“I am zero”Its an illusion !

1 week ago By Yogi Anoop

“I am zero” — this is an illusion, not a realization.

While walking on the path of meditation and self-realization, many seekers come across a famous statement: “I am nothing”, “I am zero”. It sounds extremely mysterious and profound, as if some ultimate truth has been attained. But is the “I” really zero?

In my own experience, neither am I “nothing”, nor am I “zero”. Because the one who is saying this — exists. He is in existence. If the “I” were nothing, then who would be the one making this declaration of “nothing”?

“I am not the seen” — this is closer to the truth. Because the “I” is the knower of all those sights, thoughts, memories, and experiences. It is not itself a scene, it observes them. To call this seer “nothing at all” would be a deep contradiction.

An example:

Imagine a movie is playing. The scenes keep changing — sometimes war, sometimes love, sometimes silence, sometimes chaos. But the screen on which all this appears, is not itself a scene. It merely holds all scenes. If someone says that the screen is “nothing” — would that be just?

“Zero” is a particular state — a state without any visible scene, in which the seer experiences that there is no scene. This is because the scene-less state is generated by the seer, in which he is no longer able to generate thoughts and emotions. For thoughts and emotions to arise, the seer must take support of some visible scene, but the seer, having removed the scenes from in front of him, imagines a period of void — a time of zero. The truth is that even zero is a kind of scene-less imagination. This “zero” and “imagination” are mutually contradictory. Yet it is true, and can be established through an example.

Just like, when the seer observes darkness, a sense of emptiness arises. Even though in that darkness, there is not actually emptiness, but the seer imagines darkness and thereby enters a state of vision. Through this, he becomes thoughtless, reaches a state of emptiness. But in reality, even within that darkness, many scenes were present.

The fundamental truth is that the invisible — and the zero — are not visible. The empty space or void between those two elements is not practically visible to the seer, yet the seer imagines such a state. Like imagining darkness. It is an imagination by the seer through which he appears to be situated in a scene-less state. That is, he becomes free of thoughts.

The seer is a witness to this very emptiness, but he himself is not the zero.

Therefore, it is self-evident that “I” am not the zero, but the witness of the zero — this is a silent yet complete realization. When this realization becomes stable, all the scenes created by it — whether thoughts, memories, or imaginations — become quiet on their own.

Ultimately, it is established that when there are no scenes, no thoughts, even then the “I” — the witness — remains.

The purpose of the meditative process is not to understand that “I am nothing” — but to directly experience that “I am”, but I am not that which I have understood myself to be till now.

This excerpt will be presented in expanded form in the upcoming meditation workshop under the theme “Clarity of the Witnessing Self”.

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