Page 145 of 208 ·
Jump to page #:
Go
· Jump To Random Page 
If we disinterestedly observe the arising and disappearing of all the states we experience, we soon come to realize that each state, each perception, each thought, is reabsorbed into an unspoken knowing, knowing as being. This, the continuum, the only reality, is there before activity commences. Let yourself sink deep within this stillness each time it makes itself felt.
At the outset of self-enquiry, it is necessary to make an effort to abide in the Self. This results in a natural abiding in time. The unnatural state of an outward focused mind must be brought around to being inward focused, and this alone is where effort lies. Mind thinks it has something to do in order to realise its true nature. It only has to be quiet, not engage with thought and then it must be bypassed.
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.
In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer;
I have overcome the world.
In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer;
I have overcome the world.
My teachings are easy to understand
and easy to put into practice.
Yet your intellect will never grasp them,
and if you try to practice them, you'll fail.
My teachings are older than the world.
How can you grasp their meaning?
If you want to know me,
look inside your heart.
and easy to put into practice.
Yet your intellect will never grasp them,
and if you try to practice them, you'll fail.
My teachings are older than the world.
How can you grasp their meaning?
If you want to know me,
look inside your heart.
Dive deep into the chambers of your heart.
Find out the real, infinite ‘I’.
Rest there peacefully for ever and become identical with the Supreme Self.
Find out the real, infinite ‘I’.
Rest there peacefully for ever and become identical with the Supreme Self.
The world does not exist in sleep and forms a projection of your mind in the waking state. It is therefore an idea and nothing else.
Happiness
First I gave up action,
Then idle words,
And lastly thought itself.
Now I am here.
Ridding my mind of distraction,
single-pointed,
I shut out sound and all the senses,
And I am here.
Meditation is needed
Only when the mind is distracted
By false imagining.
Knowing this,
I am here.
Without joy or sorrow,
Grasping nothing, spurning nothing,
O Master, I am here.
What do I care
If I observe or neglect
The four stages of life?
Meditation,
Controlling the mind,
These are mere distractions!
Now I am here.
Doing, or not doing,
Both come from not knowing.
Knowing this fully,
I am here.
Thinking
Of what is beyond thinking Is still thinking.
I gave up thinking,
And I am here.
Whoever fulfills this
Fulfills his own nature
And is indeed fulfilled.
First I gave up action,
Then idle words,
And lastly thought itself.
Now I am here.
Ridding my mind of distraction,
single-pointed,
I shut out sound and all the senses,
And I am here.
Meditation is needed
Only when the mind is distracted
By false imagining.
Knowing this,
I am here.
Without joy or sorrow,
Grasping nothing, spurning nothing,
O Master, I am here.
What do I care
If I observe or neglect
The four stages of life?
Meditation,
Controlling the mind,
These are mere distractions!
Now I am here.
Doing, or not doing,
Both come from not knowing.
Knowing this fully,
I am here.
Thinking
Of what is beyond thinking Is still thinking.
I gave up thinking,
And I am here.
Whoever fulfills this
Fulfills his own nature
And is indeed fulfilled.
Time and space are not conditions in which we live, but modes by which we think.
You cannot see the true unless you are at peace. A quiet mind is essential for right perception, which again is required for self-realization.
Do not try to know the truth, for knowledge by the mind is not true knowledge. But you can know what is not true — which is enough to liberate you from the false. The idea that you know what is true is dangerous, for it keeps you imprisoned in the mind. It is when you do not know, that you are free to investigate. And there can be no salvation, without investigation, because non-investigation is the main cause of bondage.
Q: I see you doing things. How can you say that you never perform actions?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: A radio sings and speaks, but if you open it you will find no one inside. Similarly, my existence is like the space; though this body speaks like the radio, there is no one inside as a doer.
Sri Ramana Maharshi: A radio sings and speaks, but if you open it you will find no one inside. Similarly, my existence is like the space; though this body speaks like the radio, there is no one inside as a doer.
Do what you feel like doing. Don't bully yourself. Violence will make you hard and rigid. Do not fight with what you take to be obstacles on your way. Just be interested in them, watch them, observe, enquire. Let anything happen -- good or bad. But don't let yourself be submerged by what happens.
Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the body’s reaction to your mind—or you might say, a reflection of your mind in the body.
The more you are identified with your thinking, your likes and dislikes, judgments and interpretations, which is to say the less present you are as the watching consciousness, the stronger the emotional energy charge will be, whether you are aware of it or not.
Basically, all emotions are modifications of one primordial, undifferentiated emotion that has its origin in the loss of awareness of who you are beyond name and form. You will not be free of that pain until you cease to derive your sense of self from identification with the mind, which is to say from ego.
