Simply intellectually speculating saying ‘I AM THIS’ or ‘I AM THAT’ is not Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

The scriptures have been passed down by hearing from one generation to the next. They were written down only relatively late. So, no one would know whether to rely on the times they give. Also, a lot depends on the translation. Each 'Shloka' (sanskrit verse) is open to many layers of interpretation.

Non-duality has no place for an individualized God or anything supernatural.   The Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, is the innermost self, which pervades in everything and everywhere in all the three states.  When wisdom dawns one becomes aware of the fact that the soul is the innermost self and the soul or consciousness witnesses all the three states. The witness and witnessed are one is essence.  

All the name and form has no value from ultimate standpoint, because all the names and forms are mere mirage created out of consciousness.  Consciousness alone is real and eternal. Thus formless soul or consciousness, the innermost self, is ultimate truth or Brahman. Nothing higher than that can be, when there is unity in diversity.

 That universal unity is what Buddha, Sri, Sankara and Sri, Goudpada discovered by investigating the depth of dimension of the mind, which is present in the form of universe. They realized this ultimate truth and enlightened. They achieved Gnana or Bodhi, the Self-Knowledge of Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. 

 The consciousness is not limited to the waking entity and the waking world because it pervades all the three states.

By inquiring “WHO AM ‘I’?”  , which is limited the waking entity will yield only half truth,   because it exposed only the unreal nature of the form and fails to expose the unreality of the time and space.   Thus ‘WHO AM I? Inquiry will not yield full truth.   Without taking all the three states into account,    it is impossible to realize the ultimate truth of Brahman.

Many People who are stuck with” WHO AM ‘I’? and ‘I AM THAT are unaware of the fact that,  their journey in incomplete. ‘WHO AM ‘I’ and “I AM THAT’ are only stages, they have to go much beyond WHO AM ‘I’? and ‘I AM THAT’ .

When self is not   waking entity and waking experience is false experience than what is the use of assuming of the ‘Self ‘without the form without realizing what ‘self ‘is in actuality.   One has to realize the self is within the form, time and space but self is without the form, time and space.  The form, time and space are one in essence. That essence is consciousness. Consciousness is the innermost self.   On the standpoint of the innermost self, the form, time and space are mere illusion. Therefore, perfect understanding is needed to realize ‘what is what’ to know ‘what is truth ‘and ‘what is illusion’. Simply intellectually speculating saying ‘I AM THIS’ or ‘I AM THAT’ is not Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. 

That is why Buddha said:-  

Do not believe a spiritual teaching just because:-

1. it is repeatedly recited,
2. it is written in a scripture,
3. it was handed from guru to disciple,
4. everyone around you believes it,
5. it has supernatural qualities,
6. it fits my beliefs anyway,
7. it sounds rational to me,
8. it is taught by a respectable person,
9. it was said to be the truth by the teacher,
10. one must defend it or fight for it.

However, only when it agrees with your experience and reason, and when it is conducive to the good and gain of oneself and all others, then one should accept the teachings, and live up to them."
....Buddha.

 

The seeker of truth is one who is ready verify and has courage to accept and reject the truth when he finds out what is truth and what is untruth. The meek will stick to their inherited conditioning remain experiencing duality as reality.

The mind is myth. The world is myth the waking experience is myth.

Many people make interpretations based on assumptions. Reason based on the soul, the  innermost self, takes one to the ultimate end. Yoga is not the means for self-realization because yoga is based on the false self and Yoga cannot replace reason.  Wisdom  does not require physical action.  Wisdom requires only  discrimination of real from the false.

For Gnani regards his body and the world as an object. Formless   Witness is like railway station and waking and  dream are like train and deep sleep is like station alone without the train.  The station is unaffected by the coming and going of the train. Thus individual experiences of birth, life, death and the world are happening within the waking or dream.  The self is nothing to do with the individual experiences happening waking or dream.

There is no man but mind. There is no universe but mind. There is no God but mind. There is no waking but mind.  The man and his universe, his individual god and waking experience exist only when the mind exist. The mind exists because of ignorance. The ignorance is there until the illusion is experienced as reality.      The mind is myth. The world is myth the waking experience is myth.

