Spiritual enquiry into the nature of awareness and the self (quotes)

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Spirituality is about enquiring into our true nature

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The direct path to spiritual awakening is an enquiry into our true nature

Seek absolute knowledge of the eternal, infinite, self-aware being that shines in each of our minds as the experience of being aware or the knowledge ‘I am’, at the very source of the mind itself, prior to all objective knowledge and experience. Rupert Spira
Don’t let a day go by without asking who you are…each time you let a new ingredient to enter your awareness. Deepak Chopra
The essence of spirituality is the search to know our true selves, to discover the real nature of consciousness. Peter Russell
Most people go through their entire lives without ever questioning who or what it is that knows or is aware of their experience, or how experience comes to be at all. Rupert Spira
Spirituality encourages us to pay attention to the elusive subjective perspective. It urges us to ‘look within’ and become conscious of the deep I. Tim Freke
The humble knowledge of thyself is a surer way to God than the deepest search after science. Thomas à Kempis
It’s important to realize that inquiry is about noticing, not about dropping the thought… Inquiry is not about getting rid of thoughts; it’s about realizing what’s true for you, through awareness and unconditional self-love. Once you see the truth, the thought lets go of you, not the other way around. ~ Byron Katie
Only so long as one considers oneself bound, do thoughts of bondage and Liberation continue. When one enquires who is bound, the Self is realized, eternally attained, and eternally free. When thought of bondage comes to an end, can thought of Liberation survive? Ramana Maharshi
Our central practice of inquiry engages and explores our inner world such that each experience deepens and reveals its meaning. Over time, our experience is increasingly informed by innate qualities of our Being—love, joy, strength, will, compassion, and peace, among others—that have been hidden by unconscious beliefs and attitudes. H. Almaas
Inquiry not only leads to greater awareness and understanding of ourselves, but also invites Being to disclose its hidden possibilities through the unfoldment of experience and insight. H. Almaas
Questioning illusions is the first step in undoing them. A Course in Miracles
Becoming adept at the process of self inquiry and symbolic insight is a vital spiritual task that leads to the growth of faith in oneself. Caroline Myss

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Enquiry is about exploring the true nature of consciousness, our true self

Science is an objective enquiry that entails looking out onto the world and asking, ‘what is it?’ Spirituality is a subjective enquiry that entails looking within and asking, ‘who am I?’ Tim Freke
Self-enquiry is the one infallible means, the only direct one, to realize the unconditioned, absolute being that you really are. Ramana Maharshi
What is self-inquiry? It is an investigation into the nature of Consciousness, of the core of our experience, the reality of that which we are. To be more precise; it is an attempt using all means at our disposal to find an answer to the question, “What is the evidence if any that this consciousness which is reading these words right now, is limited, personal, separate rather than universal, divine, infinite, eternal. At the end of that process, it will become clear, if you are thorough, that there is no such evidence. This stage is important because up until this conviction has been established, there is no possibility for us to have access to our true being. This belief in a separate self precludes us from discovering that which we truly are. The discovery of that which we truly are is a revelation. It reveals itself, there is nothing to do for that revelation to happen. The process is a process of discrimination between the self and the non-self and prepares the mind and body to receive the gift of grace. Francis Lucille
Follow knowledge like a sinking star, beyond the utmost bound of human thought. Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Most people go through their entire lives without ever questioning who or what it is that knows or is aware of their experience, or how experience comes to be at all. Rupert Spira
The Truth is that Self is constant and unintermittent Awareness. The object of enquiry is to find the true nature of the Self as Awareness. Let one practise enquiry so long as separateness is perceived. Ramana Maharshi
The knowing with which the limited mind is known is unlimited. Investigate that. Rupert Spira
You can investigate by looking inside and trying to locate a separate self. You will not find this ‘ghost in the machine’ that is supposed to be the thinker of your thoughts, the feeler of your feelings, and the doer of your deeds, except as a thought or a grammatical convention. Leo Hartong
It is my view that exploring and discovering the latent transcendent powers of our own creative consciousness will be more important and of greater value to civilization. Indeed, this will be a kind of full circling rather than a wholly new direction in human history. Bernard Haisch
It’s important to realize that inquiry is about noticing, not about dropping the thought… Inquiry is not about getting rid of thoughts; it’s about realizing what’s true for you, through awareness and unconditional self-love. Once you see the truth, the thought lets go of you, not the other way around. Byron Katie

