In the approach of Self-Inquiry as taught by Ramana Maharshi, the arising of distracting thoughts is not regarded as a failure but as part of the very field of practice. Thoughts, whether pleasant or disturbing, are allowed to appear and disappear without resistance. Rather than attempting to suppress or wrestle with them, one simply refuses to be interested in their content. This disinterest is not a form of repression; it is the natural result of turning attention away from the objects of thought toward their source. In this way, even the notion “I am distracted” is recognized as just another thought arising in awareness.

The central movement of the practice is always a redirection from the thought to the thinker. Whenever a thought is noticed, the instruction is to ask, “To whom has this thought arisen?” The immediate answer is, “To me.” Attention is then turned to this “me” by inquiring, “Who am I?” or “What is this ‘I’ that is aware of the thought?” Instead of tracing every single thought in detail, one traces the basic “I”-sense from which all thoughts spring.

This means that the sense “I am thinking,” or “I am distracted,” itself becomes the doorway for inquiry. One attends to the feeling of “I” or the simple sense of “I am,” remaining with it as quietly and steadily as possible, without elaborating it into further concepts. Each time attention is carried away, it is gently but firmly brought back in the same manner, without self-judgment or analysis of why distraction occurred. This repeated returning is not a detour from the practice; it is the strengthening of Self-Inquiry itself.

Over time, as attention abides more consistently with the source of the “I”-thought, the pull of secondary thoughts naturally weakens. The mind’s turbulence may still arise, but it is seen as occurring within the light of awareness rather than as defining the one who is aware. In recognizing that all thoughts, including the sense of distraction, arise to the same “I” and subside back into the same awareness, one begins to rest more as the witnessing presence than as the thinker. In this resting, distracting thoughts lose their apparent power, having been traced back to their origin in the Self.