The Selfward Facing Way - A Course For Living The Direct Experience of Your Eternal Nature - Sally Ross

THE SELFWARD
FACING
WAY
THE SELFWARD FACING
WAY
A Course for Living
the Direct Experience of
Your Eternal Nature
(Volume 1: Understanding)
SALLY ROSS
Everything Here
PRESS
The Selfward Facing Way
Published by Sally Ross
Second Edition, December 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9916705-0-5
For more information: www.faceselfward.net
With gratitude
... to Geoff Gosson, for his exquisite cover design.
... to Nowick Gray, for his amazing editorial support.
... to the European Space Observatory, for the galaxy
photograph.
Thank you for supporting the author’s work to bring this

project into the public domain. If you would like to tell
others about the The Selfward Facing Way, please point
them in the direction of the book’s website link above.
Volume Two: Practice

is to be published in 2013.
CONTENTS
~ VOLUME 1: UNDERSTANDING ~
Dedication and Introduction ...................................................... 1
CHAPTER 1: The Conceptual Dilemma .................................... 5
CHAPTER 2: Multiple Concepts, A Singular Wholeness ........ 19
CHAPTER 3: Knowledge Must Directly Apply to the Whole .. 33
CHAPTER 4: Self-Inquiry is the Whole’s Business .................. 51
CHAPTER 5: Concept-Free Practice is Your Freedom ............ 63

* * *
Dedication and Introduction to the Course
This writing, and the reading of it in this very moment, is

dedicated to (and is) the universal, undifferentiated
essence that’s here right now. This “right now hereness”
is what makes everything possible. The fact that you are,
which is undisputable, means that life exists. The word
life does not refer to something that could have an
opposite, like death. What I am speaking of is the life
that gives rise to, includes, sustains and saturates all the
comings and goings that we can ever conceive of. The
life that is not fazed by birth or creation of any kind, and
is equally unmoved in death or destruction.
This life has never not been, and can never cease to be.
When one’s own mind activity is surrendered to it, one

recognizes: it is myself. Same same. This recognition is
the perpetual outpouring of life unto life, in love with its
own Self.
There is no possibility that my writing and your reading

are separate in this moment. Everything is as it is, simp-
ly because you are. You can trust in this.
I am happy to be with you to share some insights, point-

ers and encouragement as you deepen into the truth you
know to be here, waiting at the core of yourself.
2 The Selfward Facing Way
* * *
This Course is presented in two parts: Understanding and

Practice. In modern times, the word “practice” has been
frequently misinterpreted and misconstrued as humanity
evolves in its consideration of matters concerning truth
and reality. Practice should never be a complicated or
confusing endeavour, yet there are subtle nuances that
allow it to bear fruit in your life. It is powerful in its
subtlety, and this cannot be treated lightly. For these
reasons, I feel it is important to establish a very clear
understanding as a foundation from which to practice.
Your capacity to investigate the truth directly will be
fortified with a strong understanding of what practice
reflects.
The Course is intended to support you whether you are a

seasoned practitioner of Self-Inquiry, or meditation, and
equally if you are a beginner to this practice.
The dedication of our Course cannot leave out my

gratitude to the gifts of understanding and practice that
have been given to me by my Teacher, C. Above all, he
taught me how to practice in a patient, authentic and
uncontrived way. Because of him, through study I was
exposed to some of the most profound sages and
teachers of truth. He helped me to become one-pointed
in my focus by encouraging me to absorb only the
teachings that were speaking directly to what I actually
am, here and now.
The Selfward Facing Way 3
If I became distracted by concepts that were not wholly

devoted to this “eternal issue” (as C likes to call it), it
meant that precious time for the freedom of earnest,
surrendered practice was inevitably squandered. Intern-
ally, I always suffered as a result. With maturity I can see
that there was nothing wrong in this, that everything
unfolds perfectly according to each person’s own unique
make-up and ultimately no time can be “lost.” But now
that the eternal issue has become the primary concern of
my whole life, I am aware of the importance of commu-
nicating about it in a way that permits others to go
directly to the heart of the matter.
It is my deepest wish that this Course will give you the

most basic and fundamental tools you need to maintain
your Selfward-Facing Way. “Basic and fundamental” are
the very best tools, because with so little you can receive
more than you could possibly imagine. Not swaying
from the degree of simplicity that is being offered to you,
your understanding and practice take you directly Home.
There is nothing of greater significance in this world

than your discovery of what it is that’s living you. Once
you recognize this reality, and establish yourself here,
peace will reign in your life. Peace overflows and is
shared with all beings, without the requirement for any
effort on your part.
Your peace is the peace of God, of Life, of Pure Con-

sciousness… of Self.
As you read, learn and practice, I hope you can allow

these words to settle and nest quietly inside your being.
Your degree of quietness, attentiveness, curiosity and
honesty determines the extent to which what is con-
veyed here will reverberate as your own natural, ever-
expanding insights.
CHAPTER 1:
The Conceptual Dilemma
The only hindrance to your abiding—peacefully and

happily—as the ever-present, eternal truth of your
own nature is concepts.
Concepts are the means by which the whole functioning

of a human life stream occurs. As human beings, we
require them in order to mature from infancy through
childhood, youth and adulthood—in order to learn.
Concepts both arise from, and contribute to, brain
development. Our day-to-day activities are a continuous
series of concepts. We are taught to label our experi-
ences in order to make sense of them, to compare them
with other experiences and to therefore gain an ever
more complete picture of how we should live in the
midst of great diversity.
Concepts have evolutionary value.
There is one concept that is universal to everyone, and

which leads to the formation of every other concept.
This one concept is responsible for all that we perceive as
the world and everything in it. It arises spontaneously
and innocently through the normal, natural process of
differentiation, when as babies we come to recognize our
own name and the various faces of our mother, father,
and other people around us. Soon enough, through this
process we learn to identify ourselves as a separate

individual. Since this identity has been passed on to us
through imitation and repetition—and we do not yet
have the cognitive faculties to question its accuracy—
upon it we build our entire life.
This universal concept is the word “I.”
Intimately linked with this concept, at a mostly

unconscious level, is the idea “I am just my body.” We
believe our I-ness is dependent on this marvelous
physiological mechanism we inhabit as the form that
carries our name, our gender, our skills and abilities, our
life histories, and so on. Each body is made marvelous
by its nature of fulfilling the delivery of sense perception.
Our sensual capabilities of sight, hearing, taste, smell
and touch determine how we make choices, respond and
interact as we move through life.
The body that every person—as well as every other

sentient being—is most familiar with is the one it calls
“me.” Without exception, this familiarity arises through
repetitive patterns of the sensing and perceiving abilities
uniquely experienced in each individual body. One of
the most salient patterns is the reflection of the face we
see in the mirror. You and I both look at that image
every day, and often many times during the day in many
different places. Mirrors are a great way of being re-
minded of what we “look like,” and through repeatedly
observing this visual impression we gain proof that the
image represents who I am.
Naturally, the image I see of “me” and the image you see
of “you” are different images, because two different
bodies are being reflected in the mirror. But we are both
subject to the conditioning I am referring to. That is, we
are equally susceptible to becoming fixated on the con-
cept that the image we observe is who or what we are.
Once this fixation has become firmly established in one’s

life, it leads to many concepts that cause a lot of confu-
sion and trouble. Here we’ll focus on two big problems.
The first big problem: The image I see in the mirror is

always changing. Sometimes I like what I see, and some-
times I don’t. For a long time when I looked in the
mirror the image was full of youthfulness, and now my
reflection contains wrinkle lines and gray hairs. I may
spend a lot of time trying to improve and enhance the
image based on other images I perceive around me that
seem to indicate degrees of attractiveness or vitality.
This keeps me very busy, because no matter what I do,
the reflection in the mirror continues to change. I try to
hold on to an image of myself that feels “just right,” but
it never stays. Forever and ever, it changes, it changes, it
changes...
The second big problem: When I think I am the image, I

believe others are images too, and I feel separate. When I
feel separate, I have to be constantly doing something to
resolve my sense of isolation, which is a very exhausting

endeavour. This activity takes many, many forms in the
human story; its ultimate result is fragmentation. It
reflects itself in our most intimate one-to-one rela-
tionships, and in the collective situations we observe all
around us throughout the planet: violence and warfare,
massive inequalities of wealth and power, frantic
overconsumption of precious ecological resources, and
beyond.
Fundamentally, it is the belief in separateness that

creates all the suffering of this world.
* * *
Accepting concepts to be the truth is an essential error of

perception, based on the mind’s conditioning. Lasting
peace is impossible to find in any concept of yourself, in
any image, any thought or feeling. Concepts take your
attention away from the immediate reality of who you
are. Yet they are so entrenched in the thinking process
of the human condition that just to hear this and
intellectually grasp it is usually not enough to release
oneself into one’s actual, inconceivable Selfhood, which
is infinitely vaster than the marvelous collection of cells
and particles converging as the body-mind form reading
these words right now.
When through the practice of Self-Inquiry you dispel the

concepts “I am just my body” and “I am separate,” all
other concepts will be left behind along with them. Our

investigation concerns what it is that never changes and
is not subject to any sense of separateness.
In the following chapters we will go deeply into what it

means to investigate the truth of yourself beyond any
conceptual understanding of what you are. For the most
profound deepening possible, it is also essential to dis-
cuss the implications of “concepts” in respect to the
words you are reading right now on the computer screen
or the printed pages of this Course. This will support
you in being very precise about what your own intimate
investigation of truth entails. Your precision will ulti-
mately express as effortless being, which is the pure joy
of living from the ever-established peace of your true
nature.
* * *
Regarding the jewels of written text that my Teacher

brought to my and others’ attention over the years, he
once said the following:
“Read these jewels like a prayer, and then drop them like
a hot potato.”
It is important for you to keep this in mind as you read

along, because what my words are pointing to is some-
thing that ultimately can never be encapsulated by this
medium of language.
Words are concepts. The words of this Course—its

