Buddhist science takes everything apart to reveal what is left…nothing!

Buddhism talks about 4 types of ‘I’, (there could be more):

The social ‘I ‘, the self-cherishing ‘I’, the reified ‘I’ and the ‘I’mere ‘I’. Normally we lump it all together, and say I.

  The social ‘I’ is created from the reaction of those around us, and we tend to feel we have to live up to that image. Our idea of who we are is built upon the reactions of those around us.

 The self-cherishing ‘I’ is self evident – it’s all about me! We relate everything to ourselves, which is when we start to get upset.

 The reified ‘I’ (reified means to make real, or solid). This ‘I’ makes ourselves and everything around us seem real and solid, this fixes us and that creates a lot of problems.

 The mere ‘I’. In meditation we allow a ‘I’ mere to be present. This mere ‘I’ is a stepping stone of the 8^th consciousness to the experience of emptiness where no ‘I’ is present – pure awareness. This merely entails awareness being aware of this mere ‘I’. But we can stay with this mere ‘I’- barely aware, as this is a very useful in practice.

 There is another purpose for a mere ‘I’. The experience of emptiness is dry, there is no engagement in life, it is pure reflection. So we come down a little to “expression emptiness” or “essence love”, this is where the juice flows, and we work with a mere ‘I’ in daily life.

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