Mooji - Before I Am

The Direct Recognition of Truth

Second Edition

Contents

Foreword

Before I Am is a selection of dialogues between Mooji, a warm-hearted spiritual master of the Advaita tradition, and seekers of peace, truth and freedom. At times humorous, at times tender, occasionally sharp and always loving, Mooji responds to questioners as they speak of fear, suffering, confusion, relationships, spiritual practice and how to live their lives in peace. His words represent unwavering invitations to investigate the nature of the self, and to rest effortlessly as the fullness and emptiness of beingness itself. His answers encourage, challenge and never fail to illuminate. Deeply touched by Mooji, people naturally wanted to carry his words home. And so, from live recordings Before I Am was lovingly put together by the sangha in a very short space of time. The book has always enjoyed great popularity. Four years on, we offer this refined and expanded edition of Before I Am .

Many of the original dialogues were found to benefit from further editing. Compared to sitting with Mooji in satsang, a printed text is more one-dimensional in expression, as intonation and body language are lost. Taking this into account, we have done our best to preserve the potency and clarity of the words as originally uttered by the master without compromising its essence or losing his voice.

While editing some chapters, original transcripts needed to be reviewed. In doing so, further material from the same time period came to light. Our aim with including these unpublished dialogues is to give the book more substance and to make these important satsangs available.

This second edition of Before I Am is also further enriched by Mooji's most recent dialogues and spontaneous talks. A selection of fresh quotes was included for added depth and an opportunity for further contemplation. These, combined with some of Mooji's spontaneous brush drawings, make this book a treasure.

Even more potent than the first, this edition acts like an unsparing sword, which chops the mind and leaves you fully naked as your Self.

The Editors

A Postscript:

You may be used to seeing concepts that refer directly to the ultimate truth beyond the experiential and physical realm capitalised. While we have still made use of this tool, we have favoured the lower-case spelling throughout the book. This was done especially in passages where the text invites contemplation. We felt that capitalising words would too easily accommodate the tendency to go with the mind's understanding, rather than following through with the introspection that Mooji is calling for. As a result we have used capitalisation sparingly. Most often, we have capitalised terms only when Mooji makes direct affirmations of the timeless truth. Any perceived inconsistency in our approach should not trouble you, because no such differentiation is possible when Mooji speaks and still the same benefit is reaped.

The Second Thorn

In India, there is a saying:

If a thorn goes into your foot, you might use a second thorn to remove the first thorn. And then you throw both thorns away.

Before I Am is effectively a second thorn. Its purpose is to remove the thorns of conditioning and habit which are picked up in the forest of existence, and which appear to hinder or make painful what could be a joy-filled dance. The intention behind this collection of dialogues is to point to the essential truth of who and what we are: the unchanging, pristine awareness in which the play of the manifest world appears. Mooji's concepts are offered to neutralise our concepts from which we derive much personal identity. In keeping with the master's guidance to not make any tattoos out of his utterances, the words you glean from these pages can also leave your being once their job is done. Their aim is not to take on a cluster of sacred concepts as it were, but rather to truly assimilate what Mooji points us towards; when we do, we are finished, we have returned to where we have always been.

Read these pages as systematically, sporadically, or spontaneously as suits your mood in the moment. Each, any and every page may speak to you because truth requires no method, cannot be categorised and is not chronological. Anywhere you open this book and meet these words, these words will meet you.

Any moment is a moment for stepping into the fire of self-discovery. This fire will not burn you, it will only burn what you are not. When you are touched by graceand do not doubt it, grace is already operating right here by even placing this book in your handssurrender to it. Don't try to understand or solve the mystery; be willing instead to be dissolved into the mystery itself.

You are being introduced to you without you, through the medium of these wordsSelf recognising Self through the mirror of inquiry.

A First Encounter with Mooji

I first met Mooji in Brixton Market, London, in February 1999. At that time he was selling incense in the market and I was working at the French Embassy. Shortly afterwards, we met in his small flat for tea and had our first conversation. We ended up talking all through the night. Time vanished! I was amazed. As the talk deepened, I couldn't believe what I was hearing and what I had in front of me. I had discovered someone of the like of Socrates or an Indian sage of yore under the guise of a friendly and unassuming form. The deepest wisdom was pouring from his lips as I eagerly expressed all the questions which had been burning inside me for years, and I was finding at last living, directand baffling!responses to them. These were not merely intellectual answers but rather a direct and authoritative pointing towards something which is altogether beyond the realm of understanding. For years, I'd been reading philosophical and spiritual books, but now I was face-to-face with the living embodiment of the truth I'd been reading about, right in front of me. Right away, Mooji made clear to me my own deep nature: this awareness, this emptiness, which nothing can improve or impair.

Since then, I have had many occasions to witness his wisdom in action, wonderfully suited to the minds of those who come to him, a wisdom which springs smoothly from the uninterrupted source of living experience. It springs from, and is felt as, lovetremendous, genuine and pure.