The Light Inside Technique makes good use of inquiry, the process of asking questions in order to find the positive motivation behind all action and speech. I and others have found that through this process of inquiry we can find that we all do what we do because we ultimately want love and peace of mind. This practice of LIT allows us to work through old mental habits that result in anger, fear and sadness and find a calmer, more compassionate state of mind from which to function. But we can go a step further and inquire about who or what we actually are beyond the thoughts, emotions, body, etc. This is an age old practice that many have found useful for attaining peace of mind and deeper insight in the nature of things.
I actually think of self inquiry as taking an inventory of my experience. I ask myself what I find in my experience. I always find thoughts, images, emotions, impulses, sensations, the body, and sensory input from the five senses. And that’s it. Nothing more. I never find a distinct, unique, separate, individual “self” that I always refer to as “me” in conversation. I’ve never had the experience, when doing this practice or any other time, of noticing a self like I notice thoughts, emotions, etc. It just never shows up in the awareness like the other things do.
Maybe the “self” that we refer to is a pattern of recurring thoughts and emotions, certain habits or the uniqueness of an individual personality associated with a specific body. That’s fine to say that what we are is a pattern of thoughts or habits, but we should understand that that idea is just that… an idea. It’s another thought. And we acknowledge that thoughts exist often in our experience. But, I’ve never done this sort of inventory of my experience and come across a “self” like I do thoughts and emotions, a body, etc. It’s just not there.
Other than the thoughts, emotions, etc., I find nothing. It seems that all “I” am is another creation or expression of nature, and the habit of using the terms “I” and “me” is just useful in social contexts. The forces of nature have created an interesting scenario — the thinking that there is something here separate from everything else.
In fact, we’re all very much connected, influencing everyone and everything around us. The situation is quite beautiful and remarkable, I find. Our thoughts, our feelings and emotions, our movements and body language, the words we speak.. it seems all of these have an influence on our interactions with everything around us. As we’re all so connected, we can make use of LIT and make peace with ourselves, others and the world and be a more positive influence on everyone around us.
Join us in creating a more peaceful and compassionate world!