Neti Neti – Rejection is the Key To Your True North

In Sanskrit rejection is termed as ‘Neti Neti’ – Not this, not that. It has a totally different significance. It is rejecting who you think you are. Or, in other words, systematically rejecting what you’re actually not.

This method of self-enquiry finally reveals who you truly are.

The way back to yourself is through refusal and rejection.

Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj

It is taking a hard look at yourself and identifying how the external world influences your ‘image of yourself’ and finally recognizing that it was an image all along. Not truly you.

The way we look at ourselves, thanks to years of mental conditioning since childhood, is actually a very roundabout way of looking at ourselves.

As children, we do not question who we are instead we look at the external world and depend on the grown-ups around us to let us know who we are. That is how we identify with a race, religion etc…

Apart from that, we also face these kinds of identifications meted out by grown-ups, sometimes – “You’re an absolute angel!” or “You’ll never amount to anything.”

Dependant on carving out an identity for ourselves as children, we begin to internalize whatever is told to us by people around us, especially the grown-ups. A self-image forms.
So, essentially as children what we were doing is identifying with the images people projected onto us of themselves, saw ourselves as the projections, and assumed the belief that, “I am this (the projected) person.”

We begin to assume this created personality ‘is the true me’.

In doing so, we forgot something crucial.

The external world is a mirror!

The whole vast world is yourSelf Pushed Out.

Neville Goddard

So, the image we assumed ourselves to be is actually an image coming from an external source! In looking to the outside world to carve out our identification, we forgot where the source of that image lies!  

And mirror images cannot be trusted where directions are concerned!

A  mirror reflects in the reverse direction. Your right is the mirror’s left. Your mistake is, being engrossed with the mirror (the outer world), you start going in the reverse direction that the mirror shows!

So instead of checking your right, you take the mirror’s reflected left! How roundabout is that! No wonder, the world makes us go in circles! (Pun intended.) If you start going where the compass in the mirror (outer world) points you, you’ll end up in the South instead of the North!

So when the mirror (the outer world) shows you rejection, map the correct direction of the rejection within yourself.

Ask yourself, am I truly this rejected “ Poor me” self concept? No.  Neti.

Am I the abandonment and the rejection? No . Neti.
Am I this image/body? No. Neti. Image is a concept and so it is transient as is this body.

So why am I feeling hurt?
Because I am still standing in the same position the mirror (outer world) is reflecting and am focusing on the reflected reverse direction!

So, am I the hurt? No. Neti.

Well, then the true me is not rejected at all. So, who am I? Who is this unrejected true me?

Ask yourself if your self-beliefs can capture your fullness. Are you limited to your self-definitions, or are they actually just finite expressions of your infinity?

For example, “Am I male?” No, this label doesn’t capture all that I am.
“Am I my age?” No, that’s just a number.
“Am I my name?” No, that was given to me.

“Am I this body?” No, my consciousness seems to transcend this flesh and these bones.
“Do I have a consciousness?” No, not even consciousness defines me; it’s just a word with associated mental imagery.”
“From whence does consciousness emerge?” I don’t know, and that not-knowing feels liberating.

“Where does the real me reside?” Here, there, everywhere, and nowhere.

Shri NisaRGAdatta Maharaj

Only you will know who the unrejected true you is. Seek and you will find.

Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.

Matthew 7:7, The Bible

You can unravel the true you by stripping away all that you are not.
So, mindful negation, rejection, or Neti Neti performs the work of a mirror in which finally the mirror goes blank because there is nothing to reflect.

And that Nothingness is You.

This form of rejection, Neti Neti, dissolves the attributes that we have taken on , ” good” , “bad” handsome” ” ugly”, “rich”, “poor”, “failure”, “success” and so on… It dissolves the self-concepts we have taken on and identified with as being us.

Suddenly, we find it is not we who are getting abandoned/rejected, rather it’s we abandoning/rejecting who we are not!

We cannot be contained, rather the “I” in You cannot be contained by attributes/labels/ self-concepts.

The “I” is too vast and yes is in a way radically alone, but is separated into many individuals…many Beings to know itself through the seeming many, to love itself by the seeming many… to again become One by seeing Itself in the seeming many.

And, You are That. Tat Twam Asi.

Once you know who you are, you can easily become who you want to be. In fact, you won’t even feel the need to ‘wear’ any self-concept/self-identity because you won’t need the mirror anymore!

For even the mirror is you!

See the world as nothing more than yourself pushed out and everything in it as aiding the birth of your imagination, for the behavior of the world relative to you determined by the concept you hold of yourself!

Neville Goddard

In fact, my soul and yours are the same, You appear in me, I in you, We hide in each other.

Jalaluddin Rumi

You Are the Fairest One.

For There is None Else Dearest One!