Consciousness is that which knows everything, that which sees. Consciousness alone remains after one gets rid of the ignorance. Consciousness is only the seer; it is not Brahman that is an error. It becomes Brahman only after soul-centric  inquiry and reasoning.

Man of truth is not cut off from practical life within the practical world, because ultimate truth or Brahman   is neither realism nor idealism; it is beyond both these.

The non-dualistic truth is a rational or scientific truth declared by Buddha and Sri,Sankara centuries back but unfortunately the original essence of the rational non-duality is lost because  mainly because of orthodoxy , adulteration   and add-ons,  which are based on the waking entity or ego, which is the false self.

The seeker has first indulge in deeper self-search without scriptures and understand assimilate the truth independently to realize the real non-dualistic essence, which leads to self-awareness. Thus independent thinking, reasoning and judgment is very much necessary in pursuit of truth.

'Self' is not an individual because it is formless and universal.

The 'Self' cannot be experienced as an individual. 'Self'  is not an individual because  it is formless and universal.  People think the pundit’s interpretation of Upanishads and get stuck to the idea of experience as a touch stone. One has to realize the 'Self' is not form but 'Self' is formless consciousness, is prior to any experience. Experience implies duality.  Duality is mere illusion from ultimate standpoint.   In reality experience and experiencer are one in essence. Thus there is no second thing exists other than consciousness.  Hence it is non-dual. 

Experience belongs to individuality. And individuality is falsehood. There is neither individual nor his experience in reality. Man and his experience of the world cannot exist without waking experience. Whatever we are discussing, we are discussing within the waking experience. One has to know: whether physical body and the world are within the mind or the mind is within the physical body? The mind, physical body, ego and the world are present only, when the whole experience of the waking or dream is present. And mind is absent, when the waking/dream experience is absent. Thus one has to conclude the mind as the whole waking or dream experience. Thus the mind appears and disappears as waking or dream experience. All your arguments are truth only on the base of the ego, which is the false self, within the false experience (waking). The individual experiences within the waking are as real as dream.

 Suppose the same subject, if we are discussing in the dream and one asks me the same questions in the dream, then whatever he said in dream becomes unreal, when the waking takes place. Whatever one saying now, he is saying within the waking experience. The waking is unreal on the base of the formless witness, which is Atman. Atman is in the form consciousness.

How does one see various objects, scenes and persons during dreams? If the dream is experienced without the physical body, then what is it that experiences the dream? Therefore, there must be a formless witness of the dream world. This formless witness is the same witness that is witnessed this Waking experience also. Therefore the Waking experience and dream both are witnessed by one and only formless witness of which the seeker is not aware of. Since he considers the physical body [I] as the self or witness and views and judges the world-view on the standpoint of false self, within the false experience. The formless witness can exist with or without the waking or dream. But waking /dream cease to exist, without the formless witness.

The gross Waking experience is merged into the mental experience in the sense that, when it is analysed, it is found to exist inseparably in and as the mind alone. All "spiritual" planes are really mental: those who regard them as different or higher are deceiving themselves. The dream becomes unreal when the waking takes place; similarly the waking becomes unreal when the wisdom dawns. Therefore everything has to be grasped mentally, not argued on the intellectual point of view, which is limited to the false physical entity within the false experience.

The unreal is created out of real, and when one views and judges on the standpoint unreal [ego] then there is duality. When one is able to view and judge on the standpoint of real [Atman/true self] then there is only non -duality. Therefore, when the wisdom dawns then there is neither duality, nor non duality, only reality. This is my views and conviction.

All these confusion will go on, until man thinks, he is an individual and apart from the world, and the world existed prior to him and he is born in it afterwards. Therefore, it is necessary to know the fact the true self is not ego, but the true self is the soul, and stop viewing and judging the world-view on the standpoint of the physical self [ego], and one has to view and judge on the true self (soul or consciousness) to realize the fact that, the world along with man is illusion. The formless substance from which the illusion is created is Atman. Thus Atman is Brahman or ultimate reality. Thus no second thing exists on the standpoint of Atman or consciousness as self. Thus there is neither experience nor the experiencer in non-dual reality but only Self-Awareness.

Holding ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ as self is the cause of confusion.

