Beauty ＆ Pure 159

Visitor: How should a beginner start this practice?

Maharshi: The mind will subside only by means of 
the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ The thought ‘Who am I?’, 
destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre.

If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire ‘To whom did they rise?’

What does it matter however many thoughts rise?
At the very moment that each thought rises,
if one vigilantly enquires ‘To whom did this rise?’,
it will be known ‘to me’. If one then enquires ‘Who am I?’, the mind will turn back to its source and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practicing thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.