How to begin

Who am I?

Ramana Maharshi

Self-inquiry is the direct investigation of the one who is asking. It is not a mantra, not a visualization, not a technique in the ordinary sense. It is attention turned back on itself.

1. 1

   Sit quietly. Let the body settle. There is nothing to achieve in this sitting — you are not trying to produce a state.

2. 2

   Ask inwardly: Who am I? Not as a philosophical question seeking an answer in words, but as a direct looking. Where does the sense of 'I' come from? What is its source?

3. 3

   When a thought arises — and thoughts will arise — do not follow it. Instead, ask: to whom does this thought appear? It appears to me. Then who am I? Return to the inquiry.

4. 4

   You are not trying to suppress thought. You are tracing the thinker. The mind, unable to find a solid 'I' to grasp, grows quiet of its own accord.

5. 5

   Stay with whatever remains when the search for the 'I' finds nothing. That stillness is not emptiness. It is the Self — always present, never absent.

Ramana taught that this inquiry need not be confined to formal sitting. It can be carried into any activity. Whenever you notice that you have been pulled away by thought or emotion, ask: who noticed that? Return there.

Not this, not this

Nisargadatta Maharaj

Neti neti — 'not this, not this' — is a practice of systematic negation. Rather than seeking the Self by moving toward it, you approach it by removing everything that it is not.

1. 1

   Sit quietly. Bring attention to the body. Notice the sensations, the weight, the breath. Then recognize: I am aware of the body. Whatever I am aware of, I am not. I am not the body.

2. 2

   Bring attention to emotions — whatever is present: calm, restlessness, warmth, tension. Notice: I am aware of these feelings. I am not the feelings.

3. 3

   Bring attention to thoughts — the commentary, the images, the plans. Notice: I am aware of these thoughts. I am not the thoughts.

4. 4

   Bring attention to the sense of being a person — the story of who you are, your history, your name. Notice: I am aware of this story. I am not this story.

5. 5

   What remains when all of this is set aside? There is still awareness — the knowing presence that was aware of all the rest. Rest here. This is the 'I am' that Nisargadatta pointed to: pure being, prior to any attribute.

This practice does not deny the reality of the body, emotions, or thoughts. It clarifies what you are in relation to them. The witness is not separate from what it witnesses — but it is not defined by it either.

Just be

Robert Adams

Silent sitting is the simplest practice and, in some ways, the most demanding. There is nothing to do. No technique to apply, no question to hold, no state to produce. You simply sit and allow everything to be as it is.

1. 1

   Find a comfortable position. Set a timer if that helps — twenty minutes is a natural length, though even five minutes of genuine stillness is not nothing.

2. 2

   Do not try to stop thinking. Do not try to produce silence. Simply notice what is already here: the sounds in the room, the breath moving, the sense of being present.

3. 3

   When you notice that you have been thinking — planning, remembering, narrating — do not judge it. Simply return to the noticing. You are the one who noticed the thinking. Rest as that.

4. 4

   If a feeling of restlessness or resistance arises, let it be there. You are not trying to feel peaceful. You are resting as the awareness in which peace and restlessness both appear.

5. 5

   At the end of the sitting, before you move, notice: the awareness that was present throughout is still here. It did not arrive when you sat down and it will not leave when you stand up.

Robert Adams often said that the practice is not confined to the cushion. The invitation is to carry this quality of allowing — this non-resistance to what is — into ordinary life. Washing dishes, waiting in traffic, lying awake at night. All of it is the practice.