Just be aware

Just be aware that you are, and remain aware.

Seek your identity

Reality is simply the loss of ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because the ego is no entity it will automatically vanish and reality will shine forth by itself. This is the direct method, whereas all other methods are done only by retaining the ego.

In those paths there arise so many doubts and the eternal question: "Who am I ?" remains to be tackled finally. But in this method, the final question is the only one and it is raised from the beginning.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi, from "Be As You are", Edited by David Godman

The pure 'I'

The common man is aware of himself only when modifications arise in the intellect (vijnanamaya kosa); these modifications are transient they arise and set. Hence the vijnanamaya (intellect) is called a kosa or sheath. When pure awareness is left over it is itself the Chit (Self) or the Supreme. To be in one's natural state on the subsidence of thoughts is bliss; if that bliss be transient - arising and setting - then it is only the sheath of bliss (Anandamaya kosa), not the pure Self.

What is needed is to fix the attention on the pure 'I' after the subsidence of all thoughts and not to lose hold of it. This has to be described as an extremely subtle thought, else it cannot be spoken of at all, since it is no other than the Real Self.

Who is to speak of it, to whom and how?

-- Talk 624, 4th February 1939.

There is another choice

Note: Hear the message, don't judge the messenger.

All you want is to know yourself

Attention to one's own self

Attention to one's own Self, which is ever shining as "I", the one undivided and pure reality, is the only raft with which the individual, who is deluded by thinking "I am the body", can cross the ocean of unending births.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi, from "Be As You are", Edited by David Godman

Meditation and distraction

Visitor: What is the difference between meditation and distraction?
Maharshi: No difference. When there are thoughts, it is distraction: when there are no thoughts, it is meditation. However, meditation is only practice (as distinguished from the real state of Peace.)
She: How to practice meditation?
Maharshi: Keep off thoughts.
She: How to reconcile work with meditation?

Maharshi: Who is the worker? Let him who works ask the question. You are always the Self. You are not the mind. It is the mind which raises these questions. Work proceeds, always in the presence of the Self only. Work is no hindrance to realisation.

It is the mistaken identity of the worker that troubles one. Get rid of the false identity.

From Talk 68

Spiritual Traps

"I" shines through between all thoughts

Let us examine our own casual statements regarding our daily experiences. For example, we say: ‘ He comes’, ‘ He sits’, ‘ He goes’, and so on. In these statements, ‘coming’, "sitting" and "going" are somehow extraneous to ‘ Him’. As such, they do not at all go into the make of ‘ Him’.

‘ He ’ alone stands unqualified through all time, continuing without a break. So it is this pure ‘ he ’ or "I" (or Consciousness) which shines through and in between all thoughts, feelings, perceptions and states. During this interval (between mentations), one has no thought of the state in which one happens to be. So here, one is Peace itself; and that is the "I" , in its pure state.

Suppose you see a beautiful picture, painted on white paper. On closely examining the picture, you will be able to discover some parts of it where the original colour of the paper appears, unaffected by the shades of the picture. This proves to you the existence of the paper behind the picture, as its background. On further examination, you will see that the picture is nothing but the paper.

So also, if you succeed in discovering yourself between two mentations, you easily come to the conclusion that you are in the mentations as well.

-- Sri Atmananda

John Sherman on Sri Ramana

Who are you in this instant?

Atma-Vichara

Vichara is the process and the goal also. "I am" is the goal and the final reality. To hold to it with effort is vichara. When spontaneous and natural it is realization.

If one leaves aside vichara, the most efficacious sadhana, there are no other adequate means whatsoever to make the mind subside. If made to subside by other means, it will remain as if subsided but will rise again. Self-enquiry is the one infallible means, the only direct one, to realize the unconditioned, absolute being that you really are.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi, from "Be As You are", Edited by David Godman

The Self and the world

Devotee: Why did the Self manifest as this miserable world?

Maharshi: In order that you might seek it. Your eyes cannot see themselves. Place a mirror before them and they see themselves. Similarly with the creation.

"See yourself first, and then see the whole world as the Self."

D.: So it amounts to this - that I should always look within.
Maharshi: Yes.

D.: Should I not see the world at all?
Maharshi: You are not instructed to shut your eyes from the world. You are only to "see yourself first and then see the whole world as the Self". If you consider yourself as the body, the world appears to be external. If you are the Self, the world appears as Brahman.

See Talk 272

Most important question

I think the above video is continued in this one.

Some interesting videos

The Freedom Trap

Silent Awareness
Keep Quiet

Time is a succession of moments

Q: It takes time to know oneself.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: How can time help you? Time is a succession of moments; each moment appears out of nothing and disappears into nothing, never to reappear. How can you build on something so fleeting?
Q: What is permanent?
NM: Look to yourself for the permanent. Dive deep within and find what is real in you.
Q: How to look for myself?
NM: Whatever happens, it happens to you. What you do, the doer is in you. Find the subject of all that you are as a person.
Q: What else can I be?
NM: Find out. Even if I tell you that you are the witness, the silent watcher, it will mean nothing to you, unless you find the way to your own being.
Q: My question is: How to find the way to one's own being?
NM:

Give up all questions except one: "Who am I"?

After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The "I am" is certain. The " I am this" is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality.

I-Thought

Maintain awareness of the I-thought until it dissolves in the source from which it came.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi, from "Be As You are", Edited by David Godman

Who makes the enquiries

Devotee: What are the obstacles which hinder realisation of the Self?
Sri Ramana: They are habits of mind (vasanas).

D.: How to overcome the mental habits (vasanas)?
Sri Ramana: By realising the Self.

