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Dangers of Attacing to Samadhi
Zen Master Seung Sahn(4) speaks of two stories that illuminate the dangers of attaching to Samadhi:
A long time ago in China, during the time of Zen Master Lin Chi, there was a monk who was very famous for his Samadhi practicing. This monk, similar to the traditions of digambara, never wore any clothes and was known as the 'naked monk.' He had mastered many kinds of Samadhi, had lots of energy, and didn't need to wear clothes even in winter.
One day Lin Chi decided to test this monk. He called a student of his, gave him a set of beautiful clothes, and asked him to present them to the monk. The student went to the monk and said, 'Ah, you are wonderful. Your practicing is very strong. So my teacher wants to give you these beautiful clothes as a present.' The monk kicked away the clothes and said, 'I don't need these clothes. I have original clothes, from my parents! Your clothes can only be kept a short time, then they will wear out. But my original clothes are never broken. Also, if they become dirty, I just take a shower and they are clean again. I don't need your clothes!'
The student went back to Lin Chi and told him what happened. Lin Chi said, 'You must go to this monk once more and ask him a certain question.' So the student went to the monk and said, 'Great monk! I have one question for you. You said you got your original clothes from your parents.' 'Of course!' said the monk. 'Then I ask you, before you got these original clothes from your parents, what kind of clothes did you have?' Upon hearing this, the naked monk went deep into Samadhi, then into Nirvana and died.
Everyone was very surprised and sad. But when the monk's body was cremated, many Sarira appeared, so everyone thought, 'Ah, this was a great monk.' Sitting on the high rostrum, Lin Chi hit the stand with his Zen stick and said, 'Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.' He hit it again, 'No form, no emptiness.' He hit it a third time, 'Form is form, emptiness is emptiness. Which one is correct?' Nobody understood. Then the Zen Master shouted 'KATZ!' and said, 'The sky is blue, the tree is green.' If you cannot answer in one word the question about your original clothes, then, although you can get Samadhi and Nirvana, you cannot get freedom from life and death.
Then the Zen Master stared at the Sarira -- poof! -- they turned to water. This is magic! They all turned to water and disappeared. Everyone was surprised. The meaning of this is: if you do Samadhi practice deeply, then when you die many Sarira will appear. But, these Sarira will not last long because they represent ,one mind,' not 'clear mind' which is our original nature. Our original nature has no life, no death, no coming or going. When the true Dharma appears, which means form is form, emptiness is emptiness or sky is blue, tree is green- that energy -BOOM! - will appear, all the Sarira will turn to water and disappear. Our teaching is substance, truth, and correct life. Our Zen practicing means attain your true self, find the correct way, truth, and life. Any style of practice is OK -- even using a mantra. But, don't be attached to Samadhi -- you must 'pass' Samadhi. Zen means 'everyday mind,' not special states of mind. Moment to moment keeping a clear mind is what's important.
And a second example. Once one of my students decided to practice with an Indian guru. This guru taught Samadhi practice. So my student got a Mantra, tried it all the time when he wasn't working, and went deeply into Samadhi. All the time he was having a very good feeling. Then one day while doing this Mantra, he was crossing the street. The next thing he knew, a car screeched to a halt, almost hitting him, and loudly sounded its horn. The driver shouted at him, 'Keep clear mind!' Then my student was very afraid. The next day he came to me and said, 'Dae Soen Sa Nim, I have a problem. Last night I almost died. I was practicing Samadhi, didn't pay attention and was almost hit by a car. Please teach me my mistake.'
So I explained to him, Samadhi practicing takes away your consciousness. But Zen means moment to moment keeping clear mind. What are you doing now? When you are doing something, just do it. Then this kind of accident cannot happen. So don't make Samadhi. Don't make anything! Just do it, O.K
Zen Master Seung Sahn(4) speaks of two stories that illuminate the dangers of attaching to Samadhi:
A long time ago in China, during the time of Zen Master Lin Chi, there was a monk who was very famous for his Samadhi practicing. This monk, similar to the traditions of digambara, never wore any clothes and was known as the 'naked monk.' He had mastered many kinds of Samadhi, had lots of energy, and didn't need to wear clothes even in winter.
One day Lin Chi decided to test this monk. He called a student of his, gave him a set of beautiful clothes, and asked him to present them to the monk. The student went to the monk and said, 'Ah, you are wonderful. Your practicing is very strong. So my teacher wants to give you these beautiful clothes as a present.' The monk kicked away the clothes and said, 'I don't need these clothes. I have original clothes, from my parents! Your clothes can only be kept a short time, then they will wear out. But my original clothes are never broken. Also, if they become dirty, I just take a shower and they are clean again. I don't need your clothes!'
The student went back to Lin Chi and told him what happened. Lin Chi said, 'You must go to this monk once more and ask him a certain question.' So the student went to the monk and said, 'Great monk! I have one question for you. You said you got your original clothes from your parents.' 'Of course!' said the monk. 'Then I ask you, before you got these original clothes from your parents, what kind of clothes did you have?' Upon hearing this, the naked monk went deep into Samadhi, then into Nirvana and died.
Everyone was very surprised and sad. But when the monk's body was cremated, many Sarira appeared, so everyone thought, 'Ah, this was a great monk.' Sitting on the high rostrum, Lin Chi hit the stand with his Zen stick and said, 'Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.' He hit it again, 'No form, no emptiness.' He hit it a third time, 'Form is form, emptiness is emptiness. Which one is correct?' Nobody understood. Then the Zen Master shouted 'KATZ!' and said, 'The sky is blue, the tree is green.' If you cannot answer in one word the question about your original clothes, then, although you can get Samadhi and Nirvana, you cannot get freedom from life and death.
Then the Zen Master stared at the Sarira -- poof! -- they turned to water. This is magic! They all turned to water and disappeared. Everyone was surprised. The meaning of this is: if you do Samadhi practice deeply, then when you die many Sarira will appear. But, these Sarira will not last long because they represent ,one mind,' not 'clear mind' which is our original nature. Our original nature has no life, no death, no coming or going. When the true Dharma appears, which means form is form, emptiness is emptiness or sky is blue, tree is green- that energy -BOOM! - will appear, all the Sarira will turn to water and disappear. Our teaching is substance, truth, and correct life. Our Zen practicing means attain your true self, find the correct way, truth, and life. Any style of practice is OK -- even using a mantra. But, don't be attached to Samadhi -- you must 'pass' Samadhi. Zen means 'everyday mind,' not special states of mind. Moment to moment keeping a clear mind is what's important.
And a second example. Once one of my students decided to practice with an Indian guru. This guru taught Samadhi practice. So my student got a Mantra, tried it all the time when he wasn't working, and went deeply into Samadhi. All the time he was having a very good feeling. Then one day while doing this Mantra, he was crossing the street. The next thing he knew, a car screeched to a halt, almost hitting him, and loudly sounded its horn. The driver shouted at him, 'Keep clear mind!' Then my student was very afraid. The next day he came to me and said, 'Dae Soen Sa Nim, I have a problem. Last night I almost died. I was practicing Samadhi, didn't pay attention and was almost hit by a car. Please teach me my mistake.'
So I explained to him, Samadhi practicing takes away your consciousness. But Zen means moment to moment keeping clear mind. What are you doing now? When you are doing something, just do it. Then this kind of accident cannot happen. So don't make Samadhi. Don't make anything! Just do it, O.K
Freedom
I. Mind
1. Mind is everything. Nothing exists but mind. Mind creates everything, from the atom to the cosmos, from a blade of grass to a grain of sand, from an elephant to a flower and the scent of the flower. Your feelings, objects you see, your body, your aches and pains are all mind stuff. Everything is mind; everything!
2. From deep sleep, mind arises and you dream, dreamed self and objects. All is mind-only.
3. Yet mind does not exist. It only has an apparent shadow-like existence. Mind is just uncoordinated thoughts floating in an imaginal space. Mind is thoughts only; imaginal thoughts in imaginal space. They have a dream-stuff quality when you see them clearly.
4. Thoughts do not exist even though they appear to. By non-existence, I mean they have no tangibility, no solidity, no permanence, just like a dreamed body or dreamed people. They have a dream quality when you observe them closely.
5. When you awaken from a dream, the dreamed images disappear and you know they were not real; they had an imaginal quality only.
6. So too does the waking dream disappears when the mind and thoughts are seen to be imagination only. Space is the imaginal world's essential quality and itself is unreal.
7. Mind has one central thought, which is the thought I. It is that I thought that one refers to all day long as me, or I. There is no I that the I-thought refers to. None. That is, there is no object that is I existing separate from other objects, people, places and things. There is no ego that the I thought refers to although it feels that way before awakening. There is no separation between imaginal objects as space is imaginal itself.
8. There is only an I thought. It is like a name with no person that name points to. You think you (I as subject) exist, but there is no you (I as subject).
9. The I is the I-thought only. It has no existence in itself except as a thought, yet all other thoughts appear to be connected to the I-thought. I thought is the lynch-pin. Without the I thought having an apparent reality, the world too is seen as having no reality. I is the apparent subject, the world the apparent object, but neither exists without the other. Both are imagination.
10. You do not exist; that is the great discovery. There is no I or ego that exists. There is no me. The I-thou is a false duality. Me, you, is a duality. Inward and outward is a duality. All dualities depend on the reality of I-Thou, I vs. World, and ultimately the reality of the I thought or subject.
11. When you recognize you (as a person) do not exist, the world immediately disappears also. Imaginal space disappears.
12. When you realize you are not the mind, no thing, you realize you do not exist as a person, then you realize that “all that is†does not exist either. No thing exists. It is all a dream created by mind.
13. You can hear this a million times, but until this is your experience, it is only your concept of what an I-less state is like. That is, it is a belief, an idea.
14. In this realization, there is a recognition that there is nothing to do. There is no decision to make. You are responsible for nothing. You, as an apparent mind and body, no longer have anything to do. 'God' does everything; you do nothing.
15. All human problems come from the belief you are a separate body-mind. Once you see you do not exist in this way, great and restful peace comes. There is nothing for you to do, because 'It' does everything. (It does no good to give this 'force' a name such as God; labels only obscure and leave an impression of existence as a sublime object.)
II. True Self
1. All the above is obtained in the waking state, the state of everyday wakefulness. All that you know or understand, as you, is mind in the waking state of consciousness.
2. That waking state comes and goes. It goes when you fall asleep. It goes when you get drunk. It goes sometimes when you get hit in the head. It goes when your body dies. It is not permanent. It is like a candle’s flame in a breeze, sometimes it flickers hot, sometimes almost dies, but eventually burns out.
3. Always in the waking state there is an associated body, which has a conceptual, apparent existence. It is the body’s senses and the mind that creates the world and me. But it is all illusion, imagination in consciousness.
4. Waking consciousness is body consciousness. Without a body, there are no senses; without senses there are no sense objects or the world. Or so it appears.
Dreaming consciousness also requires an imaginal body. All things are created by mind, and the individual mind is associated with an apparent brain and body.
5. In fact, even the waking state and the dream states themselves arise as mindstuff out of the fundamental, before mind, nature. That is, not only are waking and dream objects a figment of the human mind, the waking and dream states themselves, along with the dream-conceived body, have no real existence.
6. The apparent body/mind is a “knot†of awareness. There is a awareness beyond that knot. That ‘beyond’ awareness contains and gives an apparent existence to waking and dream consciousness, otherwise called the waking and dream states, and the objects that populate those states.
7. The first awakening destroys the I and the object world. The second awakening destroys the awake consciousness and dream consciousness. All continue to appear to exist, but you now know they are fraudulent. They arise out of something 'deeper'. (The term 'deeper' also creates an imaginal duality; a duality that is not real but is stated for exposition only.)
8. Even the deep sleep state is a state of consciousness. The brain, mind and body are shut down during that ‘time’. All is forgotten because remembering requires mind. Mind is shut down during deep sleep as is the brain. Both are forgotten. But an underlying tone of awareness continues. Many people after some practice "feel" the presence of the sleep state even when awake, and also that they are prior to both the waking and sleep states. YOU are that which can simultaneously be aware of both waking and sleeping, even though you are primarily the waking state at the time.
9. That deeper awareness or consciousness, YOU, observes waking, dream and sleep.
10. There is no argument that can prove there is an observing consciousness or existence in sleep. All arguments that there is consciousness in sleep depend on argumentation and inference. They try to convince the reader that this is their direct experience by inference. This is a weakness of all Jnani-style expositions: the mystery of the deep sleep state, or the third state of consciousness.
11. There is a “state†of consciousness that is “beyond†the deep sleep state. That primary consciousness classically is called awareness here for the sake of communication. That awareness is beyond waking and dream consciousness. That awareness exists and witnesses all the other states of waking, dream and deep sleep. Finding that core awareness in the waking state, and disidentifying with the objects of the waking state, is called self-realization. In that realization, the waking state itself is seen as fraud. Further explanation here.
12. All other states come and go on this stateless state of awareness, often called the fourth state. The fourth state is the witness of waking, sleep and dream. It is the constant note of the fundamental awareness that appears to be you as a small and insignificant body/mind.
13. The concept of a fourth state is is a conceptual distinction only, but as close to “truth†as can be put into words, as It lies “before†and beyond the waking, sleep and dream states, and, in fact dwells as a constant presence in all. Every state of consciousness and all objects that populate all waking and dream worlds, flow from it and are observed by it. Waking, dream and sleep are derivative, but it is not a state itself. It is the subjective source from which all other states arise as object. You cannot see or witness it as it is the witness of all.
14. Until you know this fundamental truth consciously, that is, through the use of the waking mind, the fourth state is only an idea, a concept, one among many concepts and certainly not proved through argumentation.
15. This fourth (non) state is given the label, “Turiya,†for the sake of exposition. The terms “the fourth state†and “Turiya†are only concepts, words, until you experience that beyond and before the waking, dreaming and deep sleep states. The latter are temporary and unstable. Turiya alone is permanent and stable. Essentially only Turiya exists, all else is temporary, imaginal, derivative.
16. In fact, Turiya, the stateless state, awareness has no existence as existence is a property of the imaginary world. Awareness is beyond any existence and is the observer of the apparent existent.
17. The deathless and stateless awareness, Turiya, is aware always, and itself is aware that it exists and transcends everything, but itself is not perceived. This is known in silence. Until you know this awareness in silence, you cannot know you are not an individual, a human, who lives and dies, has a beginning and an end.
18. Turiya is the permanent state, the deathless state, the eternal state beyond and before existence. You, as awareness, always were. There never was a time you were not, nor will there ever be.
19. This silent absolutely still awareness called Turiya is discovered either in the waking state, or during the apparent gap between waking and the dream states. This is the place most “people†first recognize Turiya. In that gap, mind does not prevail. Awareness alone prevails. At this time, awareness becomes aware of itself as apart from the states of waking, dream and sleep.
