Within this text, realization of consciousness is presented as a path of insight rather than of ritual. Central to that path is self-inquiry (ātma-vicāra), a sustained investigation into questions such as “Who am I?” and “What is real?” Through this discriminative inquiry, one examines the witness that observes all mental modifications and comes to see that what appears as world, body, and ego is transient and dream-like, while consciousness itself is the abiding reality. This contemplative questioning is not a mere intellectual exercise, but a continuous turning of attention back to the source of experience.

Alongside inquiry, the text emphasizes dispassion (vairāgya) and detachment from the pull of sensory objects and experiences. By recognizing the impermanence of pleasure and pain, gain and loss, one gradually loosens identification with the changing field of phenomena. This cultivated equanimity supports the calming of the mind, allowing thoughts and desires to lose their compulsive force. In this way, dispassion becomes both a method and a sign of ripening understanding.

Meditation and sustained contemplation occupy a complementary role. The practitioner is encouraged to abide as the witnessing consciousness, allowing thoughts to arise and subside without grasping, while repeatedly reflecting on the teachings that all appearances exist only in and as consciousness. Continuous remembrance of this vision—often expressed through images such as the world being like a dream—stabilizes insight so that it no longer wavers with circumstances. Such meditation is directed not toward acquiring new experiences, but toward recognizing the ever-present nature of awareness.

A further strand of practice concerns the transformation of the mind’s latent tendencies (vāsanā). The text points to the gradual abandonment or “destruction” of these deep-seated impressions, which otherwise perpetuate habitual patterns of thought and reactivity. As these tendencies are seen through and relinquished, the mind becomes quieter and more transparent, and its movements cease to obscure the underlying consciousness. This process is closely linked with what is described as the calming or dissolution of the mind, where compulsive mental activity naturally subsides.

Finally, the teaching repeatedly underscores the value of association with the wise (satsaṅga) and of present-moment awareness. Listening to and reflecting upon the words of a realized sage, and allowing those insights to permeate one’s understanding, serves as a powerful support to direct practice. At the same time, maintaining attention in the immediacy of the present—without drifting into past regrets or future projections—reveals consciousness as the unchanging witness of all states. Taken together, these methods form a coherent discipline in which knowledge, meditation, dispassion, and inner purification converge to disclose the non-dual nature of pure consciousness.