Who am I?

1. Introduction: Beyond the Label

When someone asks you, “Who are you?”, what is your go-to answer?

Usually, we reach for a list of nouns: your name, your year level, the sports you play, or maybe your group of friends. The world around us tells us that these labels are who we are.

We’re taught to define ourselves with “nominal definitions”—static tags that we stick on ourselves to make life feel predictable.

But here is a secret: you aren’t a static “thing.” You aren’t a noun. You are a dynamic process.

You are a verb.

Because you are constantly changing, growing, and experiencing, a simple label can never truly hold you.

To ask “Who am I?” and expect a single title as an answer is like looking at a rushing river and trying to catch it in a bucket to show someone what it looks like.

To truly understand yourself, you have to stop looking for a definition and start realizing that you are a living, breathing movement.

2. The Whirlpool and the River: Understanding Nonduality

The way we’re usually taught to think makes us feel separate from everything else—like we are “me” and everything else is “not me.”

But ancient wisdom speaks of “nonduality,” which literally means “not-two.”

This means that how you appear on the outside and what you are at your very core are not two different things; they are the same reality expressed in different ways.

To see how this works, let’s look at a river:

Within the river, a whirlpool forms. It has a distinct shape; you can point to it and say, “There it is.” It might catch debris and twigs—like your specific talents, your family history, your mistakes, or your unique personality—which make that whirlpool look different from any other.

Yet, despite how it looks, the whirlpool is not separate from the river. It is the river’s Flow taking a specific form for a moment. The water in the whirlpool and the water in the river are the same substance.

You are that whirlpool.

Your “debris and twigs”—your quirks and memories—give you a unique appearance, but your true source is the River of Life itself. You and the Flow are not-two.

3. Prana and the Reality of Movement

This Flow has a beautiful name in Sanskrit: Prana. It means “Constant Movement.” Today, we might just call it “Energy.”

Think about how scientists talk about energy. They can’t tell you exactly what it is in a box, but they know exactly what it does.

You are the same. Your identity isn’t a fixed point; it is the reality of movement. You are a continuous cycle of:

• Flow into Form: The beginning of your journey and the way you entered this world.
• Flow in Form: Your life right now—the way you breathe, think, and move through your day.
• Flow out of Form: The natural transition as you change and eventually move beyond your current shape.

Whether you call it Prana, Source, or Energy, you are the “Flow” in action.

4. Knowing via Being: The Shift in Perspective

There are two ways to “know” who you are. One is like reading a label on a jar, and the other is like being the honey inside.

• Nominal Knowledge: This is identity based on labels and descriptions. It’s what stays on your school ID card. It’s static and external.
• Knowing via Being: This is a direct, felt experience. It isn’t a thought in your head; it’s the quiet feeling of presence when you are simply “Aware of Being Aware.”

The most profound answer to “Who am I?” isn’t a name, it’s the simple realisation: “I am that I am.” You don’t need a label to prove you exist. Your existence is the proof. You know you are real because you are here, experiencing the flow right now.

5. The Nature of Doing: Love as a Template

Think about Love.

We treat it like a noun, but Love only exists when it is loving. It is the nature of Love to love; we understand what it is purely by what it does.

It is the same with the river: it is the nature of the river to flow.

And it is the same with you.

You are the act of flowing. Your true nature isn’t found in the “tags” or “labels” social media or school might place on you.

Instead, you are understood through your awareness and your actions. Just as “it [Love] is what it does,” you are what you do.

You are the verb, the movement, and the life-force expressing itself through your unique form.

6. Reflective Practice: Identifying the Flow

To help you move from seeing yourself as a “noun” to a “verb,” take a moment with these prompts:

1. Pick a “noun” label you use for yourself (like “Artist,” “Student,” or “Gamer”). Now, describe the “verb” behind it. What are the actual actions and movements of life that happen when you are “being” that thing?
2. Think of a time when you were so focused on what you were doing that you forgot your name and what you looked like. How did that “Flow” (Prana) feel in your body?
3. What are some of the “debris and twigs”—your specific memories, habits, or traits—that make your whirlpool look unique? How does it feel to recognize that even with these traits, you are still made of the same “River of Life” as everyone else?

7. A Note on Source and Energy

It doesn’t matter if you prefer to call the flow of life “Consciousness,” “Source,” “Energy,” or “Prana.” These are just different names for the same underlying truth. The labels are secondary; the Flow itself is what is real.

As you navigate the ups and downs of life, remember that you aren’t a fixed object trying to fit into a box. You are a powerful, dynamic process of constant movement. You are the Flow, and the Flow is you.

You are That.