20. One step more and you understand you are beyond even Turiya. Turiya is still the witness of all, but you are beyond even this. You are the knower of awareness.
III. Self-realization
1. This is difficult to express, but fundamentally, only Turiya exists, all other states are derivative and all objects are derivative of the derivative states. Yet, when Turiya is stabilized as your primary state—when one is always aware of that fundamental state—the other states and the world are also seen to be you, but merely as a shadow of the real you. These states have so little in common with the real you, you might as well as say they do not exist. To say more than this creates too many conceptual problems that lead to unending philosophical discourse which is an insolvable diversion from correct practice of abiding in self. Therefore, such inquiry should never be pursued. Only abiding in the self should be pursued.
2. The initial insight that you really are the background state, the deathless state, Turiya, is the beginning of self-realization. Self, as the derivative waking state, recognizes its fundamental nature as the deathless fourth stateless state, Turiya, which is beyond and before waking, dream or sleep consciousness.
3. Most people who discover this lose it, because they do not stabilize in the Turiya state. Stabilization requires practice. In many persons that the Turiya recognition comes to, the mind as an apparent entity is destroyed forever. However, to most who become aware of Turiya, that recognition is eventually lost, but the memory of the truth of the fundamental state and the derivative states remains forever.
4. ‘Effort’ is needed by most to stabilize in the fourth state, even though there is no effort in the fourth state itself. Using effort you need to practice being in the effortless state. This means in actuality, remaining in thoughtless silence. Ramana “practiced†remaining in that fourth state, silence, single-mindedly for many years before he taught anyone. However, once the human mind dies permanently, one is always in the stateless state, the fourth state, Turiya. It is better to practice self-inquiry than know this.
5. Robert advised holding onto that state as an act of will until it is forever your understanding.
6. Awareness of, immersion in that stateless, eternal state comes and goes until the core thought processes cease with the so-called ego’s death. Then there is total stability in the root consciousness. Please recognize that all that I have just said is concept to you and has as little value as any other dream. It is a little lie to get you to practice trying to hold onto awareness. The important thing is to abide in the self.
7. What is important is the experience of Samadhi and finally Sahaj Samadhi, the total annihilation of the personal and imaginal self.
8. Even then, know you are beyond even this. No description can be given. It is ineffable.
9. Most of what meditators consider advanced meditative states, including all the talk about the self-illumined Clear Light Emptiness, are really still a phenomena within imaginal space. The so-called "pure awareness" happens to you when the entirety of imaginal space disappears along with the feeling of existence and the sense of I-ness. The totality of the sense of presence is just a complex of thought forms tied into our sense of physical existence as a body-mind. This is what Nisargadatta calls "I-Am." All that disappears at awakening. One becomes empty, silent, non-existent and beyond all existence.
IV Finally
1. By now you probably recognize that both the personal and spiritual life are all about identification.
2. Do you identify with the objects of the imaginal space emanating from your non-existent mind?
3. Do you instead identify with the entire manifestation of consciousness, all phenomenality, the comings and goings of consciousness and objects in consciousness? This is the oneness or unity state that Bernadette Roberts and others talk about. This is also the Samadhi state where all that there is is consciousness and an identification with the totality. These were my Mt. Baldy experiences.
4. Or do you identify with the background upon which All comes and goes? THAT which is aware of the coming and going of consciousness? The pure, cold, emptiness that contains everything but itself does not exist?
5. One might be tempted to call this background pure consciousness or the void, but it is beyond any concepts or pointers.
6. At some moment you will become aware that there is at once a sense of existence and then it passes. In the morning, a sense of existence arises and disappears at sleep. There is something that is firmly aware of the comings and goings of this waking consciousness. The "feeling" is that the existence and then non-existence states come to you. You know both that you are, and you know that you, at times, also are not.
7. This knowingness of the coming and going of the oneness consciousness state, automatically reveals you are not that oneness state. That oneness state comes to you and then it leaves. You have nothing to do with it.
8. Once this conviction of a prior “existence†is strong, a “disidentification†with the body/mind and the totality of the comings and goings of the world, dream and sleep can take place, supplanted by the firm knowledge that you are beyond all that.
9. To use ignorance producing words, there is an identification with that which cannot be perceived as who you really are. One becomes That, but cannot be aware of that.
10. Freedom is a disruption of the identification with phenomenality. First it is a disidentification with the objects in the imaginal world, both dream and waking, then a disidentification with the process of the coming and going of consciousness itself. You rest in yourself, having the position of this Self beyond all.
11. You are before being and not being, awake and dream take place in time. You have no time.
12. With this comes peace, happiness, and an end to searching.
13. You have not attained You; instead you have lost the false identification with the smallest part of You, the imaginal passing show of consciousness. You are the awareness of that consciousness.
14. When this disidentification comes, all the Jnana sutras become clear.
15. When this disidentification comes, You realize You are beyond all.
16. That realization is felt as absolute conviction associated with an immediate 'apprehension' that You are beyond the comings and goings of consciousness. It is not merely an intellection discovery, and only a conviction, but a conviction arises from a direct apprehension of your true nature. This apprehension is not an experience. Both experiences and ordinary convictions come and go. This is an apprehension at the deepest level of being of that which lies prior to beingness, which Zen masters and Nisargadatta call the Unborn.
17. This is not the end, it is the real beginning of sadhana. Before there was only practice and effort, but now you have the taste for and the direction of the Infinite, your unborn true self.
18. You are beyond even the knowledge that you are beyond all; but that knowledge liberates you from the all. Then you are totally free, abiding in that which is entirely beyond. Once you know this, stay there as often and long as you can until all humanhood is burnt out and exhausted and you live in peace.
19. Then, as Robert often said, you are happy beyond belief, fearless, for you cannot die as you realize you, as a human and even as consciousness, were never born. Then, though you appear to be human and functioning, and that identification is still possible for a long while, the sting of suffering is gone, and you are happy.
V. Practice
1. The neo-jnanis proclaim instant enlightenment is possible if only you understand the Jnani-words. They may say look inside and you will immediately see that the I-thought has no basis and this is all you have to do. If only it were that easy.
2. Truly though, recognizing that the I-thought noun does not point to anything in existence is the beginning of right understanding. This right understanding can be taught. This is Advaita philosophy. It is also many forms of Buddhist philosophy. Just this “correct†teaching can go a long way towards realizing the I is only a concept, and when the concept is destroyed, so it the world and all burdens of the world, including the need to plan and work towards goals, as they do not exist.
3. However, true self-realization is not just seeing the I does not exist, and therefore the body and world do not exist. This only allows at some point an identification with awareness itself.
4. The Turiya stateless state, pure, silent awareness, is always there, both containing and being embedded in the waking, dream and deep sleep states.
5. How to ‘find’ Turiya amongst all the other states and objects that comprise the body/mind/feelings/thoughts that are the ordinary human condition is the problem of practice. How to find the self, that which exists always and knows its own existence; that is the single main point, the main question. It is always there, it is your fundamental state, but ‘you’ do not know this because of mind which takes only itself and the world as existent.
6. The “true†ways of practice are also a fundamental problem. You will hear many different methods discussed, even by Ramana, Robert, Nisargadatta and many others. It is easy to get confused because until Turiya is uncovered in your waking consciousness, you do not know how or where to go. All methods are based on trust. Some say go East, some West. Others say Northwest or South. Which way to go? Some say go nowhere. What to do; what to do?
7. It is my finding that correct practicing is the most difficult thing of all. In fact, a misunderstanding or incorrect practice of hunting for Turiya can lead to a lifetime of frustrated seeking leading to abandonment of seeking, leaving an aftertaste of bitterness. Very few people I have know who had started out with very sincere intent and practice maintain it more than five years. Even listening to a close personal teacher who really has realized can lead to frustration for many reasons. One is that you cannot understand his directions because you do not have his discrimination. Another is you become a friend and do not see his direction as coming from the ultimate silent awareness. You regard him or her as human.
8. For me, correct practice was not willful; it happened by itself. After Robert left, I could not help myself and just sank into myself. I lay around my house, unable or willing to work, listening to sacred music and gradually sinking into ever increasing happiness. There I stayed but not willfully. The “practice†of self-abiding just happened by itself. Therefore practice was without effort. Yet, had I not practiced variously for many years, the effortless practice would not have occurred.
9. If you assume you need a teacher—which you should have if he is right for you—how do you find him? One can write a mountain of books about finding a teacher or hunt him through space and time, none of which will help you.
10. Even worse than that is practicing without the guidance of a teacher. Truly you are blind and attempting to find the “light switch†in a house with no light. In fact, you cannot even be sure a light switch exists let alone know how to look around the house to find a light-switch. It is because of this situation most Jnanis search for 30 years and still do not find. They give up at some point. Some even give up when they have a good teacher.
11. Therefore no advice about teachers can be given. Sometimes for someone, a teacher is necessary. For even that same person, at other times all teachers are to be avoided, either because they are wrong, or because it is not yet time, or is past time.
12.It is easy enough to blame that failure of self-realization on not having the right teacher, the right understanding or the right practice. All these could be true. However, you can have the right teacher, the right understanding and the right practice and still not find Turiya. Sometimes that is how things are. But having all three correctly; the three pillars of the correct teacher, correct understanding and correct practice, is better than half the game. The rest is a mystery. Some use the term ‘grace’, but grace is only another name given to that same mystery.
13. The right practice is to find that common note contained within every moment of any consciousness. This requires an abiding in the consciousness of self. Constant self-abidance gradually reveals everything. Constant self-abidance requires constant vigilance, a dwelling in the “feeling†of I at the core of perception of being an ordinary person. Turiya is “behind†and beyond the sense of being a person in the world. It is found in ordinary consciousness. It is not found by constantly looking into and trying to penetrate the void. It is found by attending to the self that perceives the world this minute. Turiya is not hidden. It is the fundamental awareness that is with you every day and night, and is found when looking into your ordinariness. Everything flows from Turiya.
14. Sometimes that background awareness is experienced as the witness of all. That is, it is perceived as the subject. But this is not the true subject.
15. Getting lost in the Void is a big problem. It is easy to find the void or emptiness of consciousness during self-observation. But then the person may explore the void and the self-luminous light of the void forever and not get anywhere by looking “inside†the void. Remember, the void itself is object in meditation, it is not the source of all. (See "Self-Realization, paragraph 9 above.)
16. Correct practice depends a lot on where you are. For most it is looking into the feeling of beingness or I, the core feeling in the area of the heart. This is where you learn to separate consciousness of the body as an object, from the subjective sense of self, I.
For others the correct practice is doing nothing and just being aware of consciousness as a whole.
17. Correct practice is a point of great confusion. Finding and maintaining the correct practice—FOR YOU—is a great mystery. There are so many methods, so many teachers, and so many interpretations of even what one teacher offers as the best method.
18. Always though, the method is to understand the self-the fundamental state, the ultimate Witness of all things, including the Void and its self-luminous nature. This Void is not the self, not the fundamental samadhi or awareness; it is a property of awareness.
19. For this reason I will recommend several resources in terms of books and teachings. Correct teachings and correct understanding work hand in hand. Therefore, you need both teaching about the truth of the real self and also pointers about how to abide in the self. Correct understanding that I does not exist, there is nothing associated with the I-thought, can destroy the reality of your humanness and human world, revealing the undifferentiated oneness of the waking state. But long self-abidance reveals a deeper truth, namely that the correct understanding of No-I and the oneness of existence, only happens to the waking state, and the waking state itself is only a concept, a derivative state of the eternal self.
20. Even this is a poor misstatement that will confuse more than it helps. Therefore, we must remain silent and only seek to know how to abide in the self through correct practice.
21. Self-inquiry and self abidance are the same; they only appear to be different at the beginning. Self-inquiry of various sorts is/was common in Rinzai Zen, where the ultimate question always was “Who Am I?†For years one practiced Who Am I inquiry. The biography of those who thus practiced and succeeded are rare, but revealing. The biography of Zen Master Bassui cames immediately to mind.
22. Abiding in the self through undifferentiated self-awareness, awareness alone, abiding in the ultimate silence prior to human existence is the practice called Shikantaza in the Soto school of Zen. These techniques are true, tested and universal. Unfortunately, it usually takes a long, long time to find the true emptiness and true void without elements of the imaginal space. However, when it is first encountered, when it first happens to you, you will know without ANY doubt that you have gone beyond mind and the imaginal world. If one goes to a Zen monastery and practices hard, this can happen in a relatively short time, albeit not permanently. It is a matter of intensity at first.
VI. Admonition
1. All of the above is mindstuff. You will translate it into your mindstuff. As such it is entertainment. The hope is that it will lead you to self-investigation—practice—rather than just going to teachers or reading books.
2. Everything above is true at one level and total bull on another. To try to express different levels of concept simultaneously is the utmost disservice.
3. There is enough “meat†in the above to generate a lot of confusing “sticking†points that make you feel impelled to discover answers for yourself. It really helps to have your own kernel question that impels you to investigate yourself with intensity and a desire to know. When you have your kernel question, you will listen to many teachers and question them and read many books to find an answer. You will likely not find a given answer that satisfies you. Then you will hopefully see this problem as a gift rather than a terrible impediment. That deep questioning lead to intensity or investigation.
4. Of course this problem is only one of words, concepts. It is not a real problem. The real problem is how to abide in the self, how to love the self.
I. Mind
1. Mind is everything. Nothing exists but mind. Mind creates everything, from the atom to the cosmos, from a blade of grass to a grain of sand, from an elephant to a flower and the scent of the flower. Your feelings, objects you see, your body, your aches and pains are all mind stuff. Everything is mind; everything!
2. From deep sleep, mind arises and you dream, dreamed self and objects. All is mind-only.
3. Yet mind does not exist. It only has an apparent shadow-like existence. Mind is just uncoordinated thoughts floating in an imaginal space. Mind is thoughts only; imaginal thoughts in imaginal space. They have a dream-stuff quality when you see them clearly.
4. Thoughts do not exist even though they appear to. By non-existence, I mean they have no tangibility, no solidity, no permanence, just like a dreamed body or dreamed people. They have a dream quality when you observe them closely.
5. When you awaken from a dream, the dreamed images disappear and you know they were not real; they had an imaginal quality only.
6. So too does the waking dream disappears when the mind and thoughts are seen to be imagination only. Space is the imaginal world's essential quality and itself is unreal.
7. Mind has one central thought, which is the thought I. It is that I thought that one refers to all day long as me, or I. There is no I that the I-thought refers to. None. That is, there is no object that is I existing separate from other objects, people, places and things. There is no ego that the I thought refers to although it feels that way before awakening. There is no separation between imaginal objects as space is imaginal itself.
8. There is only an I thought. It is like a name with no person that name points to. You think you (I as subject) exist, but there is no you (I as subject).
