One common mistake is to think that self-inquiry is identical with neti neti. The latter is, at most, only a “preliminary study” that prepares the ground for self-inquiry proper.

Thinking “I am not the body, not the senses, and not the mind” may be a good start. Indeed, a deep investigation, in the vein of what Atmananda termed Higher Reason, could show experientially that one is neither the body, nor the senses, nor the mind.

However, neti neti is not to be confused with self-inquiry since they are quite different. Crucially, the former does not “target” who you think you are. That “target” is none other than the I-thought, which is the starting point of self-inquiry.

In other words, the “target” is the sense of being an individual, of being the one who woke up this morning, then ate breakfast, then went to work, and so on. There’s an individuated sense of unity that seems to tie together the various contingent activities (e.g., waking up, eating, going to work, etc.) that seem to make up “my life.” That individuated sense of unity is precisely what is to be brought into question in self-inquiry.

“How?”

Take any thought like “I am eating breakfast.” Then ask: “What is the center of my experience?” You’ll next feel that there’s a “sense of me” that’s located “around here” or “in here.” That sense of me is what Ramana Maharshi terms “the I-thought.” Stay with it.

“And once I’ve discovered the I-thought, then what am I to do?”

Well, in a sense, you are to do nothing. But it can be helpful to provide, at least at the outset, some more instructions:

• If you tend to be pretty intense, then you should let great determination (cf. raja yoga) guide you: Try to “break through” this sense of limitation or separation.
• If you tend to be quite loving or devotional (cf. bhakti yoga), then you are to surrender this I-sense or I-thought completely; you are to give it up entirely.
• And if you tend to be extremely inquisitive (cf. jnana yoga), then you are to gently and silently–not to mentally–wonder, in connection with this I-thought, about “Who?” or “What?” or “Whence?”

“And then what will I discover?” That you are pure being. Rest here.