After all, you’re not who you think you are at all
If we are to see through the jillion illusions out of which the ‘real’ world is made, it is important to be curious about and to question appearances. A powerful means of interrogating illusion comes from the tradition of jnana yoga, the yoga of knowledge or wisdom. It does not necessarily involve memorization of anything very complicated, but it does require concentration on a question put to oneself.
One central technique of jnana yoga made famous by Ramakrishna involves the persistent interrogation of the internal dialogue (which CREATES the ego) with the reflexive question ‘who am I’? Like many of the yoga systems pioneered in the BG, jnana yoga consists in using what would otherwise be an obstacle against itself – in this case the internal dialogue, the tendency of the mind recursively to spin an ordering story about itself.
As the central plot element in this drama, you are going to ask the thing making your ‘me’ – “who is this ‘me’ you are creating?” Yes, it sounds like a strange question. No, it is not a zen koan. It is a pointed question you are putting to your own cognitive apparatus. After all, it is yours, and you have a right to know and direct its action. So ask the question. Do it three times, and make sure that you really try to find an answer.
Keep going, good job. Hopefully, you at least had a glimpse of something pretty powerful. If you are intrigued, continue the practice, ask it again and again. It is nonsense input and can be unsettling, so I advise an asana and pranayama regimen to restore bio-mental equilibrium.
With persistence, you’ll discover experientially and not just theoretically that you are not who you think you are, i.e., a body-mind organism. Instead, you find that you are more than your physical body-mind. Its apparent limitations and boundaries, like external ‘reality,’ are a simulation, a virtuality, a projection. Really, you are no projection but the projector.