9. The I is the I-thought only. It has no existence in itself except as a thought, yet all other thoughts appear to be connected to the I-thought. I thought is the lynch-pin. Without the I thought having an apparent reality, the world too is seen as having no reality. I is the apparent subject, the world the apparent object, but neither exists without the other. Both are imagination.
10. You do not exist; that is the great discovery. There is no I or ego that exists. There is no me. The I-thou is a false duality. Me, you, is a duality. Inward and outward is a duality. All dualities depend on the reality of I-Thou, I vs. World, and ultimately the reality of the I thought or subject.
11. When you recognize you (as a person) do not exist, the world immediately disappears also. Imaginal space disappears.
12. When you realize you are not the mind, no thing, you realize you do not exist as a person, then you realize that “all that is†does not exist either. No thing exists. It is all a dream created by mind.
13. You can hear this a million times, but until this is your experience, it is only your concept of what an I-less state is like. That is, it is a belief, an idea.
14. In this realization, there is a recognition that there is nothing to do. There is no decision to make. You are responsible for nothing. You, as an apparent mind and body, no longer have anything to do. 'God' does everything; you do nothing.
15. All human problems come from the belief you are a separate body-mind. Once you see you do not exist in this way, great and restful peace comes. There is nothing for you to do, because 'It' does everything. (It does no good to give this 'force' a name such as God; labels only obscure and leave an impression of existence as a sublime object.)
II. True Self
1. All the above is obtained in the waking state, the state of everyday wakefulness. All that you know or understand, as you, is mind in the waking state of consciousness.
2. That waking state comes and goes. It goes when you fall asleep. It goes when you get drunk. It goes sometimes when you get hit in the head. It goes when your body dies. It is not permanent. It is like a candle’s flame in a breeze, sometimes it flickers hot, sometimes almost dies, but eventually burns out.
3. Always in the waking state there is an associated body, which has a conceptual, apparent existence. It is the body’s senses and the mind that creates the world and me. But it is all illusion, imagination in consciousness.
4. Waking consciousness is body consciousness. Without a body, there are no senses; without senses there are no sense objects or the world. Or so it appears.
Dreaming consciousness also requires an imaginal body. All things are created by mind, and the individual mind is associated with an apparent brain and body.
5. In fact, even the waking state and the dream states themselves arise as mindstuff out of the fundamental, before mind, nature. That is, not only are waking and dream objects a figment of the human mind, the waking and dream states themselves, along with the dream-conceived body, have no real existence.
6. The apparent body/mind is a “knot†of awareness. There is a awareness beyond that knot. That ‘beyond’ awareness contains and gives an apparent existence to waking and dream consciousness, otherwise called the waking and dream states, and the objects that populate those states.
7. The first awakening destroys the I and the object world. The second awakening destroys the awake consciousness and dream consciousness. All continue to appear to exist, but you now know they are fraudulent. They arise out of something 'deeper'. (The term 'deeper' also creates an imaginal duality; a duality that is not real but is stated for exposition only.)
8. Even the deep sleep state is a state of consciousness. The brain, mind and body are shut down during that ‘time’. All is forgotten because remembering requires mind. Mind is shut down during deep sleep as is the brain. Both are forgotten. But an underlying tone of awareness continues. Many people after some practice "feel" the presence of the sleep state even when awake, and also that they are prior to both the waking and sleep states. YOU are that which can simultaneously be aware of both waking and sleeping, even though you are primarily the waking state at the time.
9. That deeper awareness or consciousness, YOU, observes waking, dream and sleep.
10. There is no argument that can prove there is an observing consciousness or existence in sleep. All arguments that there is consciousness in sleep depend on argumentation and inference. They try to convince the reader that this is their direct experience by inference. This is a weakness of all Jnani-style expositions: the mystery of the deep sleep state, or the third state of consciousness.
11. There is a “state†of consciousness that is “beyond†the deep sleep state. That primary consciousness classically is called awareness here for the sake of communication. That awareness is beyond waking and dream consciousness. That awareness exists and witnesses all the other states of waking, dream and deep sleep. Finding that core awareness in the waking state, and disidentifying with the objects of the waking state, is called self-realization. In that realization, the waking state itself is seen as fraud. Further explanation here.
12. All other states come and go on this stateless state of awareness, often called the fourth state. The fourth state is the witness of waking, sleep and dream. It is the constant note of the fundamental awareness that appears to be you as a small and insignificant body/mind.
13. The concept of a fourth state is is a conceptual distinction only, but as close to “truth†as can be put into words, as It lies “before†and beyond the waking, sleep and dream states, and, in fact dwells as a constant presence in all. Every state of consciousness and all objects that populate all waking and dream worlds, flow from it and are observed by it. Waking, dream and sleep are derivative, but it is not a state itself. It is the subjective source from which all other states arise as object. You cannot see or witness it as it is the witness of all.
14. Until you know this fundamental truth consciously, that is, through the use of the waking mind, the fourth state is only an idea, a concept, one among many concepts and certainly not proved through argumentation.
15. This fourth (non) state is given the label, “Turiya,†for the sake of exposition. The terms “the fourth state†and “Turiya†are only concepts, words, until you experience that beyond and before the waking, dreaming and deep sleep states. The latter are temporary and unstable. Turiya alone is permanent and stable. Essentially only Turiya exists, all else is temporary, imaginal, derivative.
16. In fact, Turiya, the stateless state, awareness has no existence as existence is a property of the imaginary world. Awareness is beyond any existence and is the observer of the apparent existent.
17. The deathless and stateless awareness, Turiya, is aware always, and itself is aware that it exists and transcends everything, but itself is not perceived. This is known in silence. Until you know this awareness in silence, you cannot know you are not an individual, a human, who lives and dies, has a beginning and an end.
18. Turiya is the permanent state, the deathless state, the eternal state beyond and before existence. You, as awareness, always were. There never was a time you were not, nor will there ever be.
19. This silent absolutely still awareness called Turiya is discovered either in the waking state, or during the apparent gap between waking and the dream states. This is the place most “people†first recognize Turiya. In that gap, mind does not prevail. Awareness alone prevails. At this time, awareness becomes aware of itself as apart from the states of waking, dream and sleep.
20. One step more and you understand you are beyond even Turiya. Turiya is still the witness of all, but you are beyond even this. You are the knower of awareness.
III. Self-realization
1. This is difficult to express, but fundamentally, only Turiya exists, all other states are derivative and all objects are derivative of the derivative states. Yet, when Turiya is stabilized as your primary state—when one is always aware of that fundamental state—the other states and the world are also seen to be you, but merely as a shadow of the real you. These states have so little in common with the real you, you might as well as say they do not exist. To say more than this creates too many conceptual problems that lead to unending philosophical discourse which is an insolvable diversion from correct practice of abiding in self. Therefore, such inquiry should never be pursued. Only abiding in the self should be pursued.
2. The initial insight that you really are the background state, the deathless state, Turiya, is the beginning of self-realization. Self, as the derivative waking state, recognizes its fundamental nature as the deathless fourth stateless state, Turiya, which is beyond and before waking, dream or sleep consciousness.
3. Most people who discover this lose it, because they do not stabilize in the Turiya state. Stabilization requires practice. In many persons that the Turiya recognition comes to, the mind as an apparent entity is destroyed forever. However, to most who become aware of Turiya, that recognition is eventually lost, but the memory of the truth of the fundamental state and the derivative states remains forever.
4. ‘Effort’ is needed by most to stabilize in the fourth state, even though there is no effort in the fourth state itself. Using effort you need to practice being in the effortless state. This means in actuality, remaining in thoughtless silence. Ramana “practiced†remaining in that fourth state, silence, single-mindedly for many years before he taught anyone. However, once the human mind dies permanently, one is always in the stateless state, the fourth state, Turiya. It is better to practice self-inquiry than know this.
5. Robert advised holding onto that state as an act of will until it is forever your understanding.
6. Awareness of, immersion in that stateless, eternal state comes and goes until the core thought processes cease with the so-called ego’s death. Then there is total stability in the root consciousness. Please recognize that all that I have just said is concept to you and has as little value as any other dream. It is a little lie to get you to practice trying to hold onto awareness. The important thing is to abide in the self.
7. What is important is the experience of Samadhi and finally Sahaj Samadhi, the total annihilation of the personal and imaginal self.
8. Even then, know you are beyond even this. No description can be given. It is ineffable.
9. Most of what meditators consider advanced meditative states, including all the talk about the self-illumined Clear Light Emptiness, are really still a phenomena within imaginal space. The so-called "pure awareness" happens to you when the entirety of imaginal space disappears along with the feeling of existence and the sense of I-ness. The totality of the sense of presence is just a complex of thought forms tied into our sense of physical existence as a body-mind. This is what Nisargadatta calls "I-Am." All that disappears at awakening. One becomes empty, silent, non-existent and beyond all existence.
IV Finally
1. By now you probably recognize that both the personal and spiritual life are all about identification.
2. Do you identify with the objects of the imaginal space emanating from your non-existent mind?
3. Do you instead identify with the entire manifestation of consciousness, all phenomenality, the comings and goings of consciousness and objects in consciousness? This is the oneness or unity state that Bernadette Roberts and others talk about. This is also the Samadhi state where all that there is is consciousness and an identification with the totality. These were my Mt. Baldy experiences.
4. Or do you identify with the background upon which All comes and goes? THAT which is aware of the coming and going of consciousness? The pure, cold, emptiness that contains everything but itself does not exist?
5. One might be tempted to call this background pure consciousness or the void, but it is beyond any concepts or pointers.
6. At some moment you will become aware that there is at once a sense of existence and then it passes. In the morning, a sense of existence arises and disappears at sleep. There is something that is firmly aware of the comings and goings of this waking consciousness. The "feeling" is that the existence and then non-existence states come to you. You know both that you are, and you know that you, at times, also are not.
7. This knowingness of the coming and going of the oneness consciousness state, automatically reveals you are not that oneness state. That oneness state comes to you and then it leaves. You have nothing to do with it.
8. Once this conviction of a prior “existence†is strong, a “disidentification†with the body/mind and the totality of the comings and goings of the world, dream and sleep can take place, supplanted by the firm knowledge that you are beyond all that.
9. To use ignorance producing words, there is an identification with that which cannot be perceived as who you really are. One becomes That, but cannot be aware of that.
10. Freedom is a disruption of the identification with phenomenality. First it is a disidentification with the objects in the imaginal world, both dream and waking, then a disidentification with the process of the coming and going of consciousness itself. You rest in yourself, having the position of this Self beyond all.
11. You are before being and not being, awake and dream take place in time. You have no time.
12. With this comes peace, happiness, and an end to searching.
13. You have not attained You; instead you have lost the false identification with the smallest part of You, the imaginal passing show of consciousness. You are the awareness of that consciousness.
14. When this disidentification comes, all the Jnana sutras become clear.
15. When this disidentification comes, You realize You are beyond all.
16. That realization is felt as absolute conviction associated with an immediate 'apprehension' that You are beyond the comings and goings of consciousness. It is not merely an intellection discovery, and only a conviction, but a conviction arises from a direct apprehension of your true nature. This apprehension is not an experience. Both experiences and ordinary convictions come and go. This is an apprehension at the deepest level of being of that which lies prior to beingness, which Zen masters and Nisargadatta call the Unborn.
17. This is not the end, it is the real beginning of sadhana. Before there was only practice and effort, but now you have the taste for and the direction of the Infinite, your unborn true self.
18. You are beyond even the knowledge that you are beyond all; but that knowledge liberates you from the all. Then you are totally free, abiding in that which is entirely beyond. Once you know this, stay there as often and long as you can until all humanhood is burnt out and exhausted and you live in peace.
19. Then, as Robert often said, you are happy beyond belief, fearless, for you cannot die as you realize you, as a human and even as consciousness, were never born. Then, though you appear to be human and functioning, and that identification is still possible for a long while, the sting of suffering is gone, and you are happy.
V. Practice
1. The neo-jnanis proclaim instant enlightenment is possible if only you understand the Jnani-words. They may say look inside and you will immediately see that the I-thought has no basis and this is all you have to do. If only it were that easy.
2. Truly though, recognizing that the I-thought noun does not point to anything in existence is the beginning of right understanding. This right understanding can be taught. This is Advaita philosophy. It is also many forms of Buddhist philosophy. Just this “correct†teaching can go a long way towards realizing the I is only a concept, and when the concept is destroyed, so it the world and all burdens of the world, including the need to plan and work towards goals, as they do not exist.
3. However, true self-realization is not just seeing the I does not exist, and therefore the body and world do not exist. This only allows at some point an identification with awareness itself.
4. The Turiya stateless state, pure, silent awareness, is always there, both containing and being embedded in the waking, dream and deep sleep states.
5. How to ‘find’ Turiya amongst all the other states and objects that comprise the body/mind/feelings/thoughts that are the ordinary human condition is the problem of practice. How to find the self, that which exists always and knows its own existence; that is the single main point, the main question. It is always there, it is your fundamental state, but ‘you’ do not know this because of mind which takes only itself and the world as existent.
6. The “true†ways of practice are also a fundamental problem. You will hear many different methods discussed, even by Ramana, Robert, Nisargadatta and many others. It is easy to get confused because until Turiya is uncovered in your waking consciousness, you do not know how or where to go. All methods are based on trust. Some say go East, some West. Others say Northwest or South. Which way to go? Some say go nowhere. What to do; what to do?
7. It is my finding that correct practicing is the most difficult thing of all. In fact, a misunderstanding or incorrect practice of hunting for Turiya can lead to a lifetime of frustrated seeking leading to abandonment of seeking, leaving an aftertaste of bitterness. Very few people I have know who had started out with very sincere intent and practice maintain it more than five years. Even listening to a close personal teacher who really has realized can lead to frustration for many reasons. One is that you cannot understand his directions because you do not have his discrimination. Another is you become a friend and do not see his direction as coming from the ultimate silent awareness. You regard him or her as human.
8. For me, correct practice was not willful; it happened by itself. After Robert left, I could not help myself and just sank into myself. I lay around my house, unable or willing to work, listening to sacred music and gradually sinking into ever increasing happiness. There I stayed but not willfully. The “practice†of self-abiding just happened by itself. Therefore practice was without effort. Yet, had I not practiced variously for many years, the effortless practice would not have occurred.
9. If you assume you need a teacher—which you should have if he is right for you—how do you find him? One can write a mountain of books about finding a teacher or hunt him through space and time, none of which will help you.
10. Even worse than that is practicing without the guidance of a teacher. Truly you are blind and attempting to find the “light switch†in a house with no light. In fact, you cannot even be sure a light switch exists let alone know how to look around the house to find a light-switch. It is because of this situation most Jnanis search for 30 years and still do not find. They give up at some point. Some even give up when they have a good teacher.
