1. An experience arises. You can go with any experience, in fact, but Ramana Maharshi urges you to stick with a subset of experiences. Why? Because you (a) know that you are but (b) you don’t know who or what you are. A preliminary investigation will reveal that you’re obviously not the world (duh) and that you’re not the body. At the very least, two points prove the latter. First, the body never says, “I.” Who says “I,” then? Second, you take the body to be mine. Who takes the body to be “mine”?

2. In order to know who or what we are, then, we’re compelled by reason to investigate the mind. When we look closely at the mind, we discover that it’s nothing other than thoughts. Therefore, Maharshi would have us stay with thoughts.

3. Split thoughts into two categories: I-thoughts and the rest of thoughts.

4. Investigate Ramana’s proposal: all other thoughts are associated with I-thoughts. Is a thought like “What a beautiful day” associated with a point of view, with a sense of me? Yes. That point of view or sense of me or me-feeling is what’s termed an “I-thought.”

5. Since it’s true that other thoughts are associated with I-thoughts, simply investigate I-thoughts.

6. Now, what is an I-thought when you stay only with the experience of it?

• The thought itself dissolves.
• The sense of an ego-me is nowhere to be found.
• What is this? What remains?