Always when the you (nothing more than a collection of ideas and memories) is thinking that you are an identity with will and voilition, there is a knowing that this is happening – there is an observing – so ‘who’ or ‘what’ is the observer of this. Who or what is the observer of the activities of the mind.

You don’t have to be thinking for the knowing of presence to be there – you are present before you have this thought ‘I’, and you don’t have to go around saying ‘I am, I am,’ to know of this presence.

There’s some terrific free podcasts on urbangurucafe.com if what I have written rings true for anyone – if anything will end your seeking, the podcasts on this site surely will. It is the same stuff Eckhart is speaking of – being here in the present (can you be anywhere else? – just try and leap out of the present moment).

Comparing my own observations of myself with what you have said, I agree that it is our ‘felt’ sense of self that identifies with mental constructs. So, we can either have our ‘felt’ sense of self here and now ‘feeling’ NOW or we can bodily be here, but our ‘felt’ sense of self could be utterly out of the moment.
With practice I have strengthened my own ability to draw my presence from the mind to the here and NOW and I am just beginning to realise how useful ‘feeling the inner-body’ can be, both for keeping energy from going up into the mind, and as a portal to what ‘is’ going on NOW. And as a side note I have observed that through many years of unconcious identification, there are some places and activites that my ‘unconcious’ patterns prefer, (like certain organisims grow and feed in preferred conditions) lying in bed or bathing are good example, as these are places where I switch off from my body, in order to relax.
Anyway.
Good Health to you.
Chris Kelly. England