concepts—are pointing to the truth of who you are,
which is not a concept.
You are non-conceptual. This is the supreme reality that

the mind will never grasp, but can surrender to.
The human thinking mind is addicted to grasping for

concepts. Our habitual mental activity of trying very
hard to comprehend—to develop a sense of personal
power by accumulating knowledge—imposes an imag-
ined limit on the limitless, all-powerful freedom that is
reading these words without need of knowing. Through
the practice of Self-Inquiry, this limitless freedom is rec-
ognized and becomes familiar. We can relax completely
into it, and the desire to grasp at understanding how or
why this is so eventually disappears. The grasping ten-
dency is redundant and unnecessary, because it cannot
change anything. Nothing of permanence is gained or
lost by concepts produced through the activity of the
thinking mind.
Limitless freedom is enjoyed more and more when not

knowing becomes our cherished “true knowledge,” which
is also called Self-Knowledge. In your willingness to
suspend conceptual thinking, you can dive infinitely into
your being, which you will discover to simultaneously
exist as all and everything. Unattached to any concept of
what you are, you can recognize that the self-evident
truth is an ever-present, never-ending wholeness. When
there are no concepts to stand in the way of your simply

abiding as you are, in each moment, you know yourself
to be forever here. “Forever hereness” is indistinguish-
able from your true identity. Self-Knowledge brings
peace.
This is reality as it is, utterly free of conceptualizing and

characterization—free of self-labeling.
You can likely perceive in all of this that linguistically

speaking we’re in a bit of a dilemma. How can one have
knowledge without knowing, for example? Why am I
giving you labels, like “reality” and “truth,” for something
that is free of labels? Attempting to explain in words
what is wordless at the core demands responsibility on
my part, and discrimination on your part. But in your
reading, everything will become clear if you gently
permit yourself to enter into the apparent paradoxes in
order to meet and merge with the energy—the silence,
the love—that is shining underneath the written
message. This shines in this very instant as your true
Self, which is not fragmented or made up of parts, and
has no paradoxes.
* * *
It is said that one should never mistake a word to be the

thing it refers to. As you progress through this Course, I
encourage you to consider and investigate the unbound,
unending reality being conveyed by any concept of
thing-ness in my message. Words should never leave

you with a stopping point or a definitive conclusion.
They should only ever encourage you to look more deep-
ly and investigate their truthfulness. This will allow you
to keep aware of yourself before, within and beyond the
message, and to include in this awareness the bigger pic-
ture within which these words are becoming apparent to
you. In fact, you can discover that you, your awareness
and the bigger picture are one and the same thing. This
is the biggest picture, and getting bigger still...
While reading or studying anything, we invariably forget

about the paper or the screen that the words are appear-
ing on. All this white space is actually what makes the
message communicable! Encompassing even more of
the big picture in our awareness, we can ask what con-
scious presence is holding both the appearance of the
words and the screen or background that makes them
detectable... and even the most subtle apprehension of
meaning that arises from these ideas, as well. Does this
conscious presence—your own, in this very moment—
have any characteristics? Does it have words?
This presence has to be you. No words, no screen and no

knowledge of any kind could exist otherwise.
* * *
The “direction” of understanding and practice encour-

aged here is that of facing Selfward without any idea of
what you are. If you are overly fascinated with ideas—

with forms or images—then your practice cannot go
beyond them to a comprehension of what these words
are pointing to. A mind that believes the answers to the
deepest questions are to be found in a particular form (or
formula!) is unable to rest in the true nature of itself.
When one’s mind is continuously forming concepts,

which is its habitual tendency, what unfortunately hap-
pens is that one also tends to perceive the concepts as if
they were reality. Moving through the Course, it will
likely become easier for you to avoid falling into this
conditioned manner of thinking, because the written
concepts here are pointing you very directly towards the
truth of yourself—the non-conceptual eternal reality.
Your being will resonate with the words, because they
will be reminders of what you already feel to be true and
real.
It is not always so easy in our day-to-day lives. General-

ly, we are saturated in concepts that are not pointing to
the truth in such a direct manner. Most of them point
directly away from the truth, in fact! When we finally
come to a place of wanting to live the truth of ourselves,
we begin to recognize how quickly we can get caught up
in believing concepts to be true. And as this recognition
deepens, it becomes increasingly evident how different
we feel when we are caught in concepts, versus when we
aren’t.
This is what makes practice so relevant and precious.

The intention of this first volume of our Course is to “set
up” an understanding that allows your practice to be
entirely non-conceptual. When you practice without
concepts, every moment becomes a direct experience in
the living truth of your eternal nature. Your feeling of
being free and at peace eventually becomes constant,
because you recognize yourself to be this freedom, this
peace. Life flows in its own unrestricted, effortless way
through your direct abidance as this essential recog-
nition of what you are at the core.
* * *
As we move into the territory of going beyond concepts

and begin to practice here, we discover what is left over
when the most sublime and profound teachings we’ve
ever come across have landed us back where we started,
which is where we always were: here.
All along, who and what we are has never changed. The
shifting image or idea I had of myself did not in any way
contain, enhance, reduce or otherwise alter the truth of
myself.
In this way, your understanding has a quality of being

ever fresh and direct. You can then avoid the trap of
having your practice stagnate in a dependence on ideas,
teachings and philosophies. By remaining fixated on
particular philosophies or “techniques” of practice, the
mind cannot surrender to the innocence and the humili-

ty that is required to go beyond all concepts. Fixation
means that our inherent capacity to earnestly investigate
what is true becomes hampered.
When fixation of any kind is let go of in Self-Inquiry, an

ever-deepening recognition of your true nature dissolves
all words and concepts. These come and go in your
awareness, as words and concepts may, but you do not
try to hold on to them. You stay established in your
unspoken here-and-now beingness (your eternal nature,
your never-ending wholeness), not concerned with how
this self-evident truth is represented or spoken of
conceptually.
Once someone has pointed out the truth, you have no

need to look back at the words to remind you again of
where truth is. You can just simply confirm its presence,
its beauty and its limitlessness for yourself. What’s true
is true, period! Eventually, the words I use to indicate
what is true will just get in the way of your full,
complete, unobstructed vision of the truth. That’s not to
say you won’t feel gratitude. (Gratitude feels wonderful.)
But proceeding onward in the direction the words are
pointing—beyond them—you continue on your own
perfect Selfward-Facing Way in an open, pure manner.
There is nothing left for you to know or be taught. You
do not depend on any teaching to remind you of this
road that you yourself are following. It appears immedi-
ately in front of your eyes with each step, and you make
no effort as you walk forward.
That is what gives value to these words—these concepts.
The happiest way you can follow your own road is by

leaving behind all concepts. They are no longer needed
in order for you to continue Selfward, unimpeded and in
a concept-free manner, which is the freedom that you
have sought all along.
You simply live the freedom that you inherently are.
* * *
Making your way through this Course, what you will

come to see is that dispelling concepts is the most
important work of your lifetime.
When one hears “work,” the mind tends to immediately

pair it with the word “hard.” (Did you do that?) These
two words come hand in hand throughout most cultures
today. Self-Inquiry reveals that in fact the hardest work
in life is created by our holding onto and carrying around
concepts. It eventually becomes obvious that these
activities of holding onto and carrying around have been
completely unnecessary all along! Believing our con-
cepts to be true was built on the conditioning of the
mind and body, on the repetitive messages we received
via our sense perceptions and the patterns of thinking
that arose as a result.
To practice in a manner that allows you to let go of

concepts—to literally stop carrying them around—is the
most blissful, effortless, enriching and intelligent work
you can possibly engage in. When you practice with the
earnest purpose of investigating into the true nature of
yourself, all the way, your earnestness essentially re-
verses the feeling of effort and struggle in life. Rather,
periods of required effort or momentary struggle that
may arise in your day-to-day experience (as they
inevitably do) are not really a problem anymore. The
kind of effort and struggle that causes suffering falls away
of its own accord, because you recognize yourself to be
here, eternally, whether concepts appear to you or not.
You become unmoved in the midst of mind activity,
which is the mechanism of concept formation. Concepts
cannot change, have never changed, and will never
change your very nature of being forever here, present,
whole, boundless, infinite.
Out of this recognition, you do not deny or reject the use

of concepts in your everyday communication. Concepts
are an integral aspect of our being in continuous and
dynamic relationships with others, and through them life
as we know it naturally unfolds in our households, work-
places and communities. You simply use them in a more
authentic and skillful way. The concepts that arise in
you are now grounded in your own peace. Whatever
comes from peace cannot but share itself peacefully. It’s
a given!
Going forward in your reading, you will find I often rely

on words that I immediately attempt to debunk as we go
along, or at least I explain what makes them problematic
when the mind gets hold of them and tries to “make
something” out of their meanings. Concept formation is
the hard work you will want to allow yourself to continue
giving up, moment to moment. You can then remain
aware of your nature of being reality, the non-conceptual
eternal truth that this Course is always pointing you
towards. Remaining aware in this manner will become
easier and easier.
How much easier can just being be?
Reality is here and now. It does not require any words or

images to be so. It is independent of any feeling of sepa-
rateness. It is eternally present.
You are this.
When there is nothing left to know but yourself, “I am”

reveals eternity. Inquiring into even “I am,” any concept
of I or beingness disappears also. But in the midst of the
disappearance of all concepts, you remain. Your real
nature is the infinite totality of the moment itself. The
moment’s totality wholly includes—and yet is entirely
free of—appearances and disappearances.
This is how Self-Knowledge becomes manifest in your

life.
CHAPTER 2:
Multiple Concepts, A Singular Wholeness
Your intrinsic wholeness has never been touched by

anything you have thought or experienced. You can
become aware of this. You have already felt this. This
wholeness—this thisness—does not have any qualities,
characteristics or reference points, yet that it exists
cannot be challenged. “It” is “you,” and simultaneously
everything “else.” It makes no distinction between you
and other than you.
* * *
Let’s recall the last chapter. In your practice, the work of

dispelling concepts means that whatever is being
communicated here will eventually need to be dropped
so you can abide fully and effortlessly as you are.
Remember this!
The current chapter is going to offer up a lot of concepts.

