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You already know that you are not your body, mind, thoughts, or anything like that. Instead, you understand that you are the one who knows these experiences are yours. This knower is what we call awareness or consciousness. The term “I” points to this knower. But where does the “I” exist? Where can you find it? How can you identify it?

If “I” is its own entity, then it should be possible to locate it somehow. But what exactly should you look for? You know the “I” isn’t tangible, so you start searching for it in your thoughts. Try it. But you cannot find the “I” in your thoughts. Next, you may try stopping your thoughts, hoping that the “I” will reveal itself when you are still. But it doesn’t. There’s no single sign you can identify as the “I.” Keep trying—look for the “I” in different parts of your body, in the room you’re in, in your surroundings, or in your memory. You cannot point to a single object and say, “That is the I.”

What do you find instead? Often, nothing—nothing at all. But if you cannot notice anything, what is this “nothing”? Suddenly, a thought pops up. It is your thought, and where did it appear? It appeared in this “nothing.” Now you get the point and if someone says to you, “You are absolute nothing,” you’ll know it’s truer than they understand 😄. This “nothing” is awareness, and you are it.

Next, try to see where this awareness starts and ends. If you find some border or limit, examine closely to ensure it’s not just a border created by your mind. No actual border can be found when you rely solely on your attentive observation. That’s why awareness is said to be limitless and eternal.

Now, “look” at a thought you have. From what “stuff” is it made? You’re able to examine your thoughts when you can shift the focus of your attention to whatever arises within you. Take another thought and examine the “stuff” it’s made of. The substance is the same, though its form varies. A deep philosophical thought is made of the same “stuff” as a trivial thought sparked by a tabloid headline.

Continue by directing your attention to a sound you hear. What is the “stuff” of sound? Is it different from the “stuff” of thought? Now, taste something—your saliva, for example. What is the “stuff” of taste, from where tasting is made about? Is it the same “stuff” as thought and sound? Continue with the other senses. If you find more than one type of “stuff,” look again to make sure your mind is not misleading you. Because in awareness everything is made of the same “stuff” and occurs within you—within awareness. That’s why awareness is said to be everything.

If I hear the same sound as you, is my awareness different from yours? The sound was the same and occurred in awareness. Therefore, your awareness and mine must be the same; we simply have our own “sensors” that locate different events within this same awareness.

This “stuff” is what you are, and I cannot say precisely what it is. Some say it is pure energy; others may say it’s the complex interactions of physical matter—neurons, synapses, and electrochemical processes in the brain—whatever physical matter fundamentally is. Defining this “stuff” in words is difficult and somewhat irrelevant to your path. What matters is experiencing it, not understanding it intellectually.

No specific single object can be identified as the “I.” The “I” as a separate entity does not exist. The “I” is a mental construct formed by your mind, existing solely within it, and you often believe this idea is true and real. However, the thought “I am a pen” is truer than believing that the “I” exists. Why? Because there is only limitless awareness, which contains everything—and you are that. You can verify this by taking a pen in your hand and paying attention to your sense of touch, attempting to find the exact boundary between where you end and the pen begins. No such boundary can be found. Instead, you sense the form of the pen, and the “stuff” of this touching is the same as what you recognized before—it’s you.

All that is written here is knowledge your true self does not need, but your mind does. To progress on your path, a good first step is to realize what this nothingness—this real you—is with direct recognition, and then practice being it. When you have done enough work, you will experience the same awareness as I do, you will experience unity.

Those who are interested in personal growth almost certainly encounter the phrase “Know thyself” at some point. Its origins are often traced to the ancient Greeks, notably attributed to the Delphic oracle. In old English, “thy” was used to indicate “you,” so in modern English the phrase is “know yourself.”

If you are not interested in non-dualism, that phrase likely means understanding your own nature—your character, values, motivations, and limitations. You can achieve this by examining your inner life: emotional patterns, personal beliefs, thought processes, values, goals, strengths, weaknesses, biases, fears, and aspirations. It involves understanding why these arise and what effect they have on you. This is essentially what psychology seeks to do—understand the “I.”

