Who am I?
Who am I?
Another method of realization is the peeling method. In this method, one imagines peeling an onion; you keep on peeling the onion until finally nothing is left. One imagines the body to be made up of layers just like one wears layers of clothing above the body – the first layer being the undergarments; the second layer, the garment; the third layer, clothes to stay warm; and under freezing conditions, the fourth layer could be the overcoat. As you keep taking off the layers, the overcoat followed by the next layer and the garment and then the undergarments, you finally reach the body.
Now one must virtually peel the body as if to find what is inside. First, one peels the physical layer of the body. It starts with the epidermis – the outer layer of the skin that protects blood from oozing out, followed by the peeling of tissues, muscles, and bones till the entire physical body is peeled. Obviously, this peeling method is virtual, and it requires imagination without which one cannot imagine peeling the body. Next, one peels the breath layer, which is the second layer – the layer that constitutes not just breathing as the name implies, but five systems respiration, circulation, digestion, excretion, and reproduction. All these together may be imagined as that subtle, second layer of the body below the first physical layer of the skin, muscles, and bones.
After virtually peeling the first two layers, one finds the third layer that can be referred to as the mind layer. What is this layer? It constitutes the faculty of thought, memory, and intellect. Without this layer, there would be no human being, and therefore, it is necessary to virtually peel the mind layer to discover what is within. Different philosophers may use different methods to understand this virtual peeling. Some peel four layers and some peel five layers, but in the end, on peeling the mind layer, there is the layer of the ego. Finally, what is left after virtually peeling the physical body, the breath layer, the mind layer, and the ego? Nothing – just the pure energy that gives life to the human being and makes it appear as a man or a woman! The moment the energy departs, life leaves the body, dead. Then, we are not layers anymore, but just a mass of flesh and bones. Why is it that each of our layers stops functioning at death? The mind stops functioning; the breath stops functioning; and the skin, the bones, and the muscles stop functioning. We know because the energy in the body escapes from all the layers leaving us dead. Therefore, it is this energy that leaves the body that is us – our true self. The various layers of the body that we peeled are only layers that surround the energy that is truly us, which is our life.
To support this method and understand it better, let us ask a silly question. What is a car? By itself, can we call the engine the car? Or can we call the door, the seats, the steering wheel, the windows, the mirrors, the petrol tank, or the wheels – can we call any of them “THE CAR”? Of course not. All these are the components that when put together appear as the car. If it is so easy to understand the car and its components, why should it be so difficult to understand the body? The car needs electrical wires to wire it up. Further, connecting everything to the ignition that starts the car without forgetting that if the gas from the tank does not flow to the engine, neither will the car start nor will the car move. It will be dead.
Similarly the body too is wired as we have discussed above and it needs the energy to give life. It needs the mind layer, the breath layer, and the physical layer along with the final layer – the energy within – to give life to the body. Together, all these appear as the human body. Just like none of the parts of the car when dismantled can be called a car, so also none of the body parts can be called “Me” independently. The only difference is from having a source of energy– the life that sparks it. Realization helps us know that we are that spark. It is the spark that is the beginning or birth of the human body, and it is the spark that departs, causing death. Without the spark or energy, the body is nothing.
Method 5: Negation Method “Not this, Not this; I am That”: Another method of realization is referred to as “Not This, Not This; I am That”. In this method, one first realizes what one is not. Am I this body? No! While I seem to be the body, I understand what happens at death. The body is as it was, but we say that the dead person has moved on or passed away. This means that the person that died is not this dead body. He never was! So I am clear that “I am not this”.
When this body is cremated or buried, its five constituents dis-integrate. The air gets released into the atmosphere, the water evaporates, the fire disappears as the body turns cold, the space occupied by the body shrinks, and what is left is just a little soil. Of course, I am not this body I seem to be. I am none of the five constituents that disintegrate. If I am not this body and its five constituents, then what am I? I am that energy that departed. This is the realization of what I truly am. I am not This, I am That – Not “this” body I seem to be, but “that” energy, spirit, or soul.
