Mark, how can you honestly say that you know there is a world 'over there' or anywhere, functioning on its own, without "I Am"?
It is intellectual theory and unprovable. The world arose from "I Am," "I Am" did not arise from the world. "I am and individual" arose from the world after the world arose from "I Am." If you let go of "I Am" as you suggest, where is the world to be found? And by whom? The answer to question of "by whom(or what)?" is the real pith or essence. How do you really let go of "I Am" until the body stops drawing breath? You can let go of it momentarily as a mental excercise, but the non-conceptual understanding that it is not true is the final resolve. "I Am" is knowledge, the primal illusion which is without an individual to let go of it. Only does the changeless stillness that is its silent witness recognize the transience or untruth of that Knowledge that is "I Am." Yes, realization of "I am not," or perhaps better said, "I am not only I Am, but the knower of I Am," is a more accurate pointer, but lo and behold, when that is understood, "I Am" is there/here shining in and as its illuminative brilliance as an adornment on mySelf. "I am not" is true for the individual, but "I Am" is both true and not true for the real You, the Supreme Self, the Absolute.
