God never acts. He just is.
It is very hard to realize one's true state or nature without the grace of the guru.
God or guru never forsakes the devotee who has surrendered himself.
The guru does not bring about Self-realization. He simply removes the obstacles to it.
Individuality is the illusion that we are not identical with God. When the illusion is dispelled, what remains is God.
Realization of the Self is realization of God. It is not an experience of God, rather, it is an understanding that one is God.
Silence is the best, the most potent initiation. Silent initiation changes the heart of all.
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Showing posts with label self inquiry quote Sri Ramana Maharshi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self inquiry quote Sri Ramana Maharshi. Show all posts
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Self Consciousness
"Consciousness is always Self-consciousness. If you are conscious of anything, you are essentially conscious of yourself"
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Yes very true, whatever we are conscious of, basically we our conscious of our own self, the self is always involved. To be aware of what happening to the self in the present moment is very essential i feel. Most of the time we are lost, lost in thoughts, lost in the past and the future, bringing the consciousness to the present is what great teachers like Sri Ramana Maharshi wants from us, they are the awakener rather than the teachers.
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Yes very true, whatever we are conscious of, basically we our conscious of our own self, the self is always involved. To be aware of what happening to the self in the present moment is very essential i feel. Most of the time we are lost, lost in thoughts, lost in the past and the future, bringing the consciousness to the present is what great teachers like Sri Ramana Maharshi wants from us, they are the awakener rather than the teachers.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
The ignorance of I thought
* "The ignorance is identical with the "I"-thought. Find its source and it will vanish. The "I"-thought is like a spirit which is not palpable, and it rises up simultaneously with the body, flourishes on it and disappears with it."
* All these notes you are making of my sayings and so on, are useful for beginners, for friends and to answer the questions of others. But for yourself, you know that they are only pieces of paper. Dive into the Self and find all you want to know there!
*By repeated practice one can become accustomed to turning inwards and finding the Self. One must always and constantly make an effort, until one has permanently realized. Once the effort ceases, the state becomes natural and the Supreme takes possession of the person with an unbroken current. Until it has become permanently natural and your habitual state, know that you have not realized the Self, only glimpsed it.
* What need is there to explain the non-self? Take Vedanta, for instance: they say there are fifteen kinds of prana (breath, vital force, the upward flow of energy). The student is made to memorize their names and functions. The air goes up and is called prana, and when it comes down it is called apana (the downward flow of energy); it operates the indriyas (organs of sense) and is called something else. Why all this? Why do you classify, give names and enumerate the functions, and so on? Is it not enough to know that one prana does the whole work? The antahkarana (mind; the seat of thought and feeling) thinks, desires, wills, reasons etc, and each function is attributed to one name such as mind or intellect. Has anyone seen the pranas or the antahkaranas. Have they any real being? They are mere concepts. When and where will they end?
*Consider this: A man sleeps. He says on waking that he slept. The question is asked, "Why does he not say in his sleep that he is sleeping?" The answer is given that he is sunk in the Self and cannot speak, like somebody diving into a pool to bring something up from the bottom. The diver cannot speak. When he has actually recovered the article and emerges from the water, he speaks. Well, what is the explanation? When he is immersed in the water, it would gush into his mouth if he were to open it to speak. It's simple, isn't it? But the philosopher is not content with this simple fact. He explains it by saying that fire is the deity that presides over speech, and that it is inimical to water and therefore cannot function. This is called philosophy and students are struggling to learn all this. Isn't it a sheer waste of time? Again the gods are said to preside over the limbs and senses of the individual. So they talk about hiranyagarba (cosmic egg) etc. Why should confusion be created and then explained away? Those who do not involve themselves in this maze are lucky. I was very fortunate that I never took to it. If I had, I would probably be nowhere, always in confusion. Fortunately, my vasanas (inherent tendencies and conditioning) took me directly to the "Who am I?" enquiry.
*All relative knowledge belongs to the mind, not the Self. It is therefore illusory, not permanent. A scientist who formulates the theory that the earth is round, for instance, may prove it incontrovertibly, but when he falls asleep the whole idea vanishes: his mind is left blank. What does it matter if the world is round or flat when he is asleep? So you see the futility of all such relative knowledge. Real knowledge is to go beyond all relative knowledge and abide in the Self. Realize that the Self transcends intellect; the intellect itself must vanish to reach the Self.