If, however, you are interested in non-dualism, the phrase doesn’t mean analyzing and understanding your personality traits, strengths, and weaknesses. For you, “know thyself” means recognizing the one who knows and understands your nature, values, motivations, limitations, and so on. This knower is your true self, which is pure awareness or consciousness—the essence of what you fundamentally are. More than that, “know thyself” is not an action performed by a separate knower upon a known entity. Instead, it is the recognition that the knower, the known, and the act of knowing are all manifestations of a single, indivisible reality.

In psychology, you might try to understand yourself by examining cause-and-effect patterns. In non-dualism, “know thyself” cannot be fulfilled by conceptual understanding or intellectual analysis. Instead, it involves identifying the effortless awareness that is always present.

To make it clearer, we might say that this knower—your true self, this awareness—is beyond the mind. Therefore, “know thyself” cannot be fully grasped through intellectual analysis. However, from the non-dualistic perspective, there isn’t a separate mind; the mind is also awareness. Everything is made from the same “stuff,” though it takes on different forms.

When you are advanced in non-dualism, everything becomes clear. But if you haven’t yet realized enlightenment and still have work to do, identifying thyself is a crucial step on your path. This realization often comes through meditative inquiry, self-inquiry practices (such as repeatedly asking “Who am I?”), patient and direct observation of one’s own experience, or by having someone point it out directly.

As you see, from the non-dualistic perspective, “know thyself” is entirely different from the psychological perspective. These two approaches also differ in how you maintain peace, happiness, and achieve your full potential. From the psychological standpoint, it generally requires ongoing effort—willpower, positive psychology techniques, denial, acceptance, or other strategies to maintain balance.

From the non-dualistic viewpoint, you realize that your true self—thyself—is the unchanging presence within which all experiences (thoughts, emotions, perceptions) arise and subside. You don’t need to understand why these occur; you can effortlessly decide whether to let them affect your present moment or not by choosing where to place your attention.

Know thyself—its reward is awesome!

Bruce Lee captured it perfectly: “One of the best lessons you can learn in life is to master how to remain calm. Calm is a superpower.”

Why is calmness a superpower? Because it allows you to use your mind as it’s meant to be used: solving the situation at hand. When you lose your calm, your mind becomes preoccupied with handling anxiety and worry, leaving little capacity to focus on the actual problem. Simply put, staying calm means you can think and act clearly. Losing your calm? Not so much.

A common scenario where calmness is lost is when someone says something you dislike or disagree with. The process begins when sound waves (changes in air pressure) travel from their mouth to your ears. Your ears detect the air pressure changes, convert them into electrical signals, and send them to your brain. There, these signals are recognized as sounds and interpreted into words. At this stage, no anxiety exists. To your ears, it’s just air pressure changes, and to your brain, it’s electrical signals.

But the story doesn’t end there.

Next, your mind starts making sense of the meaning behind the words. Just as it processes input from your ears, your mind also collects information from other senses. From these it analyzes how the words were said (e.g., friendly or hostile), who said them, the context, and so on. This “historical scan” pulls data from your memory to assign meaning and generate thoughts, feelings, and even a suggested response.

At this point, the simple air pressure change now carries layers of meaning, emotions, and associations. But still—no anxiety yet. Your mind holds this information internally, waiting to share its analysis with you.

Here’s the crucial part:

Your mind is doing its job—analyzing and preparing a response. It uses only the information stored in your memory and the connections between that data. Once it presents its analysis and suggestions, the next step is up to you. What happens next depends on where you direct your attention. This choice determines whether you stay calm or let anxiety take center stage.

If you focus on the negative thoughts and feelings your mind delivers and can’t redirect your attention, you lose your calm. Anxiety, frustration, and impulsive reactions take over. However, if you have the ability to shift your attention away from negativity, those feelings fade, and you can focus on the best course of action for the situation.

