Pierce your mind with your own mind
As penetrating as possible
If only you sleep night and day
thus wise with grace
Even the stoniest of minds will break
And become limitless space.
--- Tirumoolar (3rd century A D)
Any inquiry into oneself, to find out who one is, has to start with the help of the mind. The mind has to be used logically, sanely to find out the worth of each one of the things that figure in our life, whether it is of a passing character or has a lasting value. One has to carefully examine whether one is accepting the values of a corrupt society, or one is inquiring into the value of the thoughts, emotions and feelings that one encounters in oneself. For this inquiry, a finely tuned mind is quite necessary, and therefore the mind need not be despised.
But a stage arises, when the mind after analyzing, dissecting and doing everything that it is capable of, finally comes to the end of its tether, unable to solve real problems arising out of human interaction. A mechanical problem can be successfully tackled by a skilled and trained mind, but the mind falters when it has to solve a problem arising between two human beings. The mind, after deep penetration, has now seen its own limitations, and this may be called the piercing of the mind by one's own mind.
Abandoning the mind with its discursive process, in a sphere where it is helpless and ineffective, one watches one's own mind and its activity. Just being aware of it and looking at every passing thought, and its incessant activity. This awareness, once set in motion, can go on and on even while you are working, resting, conversing, and later even when you are sleeping. That, of course, happens in an advanced stage, when awareness, practically, remains your constant companion. Then grace descends into you through this awareness. Awareness itself grows into grace.
Awareness deals a death blow to the old mind, the mind that has made you mechanical, the one that put you to sleep for ages together, the old mind that has prevented you time and again from receiving the grace that has been pressing upon you, with all its might to gain entry.
But the human mind, yours and mine, is stony in character and does not permit
the seed of grace being scattered in all directions, to grow in you because
the mind has become impenetrable and impermeable. But even the stoniest of
minds will have to break with the laser ray of awareness. And when the old stony
mind breaks up, is smashed to smithereens, the new mind takes over. The old
which is now dead is discarded altogether; and the new one, which is neither
a modification nor an alteration of the old, is completely fresh with a different
set of characteristics.The new mind does not try to dictate to you what you
should or should not do. On the other hand it awaits instructions from your
heart, where a new light is burning.