On Jun 30, 10:22 am, Marcus <[email protected]> wrote: > Sure that "I am" Yes, very sure.
This is not a problem, but that is the opposite of Enlightenment. Having a sense-of-self makes you just like almost every person who has ever lived. An "Enlightened person" (even though there is no such thing) is one in whom the sense-of-self has been seen through, and is gone (well, almost entirely). This is what self-realization is. That is what "transcending the ego" means (although that is pretty clumsy). That is what "become one with all" means -- when "you" are no more, then there is never again "I see that", there is only THAT. That is why the Indian dude Nisargadatta Maharaj had a book called I AM THAT (not a perfect pointing, but pretty close). This is what The Buddha realized, what Jesus realized, what Adyashanti realized, and many (but certainly not all) of the modern teachers. This is the purpose of Zen -- to get students to realize. And this is what Advaita teaches, what the Upanishads teach, and what the Bhagavad Gita teaches. This is presumably the reason for an Advaita Zen discussion board: for a human to see that there is, in Reality, no Self, no ego, no Mini-Me hiding out inside pulling the strings. No autonomous entity. No entity at all.