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Enquiry makes use of a series of questions …

Truth is silent but, when met with questions about its true nature, is compelled to speak. Rupert Spira

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… questions that are asked repeatedly …

If you keep on making the enquiry till you fall asleep, the enquiry will go on during sleep also. Take up the enquiry again as soon as you wake up. Ramana Maharshi
Give all your attention to the question: ‘What is it that makes me conscious?’, until your mind becomes the question itself and cannot think of anything else. Nisargadatta Maharaj

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… often in a quiet, meditative state

Meditative self-inquiry is the art of asking a spiritually powerful question. And a question that is spiritually powerful always points us back to ourselves. Because the most important thing that leads to spiritual awakening is to discover who and what we are—to wake up from this dream state, this trance state of identification with ego. And a question that is spiritually powerful always points us back to ourselves. Adyashanti
I have found two elements to be the most helpful and most powerful when it comes to awakening. The first is developing a meditative attitude, in which we let go of control on a very deep level and allow everything to be as it is. The second is a serious engagement with our own inherent curiosity and intelligence through meditative self-inquiry. Adyashanti
Silence is not a goal (repression) but a process of discovery. What happens when I have a thought? What happens if I just allow it to be? Adyashanti

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Enquiry turns the attention away from the experience, towards the experiencer

If at all possible, turn away from all objects, including the mind-generated ones; turn around 180 degrees and see from where the light shines that lights up all objects and concepts. Leo Hartong
Everything that happens is an encouragement to see what it is that really lives ‘your’ life. Leo Hartong
The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul? Oscar Wilde
Know thyself and thou shalt know all the mysteries of the gods and the Universe. Temple of Apollo at Delphi
To find out what is truly individual in ourselves, profound reflection is needed; and suddenly we realize how uncommonly difficult the discovery of individuality is. Carl Jung
Science denies that there is another world beyond its borders and treats the reports of travelers in that realm as delusions and imaginings. Real discoveries lie ahead if we can learn to integrate the vast physical knowledge accumulated by science over three centuries, with the spiritual awareness embodied in our own consciousness. Bernard Haisch
When awareness has developed the capacity to turn around, and examines itself, rapid spiritual growth is likely to occur. Maitreya
Leave alone your desires and fears, give your entire attention to the subject, to him who is behind the experience of desire and fear. Ask: ‘who desires?’ Let each desire bring you back to yourself. Nisargadatta Maharaj
Don’t let a day go by without asking who you are…each time you let a new ingredient to enter your awareness. Deepak Chopra
Let go of the word, “I” and let go of all other words, identities, labels, opinions, beliefs, and fantasies, even words like “Love” and “Consciousness”, and discover what is always here. Scott Morrison
For over ten thousand years we have looked up to the sky for answers. We’ve sent spacecraft to Mars and beyond, and continue to build even bigger machines to find the “God particle” or the elusive critical piece of the puzzle that somehow is never solved. We’re like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, who went on a long journey in search of the Wizard, only to return home . . . . . . and find that the answer was inside her all along. Robert Lanza
Don’t trouble yourself with endless questions about God, existence, destiny,and all the rest. Instead, find out who is the person who wants to know such things. Who is the one experiencing these mental torments? A person who made such self-inquiries with all sincerity and good effort ultimately could find no one home. He or she would discover that there is no separate individual self, only a stream of thoughts. Or, put another way, upon this realization, one would clearly see that the “self” was either nothing at all— or the entire cosmos. Robert Lanza
The slavery of identity comes from our refusal to face ourselves. So we must begin the exploration to self-awareness. Where do we start? Ruben Papian
Take some time to try this for yourself, and then ask what you can say about your essential nature as awareness. You can’t see it or hear it or touch it. It has no qualities or characteristics, because it isn’t something within your experience. Your essential nature is absolutely mysterious. Tim Freke
If you trust me, believe when I tell you that you are the pure awareness that illuminates consciousness and its infinite content. Realise this and live accordingly. If you do not believe me, then go within, enquiring ‘What am I’? or, focus your mind on ‘I am’, which is pure and simple being. Nisargadatta Maharaj
Does one require proof of one’s own being? Only remain aware of yourself and all else will be known. Ramana Maharshi