A Simple Proof

It’s easy to see that anxiety disappears when your attention shifts. Imagine you’re feeling anxious during a conversation, but suddenly you hear a loud explosion. Instantly, your attention shifts to the explosion, and your anxiety vanishes because you’re too busy analyzing the new event. If you later realize the explosion wasn’t dangerous, your attention might return to the conversation—and so does your anxiety. The key is controlling your attention.

How to Control Your Attention

The first step, as Eckhart Tolle explains in The Power of Now, is recognizing that “you are not your mind.” You know for sure that you are not your finger; it’s your finger. The situation is the same with your mind: you are not your mind; it’s your mind.

Just as your finger is a tool for touching, your mind is a tool for thinking. However, unlike your finger, your mind has the ability to capture your attention without you realizing it—and it often does. When your attention is constantly attached to your mind, you start to believe you are your mind.

When you understand that you are not your mind, a natural question arises: Who am I?

The verbal answer is simple: you are the one who is aware of your mind. However, understanding this intellectually isn’t much. To truly answer Who am I?, you must direct your attention to the source of everything—your thoughts, emotions, decisions, actions, and calmness. That source is your true self.

Your true self cannot be understood intellectually; it can only be experienced. Just as the taste of coffee can’t really be explained but must be tasted, your true self must be experienced directly. When your attention rests on your true self, you experience who you really are and receive the answer to the question.

Building Control Over Your Attention

When your attention is rooted in your true self, you notice everything. You see thoughts and feelings arise, including anxiety, without being overwhelmed by them. With practice, you can consciously decide which thoughts to engage with and which to ignore.

If you ignore anxiety and focus on constructive thoughts instead, the anxiety will diminish over time and eventually disappear. This allows you to experience situations as they are, without being clouded by negativity, enabling you to stay calm in any scenario.

For example, if someone bullies you, your mind will perform a better “history scan,” providing insights into their motives and the most effective response. With fewer anxiety-inducing connections in your brain, your mind can prioritize more constructive information, enabling you to handle the situation skillfully.

Steps to Stay Calm

Staying calm requires the ability to control your attention. You can achieve this through two key steps:

1. Realize who you are—your true self.
   This often happens through a process of immersion in non-dualism practices like reading, discussions, meditation, and retreats. Over time, the “marinade” of these practices penetrates the mind, leading to an experience of your true self. This “marinating” process typically takes 6–8 years. It is also possible to avoid marinating process if someone can guide you to directly experience your real self.
2. Learn to keep your attention on your true self.
   This step involves practicing techniques like meditation or mindfulness to strengthen your ability to control your attention. At first, you might manage this in simple situations, like when spilling a glass of water. Over time, your skills will grow, allowing you to remain calm in more challenging circumstances, such as managing relationships, bullying, or other stressful situations.

Mastering the mind brings calmness to your actions; you calmly do what you need to do without drama. Here are some examples from history:

Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s Calmness During the Hudson River Landing (2009)

• Situation: Captain Sullenberger safely landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River after both engines failed following a bird strike.
• Calmness in Action: Despite the emergency, Sully remained calm, quickly assessed the situation, and made critical decisions that saved all 155 passengers on board.
• Outcome: His calm and focused demeanor allowed him to execute an unprecedented water landing with no fatalities. His calmness under extreme pressure became a model for crisis management.

Nelson Mandela’s Leadership and Negotiations During South Africa’s Transition to Democracy

• Situation: After spending 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela emerged with a calm, reconciliatory approach to guide South Africa from apartheid to democracy.
• Calmness in Action: Instead of responding with anger or vengeance, Mandela remained calm and advocated for forgiveness, peace, and constructive dialogue between black and white South Africans.
• Outcome: His calm leadership prevented widespread violence and civil war, helping South Africa peacefully transition to democracy. Mandela’s calmness and patience made him a global symbol of peace and reconciliation.

