Namaste and thank you for tuning in to this talk.
I would directly like to jump to the topic of this talk by claiming that meditating on oneself is the most important meditation because I myself am the most miraculous thing that has ever happened to me.
We live in a society where people are conditioned to explore only the external world.
Since our childhood,
We have been taught to observe and act upon external phenomena.
Learn a language,
Play with toys,
Make friends,
Read books,
Travel,
Make money,
Find a partner,
Make children,
Etc.
Even our entire education system is majorly about knowledge of the external world,
Natural environment,
Various species,
Geography,
Politics,
History,
Engineering,
Business,
Etc.
We spend our entire lives being engaged with the external world.
But what about myself?
What is this thing which I call I,
Me or myself?
The external world is definitely a miracle.
The beautiful planet earth,
The various landscapes,
Flora and fauna,
Human beings,
Civilization,
Technology,
Governance,
Capitalism,
Fashion,
Infrastructure,
Etc.
Are the things and concepts that were there even before we were born and that have fascinated us and intrigued us to learn about them and engage with them.
However,
What we miss out on is something very basic and that should have been the first step in understanding life and existence.
That is,
The miracle of self.
Only because I exist,
This experience of the external world exists.
If there is no I,
There will be no experience of the external world.
So isn't it important to understand this I,
Me or myself?
How much knowledge do we have of ourselves?
How much do we know our mind?
How much do we understand our own emotions?
How much do we understand our behaviour?
Our fears,
Insecurities,
Strengths,
Weaknesses,
Deep desires,
Passion,
Ambition,
Purpose,
Moods,
Energies and our soul?
Think about it.
Pause this audio if you need time to think.
Do we really have knowledge about all these characteristics of us?
If you think that yes,
You do have complete knowledge about yourself,
Then ask yourself,
Are there situations in life when you feel stress or anxiety or you feel low or lost and can't do anything about it?
If not,
Then you surely are an exceptional human being.
But the truth is that majority of us do not even have little knowledge of ourselves.
I mean no disrespect.
It just fascinates me that how as a society we don't give importance to the most important aspect of our existence.
But this has not been the case always.
In the pre-modern era,
A lot of emphasis was given to the phenomenon of self,
Mainly in the Eastern religions and traditions.
Buddhism,
Taoism and Shamanism are a few examples of the traditions that lay high emphasis on self.
Mystics like Rumi,
Buddha,
Lao Tzu and Socrates talked about personal experience and spirituality.
Meditating on oneself was a common practice in these cultures and traditions.
True that majority of the people didn't practice it as a daily habit.
However,
It was naturally a part of their lives.
How?
Well,
They had more time to spend with themselves in silence and contemplation than we have today in this busy modern world.
With the onset of Industrial Revolution,
The world which used to either journey inwards or which used to at least have time to spend with their selves and nature,
Started moving outwards towards external and material things.
We are socially conditioned to accept this lifestyle as normal and people who talk about journeying inwards and knowledge of the self are considered to be unproductive.
Now comes the question.
What is this self?
Who am I?
What am I?
A common understanding of this self that the society has instilled in our minds is that the self is this body of ours which is made of physical matter including our legs,
Hands,
Chest,
Stomach,
Face,
Heart,
Brain etc.
But what if someone has less of these physical parts?
Someone with no legs and hands for example.
Will that person be any less of that self?
Can we find any separate individual part of our body and say that this part is myself?
Can we take our brains out and say that this is myself?
Can we exist only through our brains?
Then what is this self?
What is this I or me?
Let's say we break down a chair into individual separate parts.
Its legs,
Back and the seat.
Can we still call it a chair when it is disassembled?
Can we call its individual parts as chair?
So it is only when we assemble the individual parts and form the complete structure,
We label it as a chair.
It's our own concept and label that we provide to it.
Similarly in the case of this body of ours,
We have formed a concept and labeled it as myself.