The purpose for doing so is to “set the mind straight”
regarding the actual size of what it is we are investigating
when we practice Self-Inquiry. These concepts will point
towards an immensity that cannot possibly be grasped,
yet can be recognized to be oneself in this precise
moment—and can be lived. By the end of the Course,
you might regard this chapter as a necessary but least
important one.
Once when I was practicing with my Teacher, I heard

him say: “Take the biggest possible concept, and begin
there!” When you allow the biggest possible concept to
be your “launching pad” in your practice, it means that
any concept from then on is too small. Your practice can
now reveal to you how immense, how ungraspable and
how concept-free you actually are. Without Self-Inquiry,
your own practice of directly confirming who you are, the
big concepts endeavouring to take you there (here!) have
no lasting value.
* * *
Throughout the ages, multitudes of big concepts have

pointed towards what we are looking at in this Course.
Some of them may already be familiar to you. Below I
briefly give you a few examples, as a way of conveying
that they all point towards the same thing: what it is
that’s actually here right now. I have chosen the words
“never-ending wholeness” in an attempt to describe this,
but these words are just a matter of taste and preference;
certainly, drawing in a few of the other big concepts can
also help to illuminate what I am trying to express.
So, now for a snapshot. Some of the big concepts that

have been used to refer to what is actually here include
(deep breath):
God, the Holy Spirit, the Tao, Truth, True Nature, the
Universe, Eternity, Infinity, Universal Life, Siva/Shiva,
Allah, Pure Consciousness, Silent Awareness, Everlasting

Peace, the Absolute, Buddha Mind, No Mind, the Empty
Field, Egolessness, the Noumenon, the Mystery, the
Animating Force, Brahman, your Original Face, the Self,
the No-Self, Enlightenment, Emptiness, the Totality,
Reality, I AM, Existence, Beingness, the Void, Unity,
Advaita (“Not Two”), the Kingdom of Heaven, Nirvana,
the Supreme Godhead, the Cosmic Essence, Uncondi-
tional Love... and many, many others!
(Exhale.)
You have seen from this list that the names are drawn
from diverse traditions, cultures and ways of under-
standing what is true. You will even notice some contra-
dictions in terms; words that are direct opposites of each
other, such as Self and No-Self, stand as equal pointers
towards what is actually here. But it must be repeated
that they are all just big concepts attempting to convey
the same thing, which is beyond every concept. More
importantly, if you continue to remember that ultimately
only your own clear understanding can take you directly
to a place inside yourself in which all contradiction or
paradox falls away, you’re heading in the right direction.
In your willingness to remain open and receptive, the
deepest truths arise from within you—not from any
concept, culture or tradition.
Not from any other source but your own immediate

nature.
* * *
If you put your attention now on the word “wholeness,”

you can discover whether it is possible to conceive of
something missing inside of it. Try it right here. There
is simply nothing missing or lacking, correct? Whole-
ness cannot be made more whole, nor can it have its
wholeness reduced in any way. Its completeness and
perfection derive from its very nature of being whole.
When we think of an individual something as whole, we

can imagine that thing as having some sort of boundary
or end point within which its wholeness is contained. In
this same manner of thinking, we can also visualize a
something else in relation to that whole thing—a
different thing that has its own quality of being more or
less whole.
But wholeness itself is not subject to separation, division

or relativity of any kind. It leaves nothing out. Every-
thing it encompasses is its own exact, complete essence
of wholeness. It is ubiquitous, universal. If you take a
“part” out of wholeness, wholeness remains as wholeness
and the part continues to exist as a result of the
wholeness it is already made up of. As such, a part of
wholeness cannot actually go anywhere. It has no in-
dependent existence. If you get right down to it, you can
see that there could never have been a part of wholeness,
because wholeness always remains the same. Partness
was just an “appearance” within wholeness. In other
words, partness was always only ever wholeness itself.
Attempting to figure all this out with the mind is the way
that partness tries to decipher the wholeness of its
inherent nature. Do you see the impossibility of this?
Wholeness is indivisible and totally free of all boundary
lines. No definition or mental construct can contain its
freedom.
Moment to moment, wholeness is the way things are.
* * *
Something quite wonderful is occurring at this stage of

our human story. We are now developing a quantum
understanding of reality, based on mathematical princi-
ples (and backed by discoveries in astronomy and
molecular biology as well as other fields of natural
science), to reflect and confirm what the greatest saints
and sages ever known have been telling us all along.
Essentially, we are coming to understand that the only

thing here is infinity in all directions.
Looking into a telescope, you know that “the universe”

spreads out before you without any identifiable end
point. Your looking may reveal all sorts of mind-blowing
phenomena: planets and stars, sunspots, nebulas,
comets, meteor showers, black holes and galaxies. As
you look, and in each moment, the Earth is hurtling
through space in its orbit of our Sun at about 67,000
miles per hour. This figure does not even take into
account the speed of the Earth’s rotation or the speed
with which our solar system is rotating in the Milky Way
(490,000 mph or something crazy like that). Yet because
of gravity, we and everything else here are held “in
place”! These forces and the unfathomable power be-
hind them are almost unspeakable. Countless billions of
light years are in operation, simultaneously in this very
instant, engendering a perpetual multiplicity of cosmic
events.
Being aware of these unbelievable forces, it becomes

evident that this activity of the universe extends forever.
Whatever you cannot see is here, too, the immensity of
which exceeds far beyond what can be observed, detect-
ed or measured.
This is a pretty huge realization!
Looking through a microscope to the inside of your body

or that of any other sentient life form, you can perceive
an equally mind-blowing universe. Bearing witness to
the intricate diversity and complexities of the living
organism bestows an awe that is unsurpassed. And we
also know that the stronger the capability of the micro-
scope, the more we can see of what’s really going on in
there. Increasing our magnification of what we are able
to view on the inside reveals there is also no end to life
going in this direction, in the very same way there is no
end when a telescope is pointed “outwards.” Inside and

outside, there is only infinite space.
The big question is: “What is ‘the looker’ in all of this?”
Where is he/she? Who is the one looking through the

telescope or the microscope? Is not the very possibility
of our beginning to observe and confirm this huge mind-
blowing reality—through advances in technology and
scientific understanding—a function of infinity itself?
Can something other than infinity be looking at infinity?
What is the delineation between “inside” and “outside”?
Is infinity not discovering the vastness, the limitlessness,
the immensity, the beauty and wonder of its own nature?
If this is true, where does infinity begin and end in you?

Can there be somewhere in which you are not in this
discovery?
Can you yourself be other than infinity? Other than

wholeness?
Is this not simply reality as it is?
* * *
Infinity literally means “never-ending.” Therefore, infini-

ty has constant never-endingness as its nature. So in this
moment, it is seamless. It has no demarcations or limits.
Our adopted definitions and beliefs—our concepts—are
responsible for imposing an apparent limit on infinity.
But apparent limits are fundamentally untrue. In math-

ematical terms, this means that no matter what number
you think of infinity as being, it is always at least one
more. No matter what size you perceive it to be, it is
always bigger.
Since infinity already exists as never-endingness, it is

only our continual discovery of observable aspects of it
that can make us think of it as expanding. The collective
learning and knowledge of humankind deepens through
our evolutionary development. But knowledge is the
same as infinity in the sense that all there is to know
already exists; we are simply uncovering more and more
of this fact, through the passage of time. What expands
is just our apprehension of it—our confirmation. This
process does not actually change anything, however.
The knowledge of everything everywhere is already
complete.
Whenever something “new” gets added to the knowledge

bank in which we store our cumulative evaluation of in-
finity’s immensity, we can fall into the trap of imagining
this new concept is somehow better at capturing what is
inherently uncontainable. Infinity is too immediate, too
free and too all-encompassing to be grasped in any des-
cription or process of categorization.
Within infinity, every concept that has ever been and

will ever be conceived of arises and disintegrates. In-
finity is that by which all concepts can appear, without
exception, and it remains here unaffected when they

disappear again—as they inevitably do. Infinity is al-
ready everything. It is already one never-ending whole-
ness. And it forever expresses the immediacy of “what
is.” Reality is simply, exactly this truth.
Can there be anything else here but this?
* * *
Clearly, what I am pointing to is not a place we can

reach. Never-ending wholeness is always only here,
complete and perfect. Our error lies in trying to put a
fixed value on it in order to understand it. (Please don’t
misinterpret my words as a rejection of the importance
of scientific study and advancement.) The concept-
forming mechanism—the mind, which can be none
other than infinity itself—is constantly working hard to
grasp reality as it is. This creates a feeling of struggle,
inside. We imagine ourselves as separate from reality,
learning about it or needing to attain it in order to find
happiness. Meanwhile, here is reality, all the time!
What concept does never-ending wholeness require?
Does it say something about itself?
Finally, and blissfully, we are able to let go of the need to

know.
* * *
A profoundly beautiful by-product of what our inquiry

into this truth reveals is an ever-deepening recognition
of the constant, sp0ntaneous, moment-to-moment infin-
ite infinity—the unchanging wholeness of life itself. By
inwardly investigating and confirming for ourselves the
never-endingness that’s here, which we do by not trying
to contain or limit the immediate moment in any
concept, we inevitably deepen into an “ah-ha” acknowl-
edgement of reality as it is and the obviousness of being
exactly this, ourselves.
This recognition is Self-Recognition, which is also known

as Self-Realization. It is important, however, that I ex-
plain a little bit about the concept of Self-Realization. In
my own experience and through what I observe in others
seeking to understand the truth, this concept (like every
concept!) can cause a lot of difficulty. Taking some
layers off this well-dressed idea will also be of help as we
transition into the next chapter.
* * *
We have confirmed that infinity, or never-ending whole-

ness, is the true nature of reality. This means, it is
always real. Forever. What’s real is real is real. One can-
not make reality more real than it already is. However,
our thinking process—the mind’s concept-forming
function—has been doing a pretty good job of trying to
make real what is unreal for aeons. That is, most of us
spend most of our lives imagining concepts to be true.
We try to make permanent what is innately imper-

manent: the experiences, images and feelings that arise
and dissolve within the always present infinity that we
are. In other words, the diverse forms that in fact are
only temporary appearances of infinity are what we’re
typically fixating our attention on, but not on infinity
itself. This causes suffering, and so finally we begin to
search in earnest for release from suffering. Through
study and practice, we come across words like “Self-
Realization,” “enlightenment” and “awakening,” which
lead to an investigation inside ourselves of whatever
hope or promise these words may represent for us.
The idea of becoming Self-Realized can only ever

complicate your effortless abidance as reality itself. You
are always real. You cannot become what you already
are. There is nothing you can do to make yourself reach
infinity, because it is already established as the eternal
nature of your own Self. You are only ever infinite; by
default you are inseparable from the immediate reality as
it is. But what you can come to realize is that you have
been making real that which is unreal. When you let go
of thinking the unreal to be real, your natural, normal
Self-Recognition of being a singular never-ending whole-
ness is spontaneously available. The immensity of this
truth illuminates your awareness of your true identity.
The “unreal thinking” that may be covering up your

recognition of your eternal nature could look something
like the thought, “I am separate from infinity.” As we
have already confirmed in the current chapter, this kind

of thinking is incorrect. It simply isn’t factual. Every-
thing that appears is only just infinity appearing as itself
in form. That means, all your thoughts, all your feelings,
your body, your relationships, the constantly changing
circumstances of your life and everything else arise as
events perceived within you. Every ounce of meaning
you can invest in any of these things is also arising
within you—within never-ending wholeness. Your being
is the source of it all.
When you recognize this, you recognize the real as the

real and the unreal as the unreal. Recognizing what is
unreal does not mean you begin to reject or resist forms
and appearances, because these are also yourself. In fact,
it is only your investment or belief in them as true—
when you forget to simultaneously regard them as
simply temporary appearances of your own infinity—
that makes them unreal. When you know that never-
ending wholeness is the only thing here, you recognize
that absolutely everything is forever just this, and you
welcome forms and appearances as natural expressions
of reality. They are all coming and going within your
own wondrous, indivisible, and boundless cosmic free-
dom. Giving rise to forms and appearances is an inher-
ent function of this freedom. So none of these have to be
a problem anymore, nor do you become attached to
them or try to keep them permanently with you, because
this results in suffering. They all arise and dissolve in
their own way—spontaneously, effortlessly... freely.
Self-Realization simply means you live with the under-

standing that Self and infinity are words for the same
thing—the only thing here. You recognize this alone to
be real; you know it as an absolute, unassailable fact.
You see that what makes you authentic is your nature of
being ever-present. Hereness itself is your unchanging
natural essence. So Self-Realization is not a new “fea-
ture” that you add to yourself. Quite the contrary, you
are only just recognizing what is, what has always been
and can only ever be.
The reason I prefer the concept of Self-Recognition is

because it has more immediacy to it, which is what this
Course keeps pointing you to: your own immediate,
ever-present, eternal nature. Your own never-ending
wholeness.
Reality is real... and here... right now.
It cannot be in some other place or time. You are this, in

this very moment and in every moment.
Are you able to recognize what I’m saying, yet?
I’ve already thrown out more concepts than I had in-

tended to. Let’s move on!
CHAPTER 3:
Knowledge Must Directly Apply to the Whole
Infinity is another word for that which says “I” in

you.
In this chapter, we’re going to leave behind the concept

“never-ending wholeness”—which is a mouthful—and
simply let infinity, reality or life be default words for what
I am talking about. We now know that all these
concepts are referring to the same thing, the only thing
that’s here, which cannot be defined or grasped in any
concept. Other terms I like are “ultimate truth” and
“eternal nature.” However, I will keep reiterating that
once you begin to confirm for yourself the deepest
possible meaning of these concepts, in your practice you
will keep going forever in this direction (the Selfward
one), leaving behind any conclusions that someone else
has relayed to you about it. Every conclusion that can be
expressed through language is only a symbol for some-
thing infinitely brighter, more profound, more mira-
culous and more beautiful.
Confirming, confirming, confirming... deeper and deep-

er, eternally. You won’t arrive at a stopping point or an
end to it all. This is the legacy of what you are.
So we are already moving into the realm of practice in

this chapter. Practice and understanding are two sides
of the same coin. They cannot be separated. Strong

understanding automatically leads to practicing Self-
Inquiry in a clear, uncluttered, simple and direct way.
You will find that the more your understanding of what
is actually here saturates your being, the more your
practice will deepen and expand—and vice versa.
* * *
I thought it interesting that when I looked up the word

direct in the dictionary (the Great Book of Concepts –
ha), the next two words to appear before me were “exact”
and “immediate.” Presented in the form of an adverb,
directly was defined as “at once” and “without delay.” I
feel all four of these synonyms contain great relevance in
the context of our application of the knowledge being
conveyed here in words. Let’s devote ourselves to un-
packing these ideas a bit.
From where you currently are on the path you walk in

your investigation of truth, if you can choose to uncom-
promisingly pay attention only to those pointers that
encourage you to look directly—exactly, immediately, at
once and without delay—at yourself, your one-focused
approach is going to save you a lot of time. “Direct
pointers” are those that compel a truthful, genuine ex-
ploration of what you are, leaving no room for anything
else but this. If you decisively wish to recognize, confirm
and live the truth of yourself, you have to look here.
Whatever you may think about what you are is not pre-
cise. That kind of “looking” is taking you elsewhere

(which it has done for most of your lifetime, correct?).
There is really no point in delaying your direct inquiry,
which is the same as your immediate and exact looking,
any longer.
Moment to moment, we are endowed with the funda-

mentally perfect and appropriate capacity to directly
discover our eternal nature, the infinity that is here.
Generally, however, because our conditioning has temp-
orarily obscured this capacity with concepts, we expend
our energy looking for answers outside of ourselves. In
our search it can take time and discernment to sift
through all the other, indirect methods that are
presented to us as “means” of accessing our own direct
apprehension of truth. These means tend to make us
believe that our practice of confirming, appreciating and
increasingly familiarizing ourselves with the immensity
of life—the infinite wholeness of it, its wondrous peace,
its beauty and omniscience, its inseparability from what
we are—should be more complicated than it needs to be.
Complicated, indirect methods diminish the full power
we have available to us through our mutual con-
templation of infinity, which is the only thing that can
really matter due to its basic nature of being infinite,
eternal and immediately, exactly here.
We can always hold profound respect for whatever

teachings, techniques or methods have been presented
to us while we walk our path forward. For many of us,
through years of practice our engagement with these

means reflects a deepening process of maturation in our
search to know the ultimate truth. Indirect methods
appear in infinity like everything else. They arise in their
own timely and unique way for each person; we may
work with them for a while (or a long time) and then
move on. Eventually, inside ourselves we arrive at the
desire to accord directly with what is actually here. We
wish to do so all at once, and without delay. At this
time, indirect methods can lose their staying power. But
they have all had their place in bringing us to where we
currently are in our path. They serve us, as they lead to a
focusing and a refinement of our investigation.
Once our attention is established firmly Selfward, differ-

ent techniques or practices may continue to be part of
our lives according to personal taste, and they are simply
enjoyed and appreciated as marvelous, diverse expres-
sions of life like all other things we experience. They are
encompassed within our authentic looking at Self, within
our respect for and celebration of the sovereign living
truth.
* * *
The direct application of knowledge is not about any

philosophy, method or technique. It is solely about you.
If you are receptive, earnest and passionate about con-

firming the nature of infinity as being the same nature as
what you are, you will need to apply the understanding

that infinity is the only thing here—directly, to yourself.
Your endeavour will become one of recognizing how
boundless, how free, and how infinite the immediate
moment is, and then investing that full recognition
Selfward.
This investment is an endless, non-conceptual appli-

cation of the ultimate, imperishable truth of your own
being. That is, “prior to concepts” is the stance you take
in your confirmation of that which is always here. You
rest your attention in the immediacy of the moment—in
the source of all things. Resting like this soon becomes
effortless, and it allows your true nature to be self-
revealing. It excludes nothing of your life or circum-
stances. Your devotion and your bliss are for this alone.
* * *
Let’s go back to remembering the immensity of the

moment, the infinite size of the whole of reality right
now. In all directions, there is nothing but infinity. The
word infinity points to the inconceivable, unfathomable,
miraculous, indivisible, seamless, never-ending existence
of the only thing that’s here. In this precise instant, it is
impossible that any of the billions of tiny microscopic
cells spinning in the universe you call “my body” could
be separate from the atoms spinning in some as-yet
undetected and unidentified astronomical “body” bil-
lions of galaxies away. If we investigate closely, we real-
ize that there can actually not even be any distance

involved at all, because the moment is always ever an
expression of wholeness—which leaves nothing apart
from itself. It is simultaneously local and non-local.
Are any dividing lines possible in this immensity?
No. The same essence has to be spinning as everything,

seen and unseen. Whatever differences we perceive are
only appearances that occur to us because of our sensory
faculties, which are also an expression of the whole
infinite moment. This is the eternal truth.
So with this we keep in mind the huge “stage” within

which our inquiry into reality is occurring. If our
investigation is pivoting around the habitual mental
assumption of being somehow separate, or of being “just
my body,” we are unable to engage in the important
work of confirming and reconfirming reality as it is.
Truthful Self-Inquiry is not possible in this manner. Via
such an approach we attempt to arrive at the truth
through indirect means; the normal, natural flow of life
becomes distorted by a search based in our conditioned
thoughts and feelings. These cause us to imagine—to
literally hallucinate—that what we’re looking for is to be
found in some external or future source. Out of a
contracted state of searching, the ever-present immense
reality is not attended to, and things as they are in their
simplicity and immediacy cannot be apperceived mo-
ment by moment.
You are not something small.
What are small are the concepts we spend our lives

