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Vedantic Practice 24 – The inquiry into what it means to be ourselves by Bede Clifford

If we ask you the question “who am I” as a rhetorical question and you give the answer “I am consciousness” does this mean you now have self-knowledge. Absolutely not because the who I am inquiry is not getting an answer to a rhetorical question. Swami Dayananda would often say “see the meaning”. This is the same as seeing what is, which is not having a thought ABOUT what is. Concepts don’t transform us. To come to a recognition and appreciation of ourselves in which insecurity and self-dissatisfaction centered on ourselves is not present is not brought about by saying to ourselves “we are consciousness”. Entertaining a conceptual construct, even a Vedantic one has nothing to do with “seeing the meaning” in the sense that Swami Dayananda means it.

Bede Clifford is a disciple of Swami Dayananda Saraswati & Swamini Atmaprakashananda. His interests are philosophy, sociology, psychology, comparative religion and Traditional Vedanta

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