Expert: Stuart Resnick - 8/21/2006

Question
How did you find out about that question? (What am I?)
Different email, It has been changed to new one.
-------------------------

Followup To

Question -
How can I start meditating to attain enlightenment?

Answer -
Ask the great question: What am I? Ask it strongly and sincerely enough for just one thing to appear: Don't Know. Then, sit with that Don't Know mind. That mind is before thinking, so it's before I, my, me. Before I, my, me, everything is clear, no problem. Like a mirror that reflects each moment just as it is. That's better than enlightenment, better than Buddha, better than God, better than anything.

Answer
I personally got Zen teaching from the Korean tradition (http://www.kwanumzen.com/). This tradition stresses raising a "great question" or "great doubt" in order to clear the mind.

The tradition began in China. The story goes that Huai-jang came to visit Hui-neng, the sixth patriarch of Zen. Hui-neng asked him, "Where do you come from?" Hui-jang replied that he came from Sung Shan mountain. Hui-neng asked again, "What is this thing that has come here?" Hui-jang could not answer.

For 8 years Hui-jang went about his life, but always kept that question. Then his mind opened, and he returned to Hui-neng and told him, "To say even one word is to miss the point entirely."

The question of course is universal. In the Yoga tradition of India also, for example, revered teachers have said that inquiring into the true nature of the self is a complete path.