To know who and what you are you must first find who and what you are not

*note* from Alice Ouzounian's site ...read it and ponder,then read it again...it's beautiful.
-added by danny-
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" To know who and what you are you must first find who and what you are not". How can we know who we really are? Is it possible to discover our own mystery? Are the ideas and concepts that we have about ourselves real or just passing illusions? How can we find out?

There are so many questions that we must learn to answer by more questions? I remember a vivid dream that I had when I began my spiritual quest more than 25 years ago... in which enlightened masters who were watching and interrogating me... encircled me.

I will never forget their question... which was:" Who are you?" and my answer was the following: "In the spiritual world I am a cosmic being...and in the material world I am called Alice...etc." I didn't know better then... and as a "cosmic" being or as "Alice" I still gave a limited view of who I thought I was... Because whatever I "Think" I am, can only be a self-image a projection of a thought that I have and identify with... and yet we know that thoughts change, ideas about ourselves change also, from day to day and from moment to moment...

The opinions and the way that others perceive us, not only change, but are often different and sometimes even conflicting, yet they do send us images about how others perceive us... and these perceptions about who other people think we are, do influence our own perception of ourselves... Taking all these facts into consideration, let us ask once more the same question: How can we possibly say that we know ourselves when there are so many different images that we have about ourselves? Our moods, thoughts emotions change with our experiences, anger, vulnerability, fear, bereavement, and the loss of a job can make us change the image that we have of ourselves...

So, we can understand that we cannot rely on these fleeting and changing images that we have of ourselves... So how can we find out who we really are? The answer is simple; to know who and what we are, we must investigate and know what we are NOT... And to know what we are not, we must WATCH ourselves thoroughly...carefully rejecting all that does not bring us back to the basic experience of "I AM"...

Hence, this shows that twenty five years ago in my vivid dream, the answer that I gave to the Sages gathered around me was a wrong answer: I was looking at myself as an "object" and therefore my answer to them was the following: "when here in the spiritual world I am a Cosmic being - "and when I am in the physical world I am called Alice" Why was it wrong? Because the answers came from mental thoughts, ideas and images that I had about myself... thus, without knowing it I saw myself as an "object" ... I am this cosmic being when in the Spiritual world... and I am that person when in a physical body" Therefore, I automatically separated myself from who I AM.

To find out and learn to question yourself about who and what you really are, you should try to separate regularly and constantly the "I AM" from the "I am this or that..." the moment you add this or that, you look at yourself as an "object" and an object you certainly are NOT... and while you are questioning yourself, try to feel and experience deeply what you really are...and what it means to just BE... feel the I AM...empty of anything else... without adding I am ...this...or that... be conscious of not having images of any subpersonality...You will find out that to feel EMPTY and just be the pure "I AM" will be difficult, but worth all the effort...

Unfortunately, we are so much used to look at ourselves, as "objects" that we don't realize what we are doing to ourselves... In fact, all our mental and emotional patterns tell us different stories about who and what we
are... sometimes we are a father, a mother, an employee, a teacher, we are this one moment and that at another one... we identify all the time with one or a multitude of subpersonalities... when what we need in reality, is just to be open and become the unconditional "I AM"... pure Consciousness.

I do hope that this essay will send a clear message about the importance of discovering the SUBSTANCE of your BEING-NESS - which is the I AM without attachments...The clearer you understand that on the level of your thought
and emotional patterns you automatically describe yourself to yourself and others as an object...and as a result become something separated from who you really are...just pure Essence...

However, the moment you succeed in describing yourself in negative terms only, meaning in knowing that you can never be anything else than pure Essence - a sublime Substance... and when you understand that descriptions of what you do and the way you act and react are just fleeting descriptions, changing actions and events that are created to make us interact with others in a world of our own creation...

When this realization takes place in you, then, you will know that by saying: "I am doing this or that.... or I am this or that, are necessary subpersonalities created by the ego to describe a role or many roles that we play whilst carrying our responsibilities... Therefore, the "I AM" can never become a "tool", but the "I am this or that" is just a device used to describe something in the world of duality... The quicker you experience the difference between the two aspects of the "I AM" and the "I am this...I am that" the better and nearer you will come to realize your limitless BEING... and awaken to a new Reality...