The I Am represents the totality of all there is. Hence I Am (me) is also part of all that is and is not separate from that totality. So I Am That I Am is a pointer towards the truth of who you really are.

Here is how I understand it. (It is also Eddie's answer stretched out to a ridiculously long winded explanation)

There is only one "I am."

That "I am" is the one you know within yourself.

The person that you know within yourself as "me" is the same person everyone knows within themselves as "me".

Therefore the "I am" within you is a universal I am.

Or you can say the consciousness within you is the same consciousness within everyone else.

This may seem confusing at first. But physically we share the same world (or the same space) where two people standing right next to each other looking at the same thing can still notice completely different details & come away with completely different experiences.

The same thing happens in consciousness. We all share the same ocean of consciousness with individual & different points of reference, largely due to different belief systems. And so our experience is unique and different within this shared space of consciousness.

But every once in a while two people within the same consciousness, instead of focusing on individual experiences, can occasionally give attention to the same thing.

When that happens we are perplexed by this mystery & call it deja vu, or coincidence, or having a psychic experience.

E.g. when you are thinking of a particular song in your mind all day quietly until suddenly, you hear your co-worker humming the exact song you were thinking. Both of you gave attention to the same thing in consciousness, the consciousness that is a common ocean to both of you.

So I believe the "I am" refers not only to the individual point of reference but rather the individual and common source of inspiration.

It’s just like the drop within the ocean saying "I am" the ocean.

Now all the drops within the ocean in unison saying "I am the ocean"

Now finally all the drops within the ocean dropping the last part, "the ocean", and simply saying in unison "I am" (still meaning the ocean, but not saying it loudly)

And then you get the "I am that I am"

That is the greater "I am" and the individual "I am" is the same I AM.

Hi Jai, The phrase is not really hard to understand. Hope I can explain it well enough so you may get its meaning.

I have reproduced the passage in Exodus 3:13-15 so you may understand its context.

13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? 14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. 15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

Basically put, God was just making a reference of himself by specifically identifying who he was so the children of Israel would know and recognize without a shadow of a doubt who it was that sent Moses to deliver them. It's like saying, "God, that God (of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) sent me to you, the God of your father's or again another example, it's Henry Ford, that Henry Ford (the one who built cars) that sent me to you.

You see this in verse 15. God specifically identifies himself as being the God, that (same) God that their fore-fathers had served.

I would like to break down a few things for you so you may get a clearer understanding.

To begin, the term 'I AM' is simply God's name. Nothing more, nothing less. God reveals himself by the names he has i.e. his nature, titles, attributes, characteristics, basically who he is and what he is. Throughout scripture he is called by many names revealing the different facets of himself. Here's one example;

In Exodus 6:2-3 2 And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD: 3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

Very briefly, here are some of God's names and their meanings.

1) Elohim: plural diety or Gods. a) rulers, judges b) divine ones (there is more than one person or being in the Godhead)

2) Adonai: is an emphatic form of 'âdôn from an unused root (meaning to rule) to rule sovereign 1) firm, strong, lord, master, owner

3) Jehovah: "self existent or Eternal One"

4) JAH: The Lord most Vehement

By this we see his titles, attributes, nature, etc.

Now getting back to the name 'I AM', consider its meaning.

Definition: AM, the first person of the verb to be, in the indicative mode, present tense (He is a God who lives in the eternal present. This is the reason he is eternal. He constantly is.)

verb (used without object) to exist, be in existence or live: to occupy a place or position: to abide, to continue or remain as before.

Because of this 'eternal present' attribute, that's why he says in PSALM 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. He is there at your present moment (of trial, agitation, anxiety, bad news, bind, commotion, concern, danger, difficulty, dilemma, heartache, hot water, misfortune, nuisance, pain, predicament, problem, strife, struggle, suffering, torment, tribulation,vexation, woe, etc.) as your refuge and he is there as your strength. (I have experienced deliverance from some of these situations at the time it was happening.)

Come to think of it, we (humans) live in the same condition. We only have our present moment to deal with. There is nothing we can do about our past and we are certainly not living in our future, We can only act in our present moment. Forget the past for it is gone. What has been done, has been done. Change you present to have a better tomorrow (future). That's where God's help comes in, in your present moment.

The next word of the phrase is the word 'THAT'

Definition: THAT, an adjective, pronoun or substitute. 1. That, is a word used as a definitive adjective, pointing to a certain person or thing before mentioned, or supposed to be understood. 2. That is used definitively, to designate a specific thing or person emphatically.

Here a couple of examples to tie it all together,

It's like saying, "It's Henry Ford, that (pointing at) Henry Ford (the one who built cars) that sent me to you.

Or

Who answered my question, what's his/her name? It's Jai that Jai (from inward quest) who answered your question.

Again, hope this helps.

It is the name of God, as expressed to Moses in Exodus 3:14.