11. Therefore no advice about teachers can be given. Sometimes for someone, a teacher is necessary. For even that same person, at other times all teachers are to be avoided, either because they are wrong, or because it is not yet time, or is past time.
12.It is easy enough to blame that failure of self-realization on not having the right teacher, the right understanding or the right practice. All these could be true. However, you can have the right teacher, the right understanding and the right practice and still not find Turiya. Sometimes that is how things are. But having all three correctly; the three pillars of the correct teacher, correct understanding and correct practice, is better than half the game. The rest is a mystery. Some use the term ‘grace’, but grace is only another name given to that same mystery.
13. The right practice is to find that common note contained within every moment of any consciousness. This requires an abiding in the consciousness of self. Constant self-abidance gradually reveals everything. Constant self-abidance requires constant vigilance, a dwelling in the “feeling†of I at the core of perception of being an ordinary person. Turiya is “behind†and beyond the sense of being a person in the world. It is found in ordinary consciousness. It is not found by constantly looking into and trying to penetrate the void. It is found by attending to the self that perceives the world this minute. Turiya is not hidden. It is the fundamental awareness that is with you every day and night, and is found when looking into your ordinariness. Everything flows from Turiya.
14. Sometimes that background awareness is experienced as the witness of all. That is, it is perceived as the subject. But this is not the true subject.
15. Getting lost in the Void is a big problem. It is easy to find the void or emptiness of consciousness during self-observation. But then the person may explore the void and the self-luminous light of the void forever and not get anywhere by looking “inside†the void. Remember, the void itself is object in meditation, it is not the source of all. (See "Self-Realization, paragraph 9 above.)
16. Correct practice depends a lot on where you are. For most it is looking into the feeling of beingness or I, the core feeling in the area of the heart. This is where you learn to separate consciousness of the body as an object, from the subjective sense of self, I.
For others the correct practice is doing nothing and just being aware of consciousness as a whole.
17. Correct practice is a point of great confusion. Finding and maintaining the correct practice—FOR YOU—is a great mystery. There are so many methods, so many teachers, and so many interpretations of even what one teacher offers as the best method.
18. Always though, the method is to understand the self-the fundamental state, the ultimate Witness of all things, including the Void and its self-luminous nature. This Void is not the self, not the fundamental samadhi or awareness; it is a property of awareness.
19. For this reason I will recommend several resources in terms of books and teachings. Correct teachings and correct understanding work hand in hand. Therefore, you need both teaching about the truth of the real self and also pointers about how to abide in the self. Correct understanding that I does not exist, there is nothing associated with the I-thought, can destroy the reality of your humanness and human world, revealing the undifferentiated oneness of the waking state. But long self-abidance reveals a deeper truth, namely that the correct understanding of No-I and the oneness of existence, only happens to the waking state, and the waking state itself is only a concept, a derivative state of the eternal self.
20. Even this is a poor misstatement that will confuse more than it helps. Therefore, we must remain silent and only seek to know how to abide in the self through correct practice.
21. Self-inquiry and self abidance are the same; they only appear to be different at the beginning. Self-inquiry of various sorts is/was common in Rinzai Zen, where the ultimate question always was “Who Am I?†For years one practiced Who Am I inquiry. The biography of those who thus practiced and succeeded are rare, but revealing. The biography of Zen Master Bassui cames immediately to mind.
22. Abiding in the self through undifferentiated self-awareness, awareness alone, abiding in the ultimate silence prior to human existence is the practice called Shikantaza in the Soto school of Zen. These techniques are true, tested and universal. Unfortunately, it usually takes a long, long time to find the true emptiness and true void without elements of the imaginal space. However, when it is first encountered, when it first happens to you, you will know without ANY doubt that you have gone beyond mind and the imaginal world. If one goes to a Zen monastery and practices hard, this can happen in a relatively short time, albeit not permanently. It is a matter of intensity at first.
VI. Admonition
1. All of the above is mindstuff. You will translate it into your mindstuff. As such it is entertainment. The hope is that it will lead you to self-investigation—practice—rather than just going to teachers or reading books.
2. Everything above is true at one level and total bull on another. To try to express different levels of concept simultaneously is the utmost disservice.
3. There is enough “meat†in the above to generate a lot of confusing “sticking†points that make you feel impelled to discover answers for yourself. It really helps to have your own kernel question that impels you to investigate yourself with intensity and a desire to know. When you have your kernel question, you will listen to many teachers and question them and read many books to find an answer. You will likely not find a given answer that satisfies you. Then you will hopefully see this problem as a gift rather than a terrible impediment. That deep questioning lead to intensity or investigation.
4. Of course this problem is only one of words, concepts. It is not a real problem. The real problem is how to abide in the self, how to love the self.
Be Impeccable with your word
Speak with integrity.
Say only what you mean.
Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others.
Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
Dont take anything personally
Nothing others do is because of you.
What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream.
When you are immune to the opinion of others, you wont be the victim of needless suffering.
Dont make assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want.
Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama.
With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
Always do your best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment,
it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick.
Under any circumstances, simply do your best,
and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse and regret.
Speak with integrity.
Say only what you mean.
Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others.
Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
Dont take anything personally
Nothing others do is because of you.
What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream.
When you are immune to the opinion of others, you wont be the victim of needless suffering.
Dont make assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want.
Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama.
With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
Always do your best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment,
it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick.
Under any circumstances, simply do your best,
and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse and regret.
THE WISE MAN’S TEN RULES OF LIFE
Do not hope that your body will be free from illness. If you do not experience illness, you will be fallen to temptation in arrogance and thus act immorally.
Therefore, the wise man says that you should think of your illnesses as good medicine to learn from.
Do not expect a life free from hardships. Without the experience of hardships, you will become arrogant and boastful.
Therefore, the wise man says to gain wisdom from the obstacles of life.
Do not expect to learn self-discipline without any hardships. Without hardships. your learning will always be incomplete.
Therefore, the wise man says to think of the obstacles as everyday occurrences.
There will always be people who will not cooperate with your plans. If there were not, you would not be able to learn.
Therefore, the wise man says to befriend those who will be against you so that they may help you to learn.
Do not expect your plans to be fulfilled easily. if they are easily fulfilled, you will be prone to arrogance.
Therefore, the wise man says to enjoy the overcoming of obstacles as learning experiences.
Do not befriend someone for your own interest only. If you do, you will only hurt yourself.
Therefore, the wise man says to seek friends who may not always agree with you so that you may learn from them.
Do not expect others to always agree with you. If they do, you will always think that you are always right.
Therefore, the wise man says to look to those who disagree with you so that you may learn from them and become wise.
Do not expect something in return for helping someone. If you expect something, then you will become prone to arrogance.
Therefore, the wise man says to forget and to be satisfied only with the help that you have given.
Do not expect to gain more than you have contributed. If you gain more than you have put in, then you will have evil thoughts which will prevent your progress.
Therefore, the wise man says to be satisfied with humble profits.
Do not always try to vindicate your feelings of victimization. If you try to vindicate yourself. you will have to put the blame on someone or something else.
Therefore, the wise man says that through this experience, you can open the door of self-discipline.
www.kimsookarate.com/contributions/ten-rules.html
Do not hope that your body will be free from illness. If you do not experience illness, you will be fallen to temptation in arrogance and thus act immorally.
Therefore, the wise man says that you should think of your illnesses as good medicine to learn from.
Do not expect a life free from hardships. Without the experience of hardships, you will become arrogant and boastful.
Therefore, the wise man says to gain wisdom from the obstacles of life.
Do not expect to learn self-discipline without any hardships. Without hardships. your learning will always be incomplete.
Therefore, the wise man says to think of the obstacles as everyday occurrences.
There will always be people who will not cooperate with your plans. If there were not, you would not be able to learn.
Therefore, the wise man says to befriend those who will be against you so that they may help you to learn.
Do not expect your plans to be fulfilled easily. if they are easily fulfilled, you will be prone to arrogance.
Therefore, the wise man says to enjoy the overcoming of obstacles as learning experiences.
Do not befriend someone for your own interest only. If you do, you will only hurt yourself.
Therefore, the wise man says to seek friends who may not always agree with you so that you may learn from them.
Do not expect others to always agree with you. If they do, you will always think that you are always right.
Therefore, the wise man says to look to those who disagree with you so that you may learn from them and become wise.
Do not expect something in return for helping someone. If you expect something, then you will become prone to arrogance.
Therefore, the wise man says to forget and to be satisfied only with the help that you have given.
Do not expect to gain more than you have contributed. If you gain more than you have put in, then you will have evil thoughts which will prevent your progress.
Therefore, the wise man says to be satisfied with humble profits.
Do not always try to vindicate your feelings of victimization. If you try to vindicate yourself. you will have to put the blame on someone or something else.
Therefore, the wise man says that through this experience, you can open the door of self-discipline.
www.kimsookarate.com/contributions/ten-rules.html
О, человек! ОÑтавь планы приобреÑти что-то в Ñтом мире. Ð’Ñе, что Ñуждено, Ñ‚Ñ‹ и так получишь, проÑто выполнÑÑ Ñвои обÑзанноÑти. Будь удовлетворен тем, что приходит Ñамо Ñобой, а Ð¶ÐµÐ»Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ Ð½Ð°Ð¿Ñ€Ð°Ð²ÑŒ на очищение разума. Сделай его духовным!
Ðаша жи...знь так же уÑтойчива, как ÐºÐ°Ð¿Ð»Ñ Ñ€Ð¾ÑÑ‹, ÐºÐ¾Ñ‚Ð¾Ñ€Ð°Ñ Ð´Ñ€Ð¾Ð¶Ð¸Ñ‚ на лепеÑтке лотоÑа. Знай же, что Ñтот мир вÑегда оÑтанетÑÑ Ð² плену болезни, гордоÑти и Ñкорби!
Пока Ñ‚Ñ‹ богат и можешь заработать деньги, Ñ‚ÐµÐ±Ñ Ð¾ÐºÑ€ÑƒÐ¶Ð°ÐµÑ‚ ÑÐµÐ¼ÑŒÑ Ð¸ друзьÑ, воÑхищенно поющие твою Ñлаву, но придет ÑтароÑÑ‚ÑŒ, и никто не захочет Ñ Ñ‚Ð¾Ð±Ð¾Ð¹ даже проÑто поговорить!
Пока в нашем теле движетÑÑ Ð²Ð¾Ð·Ð´ÑƒÑ…, вÑе в доме интереÑуютÑÑ: "Как твои дела? Как здоровье?" Ðо Ñтоит дыханию жизни покинуть твое тело, даже жена в Ñтрахе уÑтремитÑÑ Ð¿Ñ€Ð¾Ñ‡ÑŒ от него!
Ребенок привÑзан к детÑким играм, а юноша вÑе Ñвое Ð²Ñ€ÐµÐ¼Ñ Ñ‚Ñ€Ð°Ñ‚Ð¸Ñ‚ на молодых девушек; и в ÑтароÑти беÑпокойные мыÑли о том и о Ñем не дают покоÑ… Когда же Ñ‚Ñ‹ найдешь времÑ, чтобы задуматьÑÑ Ð¾ Сущем?!
Кто Ñ‚Ð²Ð¾Ñ Ð¶ÐµÐ½Ð°? Кто твой Ñын? Кому принадлежит Ñтот Ñтоль пеÑтрый мир? Кто Ñ‚Ñ‹? И откуда? Брат! ЗадумайÑÑ Ð¾Ð± Ñтом ÑейчаÑ!
Ð’ общении Ñо ÑвÑтыми развиваетÑÑ Ð½ÐµÐ¿Ñ€Ð¸Ð²ÑзанноÑÑ‚ÑŒ; непривÑзанноÑÑ‚ÑŒ уÑтранÑет иллюзию, а разрушение иллюзии позволÑет обреÑти духовную ÑтойкоÑÑ‚ÑŒ. СоÑредоточенный на ÐбÑолютной ИÑтине человек уже в Ñтой жизни получает оÑвобождение.
Откуда краÑота в дрÑхлом теле? И откуда вода в переÑохшем пруду? ЕÑли Ñ‚Ñ‹ потерÑл богатÑтво, то откуда взÑÑ‚ÑŒÑÑ Ð¼Ð½Ð¾Ð³Ð¾Ñ‡Ð¸Ñленным родÑтвенникам? И еÑли Ñ‚Ñ‹ оÑознал ИÑтину, откуда возьмутÑÑ Ñ€Ð¾Ð¶Ð´ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ðµ и Ñмерть?!
Ðе гордиÑÑŒ богатÑтвом, хорошими друзьÑми и молодоÑтью. Ð’Ñе Ñто может иÑчезнуть в одно мгновение. ОÑтавь мир иллюзии, предайÑÑ Ð“Ð¾Ñподу и вÑтупи в Его вечную обитель!
День и ночь, Ñумерки и раÑÑвет, зима и веÑна… Вновь и вновь приходÑÑ‚ и уходÑÑ‚. Ð’Ñ€ÐµÐ¼Ñ Ð¸Ð³Ñ€Ð°ÐµÑ‚ Ñ Ð½Ð°Ð¼Ð¸, и жизнь вот-вот пройдет… Ðо ураган желаний никогда не утихает в нашем уме!
Ты поÑтоÑнно думаешь о Ñвоей жене, о богатÑтве… Безумец! Зачем? Что мешает тебе вмеÑто Ñтого продвигатьÑÑ Ð´ÑƒÑ…Ð¾Ð²Ð½Ð¾? Прими добрый Ñовет: во вÑех трех мирах нет лучшего ÑредÑтва преодолеть океан Ñ€Ð¾Ð¶Ð´ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð¸ Ñмерти, чем общение Ñо Ñвоим Сердцем.
Можно иметь Ñпутанные волоÑÑ‹, а можно начиÑто обрить голову. Можно даже выщипать Ñебе волоÑÑ‹ тут и там! Можно одетьÑÑ Ð² шафрановые одежды или вырÑдитьÑÑ Ñотней других ÑпоÑобов… Ðо еÑли при Ñтом жизнью человека будет руководить не подконтрольный ум, вÑе Ñто беÑполезно. Такой глупец, даже вÑтретив иÑтину лицом к лицу, не увидит ее!
Даже когда тело оÑлабнет, а волоÑÑ‹ на голове поÑедеют и выпадут, рот лишитÑÑ Ð·ÑƒÐ±Ð¾Ð², и Ñ‚Ñ‹ даже по дому не Ñможешь ходить без палки, даже тогда запутанный комок желаний не отпуÑтит тебÑ!