holding onto and carrying around, which for the most
part appear as variations of the central themes “me,”
“my” and “mine.” Without exception, these concepts
give rise to all the rest. A marking characteristic of our
individual and collective thinking processes is an
unquestioned belief in the I-other dichotomy, which
becomes the predominant (and illusory!) tension
governing our view of what reality is. This tension
effectively represents the root of humanity’s suffering.
Living from this tension, we feel fragmented, constricted,
separate... small.
All the while, here is this immense, limitless, cosmic

stage of reality. What we call “I” and “other” are equally
of its own essence, which means that in truth it makes
no distinction between I and other. The substratum of
every distinction—of every apparent difference—is
infinity’s essence of sameness, existing in and as all
things simultaneously everywhere.
Right now, if you directly apply this knowledge Selfward,

all at once and leaving out nothing, you will uncondi-
tionally recognize and admit to a primary, indisputable
fact: Everything is yourself.
This is what is meant by the direct application of

knowledge. This is Self-Knowledge. But it does not stop
at any idea of “having” Self-Knowledge. What it implies

is that your Selfward-Facing Way has become estab-
lished; the direction of your looking becomes one-
pointed, inside. The unlimited freedom of the complete
here-and-now moment is where your awareness contin-
uously rests. Your own infinity extends forever and al-
lows your practice to become ever more direct, subtle,
clear and concept-free. Practicing like this reveals that
the immensity of life can never be challenged, is ever-
available, true, real, and lives you in love.
Soon, it is luminously self-evident that all beings are

lived by the same love that you are. An unconditional
reality is here, living the resplendent wholeness of itself.
The “I” in you and in all beings is a singular, vast, all-
inclusive oneness.
* * *
Arising spontaneously within infinity is the universal

concept “I.” Currently, over seven billion people are
inhabiting the Planet, saying “I” in our various human
languages. Innumerable billions of other creatures are
here, too, enacting their I-ness in their own way. In Self-
Inquiry, we can contemplate whether it is possible for
each one of these billions of beings to arise from separate
sources. If so, what are they, and where do they reside?
Could every individual body be self-contained as its own

distinct source? No. Bodies are made of a collection of
inert elements. Something has to be present as the

“glue” that gives birth to us, grows and develops us,
keeps the heart pumping and the lungs breathing, the
food digesting and the neurons firing. Something incon-
ceivably miraculous is that by which we think and feel, by
which we can perceive anything at all. By which we wash
the dishes and brush our teeth. By which all our doing
happens. By which we have “good days” and “bad days.”
By which absolutely everything appears and dissolves.
Could there be some “higher power” somewhere, taking

care of all this from some far-off place? No. If the power
living your body right now resided elsewhere, the collec-
tion of inert elements you call me would be insentient,
lifeless. It would be devoid of consciousness and aware-
ness. It is this great power that makes possible your
reading of these words. Not distinguishing between in-
dividual bodies, and without an identifiable beginning
point or end point, life is playing itself out. Something is
here, ever-present... animating all of this. It has to be
living you, in this moment and every moment. It has to
be the moment itself. It has to be you.
This same something has to be that into which each col-

lection of inert elements returns at the moment we call
death. But is there ultimately any form of diminishment,
reduction or loss in this return? Could there be “death”
to that which has remained here prior to, during and
after the formation of any individual collection of inert
elements? To that which creates and recreates these el-
ements in an uninterrupted, unceasing diversity of life

forms? To that which must clearly be the universal
source of this whole mind-blowing phenomenon? Can
even the “inert elements” being lived by this be other
than this?
What is it that gives life to our living? What is not

augmented or reduced by any individual sense of “I”?
Not subject to birth, decay or death? Not subject to
change in the least?
The answer to these questions, which cannot come in

the form of any concept, reveals itself when we look
directly to the source of our sense of I-ness. That is, we
inquire into the non-conceptual eternal nature that is
our true being, moment by moment—before we even say
the word “I.”
This is the real I. This is who you are.
* * *
The direct application of knowledge in Self-Inquiry

means that you commit to increasingly familiarizing
yourself with your eternal nature, not just with the tem-
porary phenomena that come and go within the eternal.
The latter kind of familiarization has been going on

inside us since we were children. After we become
attached to the word “I,” everything else follows, leading
to a smaller and smaller sense of self; we identify with
whatever markers or characteristics the mind tags onto

our I-ness. Essentially, we think ourselves, repeating
thoughts about what we are over and over again
throughout our waking lives. And due to constant
repetition we believe them. We don’t double-check the
source of our thinking.
My Teacher says: “I am” is the perfect starting point of

inquiry, but “I am this or that” causes big problems.
He also points out that the great tragedy of the human

experience is the word which typically arises after the
word “I”: want. Our minds all too often become contam-
inated with the idea that something is perpetually miss-
ing, and we look to external conditions or objects in the
hope of finding a way to resolve this void. But of course,
it never works. Fundamentally, the only true missing
thing is the recognition that what is here prior to all im-
agination of lack is ever complete, whole, boundless, and
free. What is actually doing the imagining is itself so free
that natural everyday human desires are included and
accommodated like everything else, but until we are in
touch with this truth our wanting clouds our freedom
and causes suffering. We are rarely taught to look in the
Selfward direction, and so we overlook the possibility of
putting an end to the erroneous thinking at the root of
suffering.
Looking Selfward entails an intimate investigation of

that which is continuously here before the word “I” ever
appears. What is found in your looking comes to be

recognized as the same infinity that is also equally here
when a sense of I-ness arises in you and after it dissolves.
However, to clearly confirm the ultimate truth for
yourself without a shadow of a doubt, taking a stance of
“prior to” is the most helpful. Your purpose is to become
familiar with the actual, authentic, immediate source
that the word “I” refers to.
What is the nature of your am-ness before you identify

yourself as this or that? Laying aside every concept you
have about who you are, right now, who are you?
Direct practice reveals what is left over when all concepts

are dropped. Here and now, you can discover your own
source as the same indivisible unity animating the
totality of the cosmos in all directions. “What is left
over” is what has always been and can never not be. It is
the pre-existent, changeless reality—everlasting life. In
Self-Inquiry, you learn to let the immediate moment be
exactly the way it is, without adding something like the
word “I.” To be here, you don’t need this word, or any
word. You don’t need any image of yourself. With or
without “I,” everything everywhere is simply, authent-
ically, unmistakably just here... just this.
Your hereness is the infinite, immaculate source of all.

And you come to know this by being it. By knowing
nothing about it. Your willingness to be your immediate
being without adding this or that brings you Home.
Here, you abide as your eternal Self.
* * *
When earnest Self-Inquiry arises in a person’s life, gener-

ally it is because she or he is tired of feeling small and
separate. Feelings of smallness and separateness are
synonymous with suffering. So we always take with us
into our practice the remembrance of the immensity that
is here, moment to moment. This remembrance is what
allows you to completely let go into what you actually
are, which is this immensity. Same same.
When your Selfward “letting go” becomes the simple and

continuous direction of your living, even remembrance
itself is not really required. Rather, your Self-Inquiry is
like a beacon illuminating your way of life and takes the
place of needing to remember “something.” It all hap-
pens automatically; there is no time or distance, no effort
involved. Letting go brings great joy, comfort and peace,
so you naturally lose interest in going in a direction that
creates a feeling of smallness by forming more concepts
about an imagined separate self.
Through your direct application of the truth and your

ongoing confirmation of your eternal nature, what you
come to realize is that the idea of being separate was
always only a case of mistaken identity. This did not
ever alter your “true identity” in any way, but the illusion
was convincing nonetheless. What normally takes time
and practice, after you acknowledge this fact, is be-

coming consciously established in your true identity so
the tendency to get caught up in the illusion can be
completely given up. As practice deepens, that is, the
illusory appearances within infinity lose their convincing
hold inside of you.
The illusion may have been running on automatic pilot

for decades in your life. As I referred to in the first
chapter, being conditioned into the illusion happens
innocently and from a very young age, without our yet
having the sophistication developmentally to reflect
upon and question this conditioning. By accepting
innocence as an unavoidable foundation upon which our
mistaken identities were built, we can have great
patience for ourselves when we practice Self-Inquiry.
My Teacher likes to refer to the practice of Self-Inquiry

as analogous to “deleting useless data from your hard
drive.” We all grow up “downloading” information from
others and the world around us. Much of this infor-
mation is helpful, and necessary. We need it to develop
our full personhood. The learning process is about sur-
vival and the creative possibilities of mind, which have
evolutionary significance. But through a life of accumu-
lating concepts about what we are and mistaking them
for the truth, eventually we become earnest about un-
cluttering our consciousness as we develop one-pointed
vision on our Selfward-Facing Way. We recognize that
the clutter of our mental conditioning is like a veil blan-
keting over the pure, infinite freedom of our eternal na-

ture.
For those of us with minds that have been conditioned in

this manner (99% of us, at least!), matching patience
with determination and perseverance in practice is also
very important. Patience without determination breeds
stagnation, and determination without patience breeds
rigidity. In stagnation, the energy we have to apply—in
an ongoing manner—the knowledge that “infinity alone
is here” loses its directness and precision. In rigidity, we
are unable to allow the natural process of relaxing and
letting go, which are inevitable companions in our con-
firmation of what we truly are, to take its own course.
Striking a healthy balance between patience and deter-

mination when you practice Self-Inquiry is the most
effective approach to maintaining your direct application
of Self-Knowledge in the midst of the infinite moment.
Your conviction that what you are is the infinite moment
cannot be challenged then. From unshakable convic-
tion, the concepts that previously deluded you with
separateness and smallness merge in your omniscient,
immense, ever-established Selfhood.
In the peace of deep conviction, your true identity spon-

taneously shines.
* * *
With this very big understanding, you may then ask

what you are to do with the illusion you have been living
with all this time. There are two answers to that ques-
tion. The first answer is: “Nothing.” Trying to do some-
thing about the illusion—to manipulate, fix or enhance
it—is all an avoidance of the real issue. This doing is
activity of mind based in a small, separate idea of self.
Working with the illusion is not going to help you.
Illusion is illusion. Period.
The second answer is: “You unclutter yourself.” You

commit to deleting all the useless data off your hard
drive so that your eternal nature can shine clear and
bright. You honestly and genuinely investigate what the
word “I” refers to when you think it, not adding this or
that. You face squarely Selfward and keep going in the
same direction to ascertain what is actually here.
This is how illusion falls away. This is “looking Self-

ward.” And it can only proceed from the immediate
moment. There is no other time or place you can go to
confirm the ultimate truth. The only direct, precise,
exact application of knowledge in all the galaxies is that
which occurs here, in you. Maintaining patience, deter-
mination and persistence, with great curiosity and hum-
ility, you look to the here-and-now source within which
“you” are arising.
What you encounter is inconceivable, and yet it becomes

abidingly self-evident. You recognize that infinity alone
says “I” in you, in everyone and everything. Infinity is
the eternal subject, with nothing secondary to itself.
In this way you accord with your true nature and live
from your direct experience of the sole reality—
indistinguishable from yourself. The deep, unimpeded,
radiant understanding that arises from direct practice is
the joyous investment of your lifetime.
In you, Self-Knowledge may look something like this:
I am the boundless, seamless, infinite ever-present Whole.

