Why No I?
I am sure many who hears/reads about no "I" wonders what the big fuzz is about? And what does it mean anyway? Is it just an intellectual or philosophical game? Is it something for especially gifted people?
Realizing no "I" changes nothing, in that the content tends to be about the same. There are still sensations, feelings, emotions, thoughts, activity, the wider world and so on. And yet, it changes everything. The whole context for the content is radically different. There is no object as a segment of what is which is seen as an "I", so the resistance tends to fall away as well. Everything now just happens, on its own. There is no doer, only the doing. And in this, the drama and suffering falls away, and the inherent clarity of the mind is revealed, and with this comes wisdom and compassion.
And it is not for a select few or only for especially gifted people. It is for everyone. It is the nature of this mind reading these words, and closer than our own breath. It is what is right here, although we don't always recognize it through the dust kicked up by the belief in an "I". Fortunately, there are many ways to realize it, and we all have at least glimpses of it now and then. It is very familiar territory, although we don't recognize it as such. And practices such as Byron Katie's inquiry is one way to explore this, to familiarize ourselves with this territory which is who we are behind the content.