What is the “I Am”?

Nisargadatta’s teaching is simple - [stay with the “I Am”]. But what exactly is this “I Am”? Here I will explain what I think Nisargadatta means and back this up with quotes from him. The slight difficulty is that Nisargadatta does use the word “I Am” to refer to slightly different things during his conversations, so it is not something that has to be absolutely precisely defined. Nevertheless, there is a general way in which Nisargadatta uses the “I Am”, as follows below.

The “I Am” refers to the sense of existence that is not identified with any limitation whatsoever. It is the sense of being or existence itself without any limiting concepts such as “I am this” or “I am that”, i.e., it is not the sensation of “I am the body” or “I am a good person” or “I am the mind” or “I am well liked”. These are all coloured by limiting concepts. Remove these concepts and what remains is the “I Am”. Stay with that. Nisargadatta sometimes calls the “I Am” the knowledge that you exist.

The “I Am” is not what you really are. What you really are is beyond the “I Am”, but first you have to stabilise in the “I Am” and then that you really are will be spontaneously revealed to you.

The “I Am” is:

That which is conceived to be the witness of manifestation
Formless
Not ultimately real, i.e., is an illusion
Is not permanent and is dependent on the body. It will therefore disappear when the body dies
The “God” or “Guru” principle. Nisargadatta often states that our ultimate nature is beyond even God.
The source of misery (and happiness). Both of these are illusory, being subject to change, and neither really exist. In the Absolute there is no change, no happiness or suffering.
The creator of the dream and waking states.
The same as the sattva guna (purity and peace)

Here are the quotes to back this up:

“You have to think ‘I am not the body but I am that formless, nameless knowledge indwelling in this body’; that (is) ‘I am’. When you abide sufficiently long in this state, whatever doubts you may have, that knowledge ‘I am’ itself will sprout out with life and meaning for you, intended for you only, and everything will become clear. No external knowledge will be necessary.”

“To know what you are you must first investigate and know what you are not. And to know what you are not, you must watch yourself carefully, rejecting all that does not necessarily go with basic fact ‘I am’.

The ideas: I am born at a given place, at a given time, from my parents and now I am so-and-so, living at, married to, father of, employed by, and so on, are not inherent in the sense ‘I am’. Our usual attitude is ‘I am this’ or ‘that’. Separate consistently and perseveringly the ‘I am’ from ‘this’ or ‘that’ and try to feel what it means to be, just to ‘be’, without being ‘this’ or ‘that’. All our habits go against it and the task of fighting them is long and hard sometimes, but clear understanding helps a lot. The clearer you understand that on the level of the mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker you will come to the end of your search and realize your limitless being.”

“The witness and consciousness appear and disappear together. The witness or the sense ‘I am’ too is transient but is given importance to break the spell of the known; the illusion that only the perceivable is real. Presently for you perception is primary and witnessing secondary, revert it to make witnessing primary and perception secondary (The ‘I am’ is just a device to revert).”

“This ‘I am’ consciousness in its purity, having only one attribute (that ‘it is’), is also know as ‘Saguna Brahman’ (God with form), which is also known as the ‘Ishwara Rupa’ (form of the Lord). This pure attribute of ‘I am’ consciousness is called ‘Sattva (harmony) guna (element or quality) from which other ‘gunas’ (qualities) follow, when this ‘Sattva’ dries up, so does reflected consciousness.”

“Again understand, you are experiencing this ‘sattvaguna’, the knowledge ‘I am. This ‘I amness’ is experienced by you, the Absolute, but you are not the ‘I amness’.”

“Shall we call the knowledge ‘I am’ the guru? But even that knowledge you are not! Knowledge ‘I am’ means consciousness, God, ‘Ishwara’, guru etc. but you the Absolute are not that.”

“The ‘I am’ is the starting point of both misery and happiness.”

“With the ‘I am’, the world appears in the waking and dream states.”