My being includes everything existing and not existing,
everything seen and unseen, the formed and the formless.
I have no division or separation. My body appears in this,
as does every other body. All my thoughts, feelings and
experiences are seen as appearances of Myself. I express
simultaneously as the most extraordinary and the most
ordinary. I am the pure potential of the Moment. Here-
ness and Nowness are my ever-established qualities. The
past, present and future are only symbols of time passing,
within my Timeless Essence. Birth and death cannot
touch me. Before, during and after every birth and death
cycle, I AM.
Life Itself is my Eternal Nature. There is only Infinity here

in all directions, neither to be realized nor attained. I am
This Alone.
* * *
And these are all just written concepts on a white back-

ground.
Who can confirm the truth of them but you?
Who could be the sole one responsible for the direct ap-
plication of Self-Knowledge apart from the one reading
these words in this very moment?
CHAPTER 4:
Self-Inquiry is the Whole’s Business
Infinity’s own “letting go” dissolves all mistaken

identities.
This chapter of the Course is an attempt to describe the

process of Self-Inquiry through the eyes of the very big
understanding you now have. Leading into Chapter 5,
this will be everything you need to establish your
practice from a very blissful, effortless place inside
yourself. I suggest you move as slowly as you can
through this chapter, because the semantics of it are very
subtle. In essence, it is the intrinsic subtlety of the
understanding that allows you to practice in a concept-
free way. This is not a cognitive or mental approach, and
yet for the purpose of evoking a direct apperception of
the truth within you, the challenges inherent to the use
of language-based points of reference are required.
* * *
The strongest foundation of understanding you can

bring to your practice is:
“Infinity (or some other equally big concept)

is the only thing here.
Therefore,
I myself have to be exactly this, too.”
With this foundation, what needs to be surrendered to is

the fact that Self-Inquiry can only be undertaken by
infinity itself, which is your real nature. There is no
separate “you” to do it. Since only one thing exists, this
thing does everything. The concept of your doing
something makes for complicated, indirect practice,
because this kind of thinking produces the idea that
there is something to get (or get rid of) or somewhere to
go. You now know that the concept of a separate some-
one to get something or go somewhere is an illusion.
You are already ever-established as the one reality—
indivisible, infinite and free.
Within the absolute freedom of infinity there are forces

of expansion and contraction creating and recreating
energy in a vast cosmic arena. You and I appear as a
reflection of this play of energy. Infinity’s freedom has
given rise to the idea of a separate self, and this same
freedom dissolves it. Why mistaken identity occurs in
infinity as a by-product of contraction in the human
mind—why infinity believes its own hallucination of
being a separate, individual “me”—no one can ever say.
It is all a great, incomprehensible mystery. If we go back
to the analogy given in Chapter 2, we know that our
trying to figure out the why’s is how “partness” strives to
decipher the wholeness of itself. It is like an eye turning
backwards to catch a glimpse of what it looks like, which
it cannot do! This is a very effortful struggle that does
not produce any concrete results.
In Self-Inquiry, all this striving is given up. You could

say that, in you, infinity wants to completely let go of its
own illusion in order to resume its boundless, eternal
immediacy. But you have to be careful here, because
when I say “infinity wants to...” this imposes a human
interpretation of meaning on what by nature is free of all
that. I am of course not referring to a definable entity
that could have knowable intentions. The trouble is that
we are very limited in our use of language to convey
what’s really going on.
What these words aim to illuminate is in essence a tacit

understanding arising in the wholeness of infinity itself,
which is not reserved only for a “you” or an “I.” Such a
tacit understanding is a spontaneous occurrence, in the
same way that absolutely everything else is. It is all a
totally impersonal happening. When we speak of these
matters from a human standpoint, which we inevitably
must, we can acknowledge that the personal aspect
cannot be avoided in our communication about them.
This is the beauty and the challenge in being as direct as
possible in the pointing towards what is actually here,
and in the encouragement to stay just with this.
* * *
Infinity’s immediate nature is devoid of everything per-

sonal. Whatever we feel to be personal cannot touch the
omniscience of the immense reality as it is, which is the
only thing operating each moment, impersonally. The
contraction we experience around personal thoughts and

feelings eventually compels us to investigate their validi-
ty; intuitively, we know there must be something more
here than the sense of smallness these produce inside us.
In most traditions throughout the world people look to a

“higher power” for delivery from suffering. When one
feels small, considerable solace and comfort can be
found in the belief that an external agent of grace,
compassion and benevolence will eventually bring peace.
All the while, the everlasting peace that is sought is
already the very nature of the one who seeks it, and it is
available moment to moment as oneself. The highest
power—the only real power—is the fullness of life
expressing itself in and as each instant. This expression
infuses the sense of I-ness in all beings everywhere. It is
the pre-existing reality that makes all of this possible.
Your unlimited true nature has nothing external to itself
and is already overflowing with grace, compassion and
benevolence. When you lay aside your attachment to
concepts, these “qualities” just naturally exude them-
selves without effort.
So imagining infinity as an object “out there” (something

other than what you are) needs to be dropped in order to
familiarize yourself with the immensity of the sole
infinite reality. The title of this chapter, “Self-Inquiry is
the Whole’s Business,” is for the purpose of supporting
your understanding that the confirmation of life’s never-
endingness is not enacted by any individual. Linguist-
ically, we are forced to rely on the first, second and third

person when we speak, which creates an apparent
distinction between I, you and that. But all of these
words arise from and point back to the one subject, free
of all objectification.
In Self-Inquiry, the thinking mind that projected the

separate “I” into infinity—and subsequently sought an
additional object to resolve the feeling of separation—is
let go of. All of that activity literally recedes backwards
to where it came from, and infinity abides in its original
totality, here. What you thought you were is reabsorbed
into the heart of oneness... into what you actually are.
Infinity alone inquires, infinity alone lets go, and infinity

alone abides. This recognition is the wondrous freedom
that is waiting for you, here and now.
* * *
Genuine, direct Self-Inquiry is the process by which

infinity initiates a spontaneous dissolution of its own
tendency to contract around an individualized feeling of
“I.” Through the release of I-ness as only a temporary
appearance whose real nature is impersonal wholeness,
the infinite moment purely and authentically expresses
itself. This process is similar to what occurs at the
moment of death, when the life force of every sentient
being is surrendered. Nothing personal endures follow-
ing that moment. But having given rise to a body and
living as that particular physical form, the whole is

unaffected once the life span of the body form has
exhausted itself. The life that forever is continues on in
new and different forms.
Practicing Self-Inquiry, the opportunity is to live from

this recognition now and for the rest of your lifetime,
through infinity’s own life force—exactly as you are.
Your true life is the causeless source of all forms. It is
already overflowing with the endless, undying fullness of
itself.
* * *
The fear of death is very pervasive in the collective

human psyche. When we die, nothing will remain by
which to “know” ourselves. We lose all features of our
particular identity as a particular person: our body, our
name, our relationships, our histories, our successes and
failures, our personalities, our gender. Every thing is lost
at death. And due to our unquestioned attachment to all
of these things as markers of who or what we are, the
ideas we carry about the inevitable loss of them in death
engender great fear of voidness, and the possibility of
non-existence.
What is generally not contemplated in the lives of most

people is that during the 24-hour cycle of everyone’s
normal living, the same loss of all identifying qualities
occurs each night in deep sleep. When you stop dream-
ing and transition into deep sleep, you “drop off” abso-
lutely everything you are aware of when you are awake.
In that state you have no reference points by which to
know yourself. There is no I or other in all of existence.
There is only peace. When you wake in the morning,
you “pick up” your body again, along with everything you
think of as my life. The one who slept deeply was there
as just peace alone; and then awakening, this same one
adopts and identifies all that is perceived through the
sensory faculties—calling those things “me.” This pro-
cess is universal, the same for each person everywhere.
How could the one who slept free of all concepts not be
the same one who gets up and begins the day of ever-
changing life events? How could the concept-free sleep-
er be different from the awake one, washing dishes and
brushing teeth, going to work and attending to family
life and friendships? How could the peace of being
without concepts not be available at any given moment
to the one who automatically relinquishes all of them,
every single night?
* * *
The reason that Self-Inquiry occurs in the waking state is

because in sleep there is not enough consciousness for
the infinite reality to become fully aware of the
wondrous, inherently unalterable peace of itself. This is
very important to understand when establishing practice
in your life. Many people ask: "If infinity is the only
thing here, why bother practicing?" The answer may be

obvious at this stage of the Course. For you to resume
the purity, freedom and immediacy of your eternal
nature—to live from the knowledge that infinity and
yourself are one and the same—a conscious, doubtless
recognition of this ultimate truth is called for.
The waking state is the period in our 24-hour cycle when

