Earnestly Pursue the Quest

Sri Lakshmana Swamy

Q: I have been practicing Self-enquiry. I ask myself 'Who am I?' and I get to a stage where I realize that I am not the mind. This is followed by a feeling of emptiness. How is one to go beyond this feeling?

LS :Who says that he is not the mind and who experiences the emptiness?

Q: I do not understand.

LS: It is your mind. All your experiences and questions are still within the mind. Deciding that you are not the mind is an activity of the mind. If you want to go beyond the mind by self-enquiry you should not stop with experiences or mental judgments.  You must keep up the quest 'Who am I?'. Ask yourself 'Who experiences emptiness?', 'Who things that he is not the mind?'. Pursue the quest earnestly by questioning thoughts as soon as they arise. Eventually the "I" will go back to its source and experience the bliss of the Self. Don't be satisfied with answers to the question 'Who am I?' or with experiences - these are all in the mind.

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LS: The first thought to appear is the I-thought. It rises in the Heart and, in a split second, travels to the brain, identifies with the body and the senses, and then sees the world around it as a real world

Follow the quest Who am I?. Follow the "I" back to its source. When the "I" goes back to its source and identifies with the Self instead of the with the senses, there is eternal peace and bliss. To do this you have to get rid of all thoughts. The first of all thoughts is the "I" thought. Give up all other thoughts and catch hold of the I-thought. The Self will then embrace that 'I' and devour it.