Даже еÑли человек днем Ñидит на Ñолнце, окружив ÑÐµÐ±Ñ Ð¾Ð³Ð½ÐµÐ¼, а ночь переживает, лишь уткнув подбородок в колени, и питаетÑÑ Ñ‚Ð¾Ð»ÑŒÐºÐ¾ милоÑтыней, и живет под деревом… Даже тогда Ð¿ÐµÑ‚Ð»Ñ Ð¶ÐµÐ»Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ð¹ не оÑлабевает!
Можно Ñовершать Ð¾Ð¼Ð¾Ð²ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð² Ганге или неукоÑнительно Ñоблюдать Ñуровые обеты, или заниматьÑÑ Ð±Ð»Ð°Ð³Ð¾Ñ‚Ð²Ð¾Ñ€Ð¸Ñ‚ÐµÐ»ÑŒÐ½Ð¾Ñтью. Ðо вÑе мудрецы Ñкажут тебе: без Ð·Ð½Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ Ð½Ðµ доÑтичь оÑÐ²Ð¾Ð±Ð¾Ð¶Ð´ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð¸ через Ñотню рождений.
Живешь Ñ‚Ñ‹ во дворце или под деревом, Ñпишь на роÑкошной кровати или на голой земле. Окружен Ñ‚Ñ‹ вÑеми возможными удовольÑтвиÑми или отказываешьÑÑ Ð¾Ñ‚ них. Ð’Ñе Ñто не имеет значениÑ, еÑли не делает Ñ‚ÐµÐ±Ñ ÑчаÑтливым!
Кто-то ищет удовлетворение в йоге, а кто-то - в наÑлаждении чувÑтв; кто-то в общении, а кто-то - в отказе от общениÑ… Ðо лишь тот, чье Ñознание погружено в бытие ГоÑпода, может по-наÑтоÑщему ощутить ÑчаÑтье. Лишь он по-наÑтоÑщему наÑлаждаетÑÑ! Только он наÑлаждаетÑÑ!
Сложно неуклонно Ñледовать пути духовного развитиÑ. Ибо Ñта дорога выше материального добра и зла. Ðо йог, подчинивший Ñ Ð¿Ð¾Ð¼Ð¾Ñ‰ÑŒÑŽ твердой духовной практики Ñвой ум и разум, может наÑлаждатьÑÑ Ð½ÐµÐ¿Ñ€Ð¸Ð²ÑзанноÑтью к Ñтому миру, подобно ребенку или ÑумаÑшедшему.
И в тебе, и во мне, и во вÑех находитÑÑ Ð²ÐµÑ‡Ð½Ñ‹Ð¹ Брахман. Он во вÑех один. Зачем же гневатьÑÑ Ð½Ð° кого-либо или нетерпимо отноÑитьÑÑ ÐºÐ¾ мне или кому-нибудь еще? Ты должен равно отноÑитьÑÑ ÐºÐ¾ вÑем, еÑли хочешь войти в царÑтво ГоÑпода.
Ðе ÑтарайÑÑ Ð¿Ñ€Ð¸Ð²ÑзатьÑÑ Ð¸Ð»Ð¸ отвергнуть врагов и друзей, детей и родÑтвенников. ОтноÑиÑÑŒ к ним, как к Ñебе, понимаÑ, что вÑепроникающий ГоÑподь находитÑÑ Ð²Ð¾ вÑех живых ÑущеÑтвах.
Вожделение, гнев, жадноÑÑ‚ÑŒ, иллюзиÑ… ОтброÑÑŒ вÑе Ñто! Пойми природу души, ÑобÑтвенную природу, Ñвое меÑто в мире. Тот, кого не интереÑует знание о Духе, - глупец! Его будущее - кромешный ад!
Ðаша жи...знь так же уÑтойчива, как ÐºÐ°Ð¿Ð»Ñ Ñ€Ð¾ÑÑ‹, ÐºÐ¾Ñ‚Ð¾Ñ€Ð°Ñ Ð´Ñ€Ð¾Ð¶Ð¸Ñ‚ на лепеÑтке лотоÑа. Знай же, что Ñтот мир вÑегда оÑтанетÑÑ Ð² плену болезни, гордоÑти и Ñкорби!
Пока Ñ‚Ñ‹ богат и можешь заработать деньги, Ñ‚ÐµÐ±Ñ Ð¾ÐºÑ€ÑƒÐ¶Ð°ÐµÑ‚ ÑÐµÐ¼ÑŒÑ Ð¸ друзьÑ, воÑхищенно поющие твою Ñлаву, но придет ÑтароÑÑ‚ÑŒ, и никто не захочет Ñ Ñ‚Ð¾Ð±Ð¾Ð¹ даже проÑто поговорить!
Пока в нашем теле движетÑÑ Ð²Ð¾Ð·Ð´ÑƒÑ…, вÑе в доме интереÑуютÑÑ: "Как твои дела? Как здоровье?" Ðо Ñтоит дыханию жизни покинуть твое тело, даже жена в Ñтрахе уÑтремитÑÑ Ð¿Ñ€Ð¾Ñ‡ÑŒ от него!
Ребенок привÑзан к детÑким играм, а юноша вÑе Ñвое Ð²Ñ€ÐµÐ¼Ñ Ñ‚Ñ€Ð°Ñ‚Ð¸Ñ‚ на молодых девушек; и в ÑтароÑти беÑпокойные мыÑли о том и о Ñем не дают покоÑ… Когда же Ñ‚Ñ‹ найдешь времÑ, чтобы задуматьÑÑ Ð¾ Сущем?!
Кто Ñ‚Ð²Ð¾Ñ Ð¶ÐµÐ½Ð°? Кто твой Ñын? Кому принадлежит Ñтот Ñтоль пеÑтрый мир? Кто Ñ‚Ñ‹? И откуда? Брат! ЗадумайÑÑ Ð¾Ð± Ñтом ÑейчаÑ!
Ð’ общении Ñо ÑвÑтыми развиваетÑÑ Ð½ÐµÐ¿Ñ€Ð¸Ð²ÑзанноÑÑ‚ÑŒ; непривÑзанноÑÑ‚ÑŒ уÑтранÑет иллюзию, а разрушение иллюзии позволÑет обреÑти духовную ÑтойкоÑÑ‚ÑŒ. СоÑредоточенный на ÐбÑолютной ИÑтине человек уже в Ñтой жизни получает оÑвобождение.
Откуда краÑота в дрÑхлом теле? И откуда вода в переÑохшем пруду? ЕÑли Ñ‚Ñ‹ потерÑл богатÑтво, то откуда взÑÑ‚ÑŒÑÑ Ð¼Ð½Ð¾Ð³Ð¾Ñ‡Ð¸Ñленным родÑтвенникам? И еÑли Ñ‚Ñ‹ оÑознал ИÑтину, откуда возьмутÑÑ Ñ€Ð¾Ð¶Ð´ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ðµ и Ñмерть?!
Ðе гордиÑÑŒ богатÑтвом, хорошими друзьÑми и молодоÑтью. Ð’Ñе Ñто может иÑчезнуть в одно мгновение. ОÑтавь мир иллюзии, предайÑÑ Ð“Ð¾Ñподу и вÑтупи в Его вечную обитель!
День и ночь, Ñумерки и раÑÑвет, зима и веÑна… Вновь и вновь приходÑÑ‚ и уходÑÑ‚. Ð’Ñ€ÐµÐ¼Ñ Ð¸Ð³Ñ€Ð°ÐµÑ‚ Ñ Ð½Ð°Ð¼Ð¸, и жизнь вот-вот пройдет… Ðо ураган желаний никогда не утихает в нашем уме!
Ты поÑтоÑнно думаешь о Ñвоей жене, о богатÑтве… Безумец! Зачем? Что мешает тебе вмеÑто Ñтого продвигатьÑÑ Ð´ÑƒÑ…Ð¾Ð²Ð½Ð¾? Прими добрый Ñовет: во вÑех трех мирах нет лучшего ÑредÑтва преодолеть океан Ñ€Ð¾Ð¶Ð´ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð¸ Ñмерти, чем общение Ñо Ñвоим Сердцем.
Можно иметь Ñпутанные волоÑÑ‹, а можно начиÑто обрить голову. Можно даже выщипать Ñебе волоÑÑ‹ тут и там! Можно одетьÑÑ Ð² шафрановые одежды или вырÑдитьÑÑ Ñотней других ÑпоÑобов… Ðо еÑли при Ñтом жизнью человека будет руководить не подконтрольный ум, вÑе Ñто беÑполезно. Такой глупец, даже вÑтретив иÑтину лицом к лицу, не увидит ее!
Даже когда тело оÑлабнет, а волоÑÑ‹ на голове поÑедеют и выпадут, рот лишитÑÑ Ð·ÑƒÐ±Ð¾Ð², и Ñ‚Ñ‹ даже по дому не Ñможешь ходить без палки, даже тогда запутанный комок желаний не отпуÑтит тебÑ!
Даже еÑли человек днем Ñидит на Ñолнце, окружив ÑÐµÐ±Ñ Ð¾Ð³Ð½ÐµÐ¼, а ночь переживает, лишь уткнув подбородок в колени, и питаетÑÑ Ñ‚Ð¾Ð»ÑŒÐºÐ¾ милоÑтыней, и живет под деревом… Даже тогда Ð¿ÐµÑ‚Ð»Ñ Ð¶ÐµÐ»Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ð¹ не оÑлабевает!
Можно Ñовершать Ð¾Ð¼Ð¾Ð²ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð² Ганге или неукоÑнительно Ñоблюдать Ñуровые обеты, или заниматьÑÑ Ð±Ð»Ð°Ð³Ð¾Ñ‚Ð²Ð¾Ñ€Ð¸Ñ‚ÐµÐ»ÑŒÐ½Ð¾Ñтью. Ðо вÑе мудрецы Ñкажут тебе: без Ð·Ð½Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ Ð½Ðµ доÑтичь оÑÐ²Ð¾Ð±Ð¾Ð¶Ð´ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð¸ через Ñотню рождений.
Живешь Ñ‚Ñ‹ во дворце или под деревом, Ñпишь на роÑкошной кровати или на голой земле. Окружен Ñ‚Ñ‹ вÑеми возможными удовольÑтвиÑми или отказываешьÑÑ Ð¾Ñ‚ них. Ð’Ñе Ñто не имеет значениÑ, еÑли не делает Ñ‚ÐµÐ±Ñ ÑчаÑтливым!
Кто-то ищет удовлетворение в йоге, а кто-то - в наÑлаждении чувÑтв; кто-то в общении, а кто-то - в отказе от общениÑ… Ðо лишь тот, чье Ñознание погружено в бытие ГоÑпода, может по-наÑтоÑщему ощутить ÑчаÑтье. Лишь он по-наÑтоÑщему наÑлаждаетÑÑ! Только он наÑлаждаетÑÑ!
Сложно неуклонно Ñледовать пути духовного развитиÑ. Ибо Ñта дорога выше материального добра и зла. Ðо йог, подчинивший Ñ Ð¿Ð¾Ð¼Ð¾Ñ‰ÑŒÑŽ твердой духовной практики Ñвой ум и разум, может наÑлаждатьÑÑ Ð½ÐµÐ¿Ñ€Ð¸Ð²ÑзанноÑтью к Ñтому миру, подобно ребенку или ÑумаÑшедшему.
И в тебе, и во мне, и во вÑех находитÑÑ Ð²ÐµÑ‡Ð½Ñ‹Ð¹ Брахман. Он во вÑех один. Зачем же гневатьÑÑ Ð½Ð° кого-либо или нетерпимо отноÑитьÑÑ ÐºÐ¾ мне или кому-нибудь еще? Ты должен равно отноÑитьÑÑ ÐºÐ¾ вÑем, еÑли хочешь войти в царÑтво ГоÑпода.
Ðе ÑтарайÑÑ Ð¿Ñ€Ð¸Ð²ÑзатьÑÑ Ð¸Ð»Ð¸ отвергнуть врагов и друзей, детей и родÑтвенников. ОтноÑиÑÑŒ к ним, как к Ñебе, понимаÑ, что вÑепроникающий ГоÑподь находитÑÑ Ð²Ð¾ вÑех живых ÑущеÑтвах.
Вожделение, гнев, жадноÑÑ‚ÑŒ, иллюзиÑ… ОтброÑÑŒ вÑе Ñто! Пойми природу души, ÑобÑтвенную природу, Ñвое меÑто в мире. Тот, кого не интереÑует знание о Духе, - глупец! Его будущее - кромешный ад!
Lakshmi
The most favored of all the animal devotees was a cow named Lakshmi. She was brought along with her mother as a gift to Bhagavan. He felt he could not properly care for the cows and so they were taken to farm in a neighboring village. After Lakshmi had been with the farmer for a year or more he went one evening to Ramanas ashram for prayers bringing Lakshmi and her mother with him for a visit. Lakshmi was irresistibly attracted to Ramana and must have noted carefully the way to the ashram. The next day she appeared on her own and from then on came every day returning, by herself the farm in the evening. At some point along the way she became a permanent member of the ashram. During her life at the ashram, Lakshme bore several calves at least three of them on Bhagavan’s birthday.. She was extremely devoted to Bhagavan and he showed her the utmost Grace and kindness.
On June 17, 1948 Lakshmi became very ill and it was clear that her time had come to an end. Bhagavan went to her and said: “Amma (Mother), do you want me near you?†He sat down beside her and cradled her head in his lap putting one hand on her head and one over her heart just as he had done when his own human mother lay dying. He gazed into her eyes for a long time and lay his cheek against hers stroking her gently. She focused all of her attention on Bhagavan and was conscious up to the end, her eyes bright and clear. On June 18th at 11:30 am she left her body peacefully. She was buried in the Ashram compound and given full funeral rights. Her grave was beside that of a deer, crow and dog which Bhagavan had also buried there. A stone was placed over her grave with her likeness carved into it. On the stone was also engraved the epitaph he had written for her stating that she had attained (Mukti) final liberation. The word mukti is used in two different ways. Generally when it is said that someone has attained mukti it means that they have died. The more spiritual term Mukti means that the soul (usually a very advanced soul) has attained final liberation from this realm of existence. When Bhagavan was questioned as to which definition he was referring to when speaking of Lakshmi, did he mean that she had died or that she had attained liberation, he said Mukti - final liberation!
The most favored of all the animal devotees was a cow named Lakshmi. She was brought along with her mother as a gift to Bhagavan. He felt he could not properly care for the cows and so they were taken to farm in a neighboring village. After Lakshmi had been with the farmer for a year or more he went one evening to Ramanas ashram for prayers bringing Lakshmi and her mother with him for a visit. Lakshmi was irresistibly attracted to Ramana and must have noted carefully the way to the ashram. The next day she appeared on her own and from then on came every day returning, by herself the farm in the evening. At some point along the way she became a permanent member of the ashram. During her life at the ashram, Lakshme bore several calves at least three of them on Bhagavan’s birthday.. She was extremely devoted to Bhagavan and he showed her the utmost Grace and kindness.