*The jnanis (one who has realized the Self) point out that the yogi assumes the existence of the body and its separateness from the Self, and therefore advises effort for their reunion by the practice of yoga. In fact, the body is in the mind, which is seated in the brain; the brain functions by light borrowed from another source, as admitted by the yogis themselves in their fontanelle theory (that the life-current enters the body through the fontanelle, the soft spot in the head at birth). The jnani argues that if the light is borrowed, it must come from its original source. Go to the source directly and do not depend upon borrowed resources. An iron ball needs fire to come into being separate from the mass of iron. Later, it cools down relinquishing the fire, but it must be heated once again if it is to reunite with the mass. So, the cause of separation from the Self must also be its means of union.
* All these notes you are making of my sayings and so on, are useful for beginners, for friends and to answer the questions of others. But for yourself, you know that they are only pieces of paper. Dive into the Self and find all you want to know there!
*By repeated practice one can become accustomed to turning inwards and finding the Self. One must always and constantly make an effort, until one has permanently realized. Once the effort ceases, the state becomes natural and the Supreme takes possession of the person with an unbroken current. Until it has become permanently natural and your habitual state, know that you have not realized the Self, only glimpsed it.
* What need is there to explain the non-self? Take Vedanta, for instance: they say there are fifteen kinds of prana (breath, vital force, the upward flow of energy). The student is made to memorize their names and functions. The air goes up and is called prana, and when it comes down it is called apana (the downward flow of energy); it operates the indriyas (organs of sense) and is called something else. Why all this? Why do you classify, give names and enumerate the functions, and so on? Is it not enough to know that one prana does the whole work? The antahkarana (mind; the seat of thought and feeling) thinks, desires, wills, reasons etc, and each function is attributed to one name such as mind or intellect. Has anyone seen the pranas or the antahkaranas. Have they any real being? They are mere concepts. When and where will they end?
*Consider this: A man sleeps. He says on waking that he slept. The question is asked, "Why does he not say in his sleep that he is sleeping?" The answer is given that he is sunk in the Self and cannot speak, like somebody diving into a pool to bring something up from the bottom. The diver cannot speak. When he has actually recovered the article and emerges from the water, he speaks. Well, what is the explanation? When he is immersed in the water, it would gush into his mouth if he were to open it to speak. It's simple, isn't it? But the philosopher is not content with this simple fact. He explains it by saying that fire is the deity that presides over speech, and that it is inimical to water and therefore cannot function. This is called philosophy and students are struggling to learn all this. Isn't it a sheer waste of time? Again the gods are said to preside over the limbs and senses of the individual. So they talk about hiranyagarba (cosmic egg) etc. Why should confusion be created and then explained away? Those who do not involve themselves in this maze are lucky. I was very fortunate that I never took to it. If I had, I would probably be nowhere, always in confusion. Fortunately, my vasanas (inherent tendencies and conditioning) took me directly to the "Who am I?" enquiry.
*All relative knowledge belongs to the mind, not the Self. It is therefore illusory, not permanent. A scientist who formulates the theory that the earth is round, for instance, may prove it incontrovertibly, but when he falls asleep the whole idea vanishes: his mind is left blank. What does it matter if the world is round or flat when he is asleep? So you see the futility of all such relative knowledge. Real knowledge is to go beyond all relative knowledge and abide in the Self. Realize that the Self transcends intellect; the intellect itself must vanish to reach the Self.
*The jnanis (one who has realized the Self) point out that the yogi assumes the existence of the body and its separateness from the Self, and therefore advises effort for their reunion by the practice of yoga. In fact, the body is in the mind, which is seated in the brain; the brain functions by light borrowed from another source, as admitted by the yogis themselves in their fontanelle theory (that the life-current enters the body through the fontanelle, the soft spot in the head at birth). The jnani argues that if the light is borrowed, it must come from its original source. Go to the source directly and do not depend upon borrowed resources. An iron ball needs fire to come into being separate from the mass of iron. Later, it cools down relinquishing the fire, but it must be heated once again if it is to reunite with the mass. So, the cause of separation from the Self must also be its means of union.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
tendencies towards sense-objects
* As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the inquiry "Who am I?" is necessary.
* Without giving room even to the doubting thought, "Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies (vasanas) and to remain as Self alone?" one should persistently cling fast to Self-attention.
Sri Ramana Maharshi
* Without giving room even to the doubting thought, "Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies (vasanas) and to remain as Self alone?" one should persistently cling fast to Self-attention.
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Sri Ramana Maharshi on thoughts and self
What does it matter how many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly inquires, "To whom did this rise?" it will be known "To me." If one then inquires, "Who am I?" the mind will turn back to its source (the Self) and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practicing thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Self Inquiry quote Sri Ramana Maharshi
Cling to yourself, that is, to the "I"-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Sri Ramana Maharshi
self inquiry quote Sri Ramana Maharshi
The mind will subside only by means of the inquiry, "Who am I?" The thought "Who am I," destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre.
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Sri Ramana Maharshi
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