The moment of self-realization is a huge relief. It feels like walking through an invisible curtain into silence that can’t be described because you are somehow not there to describe it.

Something like this happened to me in my 20s. For years, I only had one way to describe it. “It’s like turning off the barn fan,” I would say. But then I moved to Boston, and no farmers were available to understand the reference.

The sacred silence is deafening and there is inexpressible beauty. But the most powerful what isn’t nearly as significant as why.

Self-realization is what happens when it occurs to you to be happy.

I know what you’re thinking - I already want to be happy!

No, you want to associate with certain objects.

Happiness is your nature, but you turn away because you're preoccupied with objects. One day, you will want to be happy.

Self-realization means you want happiness more than you want to find it in objects. By “objects,” we mean mental activity oriented toward external objects and circumstances.

• Someday, you will want happiness more than anything else.
• This is good, because in your heart you know you are happiness.
• On that day, you will look within instead of without and experience the clear light of bliss.

Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside. - Ramana Maharshi