The "I AM" is the sense, or feeling, of you spirit/presence, embodied in a human form. It is the sense/feeling of anxiety/tension that you feel in your mind/body. This uneasiness is what the Buddha called "dukkha". What Adi Da calls the "contraction". As one pays attention to this feeling of uneasiness, one can gradually become clear of the situation at hand. As the effort of paying attention is continued, one can learn to gradually relax the tension/contraction of their spirit. As this tension eases up, a sense of relief and even bliss gradually takes hold. As the spirit becomes unbound, it can begin to sense and feel directly, the objects around it, and even itself.
If one is fortunate enough, he meets the satguru. The satguru literally baptizes the disciple/spirit in His completely unbound energized love/bliss radiant Presence, over and over again, thereby helping speed up the process of relaxing, unbinding, liberating the embodied spirit from its self-tied knot of contraction.
