' It is This '...

We must withdraw every thing and thought from the mind except this single thought of trying to achieve the absence of what is not the Absolute.

This is called Gnana Yoga: "Neti, Neti" (It is not this), as Shankara called it.

And he must go on with this negative elimination until he reaches the stage where a great Void envelops him.

If he can succeed in holding resolutely to this Void in sustained concentration--and he will discover it is one of the hardest things in the world to do so--he will abruptly find that it is not a mere mental abstraction but something real, not a dream but the most concrete thing in his experience.

Then and then only can he declare positively, "It is This." For he has found the Overself.



-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 8: The Void As Contemplative Experience > # 118
-- Perspectives > Chapter 23: Advanced Contemplation > # 76 Paul Brunton