Self-Inquiry: Returning to What’s True
Did you know that your mind can lie to you?
As extraordinary as the mind is—capable of computation, analysis, planning, strategy, and recall—it is not a flawless recorder of experience. Especially when emotions run high, the mind is prone to serve up distorted memories.
You may remember a moment from childhood in vivid detail, only to discover, when comparing stories with another person who was present, that the “facts” don’t quite add up.
On its own, the mind does what it does best: sorts, categorizes, and divides experience. This is useful for survival because in situations of life and death decisions must be made quickly and with very little information: like for example: fight or flight?
However, this gift can also become a trap if we allow the mind to slice all life into dualities—good and bad, just and unjust, success and failure.
In doing so, it edits out anything that doesn’t fit its chosen storyline.
What results is not the whole truth,
but a partial truth,
and from partial truths arise unnecessary suffering.
This is what we mean when we say the mind tells lies. Not maliciously, but mechanically. Left unchecked, the mind’s distortions can keep us stuck in loops of judgment, blame, and self-doubt.
The Antidote: Self-Inquiry
Self-inquiry is the practice of meeting the mind with openness and curiosity, rather than blind belief. It is the willingness to pause and ask, gently and sincerely:
“Is this true?”
In that moment something shifts. We step back from being only the seen—the story, the judgment, the assumption—and begin to also experience ourselves as the seer. This shift is profound. It reminds us that we are not limited to the thoughts that pass through us.
We can also experience ourselves as the awareness that transcends and includes all duality.
Through the regular practice of self-inquiry, distortions will start to lose their grip.
We discover that what we thought was permanent or solid is often fluid, contextual, and far less threatening than we imagined.
The suffering we once took as inevitable begins to dissolve. In its place arises clarity, peace, and the quiet joy of aligning with what is real.
A Simple Invitation
The next time a painful thought arises, pause for a moment. Come to sense the body and your breath. Then ask yourself:
“Is this absolutely true?”
Notice what happens. Even a small gap in certainty can open the door to freedom.
This is the gift of self-inquiry: a path back to what is true, and through truth, a life of peace.
