How can the mind be made to go?

Q: How can the mind be made to go? M: No attempt should be made to destroy it. To think or wish is in itself a thought. If the thinker is sought, the thoughts will disappear. Q: Will they disappear by themselves? It seems so difficult. M: They will disappear because they are unreal. The idea of difficulty is itself an obstacle to realization. It must be overcome. To remain as the Self is not difficult. This thought of difficulty is the chief obstacle. A little practice in discovering the source of ‘I’ will make you think differently. Absolute freedom from thoughts is the state conducive to such recognition of the Self. Mind is but an aggregate of thoughts. Q: I begin to ask myself ‘Who am I?’ and eliminate the body as not ‘I’, the prana as not ‘I’, the mind as not ‘I’ and I am not able to proceed further. M: Well, that is as far as the intellect goes. Your process is only intellectual. Indeed all the scriptures mention the process only to guide the seeker to know the truth. The truth cannot be directly pointed out, hence this intellectual process. You see, the one who eliminates all the ‘not-I’ cannot eliminate the ‘I’. To say ‘I am not this,’ or ‘I am that’, there must be the ‘I’. This ‘I’ is only the ego or the ‘I’- thought. Once the ‘I’-thought has arisen, all other thoughts follow. The ‘I’-thought is therefore the root-thought. If the root is eliminated all others are uprooted. Ask yourself ‘Who am I?’ Find its source. Then all these will vanish and the pure Self will remain. The ‘I’ is always there - there is always the feeling of ‘I’, otherwise could you deny your existence? The reality of yourself cannot be questioned. The Self is the primal reality. The ordinary person unconsciously takes reality to be their true inner reality plus everything which has come into their consciousness as pertaining to themselves - body, etc. This they have to unlearn. - from the chapter on Mind, "Conscious Immortality, Conversations with Sri Ramana Maharshi" by Paul Brunton and Munagala Venkataramaiah

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