ADVAITA MEDITATION VII: The Self-Inquiry Method of Self-Knowledge

WHO AM I?This question is the basis and root of all spirituality. The method of answering it is by self-inquiry. The only thing to be known is the Self; but it, like the Knower, is no knowledge at all, so it cannot be directly perceived.Life passes quickly and one does not inquire into what one is. Is there anything of more importance in the sensory life? The mind wanders behind hundreds and thousands of other questions, postponing the most essential one. One cannot know what the Self is, directly, since it is the unmanifest Absolute, but one can abide as the Self internally.This is the natural and eternal state of what one Is. Due to the defect of the ego we identify ourselves through the mind with the physical body. Inquiring into what the ego is, we finally perceive that it is made of the material of illusion, and that when it disappears the Self shines forth in its own state and nature.