Talk: The Most Important Meditation - Meditating On Oneself

I myself am the most miraculous thing that has ever happened to me! But how much knowledge do we have of ourselves? Who am I? In this talk, Saqib claims that meditating on oneself is the most important meditation of all. He also talks about some practices that can help us know oursevelves better, and how can knowing oneself well can change our lives for the better. If you like this practice, then check out Saqib's course here on Insight Timer: "Non-Duality."

Transcript

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.

Reviews

So thought provoking, very grateful for this insight- I am drawn to the idea of personal quest, in this industrial era the possibility of alone time is a challenge, responsibilities that have to be fulfilled, I would also like to know your views on the concept of I🙏🏽, why do we cling to the concepts of material life and reluctant to turn inward- I will be listening to this talk few times for sure, thank you so much

Thank you Saquib. This knowing myself is truly important. I used to be alone much more as a teenager. I enjoyed being alone. I was my best friend. Now I am so critical of myself. I struggle with depression and dwell on the negative. Sometimes I feel like I don’t even know who I am. I’m married and have a very close and caring relationship but I don’t love myself. I’m trying to love myself but I think maybe if I spend more time alone I will know myself better and start loving myself again. Are there any more meditations that could help me in this? Thanks so much! I love your gratitude prayers 😊🙏🏻🐣

This was a great talk it really resonated with me. I lived alone for the first time ever after my divorce in 2002. And I learned to love it. In the beginning I felt like I didn’t really know myself, or what made me happy. I used to ask myself- What do YOU want to do today, what do YOU want for dinner, etc… and I’d wait for the answer. I journaled in the evening and really had a lot of self discovery. Then when I was truly happy- I found a new partner. We had wonderful adventures. There has been many ups and downs. Although I had never lost the insight of “myself” the biggest thing I learned about myself is that I tend to lose myself in others… I tend to defer, and caretake… so I still try to spend time with myself, and self explore. Thank you so much for your insights and your love. Much love to you, and this community. ❤️🌈❤️

Loved it! Wise words as always Saqib. I’ll start meditating on my true self. Namasté! 🙏🏻

A very interesting talk, and it has prompted me to explore different aspects of myself in my meditation practice. Thank you Saqib🙏

Thank you ever so much for this talk. Diving into the self and the vastness of what is possible is rich and truly rewarding. Indeed, the chair needs the wood from the forest to be itself, just as I need the world around me to exist. Absolute gratitude and love 🌅

I definitely need to do more of investigating my self . I really like those questions you pose I’m gonna write them down and try to do a little practice around them. Thank you

Saqib, I have replaced last year's review with this one as I continue to listen to your talk and hear your words which still resonate on a personal level.
Your words are wise, kind, gentle and definitely insightful.
Thank you 🙏🏻🪷

Good talk about how to find yourself without telling the things that the whole world wants you to be. But giving you tips to find your real self
Thank you for sharing this inspiring talk with us all
Namasté ☯️🍀🥑💠

Saqib thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your talks, live sessions, meditations. I have been on the journey with you since you began on Insight Timer. I resonate with your talk. We have to be our best friend first, love ourselves, claim back our power and heal. Be well. Namaste dear one. Light and love ❤️ Charu

Thank you for the delve into curiosity about myself 💙

Insightful. Staying alone, this is what I want to do for the next few months . Thank you and namaste.

Good questions. People on a Meditation app are likely more receptive to inner reflection than those who do not meditate.
I find I cannot locate the self whenever I have done this exercise before. For me, this makes the nonlocal nature of Consciousness apparent. Thank you.

Excellent talk, Saqib, and an important message. What kind of life can one live if one doesn’t know who it is who’s here, living this life?
Namaste,
Donna

Perfect, as usually. I will meditate abot this Topic and...lets see.
Thanks a lot❤️☀️🍀🌈

I found this talk literally 24 hours after starting a life living alone in my space and one hour after thinking (a) I should use this time to recover from the abuse of the past to get back to my original self, and (b) a nugget thought of really what is ‘I’. And this talk is carrying that conversation forward. No accidents. Thank you!

Thank you so much. I am about to embark on a round of medical tests and treatment, and I’m experiencing fear and anxiety. This helped me to observe myself and my fears and to help me soothe them.

Ya our talk has given me much to think about. I have saved it so I may listen many more times. Thank you.

I truly loved this talk. It is so spot on and should be told to children as well before other things are put into their minds.
Thank you.

I do better on my own and spend lots of time pondering why that is. Sometimes I wonder if I'm too self-absorbed but I dismiss that thought quickly. If I wasn't thinking of myself...and no one else was either...would I cease to exist?
Hmmmm,,,...