Source Inquiry — The New Way to Know Your True-Self
Freedom from social conditioning and a fresh path to Self-Realization.
A few years back, words like True-Self and Self-Awareness were alien to me. It was not until I concluded that life was not worth living that awakening dawned upon me.
Forever, society had conditioned me to believe in some far-away God.
It has been five years, but the moment of awakening in my heart is still as fresh as a dewdrop on a petal. That day, all lies fell apart. I could see through the false, fear-based life that the system trained me to live.
It was a moment of Unconditional Love and Eternal Freedom — freedom from the mind, society, and myself.
I dissolved into the vastness of the Existence.
Social Conditioning
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia recognizes social conditioning as:
The sociological process of training individuals in a society to act or respond in a manner generally approved by the society in general and peer groups within society.
If a healthy society wants to pass on a good health model to the new generation, this training in norms might be ideal. How healthy is the modern society at large?
What do major mental disorders in children and youth nowadays suggest?
For ages 10–14, 15–24, 25–34 years, suicide is the second leading cause of death in the United States.¹
My heart cries, seeing this sad state of affairs. A sick society is going to pass on sickness to the new generation.
Nowadays, conditioning is a contagious disease that society transmits to almost every child on the planet. Parents, grandparents, elders, peers, teachers, media, everyone is pre-programmed to pass on their set of beliefs to children.
The entire system is running on auto mode!
The system influences kids right from birth. Whenever children do not adhere to our belief systems, we unconsciously make them feel guilty.
We sow the seeds of major mental illnesses of adult age in our kids in their pre-school years, and we don’t even realize the folly.
12 years longitudinal study by researchers at Washington University of St. Louis shows the link between pre-school childhood guilt and depression in adult age.²
The Conditioning Against Self-Realization
The vicious circle of survival — birth, school, work, marriage, children, and eventually, death, has trapped most people in its grip. Everyday existence is full of insecurities, stress, and anxiety with a few glimpses of happiness.
The ordinary way of living is a self-reliant survival mechanism based on fear.
Society teaches you survival, not living.
Although survival is necessary, isn’t a life free from suffering important?
You are born free, but your near ones introduce you to the slavery of the rat race. Survival and competition become the only dominant themes of life.
Society is a highly political organization, a killer of tender hearts. It teaches you to measure love by give and take, not by freedom and inner bliss.
Civilization trains you from childhood that only a Jesus, a Buddha, a Krishna, a Muhammad, a Guru deserves Self-Realization. It converts prophets and messengers into articles of reverence, mere objects you can bow to from a distance.
Religions give you a unique set of instructions, rules that are almost impossible to adhere to, and the concept of sins and virtues.
And what happens when you cannot follow these guidelines, when you become a sinner? You feel guilty.
You become a prisoner of mind. Religions trap you in the psychological shackles of guilt. The training in slavery starts very early in a child’s life.
And who can absolve you of the guilt? Religious institutions! The cycle gets completed.
The business of fear flourishes and you stay in the dark about your intrinsic nature, which is Love and Freedom. Therefore, Self-Realization seems to be a far-fetched goal rather than life at this very moment.
Religion could have been an exquisite phenomenon if the foundation of faith, Love, were intact. But alas! It is not.
It is a necessity to recognize conditioning as a disease and move towards holistic well being.
The permanent way out of this sickness of conditioning is to realize the True-Self.
Knowing True-Self involves recognizing the deeply ingrained habits and patterns and dropping what doesn’t serve your well being any longer.
The Way of Source-Inquiry to Realize True-Self
You can be free right now. It need not be a far-fetched goal, as many religious preachers teach.
Self is who you already are. You just need to recognize the fact!
To help you recognize the truth, I derived the Source-Inquiry system from the paths of Sri Ramana Maharshi and Gautam Buddha.
The great sage, Sri Ramana Maharshi, gave the gift of Self-Inquiry to the world. Self-Inquiry is a direct path to Self-Realization.
