Reddit reviews I Am That

The Psychedelic Experience by Timothy Leary and Ram Dass

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Timothy-Leary-The-Psychedelic-Experience-The-Tibetan-Book-Of-The-Dead.pdf

About Consciousness:

I AM THAT by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

https://www.amazon.com/I-Am-That-Nisargadatta-Maharaj/dp/0893860468

Be as You Are By Ramana Maharshi

https://www.amazon.com/Be-As-You-Are-Teachings/dp/0140190627/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526748482&sr=1-1&keywords=be+as+you+are

The Way of The Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Peaceful-Warrior-Changes-Lives/dp/1932073205/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526748504&sr=1-4&keywords=the+way+of+the+peaceful+warrior

Love hearing others having these types of experiences! If you want to dig deeper and gain further insight into that line of thought and experience more, check out the book “I Am That: Talks With Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,” it’s one of those books that opens your mind to new facets of perception and awareness of how connected we all are. (Right down the rabbit hole of I am you, you are me, him, them, her... we are one type awareness... expressions of the universe using consciousness to experience life from multiple perspectives all at once, most oblivious to our connection with a false cognition of “individuality”). If you take each chapter in and mull it over before moving on to the next, it can be quite an experience.

I Am That

The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

I Am That - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Any answer to the question "who am I?" using words (language) will be limited and incorrect because the world is far more dynamic, complex and mysterious than human languages, which are just apes making noises at each other.

But here's an idea:

There was a guy called Nisargadatta Maharaj who wrote a book called I Am That. The book itself is supposed to be profound, but you can understand the most important lesson from just the title.

When answering the question "who am I?" most people point to things outside of themselves and say "I am this" or "I am that." They say they are a Christian, Australian, Lawyer who is named Bob Smith. Are all these things who you are really? No, they are just the result of outside accidents. If you had been born in a different place 100 years ago all these things would be different.

Most people are too "close" to their identity and thoughts to see this reality. By observing your thoughts, meditation helps you create a distance and objectivity.

So "who am I?"... The answer meditation might give you is not something you'll be able to write down on paper. As another commenter said, "Have a look at what's experiencing the thoughts." This is almost like a spotlight turning back to shine light onto itself. When you look at who or what experiences your thoughts, what do you find?

Papaji belongs to the Vedantic ("non-dualism"... aka."oneness with all" or "enlightenment") branch of Hindu Yoga, as re-birthed by his Enlightened guru (pic on the wall behind him) Ramana Maharshi - in the 20th century.

While I fully consider this one of the highest paths to Enlightenment, this has nothing to do with Magick. In fact, they recommend ignoring all paranormal behaviour / powers etc, as it is a distraction to the path of Enlightenment. That said "magic" things were well recorded to have occurred around Ramana Maharshi on a somewhat frequent basis, but he put zero emphasis of those paranormal events in his teachings and encouraged his students to ignore it. I actually agree with this to some degree. Magical powers can be not only distracting, but extremely self corrupting (Aleister Crowley anyone?). After all, how many Magick practitioners can we claim to have been fully and permanently Enlightened in recent times? Few can reach the end goal by this path... which for me is still the main path, although I am now aware of several other legit ones.

Also, to clarify, there are extremely few historical individuals I would considered fully Enlightened. Ramana Maharshi (amazon books) was such an individual, as was another of his disciples Sri Nissargadatta Maharaj (read book: I am THAT). One tell tale sign is that they experience reality from the perspective of Eternity. They no longer possess an Ego, they want nothing - not even happiness, their Ego has been fully dissolved - although they still have unique personalities. They have zero attachments, zero fears, including that of corporal death.

My perspective of Papaji (featured in this video) is that he has experienced lower and temporal (not permanent) states of Enlightenment and was thus an effective teacher by his own methods as several (dozen?) students emerged under his belt to have achieved at least the levels that he did. Of note is Gangaji, a Western female teaching Vendanta for 20-30 years. Also of note, although not a Papaji disciple, but an outstanding vendantic teacher of sorts is Adyashanti - he is my favorite one of the bunch, although Nissargadatta's I AM THAT book was immensely mind blowing to me and what initially got me to take this branch of Yoga very seriously. This was after I had studied magick for 5+ years already. Both Gangaji and Adyashanti have many youtube videos. If you've never studied Vendanta, both of these are highly recommended as they are Western individuals that can very well articulate the teachings. Note Adyashanti also has a strong background in Zen Buddhism, and is pretty clear to me that he has experienced the lower states of Enlightenment temporarily, many times.

Cheers.

Once you have a clear idea what meditation is about I highly recommend "I am that" by Nisargadatta Maharaj

http://www.amazon.com/I-Am-That-Nisargadatta-Maharaj/dp/0893860468/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414876267&sr=8-1&keywords=i+am+that

It gets right to the very core of being. It answers any question you can have (Q&A Style). Maharaj is a realized man who were vistited by people and asked questions, which were taped and later written down to this book.

Maharaj reached enlightenment by always staying with the feeling "I am". After 3 years realization happened.

I Am That by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

http://www.amazon.com/I-Am-That-Nisargadatta-Maharaj/dp/0893860468/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371198892&sr=8-1&keywords=i+am+that

You might like this one. It’s pretty intense. Can take a lifetime to get through. Worth a read. (imho) :-)

I Am That.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0893860468/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_pqh.zb7F4FVDE

I think you sound like a pretty normal girl. You seem to be a bit smarter then most and a bit more depressed, but beside that you sound just like everybody else:

"People dont really know me, lonely but special, anxiety, me me me."

And of course you open a thread just about you, cuz it feels kind of good to talk about yourself, right? Center of attention and stuff. And thats OK, thats normal. Most people feel that way.

For me, the so-sad-its-almost-funny thing about our being so self-obsessed is that almost nobody knows who they are. Do you have an answer? Who are you?

I started the search for who I really am a couple of years back and Im sure it helped me a lot. I didnt make things easier, but it gave me a solid foundation, something to stand on, something to hold on to. Inside myself, not dependent on outer circumstances.

If you are interested, i recommend to check out:

1. This Is Water by David Foster Wallace, 20 min. commencement speech about how to handle everyday life. Listen to this!
   
   
2. Meditation. Seriously, start now. This might help I am that-multireddit, named after the book, also highly recommended, albeit a bit abstract.
   
   And of course I will answer any PMs or comments regarding this.
   
   

Yeah, I agree. Your ideas are directly in line with some of the advaita Vedanta gurus. you might enjoy:

https://www.amazon.com/I-Am-That-Nisargadatta-Maharaj/dp/0893860468