D.: That is a vicious circle.
Sri Ramana: It is the ego which raises such difficulties, creating obstacles and then suffers from the perplexity of apparent paradoxes. Find out who makes the enquiries and the Self will be found.


D.: Yes, I still understand only theoretically.
Sri Ramana: Even the thought, "I do not realise" is a hindrance. In fact, the Self alone is.

-- Talk 13, 6th January 1935

Self-enquiry

Here’s the promise: if you will, whenever you can, whenever it occurs to you to do so, stop for just one moment and direct your conscious attention toward the naked, unmediated experience of being that is all there is to you, suffering will immediately begin to diminish and the thick, hot smoke of falseness, confusion, doubt and fear that fills the mind will begin to clear. And, in Sri Ramana’s words, all will come out right in the end.

In truth, this investigation, this self-inquiry, is not a path or a method to Realization, it IS Realization, and every moment spent with your attention resting in the experience of being is spent in full, conscious realization of Reality.

And, if you will continue with this practice and make it a part of your life, all falseness will finally vanish and what has always been here — peace and ease and love without condition — will stand fully, permanently revealed, once and for all.

John Sherman on Self-enquiry

Bondage can only be removed by oneself

Gazing on the Guru who says this, the disciple asks: "Oh Master, what is bondage? How did it come, how does it survive, and how is it to be destroyed? What is the non-Self? And what, indeed, is the Self? And what is discrimination between Self and non-Self? Graciously bless me with answers to these questions, so that by hearing your replies I may be blessed."

To this request of the disciple, the Master answers: "Dear soul! If you have felt the desire to be the Self, free from the bondage caused by ignorance, you are indeed blessed. You have achieved life's purpose. You have sanctified thereby your whole line. Just as sons and other relations pay off the debts of a father, so there are others who will free one from bearing a burden on one's head. But the distress caused by hunger can be cured only by eating for oneself, not by others eating for one.

And, if you are sick you must take medicine and keep a proper diet yourself; no one else can do it for you. Similarly, bondage comes to you through your own ignorance, and can only be removed by yourself. However learned a man may be, he cannot rid himself of the ignorance born of desire and fate, except by realizing Brahman with his own infinite knowledge. How does it help you if others see the moon? You must open your eyes and see it for yourself. Liberation cannot be obtained through sankhya, yoga, ritual, or learning but only through knowledge of the oneness of Brahman and Atman."

-- from Vivekachudamani (from Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi)

Causality and time

Causality depends upon precedence and succession, for its very existence. In other words, time is the parent of causality. But on closer examination, we find that time depends upon thought for its existence and thought depends upon time for its existence. Therefore they cancel out each other, and
so time is not. Therefore causality is also not.

-- Sri Atmananda

God is perfect, world imperfect ... why ?

Devotee: God is perfect. Why did He create the world imperfect? The work shares the nature of the author. But here it is not so.

Maharshi: Who is it that raises the question?
D.: I - the individual.
Maharshi:

Are you apart from God that you ask this question?

So long as you consider yourself the body you see the world as external. The imperfections appear to you. God is perfection. His work also is perfection. But you see it as imperfection because of your wrong identification.

See Talk 272

Devotion is the best

Of all the means leading to liberation, bhakti or devotion is the best; and this bhakti means seeking the truth of one's own Self - so say the sages.

-- from Vivekachudamani (from Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi)

Distractions

A question was asked by a monk (sannyasi) about how to prevent the mind from being distracted.

Sri Ramana.: You see the objects on forgetting your own Self. If you keep hold of your Self, you will not see the objective world.

-- Talk 6, 15th May, 1935

Hold the Self

The Self is only one. Do you feel hurt if you blame yourself or scorn yourself for your errors? If you hold the Self there is no second person to scorn you.

When you see the world you have lost hold of the Self. On the contrary, hold the Self and the world will not appear.

From Talks 151, Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Also, see Arunachala Ramana.

Be aware of being aware

What you need is to be aware of being aware.

Be aware deliberately and consciously, broaden and deepen the field of awareness. You are always conscious of the mind, but you are not aware of yourself as being conscious.

Stay as your being

If you stay as the "I", your being alone, without thought, the I-thought will disappear, and the delusion will vanish for ever.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi, from "Be As You are", Edited by David Godman

Listen to the Guru

The best and the easiest method to attain that glorious goal of establishment in the Truth is to listen to the Guru over and over again.

But if such frequent personal contact with the Guru is not possible, the next best alternative is to take, as often as possible, a deep thought of the Truth as first visualized in the presence of the Guru. This brings you into the climate of the Truth everytime, and you experience it afresh.

-- Sri Atmananda

Dream state nearer to truth

The waking subject holds that sense perception is the highest test of Truth. From this position, it denounces dream objects as unreal, as they are not perceptible to the waking physical senses.

In the waking state – dominated as it is by the triad or triputi – the perceiver, perception and the percept are so clearly distinct and separate that it is very difficult to find anything common between them.

But as far as the dream state is concerned, there is a great difference. As soon as the dream is past, one can see clearly that the subject and the object series – appearing in that state – are both creations of the same mind, and therefore one in essence. So there is this much of non-duality in dream. To that extent, the dream is nearer the Truth. Therefore, the clear diversity of the waking state is first examined from the lesser diversity of the dream state, and the waking state is found to be nothing other than an idea.

Knowledge of the truth

Knowledge of the truth of the Self is obtained only by Self-enquiry, and not by any number of actions. One who mistakes a rope for a serpent is cast into fear, thereby and his fear and distress can be removed only by the knowledge that it is a rope.

A friend who knows this, tells him so and he investigates and finds that it is so. There is no other way.

-- Vivekachudamani (from Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi)