5 Liberating Steps To Find Your True Self, From India’s Greatest Philosopher
Based on the most ancient writings that currently exist on Earth
Of all the myriad scholars, sages, and seers that ancient India produced, one stands out as the most impactful across time.
His name was Adi Shankara, a child-genius who lived only to the age of 32. In this short lifespan, he totally revolutionized and revitalized the Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism.
And not by reinventing it; simply by reminding the world how well it works!
His teachings revolve around discovering the true self of humanity – beyond race, gender, ideology, and even personality.
Realizing permanently the pure witness, the same in all beings & beyond all concepts, is what can best help to unify humanity.
Despite being called “secretly Buddhist” by his critics and “Shiva’s incarnation” by devotees, his story is remarkably balanced, relatable, and human.
His father died in front of his eyes. The grief made him seek a deeper truth to life. He studied and practiced hard, and achieved insight that is still enlightening humanity to this day.
I hope you absorb some ideas of his & uplift yourself, for the sake of a more loving and wise world for all of us.
1 / Notice what matters
“What is enquiry into truth? It is the unshakable conviction that the true self is real.
And all, other than that, is unreal.”
This is not a dogmatic statement. It’s not something you’re supposed to brainwash yourself with.
Ultimate reality, according to most Indian philosophies, is defined as something that is permanent.
So your last thought is ultimately unreal, because it’s already gone and forgotten.
But the awareness you’re using to notice thoughts isn’t. Because it stretches beyond even the inquiring into what’s real or not!
Usually, we’re caught in the fangs of one impermanent event after another. Our minds are occupied by one distraction after the next. So for most of our lives, we never stop to even ask ourselves: who are we?
Whatever we are, it can’t be what is arising, because that must pass away. It must be beyond these mental waves, prickly thoughts, and disturbing emotions.
It must be subtler than subtle, and eternally at peace.
Isn’t that worth noticing? It’s never apart from you.
2 / Notice what it’s doing
“Like the appearance of silver in mother of pearl, the world seems real until the soul, the underlying reality, is realized.”
Since you can’t fully perceive pure consciousness, it seems fake. Imaginary; impossible; contrived.
The world is rock solid. Your thoughts have effect. You feel strong emotions. That’s real enough for you!
But stop to look where thought comes from. Consciousness that’s making ripples in the realm of vibration.
Ask where the intention to build the material objects around you originated. Someone’s consciousness, seeking to create.
Heck, where even did your nearest animal, tree, or human being come from? Awareness, which perfectly propelled wave upon wave of matter-binding intention.
Consciousness is always creating. Its creation, the world, is constantly dying.
What’s real, the decaying illusion or the ever-fresh luminosity that’s always beyond it?
3 / Notice what’s holding it back
“To be free from bondage, the wise must practice discrimination between the real self and the ego-self.
By that alone you will become full of joy, recognizing the true self, as being-consciousness-bliss.”
Every person who reads these words can feel the brightness of sheer knowing. It’s behind their presence in each moment.
That’s the best part about being human, and what we’re named after – homo sapiens sapiens can arguably mean ‘those who cognize their own cognizance.’
It also makes it obvious: we have a responsibility to fully actualize this trait of ours!
Before you’re doing, thinking, or feeling anything, you’re being.
The joy and wonder of such a thing, that your consciousness can be beyond all thought, pain, and stressor, is incredible. You’ve lived your whole life forgetting this!
The waves of the lower self may splash ashore your being, but they can never move you or harm you. They just merely cover your inner eye temporarily, to distract you.
You are beyond what is arising and passing away.
You are at utter calm and stillness. Yet — you can impact the behaviour of the ocean. How miraculous!
4 / Deepen its hold over you
“Give up identification with this mass of flesh, as well as with what thinks it a mass. Both are intellectual imaginations.
Recognize your true self as undifferentiated awareness, unaffected by time past, present, or future. And enter peace.”
Like a rat’s nest reproducing itself after all efforts to eradicate it, thoughts keep coming.
You can still the waves of the mind by inquiring what’s beyond. But until your wisdom is so incisive it cuts the very root of grasping onto thought, self-inquiry will just be a series of transcendent trips. Then you have to come back.
You deserve a journey that goes straight one way, to eternal happiness!
So spend time daily looking at your mind. See how it’s separate (or joined) to the bliss beyond the mental-physical plane.
It takes time to adjust the inner sight, just as it took time to recognize the stars.
But just as the round earth shattered our dogmatic delusions, a whole consciousness may change everything holding you back.
5 / Apply it perfectly in life
“Do not look at anybody in terms of friend or foe, brother or cousin; do not fritter away your mental energies in thoughts of friendship or enmity.
Seeking the true self everywhere, be amiable and equal-minded towards all, treating all alike.”
If the basis of every human being is the same blank slate of pure witnessing, what separates us?
Nothing but the history of our vibration.
If you can feel the purity beyond such imprints, you realize you could have ended up like anyone. Because really, we are all the same inside! We just forget, and fight about each other’s clown makeup.
You are just the same at your core as me. And all the rest of humanity. Not to mention other forms of life (animal, spirit, hellish) not as vibrationally lucky.
So love them, fully and without asking for anything. They are you, and you are not separate or different from them!
The best part about seeing more clearly your real(er) self? Never again can you feel truly alone.
So many Westerners travel to India to “find themselves.”
They grow up being forced to live a lie, and then want to re-learn what it means to be a full human.
But what happens is just a falling into better patterns, rather than seeing what is beyond patterning. They haven’t solved the problem of being lost!
As long as two entities are perceived, there will be friction. But as long as the consciousness within all sentient life can be accessed, there can be no fuel for conflict to ignite.
In fact, such illumination can only lead to more infectious love, effortless harmony, and deep meaning in our society.
Can there be anything more worth pursuing, imbibing, and teaching than knowledge leading to this?