If you have been guided to read this book, then most likely you are searching for a truth, reality, or an understanding of life deeper than your daily experience. Paradoxically, the first step in discovering this truth is to realize what is not true. If you stop for a moment and just sit in silence, you can observe what is not true in your life. Are you, in fact, the separate transient story that you have been writing since your birth? Are you your patterns of reactivity and fear? Are you your projections upon yourself and others? This book advances the position that these thoughts and emotions don’t represent your deepest self.

We are rarely guided toward or able to look at our life’s essence, which is not subject to time and outer conditions. Most of us have created and identified with a sense of self that is based in our past conditioning, memories and beliefs, and the projected images of others. Layered upon this foundation of “self” is our history of successes and failures in trying to obtain something or become someone. This pattern of seeking a sense of self in the outer world is really the root of all sorrow. This first chapter will discuss this root of sorrow and its relevance to what is actually true in our life, but normally hidden by our false identity. So, being ignorant means we start by examining our everyday assumptions and maybe laying them aside.

In our observation of life, we see that on the surface it is a manifestation of duality. That is, existence seems to always appear in pairs of opposites such as birth and death, pain and pleasure, night and day, and so on. The everyday mind also thinks in terms of duality. That is, achievement and loss, happiness and sadness, good and bad, joy and sorrow, love and hate. We are constantly swayed by the pulls of these psychological opposites and unfortunately, this becomes the mechanism by which we live. For most of us, life is spent chasing desires for the positive pole of these opposites, which are really just thoughts we have about reality. And we find ourselves running from the painful or negative aspect of these pairs. Usually our desire for the one leads us into contact with the other, which our desire, thought or judgment, has actually created. This way of being causes a constant relationship with the past as we analyze our actions to determine if we have attained the desired result. And we project ourselves into the future as we plan to attain what has eluded us thus far. This common outlook rarely allows us to just be in the simple moment-to-moment experience of life.

In our split consciousness, half comprised of what we know of ourselves in the past, and the other half what we are projecting ourselves to be or become in the future, we create an identity that is totally based on thought. We even create an additional layer by inflicting judgment upon this thought-based split consciousness. Our identity becomes a split sense of self fueled and driven by judgment, as we judge whether or not we are succeeding or making mistakes in obtaining our desires. When we experience the pleasurable side of duality, our self-worth is enhanced. When we feel what we call the unpleasant side of duality, we often have low self-esteem. These are both caused by deriving an identity from the outer world, and from our psychological conditioning, also from outside. When we believe our low sense of self is our true nature, we believe in the thoughts and emotions that feed that negative sense of self. When we believe in the thoughts and emotions, they likewise feed our low self-esteem and the process forms a kind of cycle or circle.

Consciousness when allowed to be free of opposites, and of negative and positive judgments, is still empty and can be realized as the source of our true being. There is an urgent quest that is now guiding us to return to our original and natural state of consciousness prior to thought or beyond thought. We are guided to unravel the layers of false identity and meet the source of life itself. We are compelled to let go of our false self, as we believe it to be on the surface, turning our attention inward and asking the most profound question in life, “Who am I?” This question when asked seriously opens the mind to true self-inquiry and gently allows the unraveling of false identification to take place. In deep self-inquiry, it is possible to simply ask this question and let the answer appear. One can simply ask, “Who am I” without my past, my history, my role in life, my gender and so forth. That is, all the thoughts you might have about your past and future. Invite your mind to be silent, receptive and willing to see and experience your true life in this moment and begin standing in your own pure life energy. The source of your true nature is found in the eternal essence of who you are beyond worldly conditioning.