In fact like the chair cannot exist without the wood that comes from a tree and the land on which it rests.
I cannot exist without many things in nature like food,
Water,
Oxygen,
My mother who has given birth to me,
Gravity,
Earth etc.
So is this self really limited to our bodies?
Or does it also include all those things without which it cannot exist?
Then what is this self?
Is it a consciousness or awareness?
Well,
The purpose of this talk is not to define what is self.
In fact it is exactly the opposite.
It is our own enquiry into ourselves because every individual is unique and nobody but I can find out what am I.
Somebody else telling you what you are is their own definition from their perspective and their vantage point.
It is what this society has been doing and till now we have believed the society's definition of our self.
Therefore if one really wants to know oneself,
We will have to go on a quest ourselves.
We will have to journey inwards and not look for answers out there in the world.
One practice that can be done to find this self of ours is the following.
Sit in a secluded,
Silent place with your eyes closed.
Then ask this question to yourself.
Where exactly in my body is this feeling of I,
Me or myself?
Start from the legs.
Try to find that feeling of I in your legs.
Then move upwards to your stomach and chest and then to your face.
Many people feel and think that this feeling of I is behind their eyes or in the brain.
But if you contemplate longer with your eyes closed,
You might eventually end up not finding this I,
Me or myself in your body.
What happens after that is your own unique experience.
You might end up identifying yourself as pure consciousness or awareness which is separate from the body.
Or you might end up realizing that this body in this entire world is just a thought in your awareness.
Or you might realize that this I,
Yourself is just an illusion.
Or you might end up identifying yourself as a part of a collective consciousness and find out that this physical separation between objects and beings is just an illusion.
Or you might end up realizing all of these phenomena together.
Or you might have a different experience altogether.
As I said,
It will be your own unique experience.
There are many other aspects of myself that I need to know and understand.
What are my fears?
What are my strengths?
My interests?
My passion?
My ambition?
Whom do I really love?
What are the things that trigger me?
What kind of a relationship I really want?
What are my hidden desires?
How do I behave when something unpleasant happens?
What are my hidden talents?
How creative I am?
What are my top 5 principles of morality that I cannot compromise on?
What are the top 3 ideas in my mind right now which if worked upon will take my life to another level?
And many many other aspects of ourselves which if I get to know about myself and if I work upon will help create a beautiful life.
One very effective way of gaining such knowledge about oneself is to live alone.
By living alone,
You get to spend time with yourself.
You get to know yourself.
You become your own partner.
As if yourself is another person that you are observing.
And this is exactly how you observe yourself.
Your awareness has to observe this person whose body you are in and whose life you have taken.
My awareness observes this person named Saqib which is the name given to me by my parents.
It observes this body,
The behaviour of this person,
The thoughts that come in this person's mind,
Everything.
When you make yourself your own partner,
It is a beautiful experience living alone.
You get to know yourself really well.
You start loving yourself and you get life changing ideas and you get time to work upon those ideas.
Most important of all,
You are less distracted by the society and your mind achieves calmness and stability.
Knowing oneself is undoubtedly the most important aspect of one's life.
Once you get to know yourself,
That is when you actually start loving yourself.
You don't believe in what the society tells you about yourself.
You don't feel diminished by criticism and even you don't feel overwhelmed by praises.
This is because now you truly know yourself.
You realise your true worth and do not measure your worth by what the society has been telling you.
Once you know that what affects you,
How you behave under different circumstances,
What are your fears etc.
And when you work on these things,
You start becoming more calm and stable as a person.
Because then those things don't affect you as much they used to.
Only when you can truly love yourself,
You can truly love others.
How can I pass on the light to others when I myself am filled with darkness?
It is in me first that the light should shine brightly.
I hope this talk was of value to you.
I would love to know your thoughts on this topic through your review of this talk.
I hope you make a wonderful life for yourself and for others.
Lots of love to you.
Take care and have a wonderful day.