The more you are identified with your thinking, your likes and dislikes, judgments and interpretations, which is to say the less present you are as the watching consciousness, the stronger the emotional energy charge will be, whether you are aware of it or not.
Basically, all emotions are modifications of one primordial, undifferentiated emotion that has its origin in the loss of awareness of who you are beyond name and form. You will not be free of that pain until you cease to derive your sense of self from identification with the mind, which is to say from ego.
BHAGAVAN IN ‘CONSCIOUS IMMORTALITY’
Q: What are the hindrances to the realization of Reality?
Bhagavan: Memory chiefly, habits of thought and accumulated tendencies.
Q: How to get rid of these?
Bhagavan: Find out the Self through meditation in this manner. Trace every thought back to its origin which is the ‘I’- thought; never allow thought to go on. If it does it will be unending. If you take it back to the source, thoughts will die of inaction, for the mind exists by thought; take away thought and there is no mind. As each doubt and depression arises ask yourself, ‘Who is it that doubts? Who is depressed?’ Tear everything away until there is nothing but the source left.
Live only in the present.
Q: What are the hindrances to the realization of Reality?
Bhagavan: Memory chiefly, habits of thought and accumulated tendencies.
Q: How to get rid of these?
Bhagavan: Find out the Self through meditation in this manner. Trace every thought back to its origin which is the ‘I’- thought; never allow thought to go on. If it does it will be unending. If you take it back to the source, thoughts will die of inaction, for the mind exists by thought; take away thought and there is no mind. As each doubt and depression arises ask yourself, ‘Who is it that doubts? Who is depressed?’ Tear everything away until there is nothing but the source left.
Live only in the present.
We are actually experiencing the Reality only; still, we do not know it. Is it not a wonder of wonders?
Reality is simply the loss of the ego.
The quest "Who am I?" is the axe with which to cut off the ego.
Reality is simply the loss of the ego.
The quest "Who am I?" is the axe with which to cut off the ego.
SAMADHI ALONE CAN REVEAL THE TRUTH
D: What is the use of samadhi and does thought subsist
then?
M: Samadhi alone can reveal the Truth. Thoughts cast a
veil over Reality, and so It is not realised as such in
states other than samadhi.
In samadhi there is only the feeling ‘I AM’ and no
thoughts. The experience ‘I AM’ is being still.
D: How can I repeat the experience of samadhi or the
stillness that I obtain here?
M: Your present experience is due to the influence of the
atmosphere in which you find yourself. Can you have
it outside this atmosphere? The experience is spasmodic.
Until it becomes permanent, practice is necessary.
D: One has at times vivid flashes of a consciousness
whose centre is outside the normal self, and which
seems to be all-inclusive. Without concerning
ourselves with philosophical concepts, how would
Bhagavan advise me to work towards getting,
retaining and extending those rare flashes? Does
abhyasa in such experience involve retirement?
M: Outside! For whom is the inside or outside? These
can exist only so long as there are the subject and
object. For whom are these two again? On
investigation you will find that they resolve into the
subject only. See who is the subject; and this enquiry
leads you to pure Consciousness beyond the subject.
The normal self is the mind. This mind is with
limitations. But pure Consciousness is beyond
limitations, and is reached by investigation as above
outlined.
Getting: The Self is always there. You have only to remove
the veil obstructing the revelation of the Self.
Retaining: Once you realise the Self, it becomes your direct
and immediate experience. It is never lost.
Extending: There is no extending of the Self, for it is as
ever, without contraction or expansion.
Retirement: Abiding in the Self is solitude. Because there
is nothing alien to the Self. Retirement must be
from some one place or state to another. There is
neither the one nor the other apart from the Self. All
being the Self, retirement is impossible and
inconceivable.
Abhyasa is only the prevention of disturbance to the
inherent peace. You are always in your natural State
whether you do abhyasa or not.... To remain as you
are, without question or doubt, is your natural State.
From Maharshi’s Gospel
D: What is the use of samadhi and does thought subsist
then?
M: Samadhi alone can reveal the Truth. Thoughts cast a
veil over Reality, and so It is not realised as such in
states other than samadhi.
In samadhi there is only the feeling ‘I AM’ and no
thoughts. The experience ‘I AM’ is being still.
D: How can I repeat the experience of samadhi or the
stillness that I obtain here?
M: Your present experience is due to the influence of the
atmosphere in which you find yourself. Can you have
it outside this atmosphere? The experience is spasmodic.
Until it becomes permanent, practice is necessary.
D: One has at times vivid flashes of a consciousness
whose centre is outside the normal self, and which
seems to be all-inclusive. Without concerning
ourselves with philosophical concepts, how would
Bhagavan advise me to work towards getting,
retaining and extending those rare flashes? Does
abhyasa in such experience involve retirement?