the most consciousness is available to us for Self-Inquiry.
It is also the period when we experience the most doubt.
Whatever doubts we have are due to our misidentif-

ication with the temporary forms and appearances
arising in our own infinity, which are not here in deep
sleep. Practice is a golden opportunity to take advantage
of being awake and conscious to seek the source of
whatever thoughts or sensations arise in the moment. In
this way, one can become familiar with abidance in the
field of peace that is the substratum of them all: the
imperishable ground of being. Whether forms are seen
or not, peace is eternally present and ever available.
When through Self-Inquiry the freedom of living without

constant fixation on a separate sense of “I” is known in
the waking state, peace is recognized to be the unbroken
current of infinity’s own nature—here identically in
waking, dreaming and deep sleep, in life and in death.
Laying aside all concepts about what you are, you have
the capacity to be willing to lose everything for the
discovery of what cannot be lost. All-pervasive, un-
characterized being can never be extinguished by any

state or cause. The unmoving, unchanging source is
playing itself out moment by moment through all the
cosmos, without end.
* * *
Looking with these “eyes” in Self-Inquiry, from this

vantage point it is clear that not only is there no possible
end; infinity has no beginning point, either. If you tried
to determine a place or time in evolution when you came
into existence, you would be forced to undertake an
infinite regression analysis. Did you begin when you had
your first thought? Did you begin when you were born
as a baby? When you were conceived? No, that’s not far
enough back. When the sperm and egg that carried the
DNA now expressing as your body were in two separate
bodies, you had to have been here. At one time you were
manifesting as sperm and egg, and now you are mani-
festing as a person. These are only different forms of the
same you existing in all of manifestation’s unending
diversity. You are infinity’s own perpetual fertility,
organizing and reorganizing itself in form. The freedom
that you are is the infinite process of living and dying as
everyone and everything.
Your real nature was never born and cannot die.
So from the vast perspective we discussed in Chapter 2

regarding infinity’s spatial never-endingness (infinity
extends “outwards” and “inwards” in all directions), we

can realize that the same principle applies to our idea of
time. Mentally, you can look back and double-check any
instant of your life to discover what has never not been
here. The same changeless moment gives rise to all
change, all experience. What we call past, present and
future are only concepts, having apparent reality because
of memory and the serial process of thought. But when
we inquire honestly and authentically, we are able to see
the unreal nature of a mind that relies upon memory and
serial thinking to validate its I-ness. Such a mind has
conceived a house of cards. What is actually here is
timeless, boundless space, absent of beginnings and
endings.
All times, all space, all directions and all dimensions are
an expression of the one infinite, continuously present,
limitless reality.
* * *
Self-Inquiry can only be a function of the whole, for and

by itself. The “you” that you think you are is nothing; it
is forever changing and therefore without permanent
substance. From a belief in that small illusory appari-
tion, the knowledge of the ultimate truth of yourself
cannot flower. The package of cells and elements that
makes up your body-mind mechanism is a tiny blip, a
reflection somewhere in the infinity of endless galaxies.
A blip does not have the capacity to know itself as the

totality of everything, everywhere.
Your entire life from cradle to grave arises and dissolves

in a timeless universe. The Earth, and everything that
happens on it, is a grain of sand amidst countless
trillions of cosmic beaches—all in continuous operation
now. The immensity of that, the boundlessness of that
and the non-conceptual nature of that is the un-
imaginable power that is brought to bear on inquiry into
the eternal nature of the Self.
Through the process of Self-Inquiry, the Whole inquires

into its own immortal never-ending actuality in order to
“know” itself as this. So when you practice, whatever
form you see yourself as will have to leave the stage. Do
you hold a mirror in front of your eyes to know that you
are? What is forever whole and unchanging cannot be
seen. Your formless beingness is pre-existent to any
forms that arise in you as thought. Everything you see is
already this formless beingness at the core. Eventually,
you will recognize that all thoughts and feelings, all
images and sounds are passing through an infinite field
of peace—of presence. Before any thought ever occurred
to you, before you were just sperm and egg destined to
become a human animal, infinity's eternal being was
your true nature. This same nature has lived you every
instant of your life, is here now, and will be here always.
* * *
Moving into the final chapter of this volume of the

Course, you will become aware of the fact that practice
in the life of a person can happen with tremendous ease
and surrender. When you “locate” the essential be-
ingness of yourself in the immediate moment, and rec-
ognize this to be the non-negotiable, irrefutable truth of
what is real, there is absolutely nothing for you to do.
There is no need for “not doing,” either. All conceivable
pairs of opposites—like doing and not doing, being and
non-being, I and other, living and dying—merge in the
spontaneous, natural, moment to moment flow of exist-
ence. You relax completely into this, because you trust
that nothing can ever happen to you. Nor can you go
anywhere.
Infinity, your own Self, is always everywhere simultane-

ously. All of life is permeated and saturated by the
Whole. In you, in the waking state and in all states, in-
finity can know the wholeness of itself.
This is Self-Knowledge in effortless expression, every

moment, as “I.”
CHAPTER 5:
Concept-Free Practice is Your Freedom
Self-Inquiry leads to the culmination and the end of

conceptualization about the ultimate truth.
Your eternal nature spontaneously proclaims itself if,

inside, you just say nothing about it and remain at-
tentive. You cannot miss it. The simplicity and direct-
ness of the practice of authentic Self-Inquiry “gives you”
this. It takes you Home. If you have read this volume
with a wide open heart and mind, and continue in this
manner through the last chapter, you will not even need
the volume on Practice. When the understanding is
complete, practice is spontaneous and automatic. The
second part of this Course is an elaboration on the more
subtle aspects of Self-Inquiry, which you will already be
confirming for yourself through your own simple, direct
practice. The magnificent vastness of your immediate
infinity is a far more fascinating study than anything that
could be written down throughout the entire world.
Practice makes you fall in love with this.
Once your attention is directed to an earnest investiga-

tion of the immediate, ever-present nature of reality,
nothing anyone has said about it compares to what your
inquiry reveals: grace, boundless love, total fulfillment
and beyond. You will realize that this is all you have ever
wanted or yearned for, and there is no end to the bliss

you feel as you let go with ever more certainty into it—
dropping every concept as it appears. Bliss arises
through your surrender to the freedom of your exact,
natural Self.
You will not need to go to any other source to confirm

what you are. In fact, ultimately you cannot. You alone
can become the authority in this matter. The source of
all confirmation resides in your own being.
* * *
The most direct route Home is the “path” that has been
handed down to us from the great giants of Self-Inquiry
who, throughout the ages, have attempted to convey the
eternal truth for the benefit of others. On their shoul-
ders we stand when we practice, and always the oppor-
tunity is to begin where they left off, going deeper and
deeper inside with our own never-ending confirmation.
The message from these giants is the simplest instruction

possible. It is the one that is so obvious we fail to notice
it in all our striving and searching, until we internally
develop the humility and the willingness to surrender all
that we thought was real for the sake of consciously living
the true reality—without any concepts about it. The
message is uncompromising, and it contains the most
sublime, perfect answer to every question:
Be still.
Sit with yourself.

Be exactly as you are.
Before any traditions, lineages or practices arose in

human evolution, before there were any books or
scriptures or teachings, people simply sat quietly and
confirmed the Great Matter for themselves. This has
been the true, time-tested Way. This is the original way
of the direct application of Self-Knowledge. It is the
most effective, ever-available resource by which to face
squarely Selfward and keep going in the same direction.
And absolutely nothing is needed for this but you—the
already established, immediately endless infinity.
You can search your whole lifetime, and at the moment

of your death when the life force in your body succumbs
to the bliss and silence of eternal life, what is surren-
dered to in that moment is the same bliss and silence—
the same substratum of peace—that can be recognized
as your own Self when you simply keep quiet here and
now. When you give yourself time to do nothing else but
look directly at the immensity of your hereness without
superimposing a single concept on top of it.
The unimaginable freedom of our “quiet inside” is bot-

tomless, and accessible to each of us, forever. Being still
reveals to you how wondrously infinite your real nature
is. In the heart of this blissful stillness, infinity can only
lead to more infinity. Look here, wait, and see...
* * *
In Self-Inquiry, we get to stop overlooking the one thing

which is so omnipresent and yet so subtle that it infuses
all the galaxies everywhere, not leaving out a single
atom. It gets overlooked because of our concepts—the
activity of our thinking minds. Remember that the
source of all concepts is the one primary, universal
concept “I.” Practice is about discovering the actual
nature of the feeling of being manifesting as your life
force, so that any sense of separation arising from beliefs
about what you are in the form of “this” or “that” can be
let go of. Even this feeling of being has an immediate
source. It is permanently free of any adherence to being
or not being. Abiding as this alone, your true and real
Self shines forth unimpeded by temporal, illusory
concepts.
What is it that has never changed throughout all the

ways you have experienced your I-ness in this lifetime?
Before the word “I” is said, before any image of yourself
appears, what is here?
These are some of the questions that take you directly

Home through the practice of Self-Inquiry. But how you
“ask” them is not an approach based in thinking. The
willingness to say nothing in sitting practice while
remaining curious and attentive is the most skillful form
of questioning, and it provides all the answers. If
thoughts come, they come, if thoughts go, they go. Stay-
ing with the source of all these, your concept-free Self,

you can become familiar with this boundless, infinite
field within which thoughts arise and dissolve in you.
You can be here without reaching for anything. You can
allow the full length and breadth of your quietude to
extend into eternity.
Spending time sitting with yourself takes practice. We

are not used to doing just this in our busy lives. Our
waking state from morning to night is filled with all the
different kinds of effort we invest in the demands of fam-
ilies, jobs and other commitments. This is all the doing
of infinity like everything else. No problem. But for your
own process of familiarization with and confirmation of
the eternal truth, you will wish to find some time in the
day for direct looking at Self alone. The only effort you
make in this endeavour is towards cultivating more and
more effortlessness in the precious quiet time you give
yourself.
Quiet sitting is very easy and natural. You only need to

have a simple, comfortable place where you can sit
down, with eyes open or closed (I recommend experi-
menting with both!) and just be. Nothing needs to be
added. No manipulation, interference or fixing of any
kind should be involved. Do not imagine yourself
situated in a defined place or hold on to any reference
point. You are not working to get somewhere, not
becoming something. You cannot produce infinity; it is
already here by itself, as you and everything. All the
universes are unfolding in their own perfect, spon-

taneous, unrestricted way. Your very being is pre-estab-
lished as this perfection. So what do you have to say
about it?
Just be at peace. Be peace.
The busy mind has a very difficult time looking directly

at its own source. Quiet sitting serves to “cut through”
the busy mind; your innate freedom is increasingly self-
evident as the fruit of practice. If you feel you need to be
doing something when you sit—praying, or visualizing,
or controlling your breath, or holding your body in a
particular way—it is because you are not yet trusting
that your own true “size” is already infinite in each
moment. The more you sit without doing or saying
anything, the more your faith in the self-revealing
function of your immediate infinity will grow and grow.
Simply wait here, listen openly and humbly, and receive
the never-endingness of your true nature. Surrender the
mind to your unspoken, self-effulgent presence and see if
there is any end to it. Keep attending to this.
Your practice should be uncontrived, natural, still.

