Purpose of self inquiry is to discover and realize the true self. The deeper inquiry and reasoning reveals the fact that 'I', is not the self. But 'I' is mind. Mind is the whole Waking experience. And waking experience is the state of duality that is the world and its perceiver. Since the world and its perceiver both cease to exist without the mind, and they are within the mind. And seeker can conclude that the whole waking experience is mind or ‘I’.
The inquiry on the physical base will not yield results, because 'I', and the person and his experience of the world coexist together. Without the 'I', neither the person nor his experience of the world ceases to exist. Thus seeker has to conclude 'I', is the whole experience of duality or mind.
Therefore, 'I' is an experience, not an experiencer. A person and his experience of the world are mere experience within the mind, same way as the dream. The witness of the mind is formless and non dual, which sees, the 'I' [waking or dream or duality], without the physical apparatus. Similar way the dream witnessed without the physical apparatus.
It is erroneous to see 'I' as self, or 'I' AM as “Self”, and thinking, which stays without the physical body is 'I’. Thus, ‘I’ as true self is incorrect. Since everything is viewed and judged as a person, without being aware of the fact, the person and world are within the mind which is 'I'.
That which witnesses the Waking experience [‘I’ or mind] is the true self. The witness is the invisible substance of the mind which is the non dual spirit. Therefore 'I' is mere expression of the non dual spirit.