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Know yourself and you can come to know everything

The universe is contained within us, and what we experience externally is only a reflection. Anita Moorjani
In some sense man is a microcosm of the universe; therefore what man is, is a clue to the universe. We are enfolded in the universe. David Bohm
The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul? Oscar Wilde

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Enquiry enquires into the nature of our direct current experience …

In this current experience we have all the information that is needed to understand the nature of ourself and of Reality, because both we, whatever we are, and Reality, whatever it is, are present. Rupert Spira
In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration. Ansel Adams
The only field available for enquiry is experience itself. Rupert Spira
Our own lives are the instruments with which we experiment with truth. Thich Nhat Hanh
We need to embrace the paradoxity that there are objective and subjective ways of knowing. We can look outside ourselves for answers and we can look within ourselves for answers. Tim Freke
When experience is viewed in a certain way, it presents nothing but doorways into the soul. Jon Kabat-Zinn
The mystics ask you to take nothing on mere belief. Rather, they give you a set of experiments to test in your own awareness and experience. The laboratory is your own mind, the experiment is meditation. Ken Wilber
The main method is inquiry, an investigation of your own personal experience. Inquiry is not just a mental investigation but one that involves sensing, feeling deeply, and understanding all of your experience. Jeanne Hay Rosenblum

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… recognising that direct experience is the only true test of reality

Is there anything about which you can be absolutely certain? Yes. You are experiencing something right now. Your experience of this moment is not a belief that can be questioned. It is a self-evident certainty. Your experience of this moment is all you can be absolutely sure of. So, the only way to really understand life is to examine your own immediate experience of living. Tim Freke
The mystics ask you to take nothing on mere belief. Rather, they give you a set of experiments to test in your own awareness and experience. The laboratory is your own mind, the experiment is meditation. Ken Wilber
Experience is the only prophecy of wise men Alphonse de Lamartine
There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home. John Stuart Mill
Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred. James Madison
If we are to make an honest investigation into the nature of Reality, we have to discard any presumptions that are not derived from direct experience. Rupert Spira
Intellectualization is basically an abstract speculation that must be confirmed by experience. David R. Hawkins
Is belief or experience the truest test of reality? Rupert Spira
The only source of knowledge is experience. Albert Einstein
To Truth’s house there is a single door, which is experience. Bayard Taylor
To be radical, an empiricism must neither admit into its constructions any element that is not directly experienced, nor exclude from them any element that is directly experienced. William James
Truth does not need argument, agreement, theories or beliefs. There is only one test for it and that is to ask yourself ‘Is the statement true or false in my experience? Barry Long
Truth is what stands the test of experience. Albert Einstein
We should not believe the story that the mind tells us about what and where the body is. We should rely only on the facts of our experience, and that means this current experience. That is the test of Reality, of Truth. Rupert Spira
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own experience. Gautama Buddha
You will find you know nothing for sure — you trust on hearsay. To know the truth, you must pass through your own experience. Nisargadatta Maharaj
The real mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, it is a reality to be experienced. J. Van der Leeuw
Spirituality leaps where science cannot yet follow, because science must always test and measure, and much of reality and human experience is immeasurable. Miriam Simos
The only field available for enquiry is experience itself. Rupert Spira
In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration. Ansel Adams
Is belief or experience the truest test of reality? Rupert Spira
A borrowed truth is the greatest lie in the world. Truth can only be true when it is based on your own experience, utterly your own experience. Rajneesh
As both Eastern philosophy and mystical writings make very clear, knowledge of subtler levels of consciousness comes not from reading, or from studying the experiences of others, but from one’s own direct experience. Peter Russell
If you haven’t experienced it, it’s not true. Kabir
Knowledge comes from personal experience of truth and awareness, not from conversation. Frederick Lenz
Truth can only be experienced. It cannot be described and it cannot be explained. A Course in Miracles
Experience is the only teacher we have. We may talk and reason all our lives, but we shall not understand a word of truth until we experience it ourselves. Swami Vivekananda
‘Truth’ signifies direct experience of spiritual Fact, as opposed to second-hand knowledge about Reality, formulated in sentences and accepted on authority. Aldous Huxley
Pure logical thinking cannot yield us any knowledge of the empirical world; all knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it. Albert Einstein
The mind can assert anything and pretend it has proved it. My beliefs I test on my body, on my intuitional consciousness, and when I get a response there, then I accept. D. H. Lawrence
It is only by making physical experiments that we can discover the intimate nature of matter and its potentialities. And it is only by making psychological and moral experiments that we can discover the intimate nature of mind and its potentialities. Aldous Huxley