Anticipating and expecting nothing is the Way. By
emptying yourself of all concepts when you sit quietly,
the emptiness of “nothing added” is seen to be the
blessed fullness of “nothing missing.” In this, all seeking
comes to a halt. All needs, all wants are fulfilled by
infinity’s own ever-flowing bounty. Your being here as
precisely this is love itself.
Inquiring into the nature of eternal life in quiet sitting

practice, without concepts, infinity expresses its silent,
pure, all-pervasive, wondrous supremacy.
* * *
When the Selfward-Facing Way becomes your life’s

passion, you do not distinguish between practice during
quiet sitting and practice during other activities of your
waking life. Always, always, you can remain curious
about the infinite field within which all things arise and
dissolve. You are inherently capable of having a total,
direct, intimate meeting with every appearance, every
form. Thought arises: “Within what is this thought
arising?” Feelings arise: “Within what do I feel this?”
Sights, sounds and objects are perceived: “Within what is
my perception occurring?”
Without you, absolutely nothing can be thought, felt or

perceived. So these questions all boil down to the one
eternal question, which, if asked in utter patience and
complete surrender—in steadfast determination to never
preconceive how the answer will come—is the explosive,
sublime resolution to every search:
“WHO... AM... I?”
What does the word “I” actually refer to, in you? What is
the real, authentic, unchanging, moment to moment
nature of your existence? How immense can you recog-

nize yourself to be when you cease projecting concepts
into the unlimited spaciousness of your being? What
luminosity, what animating power is transcendently here
as the substratum of all, with or without “you”?
In this and every instant, countless trillions of galaxies

are spinning in their effortless, cosmic perfection. This is
a non-negotiable fact. How could you not be this uni-
fied, indivisible whole?
Everything is being “done” by the universe alone. The

universe alone can sit. Find out what sits and remain as
you are.
* * *
The ultimate understanding, and the direct application

of this through practice, is life-altering. On the outside,
so to speak, things might not change much. Since
change is the perpetually transforming energy of infinity,
you allow it to take its spontaneous course in “your life”
without resisting or tampering. The routines of living
may become simplified; certain activities, relationships
or concerns that previously consumed your attention
and interest can often fall away. But that’s all secondary
to the bigger shift, which is in your perspective. Your
looking now radiates moment by moment from that
which is unchanging. This vision gives life to, permeates
and embraces each instant, though you cannot fathom
exactly how it could be so. Reality is mind-blowing and

earth-shattering. Simultaneously, it is the undeniable,
imperishable truth.
In all the great diversity of manifestation, there is no

place in which you do not see yourself shining. This
recognition never negates the natural and often difficult
challenges of living day to day in the form of a person,
nor the times when emotions such as anger or grief are
justifiably called for, nor the multiple horrors unfolding
on the Planet due to human ignorance and greed. All of
it can be met, wholly and with openness, from the
simple, silent immediacy of infinity experiencing itself in
form. Meeting every moment this directly, an appro-
priate response to circumstances and events is always
forthcoming.
In you, the most awe-inspiring scientific discoveries and

the most profound spiritual realizations merge in your
ordinary, everyday life. Each ordinary thing in existence
is a great miracle. The insects and the birds and the
animals are miracles. The grasses and the flowers and
the trees. The rivers and oceans, the mountains and
valleys. The sun, the moon, the rain, the snow—all are
miraculous. People are miracles. The elaborately orch-
estrated functions of your body-mind organism, in youth
and old age, in sickness and health, are a blessed miracle.
The all-powerful potential of each moment expressing
unequivocally as the way things are is a vibrant, precious,
self-affirming wonder to behold. This is "normal life.”
Everything is sacred.
Moment to moment, infinity’s direct experience of itself

is the only reality. When you sit with this deep conv-
iction and let go of every last concept, all at once, your
recognition of universality is the stillness that does not
move amidst all forms of activity. In your complete
letting go, the universe rejoices in itself.
Infinity is. The unparalleled simplicity of this under-

standing is true Self-Knowledge, and it contains the
revelation of everlasting happiness.
* * *
Finally, the only understanding of value is that which

you establish, cultivate and maintain through practice,
through your direct application of the ultimate truth,
through your love of being quiet with yourself, through
not harbouring concepts inside about what you are, what
others are, or what the world is.
When you practice, let go of every understanding you

have ever come across. Don't understand anything at all.
Your immense infinite Self has no need for your under-
standing. Allow your biggest understanding to explode
any remnant of “you” in inconceivable silence.
Genuinely investigate the true nature of your being.

Find time to sit each day, if you can. A little goes a long
way. When you sit, do just that and nothing else. Don't
think of yourself as a “meditator.” The concept of medi-

tation is already far too loaded with techniques and
traditions and paths.
In truth, there are no paths. There is only the never-

ending immediate infinity, moment to moment. Simply
be this. Be as you are.
Pay attention to your original, eternal essence. Intimate-

ly know yourself.
You have always been here. You can never not be. Trust
and have faith.
Be authentic, natural, ordinary.
Walk lightly. Love All.
* * *
Face Selfward,
face Selfward,
FACE SELFWARD!
About the Author
Sally Ross lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

She began practicing meditation at the age of 19, though
she did not really understand what it means to “abide”
with a strong, quiet mind until she met her teacher
Claudio twelve years later, in 2003. It took more years
before she internally recognized peace as the pre-
existent true nature of all beings, everywhere. She
believes that the arrival of this recognition within the life
of each person is infinity’s own destiny; exactly when or
how can never be predicted.
One of Sally’s greatest “teachers” has been an auto-

immune illness that was at times debilitating during
much of her adult life leading to the publication of this
book: “The most profound rest of all is waiting inside
your resistance to what you think you cannot bear.”
www.faceselfward.net

The Selfward Facing Way - A Course For Living The Direct Experience of Your Eternal Nature - Sally Ross

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The Selfward Facing Way - A Course For Living The Direct Experience of Your Eternal Nature - Sally Ross

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THE SELFWARD

For more information: www.faceselfward.net

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Volume Two: Practice

Dedication and Introduction ...................................................... 1

CHAPTER 1: The Conceptual Dilemma .................................... 5

CHAPTER 2: Multiple Concepts, A Singular Wholeness ........ 19

CHAPTER 3: Knowledge Must Directly Apply to the Whole .. 33

CHAPTER 4: Self-Inquiry is the Whole’s Business .................. 51

CHAPTER 5: Concept-Free Practice is Your Freedom ............ 63

Dedication and Introduction to the Course

This writing, and the reading of it in this very moment, is

When one’s own mind activity is surrendered to it, one

There is no possibility that my writing and your reading

I am happy to be with you to share some insights, point-

This Course is presented in two parts: Understanding and

The Course is intended to support you whether you are a

The dedication of our Course cannot leave out my

If I became distracted by concepts that were not wholly

It is my deepest wish that this Course will give you the

There is nothing of greater significance in this world

Your peace is the peace of God, of Life, of Pure Con-

As you read, learn and practice, I hope you can allow

The only hindrance to your abiding—peacefully and

Concepts are the means by which the whole functioning

Concepts have evolutionary value.

There is one concept that is universal to everyone, and

process we learn to identify ourselves as a separate

This universal concept is the word “I.”

Intimately linked with this concept, at a mostly

The body that every person—as well as every other

image represents who I am.

Once this fixation has become firmly established in one’s

The first big problem: The image I see in the mirror is

The second big problem: When I think I am the image, I

resolve my sense of isolation, which is a very exhausting

Fundamentally, it is the belief in separateness that

Accepting concepts to be the truth is an essential error of

When through the practice of Self-Inquiry you dispel the

other concepts will be left behind along with them. Our

In the following chapters we will go deeply into what it

Regarding the jewels of written text that my Teacher

It is important for you to keep this in mind as you read

Words are concepts. The words of this Course—its

You are non-conceptual. This is the supreme reality that

The human thinking mind is addicted to grasping for

Limitless freedom is enjoyed more and more when not

there are no concepts to stand in the way of your simply

This is reality as it is, utterly free of conceptualizing and

You can likely perceive in all of this that linguistically

It is said that one should never mistake a word to be the

thing-ness in my message. Words should never leave

While reading or studying anything, we invariably forget

This presence has to be you. No words, no screen and no

The “direction” of understanding and practice encour-

what you are. If you are overly fascinated with ideas—

When one’s mind is continuously forming concepts,

It is not always so easy in our day-to-day lives. General-

This is what makes practice so relevant and precious.

As we move into the territory of going beyond concepts

In this way, your understanding has a quality of being

mind cannot surrender to the innocence and the humili-

When fixation of any kind is let go of in Self-Inquiry, an