When resistance or doubt appears in the midst of Self-Inquiry, it is approached in the same way as any other thought. Rather than entering into debate with the mind—“Is this working? Am I doing it correctly?”—attention is gently turned toward the one to whom these doubts arise. The question shifts from the content of the doubt to its locus: “To whom has this doubt arisen?” Having recognized that it arises to “me,” inquiry then moves to “Who am I?” In this way, doubts are not granted independent authority; they are used as pointers back to the sense of “I” itself. Resistance, whether experienced as boredom, restlessness, or fear, is treated in precisely the same manner, without suppression or aversion.

The essential discipline lies in a quiet but firm persistence. Each time the mind wanders into stories about progress, failure, or futility, attention is simply returned to the bare sense of being, the “I”-feeling, without adding any attributes such as “I am this” or “I am that.” This repeated returning, carried into daily life as often as possible, gradually weakens the hold of doubt and resistance. The practice does not demand dramatic experiences; it asks only for regular, sincere turning inward. Over time, the familiar habit of following thoughts outward is replaced by a subtler inclination to rest in the source from which those thoughts arise.

Trust and surrender play a supportive role when the process feels dry or beset by obstacles. The mind’s judgments—“Nothing is happening,” “This is useless”—are understood as expressions of the ego’s instinct for self-preservation and are treated as any other thought, without special status. Alongside inquiry, one may inwardly offer all doubts and resistances to the Self or to a chosen form of the Divine, allowing an attitude of “Let Thy will be done” to soften the compulsion to control the process. Such surrender does not replace Self-Inquiry but renders it more natural and less strained, as the grip of self-judgment loosens.

Throughout, the key is non-engagement with the mental content and a steady recognition that whatever arises—doubt, resistance, or even apparent clarity—appears to awareness and then subsides. By consistently tracing every movement of mind back to the one to whom it appears, there is a gradual abiding in that witnessing presence rather than in the flux of thoughts and emotions. In this way, even resistance and doubt become part of the path, serving as occasions to turn more deeply toward the question of who, in truth, experiences them.