Staying with the Amness is a very popular method of Self Inquiry, as propounded by Nisargadatta Maharaj.

The basic premise is that thoughts are the culprit. So the idea is to refuse/reject all thoughts and additions such as I am this or that and to stay as the IAm.

The intention of the approach was very clear. The mind has a natural tendency to move outwards and gets obsessed. Therefore, to remove that obsession, the mind is instead made to go within. The moment thoughts are stilled, we arrive at the Amness. Since we relate everything to thought, the idea was one of detachment from the world (and the world of objects) and the placement of our attention inwards to locate a centre of peace and quietude that is unaffected by the events that unfold in the world outside.

Yogic Kriyas helped a lot in this process too. Due to Kriya breath-work, the mind becomes still. Energy begins to move upwards to higher energy centres and bliss begins to arise naturally at the 3rd eye and the heart centre.

This indeed made it easier for the mind to remain inwards, intoxicated and joyous at ones natural state of Amness. That’s the reason why Rajivji insists upon daily Kriya and Amness – as preparatory practices for one to discipline and train the mind for deeper understanding to unfold.

The problem however, with both approaches (Amness and Yogic) was that they rely on detaching oneself from the world, relationships and the objects of the world. They also require one to make consistent effort to get the desired results. Not everyone is ready to make such a commitment for ones Spiritual growth.

This is where one will begin to appreciate the ASK™ 2-2-2 teachings as it doesn’t require one to withdraw from the world, nor does it require too much effort.

The cause of suffering is not the thoughts – BUT THE PRIMARY CONDITION OF THE EGO ITSELF. In other words, the motivation for the ego to arise – is inherent in the condition itself, and this is where a deeper level of work is needed.

The radical 2-2-2 of Self-Inquiry, as laid down by Rajivji, deals quickly and effectively with reversing the compulsive, habitual patterns of the ego (once reasonable, preparatory Yogic and Advaitic practices are done) to keep the inner bliss rolling within.

There is a subtle nadi (nerve) that acts as a link between this ego (the seeking part of the mind) and the Self (the still part of the mind) from where the ego transports emotions (contractive emotions) to the background stillness. These affect our clarity, sense of being and happiness and this aspect of the nerve cannot be severed through Kriya and Amness practices alone. This severance requires us to attend to – and address – the very condition and habitual pattern of the ego itself and reverse it through the 2-2-2 of Self-Inquiry.

The final Awakening is the severing of the link. It is referred to as Hridya Granthi or the “severing of the emotional nerve” (contractive emotions.)

The 2-2-2 Process of Self-Inquiry (Addressing the Condition of the Ego) 

 

Ego is that aspect of the “I” which feels incomplete and it quenches that urge through seeking. A worldly man seeks it in objects while a spiritual man seeks in God or meditation. The motivation of the ego behind both however remains the same – which is to keep arising in order to fill the sense of void within. So whenever it arises, it latches on to a thought for seeking pleasure/comfort or for seeking tension/contraction. If you observe your thoughts during the day, you will find them naturally navigating towards some sort of wanting comfort or contraction (fear.)

The irony is that even after fulfilment of desire, there still remains a form of incompletion. Hence we all go through an endless loop of restlessness – perpetuated through a desire to want more and more of everything.

Rarely it happens that the “I” can rest in itself (known as the pure IAM state) as the habitual urge to complete itself will reinforce the ego again. This seeking mechanism of the ego is the condition which is the root cause of suffering in us. If left unaddressed, it will cause tension to seep into the innermost realm of our being and to accumulate within, causing psychosomatic disorders. On being triggered by an event viewed as unfavorable, these tensions will surface and become unbearable causing us to react violently as we will have no control over them. This is called bondage.

Any yogic techniques, breath-work (Pranayamas), postures, cathartic exercises, healing modalities, mantras, devotional-based rituals can be effective in providing only temporary relief but they can’t provide a permanent remedy as the main condition of ego (which is to seek) remains unaddressed.

Traditional approaches of Self-Inquiry appear to exclude the world and require effort to keep bringing the “I” repeatedly back to its source and hold it there but here too (for most practitioners at least) the ego continues to seek after a brief pause in the IAM. There is a sense of a constant mental battle going on between choosing the world and the Self. In the 2-2-2 path, no such striving or conflict is present. 

Real Self Realization actually is ego realization ~ where the ego is made to face itself rather than looking for someplace or something to latch on to.

This is done by asking the following two questions:

Am I seeking comfort/pleasure?
Am I seeking contraction/tension?

If we practice the 2 2-2 way of Self-Inquiry, and bring awareness to the basic condition of the ego itself (instead of trying hard to still or to quieten it) we will find that the tension releases itself in a natural, gentle manner (as depicted in the diagram given above) and the seeking will “reset” on its own, effortlessly, by regulating the unmet expectations that causes contractions. By resetting, it means that any form of seeking of the objects in the world will not be able to remove one from the natural permanent state of ease and stillness. The 2-2-2 path embraces the world, the objects in the world, the goals we set for ourselves, the relationships we have, and so on and so, in that sense, it is an inclusive rather than an exclusive path (which most traditional paths are.)

The process, in practice :

The way we begin the 2-2-2 path of Self-Inquiry is by asking the two questions, given below, 6 to 8 times a day :

Am I seeking comfort/pleasure in this?
Am I seeking contraction/tension in this?

You could get a YES or a NO to either one or both of these questions. You should make a mental note of the same. YES to both means that the expectations have a high emotional charge and that has kept you in bondage.
NO means one is relatively free.
However it doesn’t really matter if one gets a YES or a NO. What matters is being honest in inquiring about what arises in you when you pose these two questions to yourself.

As soon as you begin to bring awareness to these questions you will observe that this awareness by itself resets the seeking mechanism of the “I.” It doesn’t necessarily drop seeking, it simply resets it wherein the emotional charge causing stress and restlessness is discharged immediately. If it doesn’t do that immediately, then it means that there are associated stories in the form of anger and pain trapped within. These will likely come to the surface of ones awareness and one needs to consistently inquire about them as they keep arising, in order to totally dissolve them.

At an advanced stage of practicing the 2-2-2 Path of Self-Inquiry, the “I” loses all motivation to arise, to seek or desire anything, and simply rests in itself in a natural, blissful and effortless manner. This is Self-Realization.