Self-Inquiry Shambhala press #3

[Guest guest]

Q: But is it not funny that the "I" should be searching for the "I" Does not the

inquiry "Who and I?" turn out in the end and empty formula? Or am I to put the

question to myself endlessly, repeating it like some mantra?

 

M: Self-inquiry is certainly not an empty formula; it is more than the repetition of any mantra

If the inquiry "Who am I?" were a mere mental questioning, it would not be of

much value. The very purpose of Self-inquiry is to focus the entire mind at its

Source. It is not, therefore, a case of one "I" searching for another "I."

 

Much less is Self-inquiry an empty formula, for it involves and intense activity

of the entire mind to keep it steadily poised in pure Self-awareness.

 

Self-enquiry is the one infallible means, the only direct one, to realize the

unconditioned, absolute Being that you really are.

 

Q: Why should Self-inquiry alone be considered the direct means to jnana?

 

M: Because every kind of sadhana except that of atmavichara presupposes the

retention of the mind as the instrument for carrying on the sadhana, and

without the mind it cannot be practiced. The ego may take different and subtler

forms at the different stages of one's practice, but is itself never destroyed.

 

When Janaka exclaimed, "Now I have discovered the thief who has been ruining me

all along. he shall be dealt with summarily," the king was really referring to

the ego or the mind.

 

Q: But the thief may well be apprehended by the other sadhanas as well.

 

M: The attempt to destroy the ego or the mind through sadhanas other than

atma-vichara is just like the thief turning out a policeman to catch the thief,

that is , himself. Atma-vichara alone can real the truth that neither the ego

not the mind really exists, and enables one to realize the pure,

undifferentiated Being of the Self or the Absolute.

 

Having realized the Self, nothing remains to be known, because it is perfect Bliss; it is the All.