Coaching practices for Body Based Self Inquiry
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Body Based Self Inquiry, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- When I try to ask "who am I" it just turns into more abstract thinking and goes nowhere
- I’ve done years of working on myself and I’m starting to suspect the whole project rests on a question I never asked
- In a still moment I sometimes catch a glimpse of just being the space everything is happening in, not the things happening
- On the cushion I can touch some spaciousness, but the second I get up and start doing things I’m completely lost in them again
- I go looking for the solid "me" at the center of all this
Practices that may help
- Locate the feeling of I-ness directly
Before pursuing "Who am I?" conceptually, first find the raw felt sense of I-ness in the body.
Self-Inquiry: Ramana Maharshi’s Path of Direct Investigation - The basic self-inquiry: tracing the "I"-thought to its source
When a thought arises, ask "To whom does this thought occur?" and trace it back to the sense of I.
Self-Inquiry: Ramana Maharshi’s Path of Direct Investigation - Rest as the witness rather than in objects
Allow the inquiry to culminate in resting as the awareness that perceives, rather than in any object perceived.
Self-Inquiry: Ramana Maharshi’s Path of Direct Investigation - Practise inquiry during activity, not only in formal sitting
Bring the "who?" question into the middle of daily activities — it doesn’t require stillness.
Self-Inquiry: Ramana Maharshi’s Path of Direct Investigation - Self-Inquiry: Ramana Maharshi’s Path of Direct Investigation
Ramana Maharshi taught self-inquiry (Vichara Marga) as the most direct path to liberation: trace every thought back to its source by asking "Who am I?" — not as a philosophical question but as a direct investigation of the experiencer. The practice is Advaita Vedanta’s contemplative core; evidence is largely traditional and clinical/contemplative, with some modern parallels in cognitive defusion and metacognitive therapy research. - Investigating the five aggregates
Examine whether any of the five skandhas — form, sensation, perception, formations, consciousness — is the fixed "self" you take yourself to be.
Anatta: The Buddhist Teaching of No-Self in Practice - I — Investigate with gentle, curious attention
Bring kind curiosity to the emotion: Where is it in the body? What does it most need?
RAIN Meditation: Tara Brach’s Four-Step Practice - Reading the body as a self-knowledge instrument
Treat physical sensations in the moment as data about what is actually happening inside you.
Svadhyaya: Self-Study as a Daily Practice - Shift identity from self-concept to awareness itself
Experiment with "I am the aware space" rather than "I am my thoughts and feelings."
Non-Dual Awareness, Made Practical - Dropping the koan into the body
Sense the koan as a felt question in the belly and chest, not only as a thought in the head.
Zen Koans: Inquiry Beyond Reason
Related concerns
- Directed Self Inquiry
Ramana Maharshi taught self-inquiry (Vichara Marga) as the most direct path to liberation: trace every thought back to its source by asking "Who am I?" — not as a philosophical question but as a direct investigation of the experiencer. The practice is Advaita Vedanta’s contemplative core; evidence is largely traditional and clinical/contemplative, with some modern parallels in cognitive defusion and metacognitive therapy research.
- Abidance Ramana Maharshi
Ramana Maharshi taught self-inquiry (Vichara Marga) as the most direct path to liberation: trace every thought back to its source by asking "Who am I?" — not as a philosophical question but as a direct investigation of the experiencer. The practice is Advaita Vedanta’s contemplative core; evidence is largely traditional and clinical/contemplative, with some modern parallels in cognitive defusion and metacognitive therapy research.
- Anatta Investigation
Anatta (no-self) is the Buddhist teaching that what we call "self" is not a fixed, unified, independent entity but a continuously changing process of physical and mental phenomena. Its practical value is in loosening the grip of the self-concept that generates suffering — especially defensiveness, shame, and self-comparison. Evidence is mechanistic and draws on cognitive science of self-representation; no RCTs test anatta practice directly.
- Contemplative Self Inquiry Huxley
Investigate the aware presence that underlies all mental content as a way of touching the real.
Practice inquiry into the ground of your experience
- Ground Of Being Inquiry
Investigate the aware presence that underlies all mental content as a way of touching the real.
- Ramana Maharshi Method
Ramana Maharshi taught self-inquiry (Vichara Marga) as the most direct path to liberation: trace every thought back to its source by asking "Who am I?" — not as a philosophical question but as a direct investigation of the experiencer. The practice is Advaita Vedanta’s contemplative core; evidence is largely traditional and clinical/contemplative, with some modern parallels in cognitive defusion and metacognitive therapy research.
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