HOW TO KNOW THE SELF - PART 7
Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.
While this consciousness is here, it is your constant companion, and continuous attention to the stream of consciousness will take you on to the Awareness, the basic existence. This being conscious of consciousness is itself a movement towards Awareness. Let yourself see everything from the point of view of the animating consciousness, the Krishna consciousness, not from the point of view of the phenomenal apparatus to which it gives sentience. See yourself as the source of all manifestation, the universal 'I am'; then the consciousness which has mistakenly identified itself with the body-mind construct, will become aware of its true nature and merge with its source. To see yourself this way does not involve a thought process but happens only through an intuitive seeing from within, when the mind becomes introverted. The natural tendency of the mind is to look outwards and seek the source of things in the things themselves. But when the mind is turned inwards and is directed towards the source within, the flow of thoughts dries up, and finally, even the 'I am', the primary thought in consciousness ceases, and the pure Awareness which is the source of consciousness, remains.
– Nisargadatta
Maharaj