The following is an analogy of what it might look like for one to have an internal "first person singular" inquiry with the question "Who am I?" or “Who vs. The “I” Thought." Imagine a boxing ring with “Who” in the corner to the left wearing “no thing” at all and the “I” thought in the corner to the right wearing red and black shorts inscribed with “Born to Win” on the back (heh!)
Bell Rings and fight begins:
ROUND #1
(“I” comes charging forward and is met with “Who” ’s ... tender ... gentleness.)
W: Who are you?
I: "What the?" This is a fight not a conversation! I am (insert name here) and I live at (insert address here)!
W: Can you change your name? Can you change your address?
I: Sure “I” can.
W: Then how can it be who you are?
I: (Looking puzzled) I have this body that is who I am! Now put up your fists ... hey where are your fist?
W: Can that body disappear upon death?
I: Yes.
W: Then who are you when the body disappears/dies?
I: I came here to fight! Now put them up!
W: You are fighting against air … you throw your punches (thoughts) but there is nowhere here to land. Look again at what you are fighting for … what is it you are attempting to keep alive … does it actually exist at all? Again, who are you?
I: (Getting confused and struggling to come up with what it might be) I am my thoughts! I am ... what I like ... my life experiences!
W: Do thoughts change? Does what you like change? Can you get amnesia and lose every experience you ever had?
I: Yes. Yes. Yes!!!! (Getting really pissed.)
W: Then how can any of that be who you are? If it changes then you cannot be it, because it will all disappear. Who are you when everything disappears?
I: (Standing there ... gloves now dropped to the side, humbled in it’s inability to create itself.)
W: Ultimately all things are reduced to this Silence.
(Long Pause).
I: But I …
W: Yes, the “I” thought will continue to appear, yet you now have the ability and capacity to meet the thought “I” with “Who” for “Who” is always ever Present … and as the fighting “I” is met with the gentle breeze of “Who?” … the fists (thoughts) have no where to land and begin to assist in the undoing of the lie that it exists. You begin to, in a sense, fight for the demise of the “I” ... not in fighting to destroy it, but beginning to see through it and as this happens ... who you Truly Are is discovered and in that everyOne wins.
I: (Now in tears.) How will I find you if I should get lost or go off track?
W: Know that you are in “Who” and cannot be lost, simply ask again, “Who am I?” and any answer that comes, if it can be changed or altered in anyway, is not who you are and the clouds of “I”’s thoughts will part from the gentle breeze of "Who" and who You Truly Are is revealed again.
(Deep Still Silence).
I: I is left standing alone in the ring. A bit dazed and confused and yet a question appears that had not ever seen before ... “Who is dazed and confused?” (and a smile appears. :o)
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Fight ends in Round #1 with a technical draw due to the cuts in character of the “I” thought that have left Penetrating Pristine Silence.