{"id":591,"date":"2011-10-11T07:00:35","date_gmt":"2011-10-11T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/awakeintheworld\/?p=591"},"modified":"2011-10-10T10:52:54","modified_gmt":"2011-10-10T14:52:54","slug":"inquiry-as-a-spiritual-practice-for-revelation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2011\/10\/inquiry-as-a-spiritual-practice-for-revelation.html","title":{"rendered":"Inquiry as a Spiritual Practice for Revelation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI set my sights on being free so that I can offer myself to the family of humankind.\u201d &#8211; Lala, a Sufi Poet and Mystic who ran away from her abusive husband and mother-in-law.<\/p>\n<p>Who am I? Where have I come from? And where am I going? These three questions open doors to spiritual self-discovery and freedom. We often get so caught up in material life that we begin to identify with our possessions, our jobs and our roles in relationships. Whether we become aware of it or not, we often think of ourselves in direct relationship to our homes, our cars, our clothes, our partners and our families and jobs. Another way to look at it is that we unconsciously think, \u201cI am my job. I am good because I have a good house. I am enviable because I drive a good car. I am a spouse, etc.\u201d But what happens when we lose these things? We lose our imagined identity and we no longer know who we really are. <a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/%7E\/media\/3E4B16017D2E48BE838B3AA88EB82BA1.ashx?w=220&amp;h=165\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/%7E\/media\/3E4B16017D2E48BE838B3AA88EB82BA1.ashx?w=220&amp;h=165\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"165\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ancient Asian wisdom traditions used a practice of inquiry as a way to discover who we really are. That is, the part of us which is Real and never changing. It\u2019s a practice of self-discovery to help arrive at the spiritual core of one\u2019s being. A guru (Sanskrit for teacher) would encourage students to ask, \u201cAm I my body?\u201d They were expected to answer \u201c<em>neti, neti.\u201d<\/em> \u201cNot that. Not that.\u201d My body changes perpetually and eventually will be shed like an old dress or a worn pair of jeans. So I cannot be the body. \u201cAm I the mind?\u201d My mind will lose its sharpness and its ability to think clearly. I may even lose my mind, so I am not the mind.<\/p>\n<p>Am I my soul? Even the soul goes through periods of growth and change. In the ancient wisdom traditions, the Spirit or the <em>atma<\/em>, the unchanging essence that continues even when all else dissolves and changes, is Real. Therefore, they encouraged students to realize, \u201cI am <em>atma.\u201d <\/em>I am the eternal, unchanging absolute \u2013 and to identify with this. This is a powerful way to remain unaffected by the ups and downs of the life\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n<p>A good way to reinforce this is to repeat, \u201cI am atma.\u201d Or, \u201cI am the unchanging, eternal Absolute.\u201d Or &#8220;I am Love.&#8221;\u00a0 This ancient practice anchors us in the deep wisdom of knowing our true nature and understanding ourselves as profoundly greater and wiser than what we may initially imagine. Give it a try and discover the depths and the power of anchoring in the Spirit as your true identity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bio:<\/strong> Debra Moffitt is author of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Awake-World-Practices-Divinely-Inspired\/dp\/0738727229\">Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life<\/a>. A visionary and teacher, she\u2019s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind\/body\/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. Visit her online at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.debramoffitt.com\/\">http:\/\/www.debramoffitt.com<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.awakeintheworld.com\/\">http:\/\/www.awakeintheworld.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI set my sights on being free so that I can offer myself to the family of humankind.\u201d &#8211; Lala, a Sufi Poet and Mystic who ran away from her abusive husband and mother-in-law. Who am I? Where have I come from? And where am I going? These three questions open doors to spiritual self-discovery&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":409,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,4,26,3],"tags":[346,345,405,404],"class_list":["post-591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-inspiration","category-meditation","category-spiritual-practice","tag-awake-in-the-world","tag-debra-moffitt","tag-inquiry-as-spiritual-practice","tag-questions-for-soul-growth"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Inquiry as a Spiritual Practice for Revelation  - Awake in the World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2011\/10\/inquiry-as-a-spiritual-practice-for-revelation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Inquiry as a Spiritual Practice for Revelation  - Awake in the World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cI set my sights on being free so that I can offer myself to the family of humankind.\u201d &#8211; Lala, a Sufi Poet and Mystic who ran away from her abusive husband and mother-in-law. 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