Who am I?
If I ask the question, Who am I? seeking to know who is exactly asking this question, I will not find the answer I am looking for because I expect the answer to be something determinateeven if a mere thought. Because of my demand for the determinate no possible repetition of the question will serve to reveal the questioner because, in truth, the questioner is fundamentally no-thingnever a determinate thing.
From the perspective of a Bodhisattva, who is asking the question is much different than for an ordinary person. It is clear to the one who has entered the stream or the Bodhisattva that the questioner is utterly transcendent. Not only is the questioner utterly transcendent but the Bodhisattva has realized this transcendent, primordial nature, trying to perfect it by eliminating the obstructions that hide it so that it becomes more outshining.
In a Kafka way of looking at this matter, the problem is somewhat like a television in search of the signal that it is designed to amplify. Now if we accept that what is fundamental is the television signal, then the television's search for a signal becomes a futile one since the signal is not television-likeit transcends the television, in other words.
As strange as it sounds, the signal will have to awaken to itself by detaching from the television set by saying to itself: This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self. (If this sounds familiar, it should be, it is a phrase from the Pali canon used many times by the Buddha.)
It is important to keep in mind that the question Who am I? does have a very real answer but it cannot be found in the Five Aggregate/psychophysical body, consisting of form, feeling, perception, volitional formations and sensory consciousness. It is far more subtle, in fact, hyper-subtle.
