Acharya Prashant explains that the mind has been continuously lying to you. Its fundamental lie is that no reality exists outside of itself, and that it is impossible to be without being the mind. This is for its own selfish interest. The mind tells you, "If I am not there, you are not there." However, when the mind is brought to a standstill, this lie is disproven. In that moment of stillness, you do not merely exist; you exist more authentically than ever before. This experience empirically disproves the mind's central law that you and it are inalienable. While a thousand occurrences might seem to confirm a law, a single instance that violates it is enough to disprove it entirely. Once this central lie is exposed, you can no longer resume your usual relationship with the mind. You will be able to look at it with distrust and be skeptical of everything it says. If its most central claim is false, it is possible that everything the mind has been telling you is also false. The mind's other teachings—such as the need for constant thinking to understand, or the idea that you will be exploited if you surrender to an authority—are also called out as lies. The mind, having been shown to be a big liar, does not like this. Even if you attempt to go back to your old ways, you will find yourself weaker in defending your usual self because your conviction has cracked. It becomes progressively more difficult to revert to what you have always been. A day comes when you decide not to go back at all, realizing you no longer belong to the outside. This transformation, however, is a long process that requires grace and resolution. The house of the ego must be brought down brick by brick; dynamiting it is a fantasy. You have to be your own mother, carry yourself in the womb for a long time, and then bear your own new birth, as no one is truly born in a single moment.