Today if you are looking at an apple, who is the seer and what is being seen? The eyes are seeing the apple and the apple is being seen. The apple is the object, and eye is the subject. If we ask who is seeing the eyes that see the apple, then we say the mind is observing the eyes. So now, the eyes could be considered as the object, and mind becomes the seer or the subject. But go on one step deeper, who is seeing the mind seeing the eyes looking at an apple? I am seeing the mind.“I”– the energy – that is seeing the mind and observing the eyes that see the apple. Ultimately, this method of realization confirms that I am seeing everything. I am seeing the mind, the mind is seeing the eyes, and the eyes are seeing the apple. That is the reality, isn't it?
I know that my mind is wandering. My mind knows that the eyes are opened, and the eyes know that it is an apple. Therefore, finally who is the seer? This probing of who is the seer and what is the seen or what is the subject and what is the object leads to a realization of who we truly are. It is another method of realization – a realization as to what “I” am in reality. Am “I” the eyes? No. If I remove the eyes and keep it on a table, will the eyes be able to see? Of course not! The eyes are connected to the mind through a network of nerves. So if you have an object, say the apple, being seen by eyes and observed by the mind, the moment the mind sleeps, the eyes shut off and then we can't see. But it is me – the energy – that gives power to the mind to be able to give life to the sense perception to perceive the object. It may be a little complicated. But if one is keen to realize the truth, then one must contemplate on the Subject–Object method or the Seer and the Seen method to realize who we truly are. We are not the eyes, and we are not the mind. We are the energy that gives life to the mind and to the eyes. How does one explain that although our eyes are open, we see nothing because we are asleep? Yes, sometimes this happens. The mind is asleep, but the eyes are open and we don't see anything. This is because the eye is only an instrument of the mind, and the mind is an instrument of “me”– the one who sees.
In all the methods illustrated thus far, what happens? The method first leads to realization. A realization that we are not the body, the mind, and the ego we think we are. We are the energy that gives life to the body. The realization wipes out the ignorance and liberates. When we realize we are not the body, the mind, and the ego, all the pain, the sorrow, and the misery that we experience as the body, mind, and ego disappear! This is because of the realization that led to liberation from the belief about what we are not and what we truly are.
What are we in reality? Einstein, the world famous scientist, stated this decades ago in his scientific equation E = mc2. He explained through this equation that energy can neither be created nor destroyed but can only be transformed from one form to another. Mass and energy are interchangeable. This scientific equation can lead to realization of the truth that we are energy and not the mass we seem to be.
In those days, this equation seemed to be complicated to understand in terms of realization of the truth about who we are. But today, this very world famous formula decodes the mystery of who we truly are. Earlier, this scientific formula only advocated that energy and mass are interchangeable, but this did not lead to any realization. In today's world, scientists have taken the above finding to a new level of discovery. Under a microscope, when a human cell was being examined, scientists didn't stop at seeing atoms. They went on to find protons, neutrons, electrons, and the smallest amongst them – quarks!
On further study, scientists were bewildered that extremely tiny particles of photons suddenly disappeared into waves. How could matter just disappear? Scientists concluded this to be Wave–Particle Duality, where the particles were becoming energy waves. They were further bewildered to find the energy wave reconstituting into the particle. Of course this endorsed Einstein's earlier theory on mass and energy convertibility. Beyond that, the discovery led scientists to believe that in reality, the human body that appeared to be a mass of flesh and bones was actually trillions of atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, photons, quarks, and ultimately energy waves. These trillions of energy particles that together appeared like the human body are actually nothing but energy broken down to its tiniest form. This scientific discovery is another method of realization of “who” and “what” we actually are. We are not the body that we appear to be. We are pure energy! And this is not some philosophical claim, but a scientific discovery as proved using a powerful microscope.