HOW TO KNOW THE SELF - PART 8
Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.
First, know that you are the manifest consciousness, the 'I am'. Then go to the source and find out where this 'I am' came from. When you have knowledge you see the 'I am' as all-pervasive, so long as that consciousness is there. But then, this knowledge merges into no-knowledge, the Parabrahman, the witness of the consciousness. That has no 'I am'; that is you true eternal nature. It is on this true, whole, homogeneous state that a small ripple appeared. Then the news came, "I am". That news made all the difference, for then all this started. You must know your true state, and know that this ripple comes and goes on your true state. Beingness witnesses all this manifestation, but the eternal principle, the Absolute, witnesses the beingness. The universal Absolute understands the play of the attributes, the projection of the mind, but the play cannot understand the Absolute.
– Nisargadatta
Maharaj