Continued from Verse Thirty-Five
36. Only if the thought 'I am the body' occurs will the meditation 'I am not this, I am That', help one to abide as That. Why should we for ever be thinking, 'I am That'? Is it necessary for man to go on thinking 'I am a man'? Are we not always That?
Commentary: Some texts on non-duality emphasize repeating to yourself that you are not the mind and the body and that you are the Self. This is only of temporary use.
The egoic first thought — “I am” — causes separation. It implies the “not-I” and is ultimately connected with the idea that “I am the body,” and then connects to the mind, other relationships, your personal history, etc. It is only if you first buy this “I am” that implies that you are a separate, individual self that you need to continuously remind yourself what you are and are not.
But that’s tiresome. We need a way of cutting to the root of things. If we look into the egoic first thought, we see that it is not what it seems to be. When this is seen, there is then no need to keep asserting over and over what we are and are not. We’ll simply stop crediting — identifying with — the idea that we are anything other than the Self. Indeed, in some profound sense, we’ll stop crediting ideas at all.
At any time, see all the forty verses posts that I have published so far here.