Tom Brady’s Calmness in Super Bowl LI (2017)

• Situation: In one of the most iconic Super Bowl games, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were down 28-3 against the Atlanta Falcons in the third quarter.
• Calmness in Action: Brady remained composed, methodically leading his team back into the game without panicking. His ability to stay calm under pressure allowed him to execute key plays.
• Outcome: The Patriots made a historic comeback, winning 34-28 in overtime. Brady’s calm focus helped secure one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.
• Watch on YouTube, https://youtu.be/Dek2iKYI7eQ?si=n_Brvm9UMjphmFMB

Serena Williams‘ Calmness in High-Pressure Tennis Matches

• Situation: Serena Williams, one of the greatest tennis players in history, has faced intense pressure during high-stakes matches, including multiple Grand Slam finals.
• Calmness in Action: Williams has been known for her ability to stay calm under the immense pressure of competition, particularly in moments when she’s been down in matches. Her mental toughness and calm approach allow her to focus and make comebacks.
• Outcome: Williams’ calm demeanor under pressure has led to 23 Grand Slam singles titles, solidifying her status as one of the greatest athletes of all time. Her ability to maintain focus in crucial moments has been key to her sustained success.

Grace Under Pressure: Astronauts on Apollo 13 (1970)

• Situation: During the Apollo 13 mission, an oxygen tank exploded, and the spacecraft was critically damaged, putting the lives of the astronauts in jeopardy.
• Calmness in Action: Both the astronauts and NASA mission control remained remarkably calm, carefully working through the problem step by step to find a solution.
• Outcome: Through calm communication and methodical problem-solving, the astronauts were safely returned to Earth. Their calmness saved the mission, and it became one of NASA’s finest moments.

Calm Response in the Thai Cave Rescue (2018)

• Situation: A group of 12 boys and their soccer coach were trapped in a cave in Thailand for over two weeks, with rising water levels threatening their lives.
• Calmness in Action: The rescue team, led by calm and composed divers, executed a highly complex rescue operation involving navigating narrow, flooded passages over several days. Their calmness was essential in guiding the boys through the perilous cave system. Also boys’ coach Ake, a former monk, taught the boys meditation techniques – to help them stay calm and use as little air as possible to conserve it in the air pocket they were in.
• Outcome: All 12 boys and their coach were safely rescued, largely due to the calmness and expertise of the international rescue team, who maintained focus despite the overwhelming challenges.

Calmness in the Face of a Shark Attack: Mick Fanning (2015)

• Situation: Professional surfer Mick Fanning was attacked by a great white shark during a live surfing competition in South Africa.
• Calmness in Action: Despite the terrifying situation, Fanning remained remarkably calm. He punched the shark and swam away, managing to escape without serious injury.
• Outcome: Fanning’s calm and quick reactions during the attack helped him avoid serious harm, and the event became famous for his incredible composure in a life-threatening situation.

Jessica Buchanan’s Calmness During a Hostage Situation (2011)

• Situation: Humanitarian aid worker Jessica Buchanan was kidnapped by Somali pirates and held hostage for over three months in harsh conditions.
• Calmness in Action: Buchanan remained mentally strong and calm throughout the ordeal, focusing on staying alive and not losing hope. She kept herself mentally resilient until a U.S. Navy SEAL team rescued her in a daring nighttime raid.
• Outcome: Despite extreme stress and danger, Buchanan’s calm and steady mindset helped her endure until she was rescued, becoming an inspiring example of strength under pressure.

Grace Hopper’s Calm Innovation in Computer Science

• Situation: Grace Hopper was a pioneering computer scientist and U.S. Navy rear admiral. She worked on early computers like the Harvard Mark I and invented the first compiler, a crucial tool for programming.
• Calmness in Action: Hopper remained calm and persistent in the face of skepticism from her peers, many of whom didn’t believe computers would ever become widely useful.
• Outcome: Hopper’s calm, determined approach led to breakthroughs in computer science, including the development of COBOL, one of the first high-level programming languages. Her legacy continues to influence modern computing.

J.K. Rowling’s Calm Persistence While Writing and Publishing Harry Potter

• Situation: J.K. Rowling faced numerous personal challenges, including financial struggles and rejection from multiple publishers while trying to get her Harry Potter manuscript accepted.
• Calmness in Action: Despite these setbacks, Rowling remained calm and persistent in her vision for the book. She continued to revise and submit her work while keeping a positive, focused attitude.
• Outcome: Eventually, her calm persistence paid off, and Harry Potter became one of the most successful book series in history, turning Rowling into a literary icon. Her calmness and determination helped her overcome rejection and achieve global success.

