Self-Inquiry Is Questioning The Stability Of What We Believe

Question: I have a question about the nature of inquiry. I don’t believe this is a logical or mental exercise. For me when I had questions in the past, I focused on them, and then I let them go, and the answer presented itself in some fashion. Is that what we mean by inquiry? Or are there other tools or techniques that can help our inquiry go deeper?

Sat: In My case, because I don’t know how to advise, it wasn’t a question of how I do it, it was a question of, “I want to know.” I wanted to know the cause of suffering; it felt incredibly unnatural to see anyone suffering, in pain or even having illnesses, including Myself; as if I came from someplace that none of these existed and then I found Myself in a place that all of them do [exist] or appear to [exist]. It threw Me for a loop. I became very depressed and that’s why My journey started.
Then going to see Baba was really for the cause of suffering and [asking] what is going on and when I asked Him, He said, “Listen to your conscious voice” in a private interview. Then I said, “I don’t know what conscious voice is” and He said, “you will”. That was the beginning of it.
Now, to be able to give you some sort of direction, as I said before, if one can stay in silence while active, against the thoughts, the feelings, the emotions, you don’t need self-inquiry, if you can stay in that permanently.
But if you still find yourself in the grip of some sort of tendency or weaknesses, question it, as Ramana would say, “Ask to whom is this thought coming to?” Then the answer would be “Mansour, me, me as an individual.” So now the individual is in pain because of the thought. Then ask yourself, “Who am I … who is this me?” Questioning and having inquiry about the nature of the maya, like My discovery with the day and night dream. I read it afterwards but that really came out of My inquiry. I saw such a similarity between night and day, by doing that, eventually you realize who you are not.

But as long as your interest is to be in the silence, just expand that! Expand that throughout your day as much as you can and that should be enough, I’ve said this to you before. The inquiry is questioning the stability of what we believed. “Why did I believe that … who believed it?” That alone takes you to silence- but it goes to silence because the illusion is now being questioned. It is like going to a movie for the first time and it is a drama; you get so involved with what is going on in the movie that you find yourself on the screen emotionally. This can go on for two hours or the length of the movie. Or for a minute a wisdom comes to your mind and you say, “Wait a minute … where am I … who am I?” And then you realize that you are not on the screen, you never were one of the people on the screen and emotionally everything drops! But until you question it, your emotional connection with the scenes starts having more height, until you get out of the movie. And to get out of the movie, you don’t want to wait to realize it till the end of the movie, that’s the end of our life.

Like I said, we chip away at our false understanding- chip away, don’t hurry, just chip away.
We are in different movies every day, some of them are dramas, some of them are comedies, some are very romantic, some are just the story of life itself. It is nice to remind ourselves, “Wait a minute … you are in the theater … have your popcorn … have your coke” (Laughs).

Question: So, it’s ok to watch the movie, just don’t get wrapped up in it.

Sat: Just have your popcorn (laughs).
Namaste.

Reno Center
Feb 13, 2022