First Step is Self-Enquiry

The first step in Self-Enquiry (Athma Vichara) is the practice of the truth that whatever gives you pain, gives pain to others and whatever gives you joy, gives joy to others. So do unto others as you would like them do unto you; desist from any act in relation to others, which, if done by them will cause you pain.

Thus, a kind of reciprocal relationship will grow between you and others and gradually you reach the stage when your heart thrills with joy when others are joyful and shudders in pain when others are sad. This is not the kind of affection towards those who are dear to you or those who are your kith and kin.

This sharing of joy and grief is automatic, immediate, and universal. It is a sign of great spiritual advance, the wave knows that it is part of the ocean; all the waves are but temporary manifestations of the sea and with the same taste of the ocean itself.

Baba (thought for the day)

 

That is just what I was mentioning in my email, it is the first step, self-enquiry.
Do we know that?
Do we know that whatever gives us joy, is giving others joy as well and whatever gives us pain, is also pain to others?

That is not exactly the expience probably of most of us, isn't it and the question is why?

We work on that reciprocal relationship between us and others and we will gradually reach the stage when our heart trills in joy when others are joyful and we also shudder in pain when others are sad...

It means, what he tells us here, it is not about the affection we have to all those who are dear to us or our kith and kin. 
We share joy and grief on a level of consciousness.

During my time as meditation teacher it said that we didn't go anywhere if we felt bad to not make the others feel bad too. 

That is the real meaning of being part of the ocean, we are only temporary manifestations of the sea and we have the same taste of the ocean itself. 
But we all know probably also in the mean time how difficult it is to reach that stage.

What we hear is 'same', no difference, we are all the same and that tells our inner first impression that there cannot be any difference, if it is all the same, why difference? But in reality it is telling us  something else.
He tells us the first step is self-enquiry.

The first step is asking a question and it is discrimination.
We cannot get to the insight that we are all the same without discrimination.
 

We are three persons, the one I think I am that is the body, the one the others think I am that is the mind and the one we really are that is atman (higher self). (Baba)

That is compared to the ocean, Atman is pure consciousness and the ocean, all the same.

The one I think I am is the body, therefore, is not the ocean. It should be the ocean, because only in the ocean is that sameness and sharing, it is only possible on that level of the ocean.
But to realize that I am the ocean and not the body and not the mind, I have to use discrimination.

Therefore, the conclusion that we are all the same and the inner feeling that no discrimination is needed if all are the same, that is a wrong conclusion, it is not the right answer.  

We are all the same, because of discrimination, because of self-enquiry and if there is no discrimination and no self-enquiry, we will not be able to see us as all the same, we will see each one as different and in a different body.

We are only able to be in unity if we live in discrimination and self-enquiry, if we don't, we are just in the body and on the level we are not aware of the difference between body, mind and atman.

 

This sharing of joy and grief is automatic, immediate, and universal. It is a sign of great spiritual advance, the wave knows that it is part of the ocean; all the waves are but temporary manifestations of the sea and with the same taste of the ocean itself.

 

Therefore, it is a sign of spiritual advancement if we are able to know that we are just part of the ocean, it means we are aware of unity in diversity.

And the first step is self-enquiry and not no discrimination, but the opposite, only with discrimination we are able to get to that awarness of the omnipresence of divinity and total non-duality.