Who am I? — The path of Self-Inquiry³
Through Self-Inquiry, you realize that ‘I’ is neither the body nor the mind; it is the Source itself.
Although Sri Ramana Maharshi’s way is direct, it doesn’t work efficiently for a beginner — sometimes even for an ardent seeker.
Because almost everyone is deeply conditioned right from birth as someone separate from the Universe, it becomes difficult to view the Self as the Source directly.
Gautam Buddha gave the gift of Witnessing to the world. As you witness yourself separate from the thoughts and emotions, you realize True-Self.
Witnessing — The path of Awareness⁴
Thoughts slowly drop, and the reality shines. Although systematic, this approach involves significant effort and time.
In the world’s midst, it becomes tough to follow all the rules of practicing awareness, which requires slow and conscious effort to do everything in life.
Can there be an alternative way that is direct yet systematic?
Here comes the Source-Inquiry, which blends the deep essence of both ways.
While the Self-Inquiry method focuses on directly knowing who you are, Source-Inquiry focuses on directly knowing who you are not.
If you know who you are not, you also come to know who you are.
During the process of Source-Inquiry, you instantaneously separate yourself from the False-Self, the ego, assumed identity ‘I.’
As soon as you separate from the false identity, there is a sudden shift in consciousness, and you feel the Being, the presence, the real you.
The directness of Self-Inquiry combines with the science of Witnessing to allow faster results, even for beginners.
Source-Inquiry is the way of Direct Witnessing.
Instead of going through a long path to reach the state of heightened awareness, you leapfrog into it.
Steps for Source-Inquiry
Before starting, ensure that you are not in a mindset of philosophical debate. This approach requires the attitude of a child, someone who wants to experiment and experience life.
This procedure can work wonders for all seekers — beginners or those at other stages of the spiritual journey.
1. Focus
Foremost, bring focus to the present moment. Usually, you try to do many things at one time in everyday life. It divides attention. Self-Realization requires total focus now-here.
If you are a regular mindfulness practitioner or meditator, you can jump to Step 2 — Ask the question. Otherwise, plan at least seven days for enhancing focus before moving to the next step.
How to Implement
a. Plan a retreat — If you are mired in the day-to-day life, a solo trip in nature for a week (or more) can work wonders. Spend time with yourself. Use the next two steps to get the best results while on a retreat.
b. Meditate — Set aside at least 1 hour (or two 30-minutes slots) every day for sitting in silence. Active meditation techniques, such as Osho Dynamic Meditation, can prepare you for the next step with relative ease.
You can also add Breath Beads Meditation to your daily schedule.
c. Attention — Practice mindfulness. Do each and everything with full awareness. A simple way to be attentive is to focus on your breath during the day.
2. Ask the question
In this step, you take the direct route to the innermost core.
You hit the center of False-Self, the ego. Ego has no grounds to survive once you break off from the false identity that is the source of all attachments.
How to Implement
a. Intention — Your intention is the core pillar of this step. Sit with a single-minded focus — to know your True Self.
Let this aim be the guiding light through this whole exercise.
b. Meditate — You already practiced meditation in the first step. Use the technique you find most useful to move into meditation. Move into silence.
c. Ask — Ask yourself within “Who is I?”.
Note that the question is not “Who am I”. It is “Who is I”.
Language plays a crucial role in this step. Instead of the first person, consider ‘I’ to be the third person while asking “Who is I” — someone different from you (the same way you address he, she).
You do the unthinkable — Since birth, you have assumed that ‘I’ is the True-You. But with this question, you address ‘I’ as someone different from you. The question triggers a significant shock to the entire well-accustomed system of the mind.
You hit the core of the false identity, separating yourself from it in a flash. You jump into witnessing.
As soon as you ask, “Who is I”, you defy the conditioning of your entire life since birth. You discover yourself as a witness.
The arrow of consciousness points towards the Self.
