The point of satsang and self-inquiry is not to have some blissful or illuminating spiritual experience, as enjoyable as that may be. Meaningful experiences tend to reinforce the sense of a separate someone to whom these experiences happen. Rather, the point is to discover what truly abides, the unchanging background of all change, the eternal I am, pure beingness, prior to all manifestation. The world we take to be real is like a movie projected onto a screen–we become identified with the story and forget that we’re the blank screen on which the story plays itself out, but which is itself untouched and undisturbed. To the screen, the story has no personal meaning whatsoever. Or better yet, we’re the light that animates and infuses the film yet remains uninvolved in the story. Ah, but the movie is so enthralling and so compelling! Remember who you really are and be free.
– Stephan Bodian