"I Am That I Am" Or "The One Who Watches"

[Egg]

I'm putting together quotes and beliefs from various religions and spiritual practices to show that "God", for lack of a better word, is within us and that with the correct key to ourselves we could find It.


How do you do this? Focus your attention on your awareness.


This list is not exhaustive. I am just compiling them here for now. Feel free to add or discuss.


I AM That I AM
“Who is watching?”

Hinduism/Vedic Culture


“sarvasya cāhaḿ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo
mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaḿ ca
vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham


TRANSLATION
I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.
PURPORT
The Supreme Lord is situated as Paramātmā in everyone's heart, and it is from Him that all activities are initiated. The living entity forgets everything of his past life, but he has to act according to the direction of the Supreme Lord, who is witness to all his work. Therefore he begins his work according to his past deeds. Required knowledge is supplied to him, and remembrance is given to him, and he forgets, also, about his past life. Thus, the Lord is not only all-pervading; He is also localized in every individual heart. He awards the different fruitive results. He is worshipable not only as the impersonal Brahman, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the localized Paramātmā, but as the form of the incarnation of the Vedas as well. The Vedas give the right direction to people so that they can properly mold their lives and come back to Godhead, back to home. The Vedas offer knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa in His incarnation as Vyāsadeva is the compiler of the Vedānta-sūtra. The commentation on the Vedānta-sūtra by Vyāsadeva in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives the real understanding of Vedānta-sūtra. The Supreme Lord is so full that for the deliverance of the conditioned soul He is the supplier and digester of foodstuff, the witness of his activity, and the giver of knowledge in the form of Vedas and as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the teacher of the Bhagavad-gītā. He is worshipable by the conditioned soul. Thus God is all-good; God is all-merciful.”
http://vedabase.net/bg/15/15/

Zen Buddhism
“Who Is Looking?
The Ceasing of Notions 
A Zen Text from the Dunhuang Caves
Published December 1988 by The Zen Centre .

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL9566064M ... of_Notions


Judaism:
Exodus 3:14
“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”
Psalms 46:10
“Be still and know that I am God.”


Christianity:
John 8:58
Jesus says, "before Abraham was, I Am."
Luke 17:21
“The Kingdom of God Is Within You”

[SweetGrass]

Judaism:
Exodus 3:14
“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”
Psalms 46:10
“Be still and know that I am God.”


Christianity:
John 8:58
Jesus says, "before Abraham was, I Am."
Luke 17:21
“The Kingdom of God Is Within You”

Cool idea for a thread, Eggy.

I can add that a translation, or rather an explanation of His name, Jehovah or YHWH or I AM THAT I AM is "I shall prove to be what I shall prove to be" or "I cause to become what I cause to become" meaning He can be anything to us. Even our own conscience.

One of His other names, Emmanuel which means "God with us" is more than Him coming to earth as a man. I believed it to mean He is spiritually with us or even within us, helping us and leading us the way we ought to go.

That's all OT, but I don't know if Jews have the same interpretations as Christians.

Baha'i's believe that God is in all things and within us too. I read up on them a bit before I fell away from the church completely. They got some cool stuff.

From that which hath been said it becometh evident that all things, in their inmost reality, testify to the revelation of the names and attributes of God within them. Each according to its capacity, indicateth, and is expressive of, the knowledge of God. So potent and universal is this revelation, that it hath encompassed all things, visible and invisible. Thus hath He revealed: "Hath aught else save Thee a power of revelation which is not possessed by Thee, that it could have manifested Thee?

That's a bit out of their holy book called the Kitab-i-Aqdas

I'll be back with more stuff from the NT about God being within us.

[Egg]

That's cool stuff, LaR.

This is what I'm getting at, look at yourself. Are you your thoughts? They definitely have an influence on you, a profound one, but are they you? They come and go and change over time. Some people's thoughts and ideas change from moment to moment.

Are you your body? Same thing. It changes over time and from experience. My father lost a large part of his leg, is he still the same person?

What is there that you can see or experience that is you?

Your awareness. That part of you that watches your thoughts, sees the world outside of you. That part of you that was there before you learned language and culture. That's you.

I think that most of the big religions or practices have something in them that says just that.

[IndicusMaximus]

There's some truth to that, but to say that we ARE God is not exactly correct, in my opinion.

EDIT:

The way to God seems indeed to be through "thyself", but where God is, I am not.

[SweetGrass]

I see what you are getting at I think, Egg. Like how most religions can teach us how to tap into our awareness?

[Egg]

There's some truth to that, but to say that we ARE God is not exactly correct, in my opinion.

You may be right. I haven't even gotten there. I'm simply saying that most of us don't even know who we are apart from like chocolate over vanilla or some other crap like that.

[Egg]

I see what you are getting at I think, Egg. Like how most religions can teach us how to tap into our awareness?

Most religions agree that our awareness is us, is what I think I am trying to say.

"I used to love Chef Boy R Dee but I think it's gross now."

Is that all we are? Your thoughts are an ego creation. Your ego is not you. If you believe in a soul or some equivalent, your body is not you.

Yet, your thoughts and your body are what you think of as you. That's what I'm getting at.

[IndicusMaximus]

I think a good way to picture God is a giant sphere where every point of reference is like a keyhole, and the breadth of God's consciousness fills the sphere and penetrates into every keyhole....

but there are (understatement following) several other things I don't understand about God...

[lkwalker]

אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה,( eyah asher eyah) has a specific meaning. It means (roughly translated): I am that I am. The name has nothing to do do with YHVH or as the Christians profanely pronounce it- Jehovah.

[Egg]

אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה,( eyah asher eyah) has a specific meaning. It means (roughly translated): I am that I am. The name has nothing to do do with YHVH or as the Christians profanely pronounce it- Jehovah.

I never said it did.