A compilation of Mooji's spoken-word satsangs from his Sahaja Express retreats and gatherings at Monte Sahaja in Portugal, organised around his core teaching: the inquiry into what is present before the arising of the thought "I am". Drawn from the lineage of Papaji and through him Ramana Maharshi.
The book reads as edited dialogue rather than treatise. Questioners arrive with the familiar lines — fear, suffering, relationship trouble, doubts about practice — and Mooji returns each one to the same instruction: look at the one to whom these arise. The second edition, which is the standard in print since 2012, expanded the first edition by roughly a hundred pages of previously unpublished exchanges along with brush drawings and photographs from Monte Sahaja.
First lines
Begin like this: I am, I exist. This is the most natural recognition and knowledge. The sense of existence is spontaneously felt in you as "I am". No one taught this to you. Be aware of this simple intuition, without associating it with other thoughts. Feel how it is to be simply present in this instant, without holding onto any intention.
Contents
Recognising the Self
My Piranha Question
Forget the Answer and Dive into the Question
Stay as the Formless
To Die Before I Die
Suffering Your Experiencing
The Land of I Don’t Know
A Divine Play
A Master’s Help
Knowledge Must be Experienced
That, I Am
This Shape-Shifting "I"
First, Know Your True Self
Go for Gold
Subtler than Thought
Reception
Mooji's most-circulated written distillation, used inside his Sangha as the principal text accompanying his streamed satsangs. Reception inside contemporary Advaita is generally warm; the longstanding lineage critique — that neo-Advaita compresses the maturation Sankara's classical Advaita treats as essential — applies to Mooji as it does to Tony Parsons and Eckhart Tolle, and is made explicitly by writers like James Swartz. The 2019 anonymous allegations against Monte Sahaja's internal practices added a complicating layer; Mooji and his Sangha have responded publicly and the situation remains contested.
Frequently asked
What is Before I Am about?
A compilation of Mooji's spoken-word satsangs from his Sahaja Express retreats and gatherings at Monte Sahaja in Portugal, organised around his core teaching: the inquiry into what is present before the arising of the thought "I am". Questioners arrive with fear, suffering, doubts about practice; Mooji returns each one to the same instruction — look at the one to whom these arise.
Who is Mooji and what lineage does he teach in?
Mooji (born Anthony Paul Moo-Young, 1954) is a Jamaican-born teacher of Advaita based in the UK and Portugal. His lineage runs through his teacher Papaji (H. W. L. Poonja) and from Papaji back to Ramana Maharshi. He runs Monte Sahaja, a residential ashram and meditation community in southern Portugal.
What is the criticism of Mooji's teaching?
The longstanding critique from classical Advaita is that neo-Advaita compresses the maturation that Sankara's tradition treats as essential. The critique applies to Mooji as it does to Tony Parsons and Eckhart Tolle, and is made explicitly by writers like James Swartz. In 2019 anonymous allegations regarding Monte Sahaja's internal practices added a complicating layer; Mooji and his Sangha have responded publicly and the situation remains contested.