These are examples of the quality of actions that result from mastering your own mind.

Throughout history, there have been predictions that new technology will take away jobs or negatively impact society. Now, with the rise of AI, the issue has surfaced as a topic of discussion once again. Previous predictions have not fully come true regarding job losses; we are still working. However, jobs have decreased due to automation, and that will likely happen this time as well—though no one yet knows the scale of it. What is certain, however, is that things will continue to evolve, and people will automate whatever can be automated. And since AI brings new possibilities for automation, more automation is coming.

AI understands language and possesses all available knowledge—everything. It understands concepts like dogs, the world, excitement. It learns new things, meaning it can create new capabilities, artifacts, and knowledge. It knows by heart all the theories and applications of medicine, law, economics, biology, natural sciences, and so on. It can absorb a 1,000-page manual in a second and immediately answer any question from it. It can recognize an image, explain where it was taken, and describe what it shows. These are digital contents, but at the same time, this capability is being integrated into robotics, allowing robots to understand their surroundings and learn new skills. This development has already led to a situation where, whenever I need to know something, I ask AI first. It has also led to the situation that anything in digital form can be mimicked, improved and transformed by AI, and the human role in this process will diminish.

One thing we can certainly do is prepare and decide how we will approach AI and the coming changes. AI can be resisted and feared, but its arrival is likely unstoppable and, frankly, something people may not even want to prevent. Alternatively, we can approach it with an open mind, explore its capabilities, and get the best sense of what it can do and how it will impact, for example, your own career or on a larger scale.

If you’re interested in how you will face the upcoming AI changes, follow the upcoming news and pay attention to how you respond to it. Also, take note of your current opinion on the subject, the emotional charge tied to it, and whether your opinion is based on your own experience or general news coverage. If you are passionately against it, there’s a chance that you won’t be able to control the change but will have to adapt to what is available to you afterward. However, if you’re open to it, your chances of leveraging the positive and preventing the negative aspects of the change improve, and you’ll be able to choose how things will go for you after the shift.

How you approach things—and thus what follows—is entirely up to you. If that feels difficult, it’s likely that your mind is controlling you. Mastering the mind is what we focus on here, so check out how you can learn to control it instead of letting it control you.

He is a great example of how things are done without drama: do the job and let the results speak. Admirable.

Dove published “The Real State of Beauty” report in April 2024 ( 1 ). The reason for the report was an earlier discovery that only 2% of women consider themselves beautiful. This is due to “unrealistic beauty standards set” by the beauty industry, and “Dove took action to build body confidence and self-esteem for millions of young people.” To be able to take this action, “Dove has conducted the world’s largest ever study by a beauty brand, building on 20 years of insights and listening to 33,000 people across 20 countries, to understand the reality of beauty and the pressures women and girls face.”

Although only 2% of women consider themselves beautiful, 90% of them say,

“Real beauty is being authentic, being who you are.”

Here at Virkee, we see that ‘beauty’ is a concept created by people and doesn’t actually exist. This is because the concept of ‘beauty’ has been formed during human development and certain characteristics or standards have been associated with it over time. The Dove report highlights this clearly when it states that “unrealistic beauty standards have been set” and it is people who have ‘set’ these standards.

A sunset is a good example. If a sunset is considered beautiful, ‘beautiful’ is a word used to communicate this to others so that people can enjoy that ‘beauty’ together. However, the sunset itself isn’t inherently beautiful. A sunset is an action where the sun goes below the horizon, but seeing it brings us joy and we associate the word ‘beautiful’ with it.

The word ‘beauty’ is a tool to communicate joy to others.

‘Beauty’ is a positive concept and should bring joy to people, not sorrow.

In the case of a sunset, ‘beauty’ is neutral and creates joy, but when ‘beauty’ is related to oneself, problems occur. Why? Because then ‘beauty’ is associated with ‘self’ and we compare ‘me’ to others.

