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With what purpose did the scriptures use the term "inquiry" to denote the method not this, not this? By means of not this, not this, can we not formulate intellectually the test which we have given in paragraph 4 of this book, "A thing is surely not 'I' if it is possible for one to experience 'I am' even in the absence of that thing?" So long as there exists the wrong knowledge "I am the body" pertaining to the aforesaid five sheaths or three bodies, will not one's paying attention towards the first person automatically be only an attention towards a sheath or a body – a second person? But if we use this test, can we not find out that all such attentions are not the proper first person attention? Therefore, it is necessary first of all to have an intellectual conviction that these are not "I" in order to practice Self-awareness, without losing our bearings. It is only the discrimination by which we acquire this conviction that has been termed "inquiry" by the scriptures. What then is an aspirant to do after discriminating thus? How can the attention to these five sheaths, even with an intention to eliminate them, be an attention to Self? Therefore, while practicing Self-inquiry, instead of taking any one of the five sheaths as the object of our attention, we should fix our attention only on the "I"-consciousness, which exists and shines as oneself, as the singular, and as a witness to and aloof from these sheaths. Instead of being directed towards any second or third person, is not our power of attention, which was hitherto called mind or intellect, thus now directed only towards the first person? - from "The Path of Sri Ramana, Part One", written in Tamil by Sri Sadhu Om, translated by Michael James.