M: Outside! For whom is the inside or outside? These
can exist only so long as there are the subject and
object. For whom are these two again? On
investigation you will find that they resolve into the
subject only. See who is the subject; and this enquiry
leads you to pure Consciousness beyond the subject.
The normal self is the mind. This mind is with
limitations. But pure Consciousness is beyond
limitations, and is reached by investigation as above
outlined.
Getting: The Self is always there. You have only to remove
the veil obstructing the revelation of the Self.
Retaining: Once you realise the Self, it becomes your direct
and immediate experience. It is never lost.
Extending: There is no extending of the Self, for it is as
ever, without contraction or expansion.
Retirement: Abiding in the Self is solitude. Because there
is nothing alien to the Self. Retirement must be
from some one place or state to another. There is
neither the one nor the other apart from the Self. All
being the Self, retirement is impossible and
inconceivable.
Abhyasa is only the prevention of disturbance to the
inherent peace. You are always in your natural State
whether you do abhyasa or not.... To remain as you
are, without question or doubt, is your natural State.
From Maharshi’s Gospel
Deafened by the voice of desire you are unaware the Beloved lives in the core of your heart. Stop the noise and you will hear His voice in the silence.
As is the human body, So is the cosmic body. As is the human mind, So is the common mind. As is the microcosm, So is the macrocosm. As is the atom, So is the universe.
In Truth, everyone is a
Shadow of the Beloved.
Our seeking is His seeking.
Shadow of the Beloved.
Our seeking is His seeking.
True silence is really endless speech; there is no such thing as attaining it because it is always present. All you have to do is to remove the worldly cobwebs that enshroud it; there is no question of attaining it.
There is no process to become silent. To disturb your mind you need process, but to stay silent there is no process. Stay in satsang, stay quiet, always have love with your own Self. You are not to win it by any attempt or effort. Simply stay quiet. If any thought rises, simply find out where it came from.
I am not the body,
Nor is the body mine.
I am awareness itself
When you know this,
You have no thought
For what you have done
Or left undone.
You become one,
Perfect and indivisible.
“I am in all things,
From Brahma to a blade of grass.”
When you know this,
You have no thought
For success or failure
Or the mind’s inconstancy.
You are pure. You are still.
The world with all its wonders Is nothing.
When you know this,
Desire melts away.
For you are awareness itself.
When you know in your heart
That there is nothing,
You are still.
Nor is the body mine.
I am awareness itself
When you know this,
You have no thought
For what you have done
Or left undone.
You become one,
Perfect and indivisible.
“I am in all things,
From Brahma to a blade of grass.”
When you know this,
You have no thought
For success or failure
Or the mind’s inconstancy.
You are pure. You are still.
The world with all its wonders Is nothing.
When you know this,
Desire melts away.
For you are awareness itself.
When you know in your heart
That there is nothing,
You are still.
Ask the question “Who is having this original I thought?” In words of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ask within, “Who am I?” From where did this question arise? Look within and find out from where did the ‘I’ arise. This question turns your vision around. When you solve this for yourself and confirm your findings with absolute clarity, you have solved all other conceivable questions. There is no answer to either of these questions. To arrive at any describable answer would be a conceptual response from your mind. Stop reading and settle within right now. You are capable of this enquiry this very moment. Go within and prove it to yourself. See if you can locate the source of the thought of ‘I’ or ask, “Who am I?” See what you find.
Your mind can be just as preoccupied sitting on a rock in the countryside as in a crowded supermarket. The focus or work, if you call it that, is within you always.
Everything will be taken from you on this path. Everything. It’s easier to let go than to hold.
You cannot possibly say that you are what you think yourself to be! Your ideas about yourself change from day to day and from moment to moment. Your self-image is the most changeful thing you have. It is utterly vulnerable, at the mercy of a passer by. A bereavement, the loss of a job, an insult, and your image of yourself, which you call your person, changes deeply. To know what you are you must first investigate and know what you are not. And to know what you are not you must watch yourself carefully, rejecting all that does not necessarily go with the basic fact: ‘I am’. The ideas: I am born at a given place, at a given time, from my parents and now I am so-and-so, living at, married to, father of, employed by, and so on, are not inherent in the sense ‘I am’. Our usual attitude is of ‘I am this’. Separate consistently and perseveringly the ‘I am’ from ‘this’ or ‘that’, and try to feel what it means to be, just to be, without being ‘this’ or ‘that’. All our habits go against it and the task of fighting them is long and hard sometimes, but clear understanding helps a lot. The clearer you understand that on the level of the mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker you will come to the end of your search and realise your limitless being.
Beings
Follow us on Facebook