I Am that I Am (Hebrew: אהיה אשר אהיה‎, pronounced Ehyeh asher ehyeh [ʔehˈje ʔaˈʃer ʔehˈje]) is a common English translation (King James Bible and others) of the response God used in the Bible when Moses asked for His name (Exodus 3:14). It is one of the most famous verses in the Torah. Hayah means "existed" or "was" in Hebrew; "ehyeh" is the first person singular imperfect form. Ehyeh asher ehyeh is generally interpreted to mean I am that I am, though it more literally translates as "I-shall-be that I-shall-be."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_that_I_Am

As you can see by the Wikipedia article, there are a number of possible interpretations. However, I found this interpretation especially interesting:

This famous phrase sounds a lot like Vedanta's Thou art that. The great Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi even said:

"I am" is the name of God. Of all the definitions of God, none is indeed so well put as the Biblical statement "I am that I am" in Exodus (Chapter 3). There are other statements, such as Brahmivaham, Aham Brahmasmi, and Soham. But none is so direct as the name Jehovah = I am.

This is awfully profound stuff. So it comes as a surprise to read the relevant passage of the Bible carefully. It turns out to be a children's story with a joke at the heart of it.

http://www.realization.org/page/doc0/doc0042.htm

JEWEL OF WISDOM

Absolute Equanimity

Through embodied Equanimity,we are calmly living our life in the Absolute Reality of the One Consciousness

This One Consciousness,that exists in and through everything IS the Universal Consciousness...that we refer to as God

The Universal Consciousness is also referred to as ...THAT

This Consciousness individualized is referred to as ...I AM, when the two are LINKED the result is THAT I AM.

I AM THAT I AM

There is only one identity,one entity of which we are a part

THAT is the truth

THAT I AM is this truth in each of us

Remembrance of THAT I AM is the Realization

Children Of The Sun

Something I would like to share

We are truly Blessed

well god is awareness and awareness is i am! god is so much that i am personnify him he is omnipotent does he need a name for someone to call him? when you think about him he know it! what ever name you give him he is what he is! like i am what i am! and you are what you are! if i look at you and ask can you help me do i need to call your name for you to help me? no i don't you know i am adressing you! if i am looking at many people and saying be kind to your brother and sister do i need to say the name of every one for them to be aware i am adressing them? so when he asked god name god told him that he is that he is! i am that i am! also it is said in the bible you should not speak god name in vain! so don't speak is name like you would call a dog! speak to him like he is in front of you speak to him from your heart!

I wasnt going to answer this question after i read a few answers and one I had read was almost everything I would of said, but I feel I need to speak on this. "I am that I am" I belive what God said by that was, he is what he is....what I mean is, for him to tell Moses what he is called as a name...what could he say that we could understand , of all that he or she is?? Our creator is the father of all is pure thought.This is the energy of life. This is what you have choosen to call absolute love. This is the God and the Goddess, the Alpha and the Omega, the begining and the end. It is the all in all the unmoved mover, the prime souce. It is that you have sought to understand from the begining of time. The great mystery " which i like to say" the endless enigma, the eternal truth. They is only one of us, and so, IT IS THAT YOU ARE.

This list is only up to the announcement to Moses, if I put the entire Bible it would be too long for here, but this is meant to wake you up, if you have the time it would be good to look up the entire list especially what Jesus said when asked about himself and God. Who am I, I am.

Being there are some very good answers already here I have decided to put on here in reference of God the list of I AM.

Genesis 15:1 (Read all of Genesis 15)

After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

Genesis 15:7 (Read all of Genesis 15)

And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

Genesis 17:1 (Read all of Genesis 17)

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

Genesis 22:1 (Read all of Genesis 22)

And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.

Genesis 26:24 (Read all of Genesis 26)

And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.

Genesis 28:13 (Read all of Genesis 28)

And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;

Genesis 28:15 (Read all of Genesis 28)

And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

Genesis 31:13 (Read all of Genesis 31)

I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.

Genesis 35:11 (Read all of Genesis 35)

And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

Genesis 46:3 (Read all of Genesis 46)

And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation:

Exodus 3:6 (Read all of Exodus 3)

Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

Exodus 3:14 (Read all of Exodus 3)

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

This is very simple to understand! Let us use a contrast now. When defrauded by someone, we say “he is not what he was,” meaning a change has now occurred in his character. But if we know someone as always faithful, we say “he is what he is, we can trust him.” Hence when God defined His name as “I am that I am” it has to do with His very basic character that will ALWAYS be there. What is He basically? And what is in Him that will NEVER change? Interestingly, Bible itself answers: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17) Thus He is the source of all goodness, The Supreme Benefactor, who will NEVER change.—This has universal appeal (Compare also Bhagavat Gita 11:32, 33; 14:27.) Therefore, God’s name means He is one who ALWAYS does good, hence The ULTIMATE GOOD. This helps us to understand better what Jesus declared: “NOBODY IS GOOD, EXCEPT ONE, GOD.” (Mark 10:18) Hence you have the support of Jesus himself, who was speaking ‘just as his Father taught him.’—John 8:28 Bible itself declares name is only a pointer, hence secondary; what is being pointed—His essence or goodness—is more important. (Ps 138:2) “The truth” about Him is always same—was, Is, and Will be—He was good, is good, and will be good!—Revelation 1:8

"you are neither consciousness nor it's content, you are the timeless source ... the supreme reality. Trust that"-Nisargadatta

beyond duality

perhaps the first cause has nothing to say,
that it was one of us, who needs desparately to make sense of what we are doing on earth,
who implied that he said such.

each is who he is yet
always growing
to be different

Sometimes we try and try to figure it out and we are looking in an empty filing cabinet! Your questions is above the mind and behind the mind it is in every gap of words spoken and in between silence in the musical notes that give beauty to tonal expressions.

