Pt. 1: A searching investigation of the waking state will show that all that appears is dependent upon mind “in the broad sense.” By the latter, I mean that there’s a conceptual veil cast over what’s appearing such that all is appearing as “name and form.”

Pt. 2: The first point is simply intending to establish a very simple fact from idealism: the diversity and plurality of objects (the world) and the conceptualization of the body are all dependent upon the mind. Consequently, what needs to be explored–and this very deeply–is the nature of the mind.

Pt. 3: A deep exploration of the nature of the mind will show that, as a first pass, it’s nothing but vritti–that is, movement, activity, or “thought-stream.” There is nothing more to the mind than this present movement or activity or “thought-stream.”

Pt. 4: With one notable exception: What’s at the root of the mind (i.e., vritti) is a very strange appearance. It is aham-vritti: the sense of being “me,” the sense of being an I with some form or apparent limitation. Without this root thought (aham-vritti), Ramana Maharshi makes plain, there can’t be other vritti, that is, the ordinary thoughts with which one is familiar.

Pt. 5: For the reason given in the above point, the investigation must come to reckon with this question: If the mind is nothing but vritti and if a special vritti named aham-vritti (“I-thought”) is that upon which the mind turns, then it behooves one to take aham-vritti as one’s unique target.

Pt. 6: When one takes aham-vritti (“I-thought” or “thought-I”) as one’s unique target with a view to knowing what it truly is, this is called “self-inquiry” (atma vichara). The aim of self-inquiry is to expose the truth, which is that the I-thought is really just consciousness (cit). This truth is discovered by holding onto “the consciousness part” and by setting off to the side “the form or apparent limitation part.”

Pt. 7: When “the consciousness part” is held onto with such determination, earnestness, love, or inquisitiveness, what is ultimately revealed is that one is consciousness alone.

In brief, a consideration of all worldly phenomena is traceable back to the mind. The mind is traceable back to the I-thought. And the I-thought is traceable back to “I am I,” or pure consciousness. The very essence of the mind is, in the final analysis, nothing but pure consciousness.