Essence of Enquiry 1

["Essence of Enquiry"  titles a Master Nome commentary on the first-recorded (though not first-published) Maharshi ["Essence of Enquiry"]

Whatever one might be experiencing, there is behind it the silent conviction: "I exist".  Always, we feel that we exist.  That conviction, that "I exist"  feeling points to Absolute Reality which is our true Being, our Existence.  Without this basis of Existence, or Being, the very idea, "I am" could not appear &  

without the idea "I am" there could not be the idea: "This is".  Unfortunately, for the moment, that 2^nd impression is the onset of Illusion if we take the objective "this" to be real in the way the subjective "I" is Real.  In fact, taking the objective "this" to be real reduces one’s sense of "I" to a mutually objective Ego–I, another object that poses as an Individualized Subject.  But the only real Subject is the true "I" which is Pure Non-Dual Consciousness.  Abandoning the Ego–I also eliminates mis-apprehension of "this" as real, but accomplishing these in reverse order can be more effective in some cases.

Initially, Ego-I becomes the root of a "Mind" or imagined container of thoughts. Mind is symbolized objectively as a Brain & Sense Organs, housed in "this" which is taken to be a Body – a symbolic "headquarters" [literally] for the Ego-self. That Body needs a Planet to live on, which occurs in a Star system, in a Galaxy in a local Group, in a Cluster, in a "local neighborhood" in each case.

To the baby, the original "this" foci are mother’s breast, her face, & his own fingers & hands.  Later he identifies the Body as his Ego-self with mother, pacifier, blanket, etc. as "other" or "this" [idam].  The Vedas tell us that whenever there is an "other" there is Fear, even if that be not Aversion but Fear of loss which is Attachment. [By the way, when that Baby says "da" or "da da" he says, not "Dad"  but rather the indicative "That"  of PIE languages as in "Tat Tvam Asi", "Om Tat Sat" or the Buddhist "Tathagata". ]

But the very existence of "I" & the existence of "this" depend on Absolute Existence. What is it that truly exists ?  That would be Existence & not merely the idea of existing.  In one’s experience, there is always firm, unshakeable conviction that there is Existence for oneself does exist.  Someone would still their self have to exist in order to attempt denial of Existence.  The Formless Reality, the Self is not "Nothing", but is rather, actual Existence.