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Enquiry questions

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When you let go of your thoughts and perceptions, including all thoughts of who you are, what remains?

All experiences come and go. What witnesses experiencing itself? Mooji
Thoughts come and go. Feelings come and go. Find out what it is that remains. Ramana Maharshi
The outside world and the flow of inner emotions come and go. But you, the one who experiences these things, remain consciously aware of whatever passes before you. Michael Singer
What remains cannot be given a name, for all names refer to the objects of knowledge and experience, and yet it is that for which all minds seek and all hearts long. Rupert Spira
Throw it all out! Even the idea of throwing it out! Now, quickly, without referring to any thought, any idea, what remains? Will Wright
Although I certainly do have a name, I am not that name. The same goes for sensations, thoughts, and emotions. They cannot be who I am because their nature is impermanent and fleeting, while the sense of ‘I’ remains constant. Leo Hartong
Don’t let a day go by without asking who you are…each time you let a new ingredient to enter your awareness. Deepak Chopra
In the same way, you are not your body, which changes from moment to moment with every breath and twitch of muscle. Neither are you your mind, your ego, your personality, because those too change with every experience you have. Who are the YOU who has been there unchanged all along? Who is your life happening to? Unless you can discover this, then you will have no choice but to live in the painfully ineffective and maddeningly insubstantial illusion of who you think you are. Roger Stephens
Let me remind you that the perceived cannot perceive. Huang Po
What’s left without thought? Isn’t there still an awareness of being present? KNOW I AM – the pure Being in whom ALL the manifestation is appearing. ‘Sailor’ Bob Adamson
When awareness has been consolidated even beyond the mind, little remains except the awareness of “I.” Eknath Easwaran

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Am I aware?

