Have you ever asked yourself, "Who am I, anyway?"

Looking up at the stars at night and contemplating the vastness of the universe, I think many of us have asked ourselves that question. It has been a burning one for me ever since childhood. Recently, I heard an answer that rings as truth in my very being -- I heard it from an old friend, John Wheeler, and I'd like to share it with readers of this blog. If it also "rings" within you, you can go into John's site to learn more:

Pointers from John Wheeler, www.thenaturalstate.org 1-26-09 All other knowledge depends on your own presence. The essence of this is just to look directly into that presence, your own self-evident being, and see it for what it is. With this, the belief in any contradictory self-definitions is abandoned and what you are and always have been stands self-revealed and unadorned — the natural state. Whether or not such a looking happens or not makes no difference to what you ultimately are. There is no need of becoming oneself, or what one already is. Who or what is aware of a feeling or any other object? Thoughts come and go. Where are you in the equation? If you are looking for yourself objectively, you are overlooking the point that the answer is not in the mind. Go back to the basic point: What are you? Yes, thoughts arise. But what are you? Obviously, you are not an object. But that does not deny your presence. You are still there to know or not know the objects. "Me" is obviously a word. But where/what is this "thing" that the word supposedly points to? If we take that to refer to the unconditioned, absolute, presence/awareness, then where is the problem? There isn't one. If this "me" is taken to be something separate from that (a separate isolated self standing apart from that reality) — just where is this seeming person, in fact? If there is no such thing, then who or what has any problem? The trouble comes from granting the existence of such a limited self and tacitly assuming that is what I am. All seeking, suffering and doubt hangs on the presumed presence of that separate self and one's identity as that. Questioning it, the house of cards falls straight away, and along with it all the problems. In seeking, we are trying find who we are, what is real, or where happiness might be by following concepts in the mind. In doing so, we are looking away from what we truly are. If you are going to do anything, have a straight look into the doubtless fact of your being and see it for what it is. It is a marvelous and extraordinary revelation. All the scriptures and sages have been saying wonderful things about the reality. By a wonderful stroke of fate, you are that. Being is not a doing. It is a present fact. You already are what you are. You do not need to go looking anywhere for anything other than being what you are. We overlook the extraordinary miracle of our own presence and feel in poverty. Because of this, we go looking for things, states and information from "experts", instead of discovering for ourselves this amazing thing we already are. How can you find yourself in a book, on the web, or in a YouTube video? Such may point to your real nature, but still it is your real nature we are interested in, not even the pointing! Seeing all this, you can settle down with what you really are. You do not need to go looking elsewhere for something that you already are. Without chasing concepts, who can deny their own being and aware nature? Without needless conceptual activity, what is wrong with your own natural state here and now? This is the peace or fullness. This means there is nothing wrong with you anymore, nothing to get, nothing to fix, nothing to improve. This is your natural state. It is "obtained" simply by being what you are. Do not over-complicate things with needless concepts. Before the mind appears or moves, what you are is already present. Get familiar with this already-present nature that you are. Thinking about your own presence and trying to grasp it via conceptual thought or logical proof is not necessary. Is your very being in need of proof? Is it a result of logical analysis? See the point that before any other experience, even the thought "I am", you must be there, both present and aware. Before any question or concept appears, you ARE. That is all this is pointing to. It is self-evident and beyond doubt at all times. All the words are only attempts to point to this in different ways. A lot of the language is based on the perspective the questioner starts with. In fact, what you are is not any "thing" or label at all, not even "being", "consciousness" or any thing else. If you are cogitating about this stuff and trying to analyze too much, you would be overlooking the utter simplicity of it. It is only your own natural presence itself, just this and nothing else. So it is best just to drop all concepts and be what you are. What you are has no problems, worries or doubts at all. That is why they call it perfect fullness and peace. Problems only arise in the concepts. Spirituality as some special undertaking also only arises in the concepts. What you are is not a concept. All the problems come in with the notion of "I". "I" am stuck. "I" don't see. "I" am separate from awareness. Or whatever the case may be. But that "I" is a mere concept that only comes and goes in the doubtless space of being-knowing. Even the concepts or notions of waking, dreaming and sleep are still appearing and subsiding in aware-presence. Even the experience of consciousness as a state or experience is coming and going in your ultimate presence. There is some presence in you, your very being itself, which even recognizes the coming and going of consciousness and all other states and experiences. This is nothing mystical, but simply what you are, your natural state right now. You don't need to think or guess in order to BE. Just have a look straight at this being that you are. The only problem was that we overlaid it with concepts. Now it is time to toss aside the concepts and see this (your real being) directly and nakedly — as it is. There is no separate self with any substance or independent nature. So that construct is empty. The seeming separate self is nothing, an absence, a mere fiction. But look into that seeming "nothing" that remains when the notion of the "I" is seen through. It is not a vacuum or a void. Yes, it is "no thing" to the mind, but it is certainly not nothing. It is you! That seeming emptiness is full to the brim. It is utterly full and complete, rich and sublime beyond words. It is the space in which the content appears. It is the consciousness in which the space appears. Ultimately, it is the unnameable source from which all these emerge. Do not sell yourself short and miss the utter richness and beauty of your real being beyond concepts. Immediate and present awareness is all this gets down to, nothing more. You are that. It does not need to be focused on or cultivated, any more than you need to go around all day thinking, "I am breathing". The true nature and its so-called realization has in fact already happened. In truth, it never needed to "happen" because it is an ever-present fact. That leaves the suffering and doubts to consider. These are conceptual in nature. They come from looking for who and what we are (our reality, identity and happiness) in the unexamined concepts of the mind. These self-centered concepts are all rooted in the primary notion that I am a separate "I" apart from reality. We always assumed this concept as true, and this became the basis of all other self-centered thoughts. Believing in those thoughts was itself the suffering. That is why a clear and direct clarification of our natural state undermines the basis of the concepts (the wrong notions of what I am) and conclusively ends the seeking, suffering and doubts. When this is understood, any lingering problems are resolved. There is no "moral imperative" to resolve needless psychological suffering. But given that it is quite available to do so, why not? And where does that leave you? Present and aware as the doubtless natural self you have always been. Nothing is attained and there is no maintenance or post-processing involved. All such things would only be due to continued belief in the self-centered notion.