You Can Use a Thorn to Remove a Thorn

You can use a thorn to remove a thorn.

In a meditation of inquiry, you can use the mind as a tool to point to a revelation of Self beyond mind.

This revelation of Self is experienced as a “sense” or “essence” within and not as a conceptual idea about self that appears in the mind or intellect.

A good inquiry, asked with a deep devotion to knowing truth, has great power.

The inquiries are what wake up the True Self.
Sit and inquire…

“What is the nature of the Self that exists prior to or beyond all thoughts, beliefs and conditioning about who I am?”

“If there were not a mind generated story of self, would I still exist? And if so, what does the nature of that ‘something’ feel like?”

“What is the nature of the presence which is aware of all my transient ideas about self?”

“What is the nature of that which is eternally stable and whole and always present no matter my emotional, mental or physical state of being?”

It is not a failure if the “answers” are not immediately and clearly felt. Typically that which is first encountered with such inquiries is experienced as an emptiness or void, which can be very disconcerting. This discomfort with emptiness typically engages the mind to resolve the emptiness with thoughts and concepts. The mind is more comfortable with objects with which it can relate. It struggles with formlessness.

Any answers that the mind quickly conjures to resolve such inquiries are typically just more concepts and thoughts.

Let the mind ask the questions with devotion and curiosity and then set the mind aside so that the answers may reveal themselves in actual felt experience.

You can use a thorn to remove a thorn.

You can use the mind to point to and reveal the True Self beyond mind.