In Nisargadatta Maharaj’s teaching, the phrase “neti neti” (“not this, not this”) functions as a central method of self-inquiry and Self-realization. It is a disciplined process of negation, in which every object of experience—body, sensations, thoughts, emotions, roles, memories, and all conceptual identities—is examined and recognized as something perceived, and therefore not the perceiving Self. By repeatedly seeing that whatever can be observed is not what one truly is, identification with transient and impermanent phenomena is steadily weakened. This is not a denial of existence, but a rigorous discrimination between the changing and the unchanging, between what appears in consciousness and the consciousness that knows it.

Through this systematic rejection of all attributes and identifications, attention is drawn back to the bare sense of being, the simple “I Am” prior to any qualification such as “I am this” or “I am that.” When all conceptual and experiential layers are stripped away in this manner, what remains is the undeniable fact of presence-consciousness, the pure awareness in which all experiences arise and subside. In this way, “neti neti” serves to dissolve mental constructs and self-images, revealing the undifferentiated awareness that underlies them. The phrase thus operates as both a practical tool and a profound pointer to the formless, unnameable reality that cannot itself be objectified or described, yet stands self-evident once all that is “not-Self” has been seen through.