Practising I AM Nisargadatta

Begin by resting with an awareness of being or simple presence without seeking for anything in particular or striving to reach a state.

Maintain this awareness and ground yourself in the knowledge that you are.
This awareness of being is known by the sense of I AM.

The I AM is not a thought but the very feeling of existence.
The basic sense of being that arises before any specific identity or experience.

Do not add or complicate this knowing of just being the I AM.
Refrain from adding anything to it.

The very moment you start thinking about anything else, you can rest assured that there have been add-ons to the basic I AM and it has lost its purity.

Let go of any ideas, words, or concepts such as I am this, I am that, I am so and so.
They are all contaminants and do not go with it.

Do not add a new identity to the I am or claim it as an attainment.
Just be and know you are.

Do not be distracted or allow your attention to wander.
But do not try to control the mind but understand its nature and gradually release your identification with it.

Your only capital is the I AM.
It is the only tool you can use to solve the confusions and illusions of life.

The I AM is in all and movement is inherent in it.
Simply be aware of this sense of being.

Dwell on the sense of I AM in a relaxed and open way.
Allow your attention to naturally deepen this way and maintain your interest and inquiry into it.

Commit to not wavering from it.
Stay with this knowingness I AM without words and every secret of your existence will be revealed to you.

Come into full awareness of the presence of this living experience, the totality of this mind and body.
Ground your awareness in this. Remain alert and mindful of the energy of your beingness.

Observe any thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions without judgment or identification.
In the beginning, use this observation of body and mind as a tool for experience and understanding.

But know that these are not the source of consciousness. or identity.
Recognize the body and the fleeting mental impressions is just transient forms and phenomena.

Relax and gently meditate on the I AM without clinging to the body mind.
Grounding your awareness in the body is not about clinging to physicality,
but about recognizing it as a temporary vessel for consciousness.

The goal is also not to reject the body, but to realize the reality that is beyond the body's limitations. Patience.
You can observe and know the body. So you are not the body.

You can observe the breath. So you are not the vital breath.
Know yourself as the witness of the body and mind.
Whatever happens happens to the body and to the mind.

These are only instruments. Let it happen.
Just remain aware without identifying and grasping them.
In the same way you are not the consciousness but first you have to become one with

the consciousness in order to transcend it.
Do not get entangled in the contents of consciousness.
The very root of this consciousness is the felt sense I AM.

There is no personality or individual there.
Reside there and transcend it.
Inquire into the nature of the I AM.

This is not an intellectual exercise but a direct intuitive investigation into the feeling of being.
This felt sense of I AM is the root of all.

Yet it is not you.
Rather, it is a means for knowing and understanding reality.
Once its purpose is served, it too must be let go.

This I AM is impersonal.
It's common to everybody and wordless, free of concepts.

The moment you came to know that you are, you did not know any words or language which came later.
You were definitely sure that you are.

After that then everything else comes to be not before that.
The I AM lies at the very base of everything.
It is the root and cause of all appearances.

At the moment, all you know is the I AM consciousness which is a product of the five elements, the three qualities or the food body.
But you are none of these.

The I am itself is an illusion. It is time bound and thus impermanent.
It is like a dream which has spontaneously appeared on you and one day it will disappear.
You are not the I am. You are prior to it.

The I am is your greatest foe and greatest friend.
Foe when binding you to the illusion as body. Friend when taking you out of the illusion as body.

When the sense or feeling I am appeared on you, it fooled you into believing that you
are the body, the thoughts and feelings and later on that you are so and so.

It strengthened the illusion even more as time went by.

Conditioning strengthened And so the illusion of divisions and separation increased creating turmoil and suffering.

 Make I AM your guide
In this sense it is your foe.
But now the guru tells you to come back to the I am. Understand it.

Stay there. Make friends with it or rather make it your guide, your god or guru.
Doing so, the I AM will help you break the illusion and it will itself lead you to the source.

Having understood the nature of the I am in its various dimensions and guises, stay there and do not deviate from it.
Just keep in mind the felt sense of naked unadulterated presence.

Put everything aside and come back to this basic sense of being
in all its simplicity and purity.
And it will heal your mind.

The I am is the first ignorance. Persist on it and you will go beyond it.
The I am has brought you in and the I am will take you out.
The I am is the door to liberation. Stay at it.

It is already open.
True liberation comes from moving beyond this I am experience to a state of no knowingness.
All that appears and disappears cannot be true.

And since you are a witness to it, you stand apart.
You have to realize that you are not the body. Or the
knowledge I am as the absolute.

You are neither, nor do you require them.
The I am knowledge limits you in time and space

in understanding the unreality of the I am. You are totally free.

The I am is a provisional understanding or beingness that acts as a cloak over the ultimate reality.

While it is the first step in spiritual realization, ultimately it is something to be transcended.

The sages and enlightened ones first recognize the sense of being then abided in it through meditation and finally transcended it to reach the ultimate realization.

When you realize that you are not the person, or this felt sense of I am but the witness only, and that pure awareness is your true nature.
Then you will be free.

That knowledge which knows change must itself be changeless.
It is unborn and deathless.
Relax and stabilize in this witnessing awareness
and release your identification with the body and mind.
As you stabilize in the consciousness this passion for the body and for the expressions through the body occur simultaneously.

You will know yourself not as an object in consciousness
but as the changeless unchanging background upon on which consciousness appears and disappears,
Appearance and disappearance, birth and death.
These are qualities of I am. They do not belong to you.
The absolute

You must abandon all that you think you are and all that you think the world is to know what truly is.
The real is beyond concepts and names.

Immortality is freedom from the feeling I am.

And to have that freedom, you must remain in the sense I am.

It's simple. It's crude. Yet it works.

Who or what can know the illusory state I am? Only a non-illusory state can do so.

This non-illusory state is the awareness, the parabrahman, the absolute
one who has realized the knowledge I am which means transcending it as well.

For them there is no birth or death nor any karma.
The state where there are no needs, no desires and no identification.
That is the Absolute.

The highest type of rest is when I am and I am not are both forgotten.
It is total rest, complete relaxation.
and utter quietude in the highest state.