On June 17, 1948 Lakshmi became very ill and it was clear that her time had come to an end. Bhagavan went to her and said: “Amma (Mother), do you want me near you?†He sat down beside her and cradled her head in his lap putting one hand on her head and one over her heart just as he had done when his own human mother lay dying. He gazed into her eyes for a long time and lay his cheek against hers stroking her gently. She focused all of her attention on Bhagavan and was conscious up to the end, her eyes bright and clear. On June 18th at 11:30 am she left her body peacefully. She was buried in the Ashram compound and given full funeral rights. Her grave was beside that of a deer, crow and dog which Bhagavan had also buried there. A stone was placed over her grave with her likeness carved into it. On the stone was also engraved the epitaph he had written for her stating that she had attained (Mukti) final liberation. The word mukti is used in two different ways. Generally when it is said that someone has attained mukti it means that they have died. The more spiritual term Mukti means that the soul (usually a very advanced soul) has attained final liberation from this realm of existence. When Bhagavan was questioned as to which definition he was referring to when speaking of Lakshmi, did he mean that she had died or that she had attained liberation, he said Mukti - final liberation!
Sri Ramana Maharshi and the Ashram Animals.
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi the Indian Saint showed the same consideration to the animals whom destiny had brought into contact with him as to the people. And animals were drawn to him just as people were. Birds and squirrels would build their nests close to him and mother monkeys were often seen to bring their babies to him for blessings in the same way human mothers would bring their children for blessings. He never referred to animals in the usual Indian style as ‘it’ but always as ‘he’ or ‘she.’ At meal time at the ashram the animals were always fed first, then any beggers who might have chanced by, and then the devotes. He referred to the ashram dogs as “the Lads.â€
Many animals found their way to the ashram including dogs, cats, cows, peacocks, squirrels, birds and monkeys. Squirrels would hop through the window of Ramana’s room. He always kept treats for them by his side. The animals felt his Grace and he loved them in return.
Despite protests from his followers, Ramana would not have the snakes who inhabited the ashram grounds killed. He felt that the human beings had invaded their home and that they should be respected. He treated the snakes with the greatest reverence and respect and no one was ever harmed by one. Many animals would gather in the evenings when Bhagavan sat in the hall to talk and pray with his devotees. On occasions when Bhagavan would be delayed, the animals would come to the hall and peer anxiously in the direction of his empty couch. Bhagavan was very intimate with the animals especially the local monkeys who considered him one of their own. Once Bhagavan had been walking with a group of people. They had gone much farther than they expected that day and had become very hungry. Out of nowhere appeared a band of monkeys who swarmed to the top of a high fig tree shaking its branches so that all of the fruit dropped to the ground for Bhagavan and his followers. The monkey left as quickly as they had appeared taking no fruit for themselves.
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi the Indian Saint showed the same consideration to the animals whom destiny had brought into contact with him as to the people. And animals were drawn to him just as people were. Birds and squirrels would build their nests close to him and mother monkeys were often seen to bring their babies to him for blessings in the same way human mothers would bring their children for blessings. He never referred to animals in the usual Indian style as ‘it’ but always as ‘he’ or ‘she.’ At meal time at the ashram the animals were always fed first, then any beggers who might have chanced by, and then the devotes. He referred to the ashram dogs as “the Lads.â€
Many animals found their way to the ashram including dogs, cats, cows, peacocks, squirrels, birds and monkeys. Squirrels would hop through the window of Ramana’s room. He always kept treats for them by his side. The animals felt his Grace and he loved them in return.
Despite protests from his followers, Ramana would not have the snakes who inhabited the ashram grounds killed. He felt that the human beings had invaded their home and that they should be respected. He treated the snakes with the greatest reverence and respect and no one was ever harmed by one. Many animals would gather in the evenings when Bhagavan sat in the hall to talk and pray with his devotees. On occasions when Bhagavan would be delayed, the animals would come to the hall and peer anxiously in the direction of his empty couch. Bhagavan was very intimate with the animals especially the local monkeys who considered him one of their own. Once Bhagavan had been walking with a group of people. They had gone much farther than they expected that day and had become very hungry. Out of nowhere appeared a band of monkeys who swarmed to the top of a high fig tree shaking its branches so that all of the fruit dropped to the ground for Bhagavan and his followers. The monkey left as quickly as they had appeared taking no fruit for themselves.
The personality, based on self-identification, on imagining oneself to be something: 'I am this, I am that'. Self-identification with the body may be good for an infant, but true growing up depends on getting the body out of the way. Normally, one should outgrow body-based desires early in life. Even the Bhogi, who does not refuse enjoyments, need not hanker after the ones he has tasted. Habit, desire for repetition frustrates both the Yogi and the Bhogi.
The personality (vyakti) is but a product of imagination. The self (vyakta) is the victim of this imagination. It is the taking yourself to be what you are not that binds you. The person cannot be said to exist on its own rights; it is th...e self that believes there is a person and is conscious of being it. Beyond the self (vyakta) lies the unmanifested (avyakta), the causeless cause of everything.
When your personality dissolves only the witness remains. Then you go beyond the witness. Do not ask how it happens. Just search within yourself
When your personality dissolves only the witness remains. Then you go beyond the witness. Do not ask how it happens. Just search within yourself
You give reality to concepts, while concepts are distortions of reality. Abandon all conceptualisation and stay silent and attentive. Be earnest about it and all will be well with you.
The Master does not propound any intellectual concept or doctrine. He does not... put forward any pre-conditions before the seekers. The realized man knows what others merely hear; but don't experience. Intellectually they may seem convinced, but in action they betray their bondage, while the realized man is always right
Intelligence is the door to freedom and alert attention is the mother of intelligence. The mind covers up reality, without knowing it. To know the nature of the mind, you need intelligence, the capaci...ty to look at the mind in silent and dispassionate awareness.
In its own place and time nothing is wrong. But when you are concerned with truth, with reality, you must question every thing, your very life. By asserting the necessity of sensory and intellectual experience you narrow down your enquiry to search for comfort.
Weak-mindedness is due to lack of intelligence, of understanding, which again is the result of non-awareness. By striving for awareness you bring your mind together and strengthen it.
Moments of deep insight and all-embracing love purify the mind, while desires and fears, envies and anger, blind beliefs and INTELLECTUAL ARROGANCE pollute and dull the psyche.
You can spend an eternity looking elsewhere for truth and love, intelligence and goodwill, imploring God and man -- all in vain. You must begin in yourself, with yourself -- this is the inexorable law. You cannot change the image without changing the face. First realize that your world is only a reflection of yourself and stop finding fault with the reflection. Attend to yourself, set yourself right -- mentally and emotionally. The physical will follow automatically.
However you learn from everything, if you are alert and intelligent. Were your mind clear and your heart clean, you would learn from every passer-by;. It is because you are indolent or restless, that your inner Self manifests as the outer Guru
In its own place and time nothing is wrong. But when you are concerned with truth, with reality, you must question every thing, your very life. By asserting the necessity of sensory and intellectual experience you narrow down your enquiry to search for comfort.
Weak-mindedness is due to lack of intelligence, of understanding, which again is the result of non-awareness. By striving for awareness you bring your mind together and strengthen it.
Moments of deep insight and all-embracing love purify the mind, while desires and fears, envies and anger, blind beliefs and INTELLECTUAL ARROGANCE pollute and dull the psyche.
You can spend an eternity looking elsewhere for truth and love, intelligence and goodwill, imploring God and man -- all in vain. You must begin in yourself, with yourself -- this is the inexorable law. You cannot change the image without changing the face. First realize that your world is only a reflection of yourself and stop finding fault with the reflection. Attend to yourself, set yourself right -- mentally and emotionally. The physical will follow automatically.
However you learn from everything, if you are alert and intelligent. Were your mind clear and your heart clean, you would learn from every passer-by;. It is because you are indolent or restless, that your inner Self manifests as the outer Guru
418. The only true and full Awareness is Awareness of Awareness. Until Awareness is Awareness of itself, it knows no peace at all.
432. Is it not because you are yourself Awareness, that you now perceive this universe? If you observe Awareness steadily, this Awareness as Teacher, will reveal the Truth.
52. If mind turned towards Awareness and concentrating on Awareness, seeks the Self, the world made up of ether and other elements is real, as all things are Awareness, the one sole substance of true Being.
435. True natural Awareness, which does not go after alien objects, is the Heart. Since actionless Awareness shines as real Being, its joy consists in concentration on itself.
742. In the Self, he stands firm fixed who dwells and truly meditates on himself as pure awareness.
432. Is it not because you are yourself Awareness, that you now perceive this universe? If you observe Awareness steadily, this Awareness as Teacher, will reveal the Truth.
52. If mind turned towards Awareness and concentrating on Awareness, seeks the Self, the world made up of ether and other elements is real, as all things are Awareness, the one sole substance of true Being.
435. True natural Awareness, which does not go after alien objects, is the Heart. Since actionless Awareness shines as real Being, its joy consists in concentration on itself.
742. In the Self, he stands firm fixed who dwells and truly meditates on himself as pure awareness.
You talk about helping others. Have you ever helped, really helped, a single man? Have you ever put one soul beyond the need of further help? Can you give a man character, based on full realization of his duties and opportunities at least, if not on the insight into his true being? When you do not know what is good for yourself, how can you know what is good for others? To help others, one must be beyond the need of help.
Here are 225 truths from his own words.
1. The mind is nothing but the thought “Iâ€
2. Thoughts arise because of the thinker.
3. The thinker is the ego, which if sought will automatically vanish.
4. Without consciousness, time and space do not exist; they appear within Consciousness but have no reality of their own.
5. It is like a screen on which all this is cast as pictures and move as in a cinema show.
6. The Absolute Consciousness alone is our real nature.
7. Grace is within you; Grace is the Self.
8. Grace is not something to be acquired from others. If it is external, it is useless. All that is necessary is to know its existence in you.
9. You are never out of its operation.
10. The mind cannot seek the mind.
11. You ignore what is real and hold on to that which is unreal, then try to find what it is. You think you are the mind and, therefore, ask how it is to be controlled.
12. If the mind exists, it can be controlled, but it does not. Understand this by inquiry.
13. Seek the real, the Self.
14. The Eternal is not born nor does it die.
15. We confound appearance with Reality. Appearance carries its end in itself.
16. What is it that appears anew?
17. If you cannot find it, surrender unreservedly to the substratum of appearances; then Reality will be what remains.
18. Reality is simply loss of the ego.
19. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity.
20. Because the ego has no real existence, it will automatically vanish, and Reality will shine forth by itself in all its glory. This is the direct method.
21. All other methods retain the ego. In those paths so many doubts arise, and the eternal question remains to be tackled. But in this method the final question is the only one and is raised from the very beginning.
22. No practices (sadhanas) are even necessary for this quest.
23. Your duty is to Be, and not to be this or that.
24. “I am That I Am†sums up the whole truth; the method is summarized in “Be Still.â€
25. The state we call Realization is simply being one’s self, not knowing anything or becoming anything.
26. If one has realized, one is that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state, but only be That. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realization for want of a better term.
27. There is no help in changing your environment.
28. The obstacle is the mind, which must be overcome, whether at home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest, why not in the home? Therefore, why change the environment?
29. The cause of misery is not in life without; it is within you as the ego.
30. You impose limitations upon yourself and then make a vain struggle to transcend them.
31. Why attribute to the happenings in life the cause of misery, which really lies within you? What happiness can you get from anything extraneous to yourself? When you get it, how long will it last?
32. The body itself is a thought.
33. Be as you really are.
34. There are no stages in Realization or degrees in Liberation.
35. There are no levels of Reality; there are only levels of experience for the individual.
36. If anything can be gained that was not present before, it can also be lost, whereas the Absolute is eternal, here and now.
37. It is not a matter of becoming but of Being.
38. Remain aware of yourself and all else will be known.
39. One comes into existence for a certain purpose.
40. That purpose will be accomplished whether one considers oneself the actor or not.
41. Everything is predetermined.
42. But one is always free not to identify oneself with the body and not to be affected by the pleasure and pain associated with its activities.
43. Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself.
44. Find out who is subject to free will or predestination and abide in that state.
45. Then both are transcended. That is the only purpose in discussing these questions. To whom do such questions present themselves?
46. Discover that and be at peace.
47. Your true nature is that of infinite spirit.
48. The feeling of limitation is the work of the mind.
49. When the mind unceasingly investigates its own nature, it transpires that there is no such thing as mind.
50. This is the direct path for all.
51. If one inquires as to where in the body the thought “I†first rises, one would discover that it rises in the heart; that is the place of the mind’s origin.
52. Grace is always present.
53. You imagine it is something somewhere high in the sky, far away, and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart, and the moment you effect subsidence or merger of the mind into its Source, grace rushes forth, sprouting as from a spring within you.
54. You speak as if you are here, and the Self is somewhere else and you had to go and reach it…
55. …But in fact the Self is here and now, and you are always It.
56. It is like being here and asking people the way to the ashram, then complaining that each one shows a different path and asking which to follow.
57. The realized person weeps with the weeping, laughs with the laughing, plays with the playful, sings with those who sing, keeping time to the song.
58. What does he lose?
59. His presence is like a pure, transparent mirror. It reflects our image exactly as we are. It is we who play the several parts in life and reap the fruits of our actions. How is the mirror or the stand on which it is mounted affected? Nothing affects them, as they are mere supports.
60. The Consciousness of “I†is the subject of all of our actions.
61. Inquiring into the true nature of that Consciousness and remaining as oneself is the way to understand one’s true nature.
62. All that is required to realize the Self is to Be Still.
63. What can be easier than that?
64. If one gains the Peace of the Self, it will spread without any effort on the part of the individual.
65. When one is not peaceful, oneself, how can one spread peace in the world?
66. Unless one is happy, one cannot bestow happiness on others.
67. Happiness is born of Peace and can reign only when there is no disturbance. Disturbance is due to thoughts, which arise in the mind. When the mind is absent there will be perfect Peace.
68. Reality lies beyond the mind.
69. So long as the mind functions, there is duality. Once it is transcended, Reality shines forth.
70. Self-effulgence is the Self.
71. Satsang means association (sanga) with Being (Sat), which is the Self.
72. For whom is association?
73. The ultimate truth is so simple; it is nothing more than being in one’s natural, original state.
74. It is a great wonder that to teach such a simple truth a number of religions should be necessary, and so many disputes should go on between them as to which is the God-ordained teaching. What a pity!
75. Just be the Self, that is all.
76. Because people want something elaborate and mysterious, so many religions have come into existence. Only those who are mature can understand the matter in its naked simplicity.