Am I aware? Yes I can say with indisputable certainty I am aware of being aware. This is the only certain knowledge that we can have. Anthony Lambert
If someone were to ask us the question, ‘Are you aware?’ we would all answer with absolute certainty, ‘Yes’, and our answer would come from direct experience. It would come from our obvious and intimate experience of simply being aware. Rupert Spira
If I were to ask you now, ‘Are you aware?’ you would pause — actually, in this crowd, none of you would have to pause too long — and would answer, ‘Yes’. The question ‘Am I aware?’ is a thought. The answer ‘Yes’ is a thought. What takes place between those two thoughts? The experience of being aware that I am aware. In between those two thoughts, Consciousness is divested of the objective limitations it assumes in order to rise in the form of the finite mind and ask the question, ‘Am I aware?’ There is a plunge of the finite mind into its source in between these two thoughts. In that plunge of the finite mind, or attention, into its source, Consciousness recognizes its own Being — re-cognizes, or knows again, its own Being — which it seemed to overlook or forget when it rose in the form of the finite mind. The answer ‘Yes’ is again an expression of the finite mind. But the experience of being aware that I am aware takes place between those two thoughts; that non-objective experience is not an experience of the finite mind. Consciousness needs to rise in the form of the finite mind if it wants to know something that is apparently other than itself. But to know itself, it doesn’t need to rise; it need only remain resting in the knowing of its own Being. This knowing of its own Being shines in the mind as the knowledge ‘I’ or ‘I am’ or ‘I am aware’, and is felt in the heart as peace or happiness. Rupert Spira
Am I aware not only of what is happening at this moment, but also of the Now itself as the living timeless inner space in which everything happens? Eckhart Tolle
Am I aware? What is it that is aware of my experience? Be that knowingly. Rupert Spira
At this moment, can I sense the presence of inner space, which really means, can I sense my own Presence, or rather, the Presence that I Am? Eckhart Tolle
Do you exist? How do you know?
How do I know for certain (and this is the only thing we know for absolute certain) that I am present and aware?’ And the answer is, of course, simply because it is our experience. Rupert Spiral

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Who am I? What is it that is aware?

What gives me my unassailable knowing that I exist? Rupert Spira
Having noticed that the experience of being aware is our most direct and intimate experience, we may wonder who or what it is that knows or has the experience of being aware. What is it that is aware of being aware? Rupert Spira
It is awareness that knows or is aware that there is awareness. Thus, being aware or awareness itself is self-aware. Just as the sun illuminates itself, so awareness knows itself. Rupert Spira
The most powerful question we can ask is simply, “What am I? Who is the meditator?” Adyashanti
`Who am I?’ is not a mantra. It means that you must find out where in you arises the `I’s-thought which is the source of all other thoughts. Ramana Maharshi
I suggest you ask, “What’s ultimately behind this set of eyes?” Turn around to see what is looking. Adyashanti
What is essential to you? What cannot be removed from you? Rupert Spira
By the inquiry ‘Who am I?’. The thought ‘who am I?’ will destroy all other thoughts,
and like the stick used for stirring the burning pyre, it will itself in the end get destroyed. Then, there will arise Self-realization. Ramana Maharshi
If you really know how to ask the question ‘Who am I?’ you will inevitably be delivered into that state of silence and pure consciousness that is your true Being. The question ‘Who am I?’ will ultimately deliver you into the ‘I am’ of you. Leonard Jacobson
Give up all questions except one: ‘Who am I?’ After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The ‘I am’ is certain. The ‘I am this’ is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality. Nisargadatta Maharaj
Who or what is this knowing presence that is aware of the coming and going of all things – thoughts, emotions, sensations, and perceptions of the world – yet doesn’t come and go with them? Rupert Spira
What is this ‘I’? What is this ‘other’, this ‘world’? And what is this ‘experiencing’ that seems to join the two together? Rupert Spira
What is it that exists in the absence of thought?
Can a thought, emotion, sensation or perception ever be aware? Anthony Lambert
What knows the coming and going of all things but doesn’t come and go with them? Rupert Spira
What cannot be removed from myself? Rupert Spira
What is most fundamental aspect of you; the inner most part of you? Anthony Lambert
What it is it that illuminates this experience and makes it knowable? Rupert Spira
What is the knowing that shines as I? Who am I? Rupert Spira
What is it that rises as ‘I’? Rupert Spira
What is it that knows or is aware of my experience? Rupert Spira
What is the nature of the knowing with which all knowledge and experience are known?’ Rupert Spira
What experience is arising right now? Who is experiencing it? Anthony Lambert
Who is the ‘we’ or the ‘I’ that is aware of the experience of being aware? Anthony Lambert
What it is it that illuminates this experience and makes it knowable? Rupert Spira
Throw it all out! Even the idea of throwing it out! Now, quickly, without referring to any thought, any idea, what remains? Will Wright
Thoughts come and go. Feelings come and go. Find out what it is that remains. Ramana Maharshi
Find out your real being. “What am l?” is the fundamental question of all philosophy and psychology. Go into it deeply. Nisargadatta Maharaj
All that is ever known in experience is the knowing of it. Try now to find anything other than the knowing of your experience. Let your attention go wherever it wants. Ask yourself, ‘Do I ever know or come in contact with anything other than the knowing of experience? Could I ever come in contact with anything other than the knowing of experience?’ Could I, Consciousness, ever come in contact with anything other than the Consciousness of experience? Is there any substance present in experience other than pure Knowing? Not the knowing of something — we never find the ‘something’. We presume the something, but we never find it. That is, Consciousness never finds it. Consciousness never finds anything other than itself. Rupert Spira
Look inside to where there supposedly is an ‘I.’ Can you ﬁnd it, or is it just more thought? And what is thought? Isn’t it just mind again? The mind labels emotions as positive or negative. This labeling seems to be done by an ‘I’ but truly it is nothing but mind also. Leo Hartong
How shall the Infinite rest anywhere but in itself? The Upanishads
Who are you? Whatever you find as an object is not you. No, you are that in which objects arise. That which perceives. Anthony Lambert
How can the knower be known? The eyes see everything; can they see themselves? They cannot. Paramahansa Yogananda
What makes you the same person from childhood to adulthood? What has been there constant and unchanging throughout your life? Anthony Lambert
Can the seer be seen? Mooji
Can I sense the I Am that I Am at this moment? Can I sense my essential identity as consciousness itself? Or am I losing myself in what happens, losing myself in the mind, in the world? Eckhart Tolle

