Exercises: Who Am I?
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
In the book Coming Back To Life: Practices To Reconnect Our Lives, Our World (1998), Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown offer an exercise called “Who Are You?” (127) This exercise can be a powerful way to tune into your current ideas of self and bring these closer to the true nature of who you are. The authors suggest doing this practice in pairs; however, it can also be modified to be done by yourself. If you do this exercise by yourself, you could write down whatever ideas come to mind, or tape record yourself responding to the questions. The idea is to not edit what your initial ideas are in response to the questions. The instructions to this exercise will be given for two people; if done alone, take both roles of questioning and answering yourself. Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown suggest that for two people, they sit comfortably facing each other. The first person then asks the second “Who Are You?” The second person responds with whatever comes to mind and tries not to edit his/her thoughts. Then the first person asks the same question again, and the second person responds. This then happens once more. This process of questioning and listening three times happens with the following questions: “Who are you?” “What do you do?” and then “Who Are You.” again. After taking a small break, the roles of the two people can be reversed and the exercise can be repeated. Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown say that peoples’ responses to these questions will be different each time they are asked. This can be a challenging exercise, but at the same time very rewarding in the insights that it brings. It was originated by the famous spiritual teacher Ramana.