Question: I’ve often heard it said that “I am not the doer.” But I don’t really understand this teaching, and, what’s more, it seems rather implausible, considering that, as an agent, I certainly seem to do things much of the time. What sense can be made of this statement?

Let’s read carefully Shankara’s reply:

104. Know that it is egoism which, identifying itself with the body, becomes the doer or experiencer, and in conjunction with the gunas such as the sattva assumes the three different states.

–Shankara, Vivekacudamani (trans. Swami Madhavananda, p. 45

Set aside talk of the gunas and focus only on the first part. How is the first part of Shankara’s statement to be unpacked?

When the I appears to identify itself with the form we call “the gross body,” it is then believed that it is I, this particular gross body, that is performing these actions.

We have reason to call into question this identification. Consider but one argument among many. What’s readily noticed is that the I that I am is continuously present whereas the experience of gross embodiment is not. Where is the experience of gross embodiment when I am in the dream state? The Principle of the Indiscernibility of Identicals states that if two things are identical, they must share the exact same properties. But clearly the I and the gross body do not share the exact same properties. Consequently, they cannot be identical.

From here (since the two are not identical), we can begin to separate the I from the gross body. One natural approach, self-inquiry, is laid out clearly by Sri Ramana Maharshi. If we accept the claim that the I cannot be identified with any form (and this includes the gross body), then we can only investigate the nature of I by holding onto I-ness alone.

And then we’re left with but two possible options. One is that I alone am limited or finite. The other is that I alone am neither limited nor finite. How are we to decide this issue?

Only by attending very carefully to I alone. And what is found out when I attend only to I-ness alone? Dive deep into I-ness and see!