable, graspable and speakable;
a positive statement concedes to ego that in spite of all that which is eradicated as false on the journey to Truth, the 'I' bubble is not lost, is not done with; thus ego can feed on this allegedly ultimate statement and claim that 'I have found that I AM';
a positive statement is something to show for, to demonstrate, to write about and to spread like a promise of reaching.
The statement 'I AM' may very well be the last garment the mind may wear before being stripped naked; it may be the last step before the fall to nothing and nowhere;
'I AM' may be the ultimate statement in the world of forms, but yet not the only True statement;
to unlock the form and the fixity of the statement 'I AM', thus allowing the flow into Truth, one will cease to look at one's 'I' in the mirror, one will drop the AM-ness that the mirror confirms;
one will fall through the other side of the looking glass, where I and AM switch their positions and unlock their statement form; 'I AM' turns into: 'AM I?'
In the process of finding out what is not true, why stop at 'I AM'?
Is there really a world separate from the subject, a world which is the condition to the 'AM'?
Is there really an 'I' remaining when there is no-thing else left?
Is there really an 'I' remaining when the mind is no longer in the way?
'I AM' may be the realization of a deep search, yet the search may continue deeper.
Truth cannot be a made a statement, for a statement is a form;
and form is a containment, and Truth cannot be contained;
and form can be destroyed, and what can be destroyed cannot be Truth;
and form is fixed, and Truth flows;
therefore a statement isn't the appropriate expression of Truth;
a positive statement is but an arbitrary conclusion to a journey which is otherwise beginningless and endless;
a positive statement reassures the mind that something is found ultimately, something which is still identifiable, conceivable, graspable and speakable;
a positive statement concedes to ego that in spite of all that which is eradicated as false on the journey to Truth, the 'I' bubble is not lost, is not done with; thus ego can feed on this allegedly ultimate statement and claim that 'I have found that I AM';
a positive statement is something to show for, to demonstrate, to write about and to spread like a promise of reaching.
The statement 'I AM' may very well be the last garment the mind may wear before being stripped naked; it may be the last step before the fall to nothing and nowhere;
'I AM' may be the ultimate statement in the world of forms, but yet not the only True statement;
to unlock the form and the fixity of the statement 'I AM', thus allowing the flow into Truth, one will cease to look at one's 'I' in the mirror, one will drop the AM-ness that the mirror confirms;
one will fall through the other side of the looking glass, where I and AM switch their positions and unlock their statement form; 'I AM' turns into: 'AM I?'
'My Own I' - 1995
Oil on canvas
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...and a new and deeper journey begins, a quest beyond promising statements, a drifting in a map-less ocean where even questions dissolve like salt in water;
rather than a journey, a fall; rather than a fall, a timeless event; rather than an event, a wordless-ness... That uncharted side of the looking glass sends no reflection of the witness, therefore the world is seen not as a reflection, and without the onlooker's 'I' in it; the 'I' doesn't occupy space and the world is experienced without the boundaries of 'I'; the witness dissolves, only witnessing flows; AM I? yields to IS THERE?; IS THERE? yields to IS?; and as IS? yields... |