The ‘I, mind, universe, waking, dream, duality are one and the same thing. Since, ‘I’ is identified as self all the confusion. Holding  ‘I’ or ‘I AM’   as self is the cause of confusion. Holding ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ as self is blocking the realization of ultimate truth or Brahman.  The ‘I’  or mind or universe or waking or dream  is an object to the formless subject. Thus it is necessary to include the universe in the inquiry to realize the unreal nature of the ‘I’ or mind or universe or waking.  

When the whole universe, movable and immovable, is known to be consciousness, which is the inner most self and thus the existence of everything else is negated, where is then any room to say that the body is the self. 

Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self, how is one to achieve. 

Dualist sages  could not distinguish between ‘I’ and ‘formless witness.’  They take ‘I’ as self or witness. Their highest is to say ‘I AM THAT’ without verification. They are so much attached to the 'I' that they do not want to think that 'I' does not exist. Again one is unable to detach the ‘I’ from the Real witness, which is ever formless.

The dualist object: - If everything else is false than   the statement I am   Brahman is itself false, the but when one says non-duality is false, there must be the awareness, consciousness, behind the very statement. You will also go, die. One has to rely upon that which is permanent.  Formless witness of the ‘I’ alone is permanent. Anything that one says is a witnessed [waking], but there is the formless witness [consciousness] there before any statement could be made.

Dualist or realists approach is more practical, and they stuck with the reality of the Universe or 'I' , they take it as real.

The dualist or realists   are unaware on what standpoint the world is real and on what standpoint the world is unreal. 

The world is real because it is a manifestation of consciousness, but is unreal, in the sense, that it is not absolute and eternal like consciousness itself. Thus from the ultimate stand point the world is unreal. Therefore whatever seen, known, believed and experienced as person within the practical world is bound to be unreal from ultimate stand point because of their impermanence. And the formless substance and witness of the mind or universe is real and eternal.  

It is the illusion, which is present as mind or universe in which you exist as a person blinds you to realize the fact that "you are" not the self.

It is the illusion, which is present as mind or universe in which you exist as a person blinds you to realize the fact that "you are" not the self.  By investigating what is mind? “What is the substance of the mind?” and “What is the source of the mind? frees the “Self” from experiencing the illusion as reality.   The formless Soul, the innermost self is eternally free. 

The Soul” is the innermost self. Soul is alone and it is unique. Soul never was before; it never will be again because it is ever free from form, time and space.  The form, time  and space are one in essence.  And formless soul, which is consciousness, is the essence of the form, time and space.   Thus the there is no second thing exists other than consciousness. 

Even though there is the body, the  “Self” is not the body.  Even though “Self “is within the world, the “Self” is not of the world. The “Self” is within the world but it is not of the world. The formless soul is the innermost Self. The innermost self is in the form of consciousness. Consciousness is the innermost self, witnesses the coming and going of the waking experience, which contains the man and his experience of the world. 

Consciousness is within the three states because it pervades in everything and everywhere in all the three states as their formless substance.   Consciousness is apart from the three states because it is formless witness of the three states. It is apart because it is not limited as an entity or identity or anything within the three states.  Identifying the consciousness as limited to form or identity is cause of the ignorance.   

Seeker of truth should not take some teaching or teacher as a yardstick.  Nobody is to judge you here and nobody can pretend to be judge other than your innermost self.  Seeker need not condemn any teacher or teaching but there is a need to know in what way their teaching blocks realization of ultimate truth or Brahman for his own information and such information has to be shared with other fellow seekers, which in truth helps them to realize, what is blocking their realization of ultimate truth or Brahman. 

The  individual experience  of  birth,life, death and the world are part of the illusion. Thus whatever is free from the illusion is reality. Thus it is necessary to realize the fact that, the "Self" is not the waking entity ,  in order to realize,  whatever seen,known ,experienced as waking entity  is bound to to be falsehood,  because the waking experience itself is falsehood.   Thus one has to get rid of the ignorance  to realize the form,time and space are mere illusion.

Ignorance is the cause of binding the soul, the innermost self to the illusory experience of form, time and space.  If ignorance vanishes through wisdom than illusory experience of form, time and space will never prevail again as reality.