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What is really real?

Question: If experience is the true test of reality, what is the indisputable reality in experience? Answer: Rupert Spira
All experience takes place here and now, so the nature of Reality, whatever that is, must be present in the intimacy and immediacy of this current experience. Rupert Spira
Straight away, remove yourself from the field of spiritual progression, stay away from contemplation and skilful discourse, do not do research or meditate on the divinities, and stop concentrating and reciting textbooks! Tell me, what is the absolute nature of reality which allows no room for doubt? Listen carefully! Stop holding on to this or that, inhabit your true absolute nature, and peacefully enjoy the essence of what it is to be alive! Abhinavagupta

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What is the true nature of awareness?

What is the nature of the knowing with which all knowledge and experience are known? Rupert Spira
Question: Can I find an edge to this awareness, a place where awareness ends and something else begins? Answer: No, no boundaries can be found. Awareness contains all experience. Your experience and my experience can overlap. Awareness is infinite and unlimited. Anthony Lambert
Question: Have you ever experienced the absence of awareness? Could you? Answer: It is impossible. You would have to be present to observe its absence. Awareness is ever-present, timeless, eternal. If awareness is infinite and eternal, it can only mean one thing . . . that there can be only one awareness. Rupert Spira
Am I a limited, separate awareness or is the awareness I know myself to be totally open, unlimited and ever present? Rupert Spira
Can the seer be seen? Mooji
Can that which perceives be perceived? Mooji
Are there any boundaries in awareness? Are there any edges? Are there any limits? Rupert Spira
Is there anything that is not known by awareness? Is there anything that awareness does not contain? Anthony Lambert
Does the content of each experience affect the awareness in which it appears?
What remains still, clear, open, and loving regardless of what is going on around it? Rupert Spira
Try now with your attention to attend to something just outside Consciousness. Can any of you find that place? Can any of you find an edge to the field in which your attention is wandering? Rupert Spira
Is awareness ever disturbed by what appears in it? Can a space be effected by what appears in it? Is the sky disturbed by a storm? Anthony Lambert
Can awareness ever be harmed, threatened or diminished?
Do I, awareness, need anything from experience? In this moment is the awareness I am incomplete in any way?
Is there anything in my awareness that can disturb my peace?
Have you ever actually experienced the disappearance of awareness? Rupert Spira
Does awareness have an edge or boundary? Rupert Spira
Have your ever come into contact with anything outside awareness?
Does awareness age?
The world continually changes but does awareness change?
Have I ever experienced, or could I ever experience, a moment when consciousness is not? Rupert Spira
Is Awareness not always present behind and within every experience? Rupert Spira
Is awareness not the most intimate and obvious fact of our experience, essential to and yet independent of the particular qualities of each experience? Is this awareness itself not the support and the substance of every experience, in the same way that the screen is the support and the substance of every word appearing here? Having noticed the awareness behind and within each experience, do we lose sight of that awareness when we return the focus of our attention to the objective aspect of experience? Do we not now see the two, the apparent two, Awareness and its object, simultaneously as one? Rupert Spira
Is there anything in my perception of the world other than the experience of seeing, hearing, touching? Rupert Spira

