If you've been exploring Yoga beyond the studio, you've probably heard phrases like "discover your true nature" or "find out who you really are."
We hear them from our Yoga teachers and encounter them in spiritual teachings going back centuries, even millennia. In 1920, Paramahansa Yogananda went to America and famously founded the Self-Realization Fellowship, dedicated to this very pursuit.
But what does "our true nature" actually mean? What is it that we're supposed to discover?
These ideas might feel a little abstract when we're beginning to explore the philosophy of Yoga, so let's dig in a little.
How We See Ourselves
We tend to define ourselves through our jobs, relationships, cultures, characteristics, and experiences.
I'm a doctor, a painter, or an entrepreneur. I'm Canadian, Indian, or Swedish. I'm an introvert or an extrovert. Or whatever categories we place ourselves into.
Then there are our experiences. I'm happy or sad. I'm successful or unsuccessful. I'm lonely, I’m loved, I’m a seeker. I’m a countless number of things.
Now notice that these are all I am statements. I am… something.
But everything we say after I am is something we've simply come to identify with. A role, a characteristic, an experience, or a circumstance. None of these things are permanent or fixed, they’re all changeable.
Reality Beyond Perspective
It's always fascinating to learn how differently others can see us compared to how we see ourselves. Each person sees us through the lens of their own experiences, beliefs, and understanding, just as we see ourselves through ours. The truth is that neither perspective tells the whole story.
And remember that our roles, characteristics, or circumstances aren’t fixed. Our relationships change, our bodies change, our circumstances change, and even our personalities can evolve throughout our lives.
None of the aspects of our identity are permanent, so how can they be who we actually are?
Yoga teaches us that beneath all these changing aspects of our individual existence is something that doesn't change. Something fundamental to who we are. Unchanging. Eternal. Boundless.
Recognizing that deeper reality is the heart of Yoga. It’s what all the practices are ultimately guiding us toward.
Understanding Through Practice
At the core of many different spiritual traditions, philosophies, and ways of describing reality lies a fundamental truth about the nature of our existence. The language and perspectives may differ, but they're all ultimately leading us toward the same profound understanding of who and what we really are.
Learning what this means is beyond perspective, and ultimately beyond words. It's something we can only begin to know through direct experience.
A good place to begin investigating this truth is extremely simple:
I am.
Here's a simple experiment you can try anytime and as often as you like.
Find a quiet moment. If you can, close your eyes and allow your breath to become slow and natural.
Then internally resonate the words I am.
Without a qualifier, without adding anything to the end, notice the experience of simply being. I am.
No profession, personality, history, achievement, or circumstance.
Just I am.
Let that resonate and notice how it feels, without trying to analyse it or make something happen. Just notice.
Is there a sense of quiet?
Does that simple sense of being have a boundary, or any particular qualities?
There's no right or wrong experience here. Just noticing.
That’s the thing about Yoga: you get to be your own best teacher. Your internal listening is your truest guide, and the better you become at listening, the more you can learn from yourself.
Beyond Identity
To pair the practice we just did with some philosophical context, there's a concept in Yoga that helps explain our identification with certain categories.
In Sāṃkhya, the philosophical backbone of Yoga, ahaṃkāra is often translated as ego, but more accurately as the “I-maker.”
It’s the faculty that gives us that sense of individual identity and it’s an important part of how we experience and navigate the world. But when we become overly identified with that sense of self, it can distort our perception and leave us defending who we believe ourselves to be.
This I am inquiry is just a beginning. Yoga offers a vast body of teachings and practices, with a lifetime of exploration ahead, should you choose to continue.
And as we become less caught up in who we think we are, or who we believe we should be, we may find ourselves with less to prove, less to defend, and more freedom to simply be. There's a lot of ease in that freedom.
Stillness speaks volumes. We just have to become quiet enough to listen.
And maybe, over time, we'll start to remember who we really are. It’s there, within every one of us, just waiting to be found again.
A note on Sanskrit:
Underlined Sanskrit terms link directly to their entries in the Sanskrit Glossary for Yoga, where you'll find their meanings and pronunciation audio.
