Yesterday’s tip pointed out that the ego comes from consciousness—from the loop of believing attention—and when you believe the ego, you are a puppet of unreality.

The human isn’t reality. It’s not what you are, although it is your current level of experience. Since the human is not reality, it is always  a puppet. Even when the ego dies its final death, the body-mind-personality is still a puppet. Instead of being a puppet to the ego, it is a puppet (manifestation) of truth. It is truth manifest in the world.

It’s important to realize that the human body always follows a script, which can also be called karma, but the script can be a script of clarity and wisdom instead of a script of ignorance and delusion.  Since you are awareness and not a human body, you can decide which script to cast attention on, and that is the script that will move the body-mind-personality.

When you choose surrender, you choose to follow the script of wisdom instead of the script of delusion. Once Self-realization occurs, you are at a vibrational level where following wisdom is natural, yet the wisdom that moves the body-mind-personality is still script. When awakening to reality has occurred, the awake-mind is beyond the script entirely, yet the body-mind-personality is moved by the wisdom-script until the body dies a physical death. That is why Nisargadatta Maharaj said:

“Yes, l appear to hear and see and talk and act, but to me it just happens, as to you digestion or perspiration happens. The body-mind machine looks after it, but leaves me out of it. Just as you do not need to worry about growing hair, so I need not worry about words and actions. They just happen and leave me unconcerned, for in my world nothing ever goes wrong.”

His world is reality.

Ramana Maharshi described it this way:

“[Bliss] is the state of unceasing peace of mind, which is found in the state of absolute quiescence, which resembles inactive deep sleep. In this state, in spite of the activity of the body and the senses, there is no external awareness, as in the case of a child immersed in sleep (who is not conscious of the food given to him by his mother). A yogi who is in this state is inactive even while engaged in activity. This is also called sahajanirvikalpa Samadhi (natural state of absorption in oneself without concepts.)”

The ego—mental chatter—is sometimes called “the imposter,” because it acts as if it is you when it is not you. Today’s reading says:

“Right now, it is as if two “I”s live within you. … One “I” is the false thought, the false idea of who you are. The other “I” is best described now as your true Heart.”

If you contemplate this deeply, you will find it disconcerting. There is a voice telling you what to think, feel, believe and do, and that voice isn’t you.

Where does the voice come from?

It comes from consciousness, from the loop of believing attention, but it is manufactured thought. It is manufactured through delusion and fed into your mind. When you believe it is you, and you think, feel and act as if it is you, you are literally a puppet of unreality.

Unfortunately, this is the state of almost all humans in the world today, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Devoted discipline is the answer. We could also call it disciplined devotion, since devotion has been defined as living from within—living from intuition, silence and awareness, instead of living from belief in mental chatter.

Today, Inner Ramana introduces us to self-inquiry and Self-inquiry, which are two different forms of inquiry. You were introduced to both forms of inquiry in Gentle Healing Year 1, and you’ve been using both forms of inquiry ever since you were introduced to them. As you will see, these are not new practices for you.

We practice self-inquiry whenever we question thought in order to discover false beliefs or to notice that thought isn’t me. Some forms of self-inquiry are Root Cause Inquiry and Byron Katie’s, “The Work.” Another form of self-inquiry is the form that’s taught through Inner Ramana. That is asking, “Who thinks this thought?” (For example, “Who wishes she would stop talking?” or “What says, ‘I am too busy to meditate?’)

Through self-inquiry, you see the attachment to mind, and then you can choose to break the attachment to mind. When I say, “You  see the attachment to mind,” and “You  break the attachment to mind,” I am referring to awareness, because that is what you are.

When you become aware that you (awareness) are giving believing-attention to mind, you (awareness) can shift attention and break the attachment to mind.

Remember, you are not mind. You are the one that casts attention on mind as if it is you.

We practice Self-inquiry when we put attention on awareness instead of mind. Self-inquiry is looking deeply at awareness until awakening to infinite awareness occurs. Awareness-watching-awareness is a form of Self-inquiry.

When you read today’s reading, do not read the last paragraph too quickly. It’s very important to see when you think mental chatter is you  thinking. The last paragraph of today’s reading teaches us to use self-inquiry to discover that belief.