What actually is the ‘I’? We have our body, mind, thoughts, soul, spirit, feelings and so on. But they are ours; they aren’t the ‘I’. The ‘I’, the inner self is the one who recognizes those.

Beauty is usually related to the body, but it is not You, it’s your body. Think of an elephant, whose sense of self doesn’t change whether its body is decorated or not. Everyone should have the same ability. Then, when one decorates oneself, it is done to bring joy and not to improve self-esteem.

When we learn what ‘I’ actually is, we free ourselves from the prison created by the concept of unrealistic beauty standards. Then, instead of being in sorrow created by others, we start to embrace the joy of our inner self, which will also show on the outside.

Virkee has online courses that teaches how one can experience their inner self and what steps are needed to remain as the inner self in everyday situations. As the majority of women say, that is real beauty.

P.S. The report mentions that “90% of online content could be AI-generated” and “AI is currently one of the biggest threats to the representation of real beauty.” This prediction is likely true and the majority of the content will be AI-generated, as images on this site already are. The real decision to make is whether to let any image, either real or computer-generated, bring sorrow into your life, which is real right now.

1) https://www.dove.com/us/en/stories/campaigns/global-state-of-beauty.html

Those who have learned to master their minds, without exception, declare that it has been the best investment they have ever made for themselves. Why? Because life becomes much easier after that.

Let’s use Henry Ford’s clever realization: “Nothing is particularly hard if you break it into small jobs” and break the process of mastering one’s mind into small pieces to better understand what it means:

• First, understand what mastering one’s mind means: being able to notice your own thoughts and feelings and decide what to do with them.
• How to notice thoughts and feelings: experience that you are not your mind; your mind is within you. This experience happens by being true self. When you are true self, you have a standpoint outside your mind and the ability to notice what is happening within it.
• How to decide what to do with thoughts and feelings: by being able to notice thoughts and feelings as they occur while still remaining true self.
• How to be true self: by experiencing life as it is through your senses. This is the state from which mastering the mind happens.
• How to retain mastery of the mind in tough real-life situations: practice being true self in real-life situations.
• How to practice: focus on the present situation as it is using only your senses. When you notice a thought occurring, let it go and continue using only your senses.
• What practicing looks like in action: using only your senses in everyday situations like driving, drinking coffee, using the toilet, eating or doing formal meditation.
• Why using only senses helps: your senses are sensors which perceive life as it is without any overlay of thought. This state allows you to be true self.
• End result: enjoy calmness and the ability to do more things you fancy!

Our courses provide detailed instructions on how to achieve this.

A friend of mine has a one-year-old baby who has just learned to walk. My friend wondered what it would be like if the baby had said after falling a few times, “This walking thing is too difficult, I’ll continue with crawling.”

The baby doesn’t understand concepts like ‘difficult’, ‘failure’ or even ‘self.’ These concepts don’t exist for the baby. The baby just falls and tries again. Falling provides feedback on how to adjust balance. The baby takes the situation as it is, without any mental burden and learns to walk.

There must be a reason why motor skills develop in humans before conceptual skills. If thinking and creating concepts first were more beneficial, natural selection would have shaped us that way. If that were the case then the baby encouraged himself by saying, “Come on, I can do it! I can learn to walk!” but whole learning process would be overlaid by this mental discussion instead of using all his potential to learn to walk.

As adults, learning new things can be a bit like that reversed natural selection. We have concepts like ‘difficult’, ‘failure’ and ‘self’ occupying our minds during the learning process, which hinders our learning or results to giving up. When one masters their own mind, they could learn with the same attitude as a baby does.

“He/she isn’t the same person as used to be,” you might hear, but actually, you are the same person if “person” means who you truly are.

The body is changing: more muscles, less muscles, more fat, less fat, more hair, less hair, more wrinkles, less …?

Thoughts and attitudes are changing: I like this, I don’t like that, I want this, I don’t want that, this is okay, that isn’t okay, I am X, I am not X.

But after all, the one who knows all this is the same all the time—your true self.