77. There is neither past nor future; there is only the present.
78. Yesterday was the present when you experienced it; tomorrow will also be the present when you experience it.
79. Therefore, experience takes place only in the present, and beyond and apart from experience nothing exists.
80. Even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is purely mental.
81. Because people love mystery and not the truth, religions cater to them, eventually bringing them around to the Self.
82. Whatever be the means adopted, you must at last return to the Self; so why not abide in the Self here and now?
83. There is no greater mystery than this: Being Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality.
84. We think that there is something hiding Reality and that it must be destroyed before the truth is gained. This is clearly ridiculous.
85. A day will dawn when you will laugh at your past efforts. What you realize on the day you laugh is also here and now.
86. If we look upon the Self as the ego, we become the ego, if as the mind we become the mind, if as the body we become the body.
87. It is thought that builds up layers in so many ways.
88. Take no notice of the ego and its activities but see only the light behind it.
89. The ego is the “Iâ€-thought.
90. The true “I†is the Self.
91. 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.
92. It is false to speak of Realization; what is there to realize?
93. The real is ever as it is.
94. All that is required is to cease regarding as real that which is unreal. That is all we need to attain wisdom (jnana).
95. The universe is only an object created by the mind and has its being in the mind. It cannot be measured as an external entity.
96. The world phenomena, within or without, are only fleeting and are not independent of our Self.
97. Only the habit of looking at them as real and located outside ourselves is responsible for hiding our pure Being.
98. When the ever-present sole Reality, the Self, is found, all other unreal things will disappear, leaving behind the knowledge that they are not other than the Self.
99. Either surrender because you realize your inability and need a higher power to help you, or investigate the cause of misery.
100. The Divine never forsakes one who has surrendered.
101. To identify oneself with the body and yet seek happiness is like attempting to cross a river on the back of an alligator.
102. In truth, you are Spirit.
103. The body has been projected by the mind, which itself originates from Spirit. If the wrong identification ceases, there will be peace and permanent, indescribable bliss.
104. Those who have realized the Self, which is the ground of fate and free will, are free from them.
105. Ramana’s reply to his mother, when she requested that he return home with her:
106. The Ordainer controls the fate of souls in accordance with their destiny (prarabdha karma). Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain.
107. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.
108. The real state must be effortless. It is permanent.
109. Efforts are spasmodic and so also are their results.
110. When your real, effortless, joyful nature is realized, it will not be inconsistent with the ordinary activities of life.
111. In the interior of the heart-cave, the one Reality shines alone as “I-I†the Self.
112. The Heart is the only Reality.
113. The mind is only a transient phase.
114. To remain as one’s Self is to enter the Heart.
115. Apart from thought, there is no independent entity called “world.â€
116. In deep sleep, there are no thoughts and there is no world. In waking and dreaming, there are thoughts, and there is a world, also.
117. Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and then withdraws it, likewise, the mind projects the world out of itself and then withdraws it back into itself.
118. The Self is all-pervading.
119. Therefore, no particular place can be allocated for leading a life of solitude.
120. To abide in the tranquil state that is devoid of thought is to lead a life of solitude and seclusion.
121. When your standpoint becomes that of wisdom, you will find the world to be God.
122. The question is one of outlook.
123. The universe exists within the Self.
124. Therefore, it is real, but only because it obtains its reality from the Self. We call it unreal, however, to indicate its changing appearance and transient form, whereas we call the Self real because it is changeless.
125. We see only the script and not the paper on which the script is written.
126. The paper is there, whether the script is on it or not. To those who look upon the script as real, you have to say that it is unreal — an illusion — since it rests upon the paper.
127. The wise person looks upon both paper and script as one.
128. Our real nature is Liberation, but we imagine that we are bound…
129. …we make strenuous efforts to become free, although all the while we are free.
130. A person goes to sleep in this hall and dreams he has gone on a world tour, traveling over various continents. After many years of strenuous travel, he returns to this country, enters the ashram, and walks into the hall.
131. Just at that moment, he wakes up and finds that he has not moved at all but has been sleeping. He has not returned after great efforts to this hall, but was here all the time.
132. If it is asked, “Why, being free, we imagine ourselves bound?†I answer, “Why, being in the hall, did you imagine you were on a world tour, crossing desert and sea?â€
133. It is all mind.
134. With a smile, Ramana placed his little finger over his eye and said:
135. Look. This little finger covers the eye and prevents the whole world from being seen. In the same way this small mind covers the whole universe and prevents Reality from being seen.
136. See how powerful it is!
137. What is, is the Self. It is all-pervading.
138. We fill the mind with all sorts of impressions and then say there is no room for the Self in it.
139. If all the false ideas and impressions are swept away and thrown out, what remains is a feeling of fullness, which is the Self. Then there will be no such thing as a separate “I.â€
140. Meditation on the Self, which is oneself, is the greatest of all meditations.
141. All other meditations are included in this.
142. True silence is really endless speech.
143. There is no attaining it because it is always present.
144. All you have to do is remove the coverings that conceal it.
145. Surrender is giving oneself up to the origin of one’s Being.
146. In due course, we will know that our glory lies where we cease to exist.
147. The pet squirrel is waiting for an opportunity to run out of its cage.
148. Ramana remarks:
149. All want to rush out. There is no limit to going out. Happiness lies within and not without.
150. All spiritual teachings are only meant to make us retrace our steps to our Original Source.
151. We need not acquire anything new, only give up false ideas and useless accretions.
152. Instead of doing this, we try to grasp something strange and mysterious because we believe happiness lies elsewhere. This is the mistake.
153. Forgetfulness of your real nature is true death; remembrance of it is rebirth.
154. What appears will also disappear and is therefore impermanent. The Self never appears and disappears and is therefore permanent.
155. It is the only Reality.
156. Environment, time, and objects all exist in oneself.
157. How can they be independent of me?
158. They may change, but “I†remain unchanging.
159. Make no effort either to work or to give up work; your very effort is the bondage.
160. What is destined to happen will happen. Leave it to the higher power; you cannot renounce or retain as you choose.
161. The feeling “I work†is the hindrance.
162. Ask yourself, “Who works?†Remember who you are. Then the work will not bind you; it will proceed automatically.
163. Realization is nothing to be gained anew.
164. You are the Self. You are already and eternally That.
165. There is never a moment when the Self is not; it is ever-present, here and now.
166. If Realization were something to be gained hereafter, there would be an equal chance of its being lost; this cannot be Liberation, which is eternal.
167. Realization consists of getting rid of the false idea that one is not realized.
168. What is called “mind†is a wondrous power residing in the Self.
169. It causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind. Therefore, thought is the nature of mind.
170. Self-inquiry directly leads to Self-realization by removing the obstacles which make you think that the Self is not already realized.
171. It reveals the truth that neither the ego nor the mind really exists and enables one to realize the pure, undifferentiated Being, which is the Self or the Absolute.
172. Free will and destiny last as long as the body lasts.
173. Wisdom transcends both, for the Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance.
174. Pain or pleasure is the result of past actions and not of the present…they alternate with each other.
175. One must always try to abide in the Self and not be swayed by the pain or pleasure met with occasionally.
176. One who is indifferent to pain or pleasure can alone be happy.
177. Thoughts change but not you.
178. Thoughts form your bondage and are not external to you, so no external remedy be sought for freedom.
179. What does it matter if the mind is active? It is only so on the substratum of the Self.
180. Hold to the Self even during mental activity.
181. The “I†casts off the illusion of “I†and yet remains as “I.â€
182. Such is the paradox of Self-realization.
183. You give up various possessions. If, instead, you give up “I†and “mine,†you give them all up in one stroke and lose the very seed of possession.
184. Disinterest in the non-Self must be very strong to do this.
185. One’s eagerness must be equal to that of a person kept under water while trying to rise to the surface to breathe.
186. Be what you are.
187. That which is, is ever present. Even now you are It, and not apart from It.
188. The expectation to see and the desire to get something are all the working of the ego.
189. Be yourself and nothing more.
190. Pleasure or pain are only aspects of the mind. Our essential nature is happiness.
191. We forget the Self and imagine the body or the mind to be the Self. It I this wrong identity that gives rise to misery.
192. Happiness is inherent in everyone and is not due to external causes.
193. Because you have lost hold of the Self, thoughts afflict you; you see the world and doubts arise, along with anxiety about the future.
194. There is no use removing doubts.
195. If we clear one doubt, another arises, and there will be no end of doubts. All doubts will cease only when the doubter and his source have been found. Seek for the source of the doubter, and you find he is really nonexistent.
196. Doubter ceasing, doubts will cease.
197. Investigate the nature of the mind and it will disappear.
198. Because of the emergence of thought, you surmise that it has an origin and call that the mind.
199. When you inquire to see what it is, you find there is really no such thing as mind.
200. When the mind has thus vanished, you realize eternal Peace.
201. When the mind, turning inward, inquires, “Who am I?†and reaches the heart, that which is “I†(the ego) sinks crestfallen, and the One (Self) appears of its own accord as “I-I.†Though it appears thus, it is not the ego; it is the Whole.
202. It is the real Self.
203. The Self is free from all qualities.
204. Good or bad qualities pertain only to the mind.
205. The numeral one gives rise to other numbers. The truth is neither one nor two.
206. It is as it is.
207. Dvaita and advaita are relative terms. They are based on a sense of duality. There is actually neither dvaita nor advaita.
208. I Am That I Am…
209. Simple Being is the Self.
210. The limited and multifarious thoughts having disappeared, there shines in the Heart a kind of wordless illumination of “I-I,†which is pure Consciousness.
211. If one remains quiet without abandoning that understanding, then egoity—the individual sense of the form “I-am-the-bodyâ€â€”will be totally destroyed. And ultimately, the final thought, the “Iâ€-thought, will also be extinguished, like camphor that is burned by fire.
212. The great sages and scriptures declare that this alone is Realization.
213. Meditation is your true nature now.
214. You call it meditation because other thoughts distract you. When these thoughts are dispelled, you remain in the state of meditation, free from thoughts.
215. When the practice becomes firm, your real nature shows itself as meditation.
216. When meditation is well-established, it cannot be given up. It will go on automatically, even when you are engaged in work or play. It will persist in sleep, too.
217. Meditation must become so deep-rooted that it will be natural to one.
218. Birth and death pertain only to the body…
219. …they are superimposed on the Self, giving rise to the delusion that birth and death relate to the Self.
220. If one dies while still alive, one need not grieve over another’s death.
221. Discover the undying Self and be immortal and happy.
222. Why do you worry about life and death?
223. Deathlessness is our real nature. The real “I†exists here and now.
224. There is neither creation nor destruction, neither destiny nor free will, neither path nor achievement.
225. This is the final truth.
[Source: The Essential Teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Edited by Matthew Greenblatt]
http://www.reenagagneja.com/ramana-maharshi-225-truths
1. The mind is nothing but the thought “Iâ€
2. Thoughts arise because of the thinker.
3. The thinker is the ego, which if sought will automatically vanish.
4. Without consciousness, time and space do not exist; they appear within Consciousness but have no reality of their own.
5. It is like a screen on which all this is cast as pictures and move as in a cinema show.
6. The Absolute Consciousness alone is our real nature.
7. Grace is within you; Grace is the Self.
8. Grace is not something to be acquired from others. If it is external, it is useless. All that is necessary is to know its existence in you.
9. You are never out of its operation.
10. The mind cannot seek the mind.
11. You ignore what is real and hold on to that which is unreal, then try to find what it is. You think you are the mind and, therefore, ask how it is to be controlled.
12. If the mind exists, it can be controlled, but it does not. Understand this by inquiry.
13. Seek the real, the Self.
14. The Eternal is not born nor does it die.
15. We confound appearance with Reality. Appearance carries its end in itself.
16. What is it that appears anew?
17. If you cannot find it, surrender unreservedly to the substratum of appearances; then Reality will be what remains.
18. Reality is simply loss of the ego.
19. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity.
20. Because the ego has no real existence, it will automatically vanish, and Reality will shine forth by itself in all its glory. This is the direct method.
21. All other methods retain the ego. In those paths so many doubts arise, and the eternal question remains to be tackled. But in this method the final question is the only one and is raised from the very beginning.
22. No practices (sadhanas) are even necessary for this quest.
23. Your duty is to Be, and not to be this or that.
24. “I am That I Am†sums up the whole truth; the method is summarized in “Be Still.â€
25. The state we call Realization is simply being one’s self, not knowing anything or becoming anything.
26. If one has realized, one is that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state, but only be That. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realization for want of a better term.
27. There is no help in changing your environment.
28. The obstacle is the mind, which must be overcome, whether at home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest, why not in the home? Therefore, why change the environment?
29. The cause of misery is not in life without; it is within you as the ego.
30. You impose limitations upon yourself and then make a vain struggle to transcend them.
31. Why attribute to the happenings in life the cause of misery, which really lies within you? What happiness can you get from anything extraneous to yourself? When you get it, how long will it last?
32. The body itself is a thought.
33. Be as you really are.
34. There are no stages in Realization or degrees in Liberation.
35. There are no levels of Reality; there are only levels of experience for the individual.
36. If anything can be gained that was not present before, it can also be lost, whereas the Absolute is eternal, here and now.
37. It is not a matter of becoming but of Being.
38. Remain aware of yourself and all else will be known.
39. One comes into existence for a certain purpose.
40. That purpose will be accomplished whether one considers oneself the actor or not.
41. Everything is predetermined.
42. But one is always free not to identify oneself with the body and not to be affected by the pleasure and pain associated with its activities.
43. Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself.
44. Find out who is subject to free will or predestination and abide in that state.
45. Then both are transcended. That is the only purpose in discussing these questions. To whom do such questions present themselves?
46. Discover that and be at peace.
47. Your true nature is that of infinite spirit.
48. The feeling of limitation is the work of the mind.
49. When the mind unceasingly investigates its own nature, it transpires that there is no such thing as mind.
50. This is the direct path for all.
51. If one inquires as to where in the body the thought “I†first rises, one would discover that it rises in the heart; that is the place of the mind’s origin.
52. Grace is always present.
53. You imagine it is something somewhere high in the sky, far away, and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart, and the moment you effect subsidence or merger of the mind into its Source, grace rushes forth, sprouting as from a spring within you.
54. You speak as if you are here, and the Self is somewhere else and you had to go and reach it…
55. …But in fact the Self is here and now, and you are always It.
56. It is like being here and asking people the way to the ashram, then complaining that each one shows a different path and asking which to follow.
57. The realized person weeps with the weeping, laughs with the laughing, plays with the playful, sings with those who sing, keeping time to the song.
58. What does he lose?
59. His presence is like a pure, transparent mirror. It reflects our image exactly as we are. It is we who play the several parts in life and reap the fruits of our actions. How is the mirror or the stand on which it is mounted affected? Nothing affects them, as they are mere supports.
