The dialogues present enlightenment as the recognition of one’s ever-present nature as pure awareness, the simple sense of “I Am” that precedes body, mind, and personality. It is not portrayed as a special attainment, mystical state, or reward, but as the uncovering of what has always been the case. What obscures this natural state is misidentification with the body–mind complex and the egoic sense of being a separate doer. When these false identifications are seen through, enlightenment is revealed as the timeless witness in which all experiences arise and subside. In this light, bondage and liberation are understood as notions that apply only to the imagined person, not to the real Self.

The book emphasizes that this realization is essentially a shift of identity rather than a change in external circumstances. Pleasure and pain, gain and loss, continue to appear, yet the center of gravity moves from “I am this person in the world” to “I am the formless consciousness in which person and world appear.” Enlightenment is thus described as the dissolution of the separate “me,” not its refinement or glorification. The enlightened one is said to recognize that there was never truly an individual who became enlightened; there is only enlightenment itself, with no separate experiencer standing apart from it.

As for the way to this understanding, the teaching gives primacy to self-inquiry and sustained attention to the bare sense of being. Remaining with the feeling “I Am,” free of attributes, and persistently questioning “Who am I?” serve to expose and negate what one is not. This process of negation, often summarized as seeing the false as false, allows the real to shine by itself. Detachment from the passing flow of thoughts, emotions, and desires is presented as crucial, not as an ascetic ideal but as a way of no longer being entangled in what is transient. In this detachment, actions can arise spontaneously and effortlessly, without the burden of personal ownership or expectation of results.

While effort in the form of earnestness and one-pointed inquiry is valued, the text repeatedly underscores that enlightenment is not the product of practice in a conventional sense. Techniques and disciplines have meaning only insofar as they direct attention back to the ever-present Self, rather than reinforcing the search for future attainment. Enlightenment is said to transcend conceptual knowledge; it is not a matter of accumulating doctrines but of directly recognizing the nature of consciousness itself. Ultimately, what is sought is revealed to be identical with the seeker’s own being, and the very movement of seeking is seen as part of the illusion of separation that must be understood and released.