The question “Who am I?” presents the same problems as the word “love.” There are many meanings to “I,” just as there are many types of love.
Who am I?
John Doe
This address
This phone number
This profession, etc.
None of these answers the question: Who am I?
And it’s that question we’re tasked with answering.
Rumi said that our situation is as if we come into the countryside at the behest of the king to accomplish a certain task. If we accomplish a hundred others but not the stated task, then we’ve done nothing.
That task is to answer the question: Who am I?
There are so many “I’s.” There’s the ego. There are the bodies – how many varies from account to account. In each one of them, we speak as an “I” associated with that body.
Then there is the penultimate “I” – the Self/No Self, the Christ, the Atman.
And then beyond all these is the One, the “I” which inhabits all, from which all are created and into which all dissolve.
How can I be That? The minute I become It, the penultimate “I” disappears. There’s no trace of an independent “I” any longer. Who am I then?