Ramana Maharshi, one of the most revered spiritual teachers of modern times, said:

The mind (note: not the Big Mind) is nothing but thoughts.

When asked what the mind is, he answered.

“What is called ‘mind’ is a wondrous power residing in the Self. It causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind. Therefore, thought is the nature of the mind. Apart from thoughts, there is no independent entity called the world. In deep sleep there are no thoughts and no world. In the states of waking and dream, there are thoughts, and there is a world. Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and again withdraws it into itself, likewise the mind projects the world out of itself and again resolves it to itself (The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi, 10th revised ed., Sophia Perennis, 2017).

Admittedly, this is complex and hard to grasp, even for skilled spiritual seekers.

Simply put, he suggests that our minds—especially the conscious part of our minds—are just a collection of many thoughts and feelings. With our minds, we shape our identity, our perception of the world, and our understanding of reality. However, from a higher perspective, all these thoughts and feelings are just illusions that are temporary, even if they seem “real” to us. Here, Maharshi is indicating that what our minds produce has little value to our true identity, often referred to as the “Self,” which is the genuine essence of every person.

Maharshi’s famous question, “Who am I?” is closely tied to the idea of the “Self.” He thought the “Self” resides in every single person. This “Self” is something like the ultimate creator or God—something that has no beginning and no end. He suggested that we often focus on the thoughts and stories our minds create (therefore being confined in personalized “self”), while our true identity is the Self that encompasses every single manifested and unmanifested element in the universe.

It still is very confusing, right?

The main question is, what lies beyond our small minds? How can we escape our small minds and personalized “self” to connect with our true “Self”?