M.: It is in the mind that birth and death, pleasure and pain,
in short the world and ego exist. If the mind is destroyed all these are destroyed too.
Note that it should be annihilated, not just made latent. For the mind is dormant in sleep. It does not know anything. Still, on waking up, you are as you were before. There is no end of grief. But if the mind be destroyed the grief will have no background and will disappear along with the mind.
D.: How to destroy the mind?
M.: Seek the mind. On being sought, it will disappear.
D.: I do not understand.
M.: The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts arise because there is the thinker. The thinker is the ego. The ego, if sought, will vanish automatically. The ego and the mind are the same. The ego is the root-thought from which all other thoughts arise.
D.: How to seek the mind?
M.: Dive within. You are now aware that the mind rises up from within. So sink within and seek.
- Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi No 195
