DURING THE LAST FEW YEARS in America and around the world, we have seen the growth and popularization of ancient nondual wisdom traditions like Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, and Dzogchen. This is good news. However, with popularization comes the danger of distortion. One such distortion lies in thinking that the answer and resolution to the question "Who am I?" represents the summit of Self-Realization. It does not.

"Who am I?" is but half of the true question; the other half is "How shall I live?" The answer and resolution to this more robust question is the gateway to realized Self-Expression.

"Who am I? How Shall I live?" is really one question, one breath, one path, one realization. Insight and action are one movement; realization and expression are one movement. One cannot separate nondual perception and knowledge from its behavioral corollary. Pure consciousness and the world are not different. Each exists as reflections of the other. Therefore, knowledge and action arise together, just as form and formlessness arise together. The perception of self, other, and world as vibrations of pure consciousness is only the foothills, not the high mountains.

"Who am I?" is the easier part of the koan: I am that which is beyond thought and concept; I am that eternal Silent presence which pervades the entire cosmos and which lives in and as all things.

Okay. Now what? Now comes the hard part: "How shall I live?" Taking up this question with sincerity and commitment is the true beginning of realized Self-expression, the true beginning of spiritual maturity and wisdom.

How shall I live?
What, in fact, does a life of Oneness look like?
From whom and from where will I accept money?
To whom and to what shall I give my money?
For whom shall I vote?
What car shall I drive?
What is my civic responsibility to my community, country, and the world?
How engaged am I in the events of the day?
How much responsibility do I take for the condition of the world, the world of which I am a part?

These are just a few of the questions that one must ask and answer every day. There are many more. What are they? Please spend some time with these questions, let the asking and the listening for answers affect how you live your life. As with "Who am I?" do not be content with first answers. Dig deep. Challenge your beliefs. Challenge what your teachers have told you. Challenge your complacency.

Asking "Who am I?" alone leads only to self-absorption and spiritual narcissism; it does not lead to wisdom or to freedom. In your spiritual practice, if you do not already do so, please begin asking the true and correct question: "Who am I? How shall I live?"

As I pose this question in my lectures and workshops, I often encounter resistance from people who do not want to think about how they should live. I understand this, as I was the poster-boy for this attitude for many years. People don’t want to hear about those “worldly” things they are trying to transcend: relationships, social responsibility, and political activism. I, too, initially began my spiritual studies and work to climb out of the confusion, pain, and despair of this physical existence. But, as I’ve said elsewhere, sooner or later we have to fully encounter our incarnation and all that it implies. How else can we give voice and expression to our spirituality, if not through our embodied humanity?

I received this letter from someone, commenting on my drift towards social and political activism, after years of whispering only about Silence, inner peace, and the non-existence of the separate self:

I was initially attracted to you because of, for lack of a better word, spirituality—your clarity and accuracy in issues of the Holy, or God, or the Great Mystery. Recently, however, it seems that everything coming from your direction has been your political anti-war sentiment. While I respect your opinion and your right to speak whatever you wish, I would just like to let you know that the more you wander into political territory and away from spirituality, the more you alienate me, and perhaps others, as a fan of your work. The more you speak about politics, the more my respect for you evaporates. My point in writing this is primarily to say that I have seen other spiritual figures whom I respect and admire look foolish and lose respect when they wander away from their true area of expertise, and begin to think that they are experts not only in matters of the spirit, but in everything else as well.”

I do not believe in such things as “spiritual” and “political” as though they were shoes and beer-bottles. They are just notions in the mind and have life and force only to the extent we empower them. The naming of things is a feature of the mind: its nature is to name and separate one thing from another. Beyond the mind, in the realm of Silence, all things are expressions of one Consciousness and have the same name.

My Merriam-Webster dictionary defines politics as "the total complex of relations between people living in society." To say that one should refrain from politics is like saying that one should refrain from breathing. It is not possible. From cradle to grave, we exist in relationship. Our very life comes from others. Our food comes from others. Our clothes come from others. We are affected by others, as they are by us. Think of your life: it is nothing but relationship.

How are we to live in these relationships? To me, this question is of equal weight and importance to “Who am I?” This latter question is often regarded as spiritual, while the former is termed worldly. Nonsense.

If one only asks “Who am I?” then one has but one leg, one hand, one eye, and half a heart. I want to be whole, for I am whole. So I also ask, “How shall I live?” Asking this gives me my second leg, second hand, second eye, and whole heart.

I am not an expert in political matters, or in spiritual matters. I am an expert in nothing. I only hear the murmur of the universal heart within my blood, telling me that I must pour my heart into this world, that I must live in this world as a strong emblem of love and peace. For me, love and peace are not abstract; they are behaviors. I must act out what I know, what I have experienced in the depths of Silence. I must let my life be a visible demonstration of what I have discovered in my soul. I must stand, I must speak, I must act—on behalf of the inner beauty which some mysterious power has granted all human beings.

And, yes, I encourage others to do likewise.

© Robert Rabbin, All Rights Reserved, 2004

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Rabbin is a mesmerizing public speaker and groundbreaking author, leadership advisor, and self-awareness teacher. He is the creator of RealTime Speaking and a sought-after message master and communication strategist. For more information about Robert and his many powerful programs of personal and professional mastery, visit www.robertrabbin.com.