In thinking, “This is I” and “That is mine”, he binds himself with his self, as does a bird with a snare.
Just don’t seek from another or you’ll be far estranged from Self. I now go on alone meeting it everywhere, it now is just what I am; I now am not it. You must comprehend in this way to merge with thus-ness.
If a man considers that he is born, he cannot avoid the fear of death. Let him find out if he has been born or if the Self has any birth. ...Find from where thoughts emerge. Then you will be able to abide in the ever-present inmost Self and be free from the idea of birth or the fear of death.
To find out what is truly individual in ourselves, profound reflection is needed; and suddenly we realise how uncommonly difficult the discovery of individuality is.
The Self, having in dreams enjoyed the pleasures of sense, gone hither and thither, experienced good and evil, hastens back to the state of waking from which he started. As a man passes from dream to wakefulness, so does he pass from this life to the next.
We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.
If you wish to be free, know you are the Self, the witness of all these, the heart of awareness. Set your body aside, sit in your own awareness. You will at once be happy, forever still, forever free.
Any caterpillar who tried to “know himself” would never become a butterfly.