As soon as the attention is directed inwards, there is a noticeable shift, and meditation deepens. Relax into the peace you experience at this point.
The next steps ensure that you don’t fall back into the trap of the mind.
3. Let it go
Once you have asked the ultimate question, “Who is I”, you might get multiple answers. All the answers come from the false identity. This is not a question that you can answer intellectually.
How to Implement
a. Open up — Don’t resist. Let all answers come up. Let all the resistance show itself.
The resistance you face in this step is the evidence that the process is working.
Don’t resist the resistance. Accept even the unacceptance. Notice without judgments.
b. Let go — Hold nothing. Stick to nothing. Don’t be in favor of or against something. Don’t judge any thought or emotion that arises. Let everything pass.
Don’t hold on to the thoughts such as “Wow! I am a witness” or “I am witnessing. I am aware”. Let all the voices inside pass.
If you notice some specific emotion or thought is overpowering you, let it play out fully. You can express and go back into silence.
c. Beliefs of Enlightenment — One of the biggest hindrances to the process is pre-conceived ideas on Enlightenment.
If you find the voice inside telling you anything regarding Enlightenment such as, “This is what that Guru said, but where are my superpowers, why is the third eye portal not opening? Shouldn’t I see that light?” let it pass!! This is a false voice.
Drop your expectations of Self-Realization and Enlightenment. Don’t expect a light, a sound, or whatever you have heard or read previously. If expectations arise, recognize them as thoughts or emotions and let them pass.
Repeat steps 2.c (Ask) and 3 (Let it go) until everything that arises from within passes. Answers and thoughts give way to emptiness. You move into silence.
4. Silence
Relax. As you relax, everything passes, you experience a more profound stillness. Rest in this silence as it deepens further.
How to Implement
a. Drop the intention — Your initial aim was to realize your True-Self. In this silence, let the intention drop. Let the desire to know the True-Self also drop.
b. Surrender — Anything you do hereon would be a hindrance. Don’t wait for anything extraordinary to happen.
Surrender to the Present Moment.
c. Just be — There is nothing to know, nothing to do, nowhere to go! This is it. Expect nothing.
At this moment, be with whatever is now-here — non-judgmental, detached. Knowing happens because you relax into Silence and do nothing.
Self-Realization is a straightforward phenomenon. You have known the false as false and realized yourself as a witness. Stay as a witness.
Witness is the True-Self.
The day you can exist in this state effortlessly, using no method, you are Self-Realized. You stop recognizing yourself with the false ‘I’.
Try the method of Source-Inquiry. Experiment with sincerity. As a beginner, once you have gone through the above steps with full sincerity, you might not need the initial preparation for seven days every time.
If it works for you, add it to your daily routine.
Your own experience will tell you when to stop.
Final Thoughts
Social conditioning causes major mental disorders across multiple age groups, and it is necessary to free yourself from its clutches. Knowing True-Self is the ultimate antidote to the poison of conditioning.
Source-Inquiry is a fresh approach to know True-Self. It combines the directness of Self-Inquiry with the science of Witnessing to separate the Self from the false identity. You realize yourself as a witness with ease.
Steps
- Focus
- Ask, “Who is I”
- Let it go
- Silence
I hope the new revolutionary way of Source-Inquiry works wonders for you.
Try it and let me know your experience. I am available to discuss the method and tweak it according to your progress.
May your inner journey get the wings to fly you to Eternal Freedom.
References:
[1] Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide.shtml
[2] Anterior Insula Volume and GuiltNeurobehavioral Markers of Recurrence After Early Childhood Major Depressive Disorder https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/1935483 JAMA Psychiatry. 2015;72(1):40–48. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.1604
[3] Who am I? (Nan Yaar?) The teachings of Bhagwan Sri Ramana Maharshi by Dr. T. M. P. MAHADEVAN https://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/who_am_I.pdf
[4] What is Meditation — Meditation is witnessing https://meditate.org/meditation-is-witnessing.htm
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