I Sweet potato what I sweet potato ?

I always felt Descartes went not far enough when he said, "I think, therefore I am," since it's possible to doubt also the sense of "I" and possible to have conscious experience without thoughts ... but he was on a useful track.

More useful, still, though, are practices like mantra meditation, or the Cloud of Unknowing's prayerful practice of "a naked, blind feeling of being," or Zen's "just sitting" -- where one comes to rest in that which is always already there before we cogitate. The Cloud author at one point calls it "worshiping God with your substance," a practical exercise where one experiences ultimately that the Divine IS your substance.

"All that I am that I am unto all Him that He is as He is."

For the Vedantic Hindus, allowing a repeated mantra to escort themselves back to where thoughts come from, the resultant experiential awareness gets expressed as "Tat tvam asi", "Thou art That."

"I am That, thou art That, and all this is That. There is naught that is not That, and all that is is That."

And the Zen guys and gals gesture towards "suchness." They tend not to talk very philosophically about it, though, given their appreciation of how ordinary discursive language is always already "too late" for conveying that enlightening experience.

The Zen monk, Hui-ch'ao, asked his teacher, "What is Buddha?"

His teacher replied, "You are Hui-ch'ao."

So that's where the "I AM THAT I AM" resonates for me. In the core, utterly simple, utterly miraculous wonder ... that anything at all is.

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Fascinating to read Cosmic Kiss's learned words. They re-echo a famous Buddhist sutta, one translation of which is, 'Going, Going on, Always going on, Always becoming Buddha, Hail!

Eckhart, (Master, not Tolle), said, "There is not a thing that you can say about God which is true".

And when you have refrained from saying everything that you can't say, yet you have to say something, what do you say?

The cypress tree in the courtyard?

The face you had before your Mother and Father were born?

or I yam that I yam?

I am! It is all that I know and all that I need to know. All else is of insignificance; I simply exist, bumping into others and stirring up particles that fly out in diverse directions. I have a place that no other completes as well as I complete it. Without me a piece will always be missing. So it is with you.

My take on all this is actually the same as the Beatles was in 1967, which follows: "I am he

As you are me

And we are all together---

I am the eggplant

they are the eggplant

I am the walrus

goo goo g-joob---"

I believe that we're all a part of what we have no clue. Basically there is no "I'. Appearances to the contrary I is you and you are me and he and she and we are all together.We are that I am/I am that we are. Whichever. Namaste, friends.

"I am that I am" is what we are told God said to Moses when speaking to him through the burning bush. To me, it means I am unchangeable, I am not to be categorized and classified.

A name limits a thing. When you say it is a sweet potato, you are saying it is not any other kind of potato, and it is not a shoe. (In spite of Johnny Depp's hilarious routine in "Benny and Joon.") God has no limits according to definition of the term, and so he is what he is and that's all what he is, just like Popeye.

Personally, I find the Popeye cartoons very enlightening.

Like the majority of answers I post...I haven't read the others yet....these really great questions are so delicious...the other answers like dessert....((((and tea)))))))

I am that I am

this "declaration" and "mirage", has got to be the ultimate in the Universe laughing at it's self....

I mean this "statement" et "total disclaimer of concrete responsibility", has got to be the finest piece of writing known in this realm...

it gets me every time....like a nanochip worth of eternity...AND a casual flirt........

Oh to be what I am.....

((((((cosmic "Oooh" and "awe")))))))))

This is hands down my favorite Y/A? question to date....♥♥♥

three hearts since I could only star it once.

These word contain an amazingly strong power old as Time itself. Once we realise what we are, who we are there no stopping us from getting what we want, though actually we get and go where we have to.

I yam what I yam, and I AM THAT.

Complete and utter acceptance of, no resistance to, Unity, the Cosmic blending with the Universal Fabric.

The blanket theory...........

Popeye, my hero..........

Have not read that one yet but really liked "Skinny Legs and All". I would definitely be *one of the ones* watching the dance of the 7 veils.

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