Why I?

or

Does God Speak English?

It is a peculiarity of the English language that the word for the self is the shortest word - just the letter "I".

And the letter "I" is the simplest letter - a single stroke of the pen.

The self has two aspects.
There is the pure Self, the faculty of consciousness common to all minds, the silent knower of all experience.
And there is the individual self, the localised manifestation of that essence as a personal identity.

Similarly there is "I" and there is "i".
The "i" is a small "I", in which the wholeness of creation has become a mere point.
It lives under the illusion that it is no longer whole - as if the gap in "i" could cut itself from its essential "I".

The true "I" knows no duality, no separation.
It is a simple stroke linking bottom to top, Earth to Heaven, Ground to God.

Look at "I" or "i" in a mirror, and it remains the same.
Turn "I" upside down, it makes no difference.
But turn an "i" upside down and you have a "!" on your hands.

This simple stroke of the pen is also the number "1".
The Self is the unity within, the one common element of all experience.

This is also reflected in our language.
When speaking of "I" in a detached way, we say "One thinks; One feels; One does this or does that."

Not only is the Self an inner oneness, awareness of "I", leads to an awareness of "one's" oneness with creation.
The unity within is also the unity without.

The Self is the inner eye aware of all experience.
The eye is both an organ perception, and a window into the soul.
When we meet another "eye to eye" we are meeting "I" to "I".

"I" is the great unknowable.
We cannot describe or define "I" in words.
We can only describe and define the many forms "I" appears to take, the many roles "i" play, the many clothes "i" wear, the many things "i" do.
But none of these is what "I" is.

Yet, undefinable as it is, "I" is undeniable.
"I-ness", awareness, the knower, is the one certainty behind all experience.
Everything else is open to doubt.
"I" is the absolute truth.

"I" is my true name.
Whatever labels others might call me, "I" is what I call my self - the Self that lies behind all names and labels.

And "I" is also what you call yourself.
We all share the same inner name.

My innermost essence is the essence of all beings.
It is the source of all.
"I" is the name of God.
"I" am the eye through which God sees the world.

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