I AM that I AM is the greatest expressions of TRUTH of WHO you truly are ! You're SOURCE of LIFE and Light is ONE always here and NOW in the holy instant we have experience this we are in AWARENESS. A sublime feeling of Happiness and knowingness !! An experience beyond

I think God meant that I am what you want me to be in that particular time. If u are sick He says I am your healer. If you need something He says I am your provider. If you are in trouble, He reigns in victory, etc . He can not say who He is exactly because it will depend on what you want Him to be at time.

If you are in deep meditation there comes a state where your mind stops thinking and there is sheer 'I' consciousness. This is what GOD meant by saying ,"I am that I am. This "I am" is free from the satanic(ego), 'I 'which always thinks in a materialistic way. So GOD here wants to be very specific. He is alarming everyone that he's that "I am" which is free from duality.

God is "I am" because God does not exist in time and never changes therefore he is the ONLY one who could ever make such a statement. No one who has ever lived or who ever will live could every make such a statement about themselves. God is perfect and since he does not change God was telling Moses "I am that I am" because Moses knew who God was, and God was in fact challenging Moses to get to know Him more-to fellowship with Him. That is why God created us in the first place-to fellowship with us and have pleasure in us. God was simply stating the fact that He who He is because He is who said He was. God had to tell Moses who he was because Moses needed to remind the Israelites who God was because they had, no doubt, forgotten who God was and what He had promised them. We are not one conciousness in the "ocean" of life, because our consiouseness does not line up with God's. God is all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal, being that is perfect and never changes.....we are quite the opposite. To state the we can achieve a state of "I am" is to say that we can achieve to be God. The people building the tower of Babel attempted this, and Satan attempted this, and many others throughout time and we have seen the pitiful end to their miserable existence. God desires a relationship with us, but he does not desire for us to "be" him. It is very dangerous thinking to say that your consciousness is on the same level as God's. Should we have the mind of Christ? Yes. Should we think on pure, lovely, and holy things? Yes. However, we should not think that we can have the same exact consciousness as the Almighty Father who created the universe and all that in them is with a simple breath of his mouth.

I say to you that God wanted Moses to understand that God is who He says He is and will never change. Moses needed to understand that before he could lead God's people out of Egypt and into the wilderness.

I am that I am......simply means....take me at my Word. Unfortunately most of the world has "itching ears" that listen to too many philosophers that want nothing to do with God and His Holiness.

Read God's Word and you will know Him.

He is who he was and always will be.

My interpretation of "I am that I am" is, I am everything you need me to be.

May God have mercy on us all if we spread things that are not true unknowingly. But I think Lord Yahshua(Jesus Christ) is God's "I am that I am"

"8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?" John 14:8-9

"i am that i am" - bashar explains it beautifully in this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkR0T-ZFhv4

Great question , what I believe is when God answered Moses by saying I am that I am , he was leaving what he said open to the public to inquire or get closer to {Him} God. That type of answer leaves questions in the minds of all that hear it, so God was reaching out to the people ; seeing who would reach back out to him. This is my opinion .

I don't speak the language of the original text of the Bible, but I have heard that originally there were two different meanings of the term "I AM". The word for the first meant what you might expect, noun-verb, as in I am about to tell you what I am. The second word meant more of a state of being, the "I AM-ness" that is in all of us. So basically God was saying I am that feeling of existence that is consciousness. If you ever listen to Peter Russell, he is much more eloquent at expressing this idea.

I fell that it example soem one could ask me who are you? I would reply I am Kathy that is you I am. I think God said I am God that is you I am.

There only...IS

Michael

He meant: "Ok, this is known... now, let´s split, divide, mix up, twist, glue, stretch, press, move up and down, from side to side, and see what SURPRISES can come out of being MORE of who I am."

I am that I am.

This was written in Hebrew (in the Bible) and "that" is a conjunction so in today's language it would be "I am who I am".

That is perfect.

"I am who I am"

we all are who we are. We are nothing more and nothing less, just perfectly existing as ourselves.

Watch this every day until you internalize it. The POWER OF I AM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOX63pEZ4gI

I think that I think. I hope that I hope. I love that I love. I need that I need. I will that I will. I exist that I exist.

I persist that I exsist.

i think god's is as his name suggests the scientific equivalent of perpetual motion;all powerful existing because of himself but never in this life meant to be fully understood only studied and sought after!