Ramana Maharshi's Forty Verses on What Is

The feet of guru are that which is always shining within you as “I am I”. Grasp that’.

What actually exists (uḷḷadu) is perfect as it is, therefore, the problem we face lies only in what does not actually exist but nevertheless seems to exist.

Brahman is that which exists in the heart devoid of thought as the pure awareness ‘I am’.

This pure awareness ‘I am’ is what Bhagavan calls ‘existing awareness’, ‘being awareness’, ‘actual awareness’ or ‘real awareness’.

the real substance is the heart, the pure and permanent awareness ‘I am’, whereas the ego is the transitory and thought-mixed awareness ‘I am this body’.

The ego is a form of awareness but awareness mixed up with thoughts or phenomena,

the real substance itself is just real awareness, which is devoid of thought and hence of the ego.

What knows all phenomena is only the ego (or mind), and according to Bhagavan even the ego, which is what is aware of the seeming existence of all other things, is itself a thought — ego is the original thought {the first thought ‘I’} and the root of all other thoughts.

Bhagavan uses the term ‘thought’, the world and all its features are nothing other than thoughts or mental phenomena, namely all things that appear and disappear, all things other than ourself.