The essence of self-inquiry Part 2. - self-inquiry (Paperback)

self-inquiry is not an effort against the mind but rather a loving way of witnessing the mind which is the result of evolution and contains the whole experience of existence. Your mind is not personal, it represents the whole evolutionary process. So self-inquiry is an impersonal way of exploring the mind without any reference center. Inquiring mind penetrates into itself, aware of one's own psychological being with its urges, compulsions, frustrations, desire to fulfill, miseries, strains, anxieties, struggles, sorrows and other innumerable problems. In self-inquiry there must be constant and earnest awareness. Man is astray. The sin is not to be committed, it has already been committed. That is the meaning of the Christian parable that Adam committed the sin -- the first man. Man is born astray, that is the meaning of it, we are already in sin. The word 'sin' is very, very beautiful. The original root from which it comes means 'missing the target'. Sin does not mean sin, it simply means missing the target. We have gone astray, from the very beginning man is astray, so there's nothing for you to do to go astray. Wherever you are you are missing your goal, your target. You don't know who you are, you don't know why you are, you don't know where you are headed -- and for what. You just go on like driftwood, wherever the winds carry you. Remember, this is the first realization "I am astray," which will make you come back to the path. The moment Adam realized, 'I have committed the sin, ' he was returning back home. The moment you realize that whatsoever you are and wherever you are you are wrong.... It is very difficult to realize it because the mind tries to protect, to rationalize. The mind belongs to the world. It goes on protecting you -- not exactly you but your 'astray ness'. You will have to drop all protections, all rationalizations. Once you understand that you are astray, you suddenly realize that you have nothing to save in this world -- the wealth, the power, the prestige, nothing is of worth. It is all rubbish. And you are losing something tremendously valuable for rubbish; you are selling yourself and purchasing toys; you are destroying the possibility of creating a soul for nothing. This is a basic realization, the first breakthrough.