I have learned from the Taittiriya and Tripurashakthi
Upanishads that I am made up of the following:
Spirit - variously referred to in different languages as soul, atma, ruh etc, also referred to as the awareness, is
that part of us which does not die but lives on when the body dies. It is the
root word of the concept of spirituality.
Body - this physical part of us which began as a single cell
and grew into a complex organism, taking nutrition from the physical world. It
has a limited lifetime and will eventually stop functioning and decompose back into
the physical world.
Mind - this capability that developed in our brains to
receive information from the physical world through our five senses, process
that information and respond to the world using various parts of the body.
Breath - referred to as prana or chi, it is an energy that
we draw from the physical world which keeps us alive. With every inhalation, we
draw in fresh life energy and with every exhalation, we flush out stale energy.
If we stop breathing, the body will die.
So what do we mean when we say "I"?
We know the “I” is not the things we own or acquire –
property, bank accounts, qualifications, testimonials, none of those things. We
also know that we don't mean our limbs, or other body parts. In fact, we can
say that anything bearing the possessive pronoun “my” cannot be the “I” we are
looking for. The "I" must be something deeper inside.
Can we mean our minds? But that also has the possessive
pronoun “my”. Anyway, let’s take a look.
What happens when a person loses his memory totally? His
mind is gone! There is no mind left but he is still alive, still inhaling life
energy. His EEG will probably show brain activity but he lacks the mental
capacity to interact with us. He may relearn over time and regrow a new mind,
so we can expect that his spirit is still there with him. Can anyone say there
is no more "I" in there when the mind is gone? I don't think so!
So we can conclude that the mind is not the "I"
either!!!
Can it be the breath that we draw in? That breath is not
even ours. It’s on loan to us each time we inhale. But we can’t keep it. We
always have to return it. That is the last thing we do when our body expires.
So our breath is not the “I” either.
Which brings us to the crucial realization - the
"I" is neither the body nor the mind and certainly not the breath. It
is something deeper within.
The “I” is the consciousness or awareness associated with
the spirit (soul, atma, ruh) within us. It is our spirit that is conscious and
aware of everything that is going on around us. When we die and leave the body
behind, we also leave behind our mind with all its precious memories along with
all the material things that our bodies so gladly gathered while alive. It is
only what our consciousness or awareness has learned and carries which can come
with us into the hereafter, whatever the hereafter means to us.
We need to recognize and nurture the “I” properly.
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