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What is the nature of my experience in this moment?

What is being experienced right now?
Who is experiencing this?
What makes this experience possible?
Is it possible to know anything other than the knowing of experience?
What is my experience made of?
Where do thoughts come from? Am I in control of thought?

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Questions to help see through the illusion of the separate self

On whose behalf is this thought or feeling arising? Is it arising on behalf of a separate self? Can I locate this separate self? Rupert Spira
Who is the I on behalf of which these feelings and thought are arising? Can I locate it? Rupert Spira
How do you make process? By practicing the methods I share with you. By practicing Self-Inquiry. By watching as you go through life’s experiences and not reacting. Watching yourself become depressed. Watching yourself become angry. Do not deny it, but observe it. And if you observe yourself correctly in that calm way, you can ask yourself, “Who becomes angry? Who is feeling depressed?” And follow it through. Do this over and over and over again, as many times as you have to. One day, the anger will leave you, the depressions will leave you, your thoughts will leave you. And you’ll just be. Robert Adams
Search for the source of the `I’s -thought. That is all that one has to do. The universe exists on account of the `I’s-thought. If that ends there is an end to misery also. The false `I’s will end only when its source is sought. Ramana Maharshi
Who is this separate self on behalf of which I spend my life serving, defending and suffering? Rupert Spira
Where is the I that thinks it suffers? Rupert Spira
Explore the false I. Awareness cannot get upset by disapproval. It’s nature is non-resistance and pure allowing. It’s the sense of being a separate self that feels threatened. Go to that I. What is it made of? Where is it? Who is this central character on behalf of which hurt arises? It is the fictional I on behalf of which we spend most of our life thinking and feeling and relating. It is a ghost in the system. When we realise this, the bottom drops out of the story of upset. Rupert Spira
The “I-thought” is said to be the sum-total of all thoughts. The source of the “I-thought” has to be enquired into. Ramana Maharshi
Whence does the ‘I’ arise?’ Seek this within. The ‘I’ then vanishes. This is the pursuit of wisdom. Upadesa Undiyar
“I am bored.” Who knows this? “I am angry, sad, afraid.” Who knows this? You are the knowing, not the condition that is known. Eckhart Tolle
See if there really is a ‘you’ that does the thinking and the living. If it cannot be found, then who is going to die? Leo Hartong

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Is your awareness different from my awareness?

How can your essential nature as awareness be separate from my essential nature as awareness? Tim Freke
Your apparent identity is distinct from my apparent identity, but is your essential identity as awareness distinct from my essential identity as awareness? Tim Freke

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Exploring the nature of awareness by abiding as it

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In addition to enquiry, the nature of awareness can be explored by abiding in awareness, as awareness

