"Four Selves" Model of Awakening from Andy Hoye

Andy Hoye, a long-time collaborator and fellow seeker has put together a four-page model of what he experienced in his awakening process, entitled "Four Selves"

 The "Four Selves" which are the steps in Andy's model are
          1) “Sense of self”
          2) The Ego
          3) “The Witness”
          4) “Brahman, Self, Pure Awareness”

 The "Sense of self" is "...that “personal” awareness of the living body/mind in the world... the identity who wakes up from sleep and recognizes the room, the body and familiar thoughts in the brain...It is clear you are not “somebody else.” Unlike the “ego”...this sense of self is not a fiction, and it is not conceptual, it is experienced."

 The "Ego" is "...an artificial hardening of this sense of self into something which can “choose to take action. Adyashanti refers to ego as a verb, 'Egoing'”...the '“I thought.” Others have emphasized that the ego has many components, self-referential thoughts, 'ego-states,' an autobiography...habits and preferences, structure, content, style and many methods of functioning...'a control structure we develop for purposes of survival and protection.' But ultimately it is an incomplete identity, and, tragically, it masks our real nature and potentiality behind an elaborate belief system, shared by many other egos." The ego "...forms relationships with other people, with society, and often, with God, or “spirituality.” The ego "immediately co-opts the experience of love"...a product of the mind. Eckhart Tolle refers to the ego as a “…false self created by unconscious identification with the mind.”

 The "Witness", is defined by Andy through Nisargadatta's quotes from "I Am That":

"Abandon all ideas about yourself and you will find yourself to be the pure witness, beyond all that can happen to the body or the mind. 


 There is the identity of what you are, and there is the person superimposed on it. All you know is the person. The identity, which is not a person, you do not know, for you never doubted, never asked yourself the crucial question: "Who am I". The identity is the witness of the person, and sadhana consists in shifting the emphasis from the superficial and changeful person to the immutable and ever-present witness."

 Andy points out that "Discovery of the witness likely varies for each individual. For some it is utterly unplanned and very disorienting. For others, it is a natural result of spiritual practices. Deconstructing an egoic identity built up over decades, fully encouraged by society is unlikely to happen in a flash, but, as mentioned, it can. Recognition of the witness can be uncomfortable or it can be a great relief, depending on the structure of a person’s egoic identity."

"Brahman, Self, Pure Awareness"is defined by Andy as "The sense of “I am” is replaced completely by “Am-ness.” Any sense of an authentic distinct separate self is completely absent...The transition from witness to this pure state has to do with the difference between subject and object and the merging of that distinction. The witness witnesses something outside of itself, suggesting duality. But you cannot bite your own tooth." 

Andy goes on to define "Self" as "There is no doer in Pure Awareness, there is no one to do anything. Andy concludes with "...words from two others, first, from Gary Weber:
            “Virtually every day there is a new discovery, a new opening, a new "yes", until that practice completes itself and on "its own", it falls away, and another arises, unsought, to learn within itself, about itself. It is an amazing dance; there is no "after", only "endless enlargement" and more deepening and stilling beyond what was previously imagined possible.”

 And finally, from Jean Klein:
           “You are not the doer, the thinker that rejoices and suffers. Take this for a fact and do not try to be a spectator, to be detached...So above all do not try to be a witness -- this would only be projection, and would keep you in the frame of ideas and expectations. If you accept this, a change will come about within you, probably without your even realizing it at the time it occurs. The witness is only a crutch to bring you to understand that you are not a doer. 
            Once you are free from doership there will be a change of axis and the energy once directed towards the object will shift to the subject aspect, to the witnessing. In the end all residues of subjectivity dissolve and the witness with them. You discover yourself as that in which the object and subject exist, but you are neither one nor the other. Then there is only living silence.”

 The full article is worth reading. Some interesting aspects in Andy's perspective drawn from 3 decades of practice, study, reading, and meeting w/many folks. Andy has been part of one of the Tolle forums for some time.