The I is simply a thought, an idea, appearing and disappearing in awareness

Question & Answer with Enza VitaRecognizing the natural wakefulness that you were born with

Overview about the AuthorFounder and director of the MahaShanti Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to support the spiritual awakening of all beings, Enza has studied with some of the great spiritual masters of our age and after a series of deep awakenings, culminating in a profound spiritual realization in 2007, her life is now dedicated to ignite the flame of truth in others. Enza Vita is the current editor of InnerSelf magazine, the former editor of Woman Spirit and Health & Wellbeing magazines, and the author of Always Already Free – Recognizing the natural wakefulness that you were born with.

Based on Enza’s own experience, Always Already Free, de-mystifies ancient spiritual teachings and practices from east and west and reveals that spiritual enlightenment is not a faraway dream, but the ever-present reality always available here and now. The book guides the reader from the seeking process through the integration of enlightenment into everyday life.

Enza Vita

Q: I’m having trouble comprehending the absence of an I. If there is no I, then what is really going on here?

>>ENZA: When I refer to the absence of an I or a me, all I am saying is that there is nothing physical or mental—no thought, feeling or emotion—that has the ability to define you or tell you that this is who you are. All these things, both physical and intangible, are not what you are. How can they be you when what you actually are is the awareness that perceives them? You are the awareness in which everything is born and dies. Essentially, the meaning of the absence of an I or a me is the recognition of one’s true self as this pure awareness.

>>As you peer into the me, you will see ideas, beliefs, and thoughts that are all about the me, and this gives the impression of an actual separate identity present. From there we believe that the me or the I is a concrete and real entity. Every other picture that shows up seems to be validating this I.

>>For example, you see before you a foot that is wiggling, and you think, “My foot is wiggling.” You might hear certain noises that lead to the thought, “I am hearing these sounds.” However, no physical entity is thinking these thoughts. That ownership is only an illusion.

>> We have an image, a belief, that there is a person existing here who has thoughts, completes actions, and lives out the life of a me. The running dialogue in our heads supports that illusion of an actual concrete me living in the body. But is there an actual I existing independent of what we think? Is the I a real entity that thinks thoughts and is present in a body or a mind?

>>The I is simply a thought, an idea, appearing and disappearing in awareness. I is a word that makes communication easier in the physical sense. The essential point here is to understand that the word is not you. It is simply a symbol that we were taught to use to represent the way the mind and body work together.

>> The body-mind is real in the relative sense, and it is the vehicle for consciousness, but the entity we have made up that supposedly owns the body-mind is not. In the absence of identification with an I, the body and mind still continue to function, and you realize without a doubt that you were there before your body-mind was born and you will be there after the body-mind dies. When this is seen, truly seen, you will not have lingering concerns about who you are and what awareness is.

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Enza Vita