The one unalterable reality is being. Until you realize that state of pure being you should pursue the enquiry. If once you are established in it there will be no further worry. Ramana Maharshi
Through spiritual practices, I start to experience myself more and more as the conscious witness of my experiences. Anthony Lambert
Wisdom lies in never forgetting the self as the ever-present source of both the experiencer and his experience. Nisargadatta Maharaja
AII kinds of experience may come to you — remain unmoved in the knowledge that all perceivable is transient, and only the ‘I am’ endures. Nisargadatta Maharaja
When the mind is quiet, we come to know ourselves as the pure witness. We withdraw from the experience and its experiencer and stand apart in pure awareness, which is between and beyond the two. Nisargadatta Maharaja
Awareness shines in each of our minds as the experience of being aware, the feeling of being or the knowledge ‘I am’. As such, the knowledge ‘I am’ is awareness’s awareness of itself. Rupert Spira
Give your attention to the experience of seeing rather than to the object seen and you will find yourself everywhere. Rupert Spira

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… resting in the awareness of being aware …

No effort is required to recognise the experience of knowing or being aware, any more than an effort is required to see the screen during a movie. Rupert Spira
Being aware is being aware of being aware. Awareness is aware of awareness. Rupert Spira
Awareness’s awareness of itself is the simple experience to which each of us refers when we say, ‘I am’. It is the knowledge of simply being. Rupert Spira
Cease being exclusively fascinated by whatever you are aware of and be interested instead in the experience of being aware itself. Rupert Spira
The Indian sage Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj referred to it as focusing on the ‘I am’, by which he meant resting in the experience of ‘I am’, that is, simply resting in and as our essential, unconditioned, self-aware being. Rupert Spira
To such a mind, the teaching suggests reorienting attention towards the knowledge ‘I am’. However, this is not a directing of the mind but rather a resting of the mind in its own essence, the simple, non-objective experience of being aware. Rupert Spira
The self that is certain about reality has a wider vision. It looks at its own awareness, leaving aside daily experiences, to discover the source of reality. Deepak Chopra

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… paying attention to the experiencer of experiences …

At the back of every experience is the Self and its interest in the experience. Nisargadatta Maharaja
I pay attention to myself as the experiencer, the pure consciousness underlying my experiences, becoming deeply conscious of being conscious. Anthony Lambert
I am conscious right now of an ever-changing stream of experiences. Normally I focus my attention on what I am experiencing, but I’m choosing to be conscious of myself as the experiencer. I am the experiencer of all that I’m experiencing. I am the presence of awareness witnessing colours … sounds … feelings … thoughts. Tim Freke
I pay attention to myself as the experiencer, the pure consciousness behind experiences. Anthony Lambert
Why not turn away from the experience to the experiencer and realize the full import of the only true statement you can make: ‘I am’? Nisargadatta Maharaja

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… and thereby exploring the nature of awareness; the true Self

In the process of letting go you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself. It will be a permanent Self, rooted in awareness and creativity. Once you have captured this, you have captured the world. Deepak Chopra
And you are not sure of yourself because you never paid attention to yourself, only to your experiences. Be interested in yourself beyond all experiences, be with yourself, love yourself; the ultimate security is found only in self-knowledge. Nisargadatta Maharaj
You are not sure of yourself because you never paid attention to yourself, only to your experiences. Deepak Chopra
Be interested in yourself beyond all experience, be with yourself, love yourself; the ultimate security is found only in self-knowledge. Deepak Chopra
Every time Consciousness ceases to take the shape of the mind, the body and the world, it knows itself again as Presence or Being. Rupert Spira
I explore the source of awareness by turning consciousness back on itself in silent awareness. Anthony Lambert
When awareness has developed the capacity to turn around, and examines itself, rapid spiritual growth is likely to occur. Maitreya

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Once gain an understanding, live as if it were true and monitor the result

What would truly convince us that we are on the right tract? Obviously the realisation of the one thing we most value in life would be such a confimation….and what is that? Happiness, peace and love! That is how the universe responds to being treated as it truly is and that is the confirmation that our ideas, feelings, perceptions, activities and relationships are in line with reality. Rupert Spira

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What do we discover through spiritual enquiry?

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