Toby

Some teachers also use "Am I?" for inquiry and say that Ramana's "Nan yar?" should really be translated that way. Good one. Sounds a bit like Rupert Spira. I guess he did a video on youtube how to inquire with that question.

Youtube-Channel AwakenWithJP. I'm pretty sure he is awake as far as I can tell. Great comedy on there but also more serious advice.

His first book "waking the tiger" is also good, but it isn't that deep. "In an unspoken voice" there is almost everything in there, it's the summary of his work. In the audiobook (by soundstrue.com) there is also much depth, but mainly it's good for the exercises and for getting a feel what he is saying. You can get it also on amazon audible.

Get Adyashanti's free ebook "way of liberation". There he explains inquiry. And also Meditation. Traditionally people ask "who am I?" or better "what am I?" because the first one almost implies "someone". You can also search fo rthe inquiry approaches of Nisargadatta or Ramana on Google.

Why don't you start with the statement / thought "I" or "I am"? You can investigate them, contemplate them or ask "what am I?". This is much more direct I'd guess.

You could have Asperger or some schizoid personality disorder.

In this book she (her path is/was christian mysticism) maps out what she also wrote in her other two books, but it is more straight-forward. Simplified she describes ego-consciousness, no-ego/unity-consciousness and no-self. I highly recommend this book for anyone with a deep interest in truth. (not recommended for people that are only into self-help). Particulary it is helpful to distinguish between what she calls no-ego and no-self. It is certainly one of the top 30 books on spirituality I read.

Peter Levine's work is really great for trauma. You could read "In an unspoken voice" and / or listen to his "healing trauma" audiobook. If it resonates you can then experiment a little bit with bis exercises or search for a "Somatic Experiencing" (his method) practioner.

I guess the Bhagavadgita deals with this paradox. While in the battlefield Arjuna awakens and he doesn't want to fight anymore and Krishna gives him advise on that. Also it might be interesting to distinguish between pre-moral, moral and trans-moral. Ken Wilber / Spiral Dynamics and others talk about that. Also, there are murderers or criminals or soldiers who awoken to their true nature. So one cannot really say what story one have to go through.

Yeah. Totally true. People just switch their vocabulary but underderlying is the same structure. It is possible with every concept, also the "neti neti" approach. "Everything is illusion", "i am the whitness", "i am", "nothingness", "emptiness", "unity", "Self", "no self", "here and now", "love", "bliss", "be still", "you are that"... Different traditions have different words and concepts which can be taught to a parrot which doesn't render him awake. Even though "he is also the one". Of course. "Have you read the bible?" today is like "Have you read 'I am That'?". And "have you heard of Jesus?" now is almost like "have you heard of Ramana?". Expressions and pointers of truth can quickly become just concepts if not spoken from truth. But they all can be amazing pointers if they are spoken from truth.

19th/20th century: Siddharameshwar, Ramakrishna, Ramana, Nisargadatta, Anandamayi Ma, Shunryu Suzuki, Chogyam Trungpa, Osho, Papaji, Irina Tweedie, Jiddu Krishnamurti 21st century: Adyashanti, Shinzen Young, Gangaji, Mooji, Isaac Shapiro, Bernadette Roberts But there are many many more, it is more important what teacher is right for oneself than "who is the best?". There are so many traditions and approaches where you can find great teachers in.

There is a saying that says something like this: "The world is Illusion. Brahman (the Absolute) alone is real. The world is Brahman". (Shankara) It's best not to get identified with byproducts of "Enlightenment" or the tastes of it. And also not get identified with certain viewpoints of Reality, be it "the whitness", "the absolute", "emptiness" or something like that. These are common traps as every genuine teacher will tell. It has to go full circle as shown in the quote or in Zen in the pictures with the ox.