60. The Consciousness of “I†is the subject of all of our actions.
61. Inquiring into the true nature of that Consciousness and remaining as oneself is the way to understand one’s true nature.
62. All that is required to realize the Self is to Be Still.
63. What can be easier than that?
64. If one gains the Peace of the Self, it will spread without any effort on the part of the individual.
65. When one is not peaceful, oneself, how can one spread peace in the world?
66. Unless one is happy, one cannot bestow happiness on others.
67. Happiness is born of Peace and can reign only when there is no disturbance. Disturbance is due to thoughts, which arise in the mind. When the mind is absent there will be perfect Peace.
68. Reality lies beyond the mind.
69. So long as the mind functions, there is duality. Once it is transcended, Reality shines forth.
70. Self-effulgence is the Self.
71. Satsang means association (sanga) with Being (Sat), which is the Self.
72. For whom is association?
73. The ultimate truth is so simple; it is nothing more than being in one’s natural, original state.
74. It is a great wonder that to teach such a simple truth a number of religions should be necessary, and so many disputes should go on between them as to which is the God-ordained teaching. What a pity!
75. Just be the Self, that is all.
76. Because people want something elaborate and mysterious, so many religions have come into existence. Only those who are mature can understand the matter in its naked simplicity.
77. There is neither past nor future; there is only the present.
78. Yesterday was the present when you experienced it; tomorrow will also be the present when you experience it.
79. Therefore, experience takes place only in the present, and beyond and apart from experience nothing exists.
80. Even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is purely mental.
81. Because people love mystery and not the truth, religions cater to them, eventually bringing them around to the Self.
82. Whatever be the means adopted, you must at last return to the Self; so why not abide in the Self here and now?
83. There is no greater mystery than this: Being Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality.
84. We think that there is something hiding Reality and that it must be destroyed before the truth is gained. This is clearly ridiculous.
85. A day will dawn when you will laugh at your past efforts. What you realize on the day you laugh is also here and now.
86. If we look upon the Self as the ego, we become the ego, if as the mind we become the mind, if as the body we become the body.
87. It is thought that builds up layers in so many ways.
88. Take no notice of the ego and its activities but see only the light behind it.
89. The ego is the “Iâ€-thought.
90. The true “I†is the Self.
91. 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.
92. It is false to speak of Realization; what is there to realize?
93. The real is ever as it is.
94. All that is required is to cease regarding as real that which is unreal. That is all we need to attain wisdom (jnana).
95. The universe is only an object created by the mind and has its being in the mind. It cannot be measured as an external entity.
96. The world phenomena, within or without, are only fleeting and are not independent of our Self.
97. Only the habit of looking at them as real and located outside ourselves is responsible for hiding our pure Being.
98. When the ever-present sole Reality, the Self, is found, all other unreal things will disappear, leaving behind the knowledge that they are not other than the Self.
99. Either surrender because you realize your inability and need a higher power to help you, or investigate the cause of misery.
100. The Divine never forsakes one who has surrendered.
101. To identify oneself with the body and yet seek happiness is like attempting to cross a river on the back of an alligator.
102. In truth, you are Spirit.
103. The body has been projected by the mind, which itself originates from Spirit. If the wrong identification ceases, there will be peace and permanent, indescribable bliss.
104. Those who have realized the Self, which is the ground of fate and free will, are free from them.
105. Ramana’s reply to his mother, when she requested that he return home with her:
106. The Ordainer controls the fate of souls in accordance with their destiny (prarabdha karma). Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain.
107. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.
108. The real state must be effortless. It is permanent.
109. Efforts are spasmodic and so also are their results.
110. When your real, effortless, joyful nature is realized, it will not be inconsistent with the ordinary activities of life.
111. In the interior of the heart-cave, the one Reality shines alone as “I-I†the Self.
112. The Heart is the only Reality.
113. The mind is only a transient phase.
114. To remain as one’s Self is to enter the Heart.
115. Apart from thought, there is no independent entity called “world.â€
116. In deep sleep, there are no thoughts and there is no world. In waking and dreaming, there are thoughts, and there is a world, also.
117. Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and then withdraws it, likewise, the mind projects the world out of itself and then withdraws it back into itself.
118. The Self is all-pervading.
119. Therefore, no particular place can be allocated for leading a life of solitude.
120. To abide in the tranquil state that is devoid of thought is to lead a life of solitude and seclusion.
121. When your standpoint becomes that of wisdom, you will find the world to be God.
122. The question is one of outlook.
123. The universe exists within the Self.
124. Therefore, it is real, but only because it obtains its reality from the Self. We call it unreal, however, to indicate its changing appearance and transient form, whereas we call the Self real because it is changeless.
125. We see only the script and not the paper on which the script is written.
126. The paper is there, whether the script is on it or not. To those who look upon the script as real, you have to say that it is unreal — an illusion — since it rests upon the paper.
127. The wise person looks upon both paper and script as one.
128. Our real nature is Liberation, but we imagine that we are bound…
129. …we make strenuous efforts to become free, although all the while we are free.
130. A person goes to sleep in this hall and dreams he has gone on a world tour, traveling over various continents. After many years of strenuous travel, he returns to this country, enters the ashram, and walks into the hall.
131. Just at that moment, he wakes up and finds that he has not moved at all but has been sleeping. He has not returned after great efforts to this hall, but was here all the time.
132. If it is asked, “Why, being free, we imagine ourselves bound?†I answer, “Why, being in the hall, did you imagine you were on a world tour, crossing desert and sea?â€
133. It is all mind.
134. With a smile, Ramana placed his little finger over his eye and said:
135. Look. This little finger covers the eye and prevents the whole world from being seen. In the same way this small mind covers the whole universe and prevents Reality from being seen.
136. See how powerful it is!
137. What is, is the Self. It is all-pervading.
138. We fill the mind with all sorts of impressions and then say there is no room for the Self in it.
139. If all the false ideas and impressions are swept away and thrown out, what remains is a feeling of fullness, which is the Self. Then there will be no such thing as a separate “I.â€
140. Meditation on the Self, which is oneself, is the greatest of all meditations.
141. All other meditations are included in this.
142. True silence is really endless speech.
143. There is no attaining it because it is always present.
144. All you have to do is remove the coverings that conceal it.
145. Surrender is giving oneself up to the origin of one’s Being.
146. In due course, we will know that our glory lies where we cease to exist.
147. The pet squirrel is waiting for an opportunity to run out of its cage.
148. Ramana remarks:
149. All want to rush out. There is no limit to going out. Happiness lies within and not without.
150. All spiritual teachings are only meant to make us retrace our steps to our Original Source.
151. We need not acquire anything new, only give up false ideas and useless accretions.
152. Instead of doing this, we try to grasp something strange and mysterious because we believe happiness lies elsewhere. This is the mistake.
153. Forgetfulness of your real nature is true death; remembrance of it is rebirth.
154. What appears will also disappear and is therefore impermanent. The Self never appears and disappears and is therefore permanent.
155. It is the only Reality.
156. Environment, time, and objects all exist in oneself.
157. How can they be independent of me?
158. They may change, but “I†remain unchanging.
159. Make no effort either to work or to give up work; your very effort is the bondage.
160. What is destined to happen will happen. Leave it to the higher power; you cannot renounce or retain as you choose.
161. The feeling “I work†is the hindrance.
162. Ask yourself, “Who works?†Remember who you are. Then the work will not bind you; it will proceed automatically.
163. Realization is nothing to be gained anew.
164. You are the Self. You are already and eternally That.
165. There is never a moment when the Self is not; it is ever-present, here and now.
166. If Realization were something to be gained hereafter, there would be an equal chance of its being lost; this cannot be Liberation, which is eternal.
167. Realization consists of getting rid of the false idea that one is not realized.
168. What is called “mind†is a wondrous power residing in the Self.
169. It causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind. Therefore, thought is the nature of mind.
170. Self-inquiry directly leads to Self-realization by removing the obstacles which make you think that the Self is not already realized.
171. It reveals the truth that neither the ego nor the mind really exists and enables one to realize the pure, undifferentiated Being, which is the Self or the Absolute.
172. Free will and destiny last as long as the body lasts.
173. Wisdom transcends both, for the Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance.
174. Pain or pleasure is the result of past actions and not of the present…they alternate with each other.
175. One must always try to abide in the Self and not be swayed by the pain or pleasure met with occasionally.
176. One who is indifferent to pain or pleasure can alone be happy.
177. Thoughts change but not you.
178. Thoughts form your bondage and are not external to you, so no external remedy be sought for freedom.
179. What does it matter if the mind is active? It is only so on the substratum of the Self.
180. Hold to the Self even during mental activity.
181. The “I†casts off the illusion of “I†and yet remains as “I.â€
182. Such is the paradox of Self-realization.
183. You give up various possessions. If, instead, you give up “I†and “mine,†you give them all up in one stroke and lose the very seed of possession.
184. Disinterest in the non-Self must be very strong to do this.
185. One’s eagerness must be equal to that of a person kept under water while trying to rise to the surface to breathe.
186. Be what you are.
187. That which is, is ever present. Even now you are It, and not apart from It.
188. The expectation to see and the desire to get something are all the working of the ego.
189. Be yourself and nothing more.
190. Pleasure or pain are only aspects of the mind. Our essential nature is happiness.
191. We forget the Self and imagine the body or the mind to be the Self. It I this wrong identity that gives rise to misery.
192. Happiness is inherent in everyone and is not due to external causes.
193. Because you have lost hold of the Self, thoughts afflict you; you see the world and doubts arise, along with anxiety about the future.
194. There is no use removing doubts.
195. If we clear one doubt, another arises, and there will be no end of doubts. All doubts will cease only when the doubter and his source have been found. Seek for the source of the doubter, and you find he is really nonexistent.
196. Doubter ceasing, doubts will cease.
197. Investigate the nature of the mind and it will disappear.
198. Because of the emergence of thought, you surmise that it has an origin and call that the mind.
199. When you inquire to see what it is, you find there is really no such thing as mind.
200. When the mind has thus vanished, you realize eternal Peace.
201. When the mind, turning inward, inquires, “Who am I?†and reaches the heart, that which is “I†(the ego) sinks crestfallen, and the One (Self) appears of its own accord as “I-I.†Though it appears thus, it is not the ego; it is the Whole.
202. It is the real Self.
203. The Self is free from all qualities.
204. Good or bad qualities pertain only to the mind.
205. The numeral one gives rise to other numbers. The truth is neither one nor two.
206. It is as it is.
207. Dvaita and advaita are relative terms. They are based on a sense of duality. There is actually neither dvaita nor advaita.
208. I Am That I Am…
209. Simple Being is the Self.
210. The limited and multifarious thoughts having disappeared, there shines in the Heart a kind of wordless illumination of “I-I,†which is pure Consciousness.
211. If one remains quiet without abandoning that understanding, then egoity—the individual sense of the form “I-am-the-bodyâ€â€”will be totally destroyed. And ultimately, the final thought, the “Iâ€-thought, will also be extinguished, like camphor that is burned by fire.
212. The great sages and scriptures declare that this alone is Realization.
213. Meditation is your true nature now.
214. You call it meditation because other thoughts distract you. When these thoughts are dispelled, you remain in the state of meditation, free from thoughts.
215. When the practice becomes firm, your real nature shows itself as meditation.
216. When meditation is well-established, it cannot be given up. It will go on automatically, even when you are engaged in work or play. It will persist in sleep, too.
217. Meditation must become so deep-rooted that it will be natural to one.
218. Birth and death pertain only to the body…
219. …they are superimposed on the Self, giving rise to the delusion that birth and death relate to the Self.
220. If one dies while still alive, one need not grieve over another’s death.
221. Discover the undying Self and be immortal and happy.
222. Why do you worry about life and death?
223. Deathlessness is our real nature. The real “I†exists here and now.
224. There is neither creation nor destruction, neither destiny nor free will, neither path nor achievement.
225. This is the final truth.
[Source: The Essential Teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Edited by Matthew Greenblatt]
http://www.reenagagneja.com/ramana-maharshi-225-truths
Begin from the beginning: give attention to the fact that you are. At no time can you say " I was not". All you can say is "I don't remember". You know how unreliable is memory. Accept that, engrossed in petty personal affairs, you have forgotten what you are; try to bring back the lost memory through the elimination of the known. You cannot be told what will happen, nor is it desirable; anticipation will create illusions. In the inner search, the unexpected is inevitable; the discovery is invariably beyond all imagination. Just as an unborn child cannot know life after birth, for it has nothing in its mind with which to form a valid picture, so is the mind unable
to think of the real in terms of the unreal, except by negation: "Not this, not that". The acceptance of the unreal as real is the obstacle; to see the false as false and abandon the false brings reality into being.
to think of the real in terms of the unreal, except by negation: "Not this, not that". The acceptance of the unreal as real is the obstacle; to see the false as false and abandon the false brings reality into being.
The reward of self-knowledge is freedom from the personal self. You cannot know the knower, for you are the knower. The fact of knowing proves the knower. You need no other proof. The knower of the known is not knowable. Just like the light is known in colours only, so is the knower known in knowledge.
Merely assuaging fears and satisfying desires will not remove this sense of emptiness you are trying to escape from; only self-knowledge can help you. By self-knowledge I mean full knowledge of what you are not. Such knowledge is attainable and final; but to the discovery of what you are there can be no end. The more you discover, the more there remains to discover.
There is nothing in the world that you cannot know, when you know yourself. Thinking yourself to be the body, you know the world as a collection of material things. When you know yourself as a centre of consciousness, the world appears as the ocean of the mind. When you know yourself as you are in reality, you know the world as yourself.
Believe me, there is no goal, nor a way to reach it. You are the way and the goal, there is nothing else to reach except yourself. All you need is to understand, and understanding is the flowering of the mind. The tree is perennial, but the flowering and the fruit-bearing come in season. The seasons change, but not the tree. You are the tree. You have grown numberless branches and leaves in the past, and you may grow them also in the future - yet you remain. Not what was, or shall be, must you know, but what is. Yours is the desire that creates the universe. Know the world as your own creation and be free.
You are what you are, timelessly, but of what use is it to you unless you know it and act on it? Your begging bowl may be of pure gold, but as long as you do not know it you are a pauper. You must know your inner worth and trust it and express it in the daily sacrifice of desire and fear.
The limited only is perfectible. The unlimited is already perfect. You are perfect, only you don't know it. Learn to know yourself and you will discover wonders.
Unless you know yourself well, how can you know another? And when you know yourself, you are the other.
Deepen and broaden your awareness of yourself and all the blessings will flow. You need not seek anything, all will come to you most naturally and effortlessly.
If you want to live sanely, creatively and happily, and have infinite riches to share, search for what you are.
You do not know what you are and therefore you imagine yourself to be what you are not. Hence desires and fear and overwhelming activity in order to escape.
Beings
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