This meditation is based on the teaching of my Daoist teacher Jeffrey Yuen. It looks at 3 questions – who am I, where am I going, and how will I get there. When we look at these questions, we can see that we tend to spend most of our time and energy on the third question – how am I going to get there. We tend to be preoccupied with the resources (how). This meditation is aiming at allowing us to come back to the question of who I am, rather than the how or even the where, and to then take it even further to allowing that question to point us to aimlessness and to just being.

You may want to have a pen and paper and take a moment to jot down your insights as you contemplate each of the 3 questions, writing just a word or two, which can later serve as a reminder and be expanded on.

I start by establishing my posture, my presence, both physically and mentally, and coming back to my breathing, taking refuge in the breath, enjoying the inner space of the breath.

When there is enough space within me I begin to contemplate the first question:

Who am I

I observe the feeling that this question produces in me. There may be discomfort, or anxiety. I amy feel frustration. There may arise a desire to get a good answer. I might not know how to look at this question. Or there may be clarity, There may even be clear dismissal of the question.

I just note the feeling(s) the question induces in me. I let the question permeate my consciousness and I observe any reactions, as well as answers.

I then take a moment to sum up any answers and any feelings around, the energy produced by, the question “who am I” and write it down in a few words.

I now ask the question –

Where am I going?

Letting this question reside within me, I observe my reactions to this question.

Am I experiencing determination? Urgency? Doubt? Clarity? Fluctuations in my response?

I note the energy within you when this question is brought to the mind.

When I feel some point of completion (for this session), I jot down what I discovered about “where am I going” both in terms of the feeling(s) it produces in me and any insights.

The third question is –

How am I going to get there?

This question can also be asked as “who am I going to get there with?”

I note the energy within me with this question. I also note the difference in how I react to “how am I going to get there” and the feeling induced by “who am I going to get there with”?

With few words, I jot down my insights, around the question and around my reaction to the questions.

Now I look at the energy produced by each of these questions.

I see that I spend much of my time and energy in the realm of “how am I going to get there.”

It can be even more obvious when I contemplate “who am I going to get there with.”

I note the time and effort I invest in the “how,” in gathering the resoources.

I now contemplate how an I invest in how am I going to get there, if I do not know where I am going.

And can I know where I am going if I do not know who I am, who it is that is going?

Coming back to the question – who am I. I just let the question permeate me.

There need not be any one answer, there may be many, there may be none

I am not what I see, I am not what I hear, I am not what I smell, or taste, or touch. I am not even my thoughts. I am constantly being shaped by these, and yet I am not defined by them.

Who am I?

Do I need to go anywhere?

How will I get anywhere?

I simply sit in aimlessness – all the conditions for my being have been set out. All the conditions for my happiness are already here.