The Daily Ramana (NO DISCUSSION!)

[andrew]

''Whence does the 'I' arise?' Seek this within. The 'I' then vanishes. This is the pursuit of wisdom.

Where the 'I' vanished, there appears an 'I-I' by itself. This is the infinite.''

[Reefs]

20th July, 1936

No mind

Seeker: How to get peace?
Ramana: That is the natural state. The mind obstructs the innate peace. Our investigation is only in the mind. Investigate the mind; it will disappear. There is no entity by name mind. Because of the emergence of thoughts we surmise something from which they start. That we term mind. When we probe to see what it is, there is nothing like it. After it has vanished, Peace will be found to remain eternal.
Seeker: What is buddhi (intellect)?
Ramana: The thinking or discriminating faculty. These are mere names. Be it the ego, the mind or the intellect, it is all the same. Whose mind? Whose intellect? The ego’s. Is the ego real? No. We confound the ego and call it intellect or mind.
Seeker: Emerson says, “Soul answers soul by itself - not by description or words.”
Ramana: Quite so. However much you learn, there will be no bounds to knowledge. You ignore the doubter but try to solve the doubts. On the other hand, hold on to the doubter and the doubts will disappear.

[enigma]

Q: What are the obstacles which hinder realization of the Self?
A: They are habits of mind [vasanas].
Q: How to overcome the mental habits [vasanas]?
A: By realising the Self.
Q: This is a vicious circle.
A: It is the ego which raises such difficulties, creating obstacles and then suffering from the perplexity of apparent paradoxes.

[enigma]

Q: If ‘I’ also is an illusion, who then casts off the illusion?

A: The ‘I’ casts off the illusion of ‘I’ and yet remains as ‘I’. Such is the paradox of Self- realization.
The realized do not see any contradiction in it.

[Reefs]

6th November, 1935

Resurrection

Ramana: Christ is the ego. The Cross is the body. When the ego is crucified, and it perishes, what survives is the Absolute Being (God), (“I and my Father are one”) and this glorious survival is called Resurrection.

[Deleted]

Ramana: "God dwells in you, as you, and you don't have to 'do' anything to be God-realized or Self-realized, it is already your true and natural state."

[Deleted]

Ramana: "It is false to speak of realisation. What is there to realise? The real is as it is always. We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before. The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and create a huge pit. The space in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was filling the space there. The space was there then and is also there now."

[Reefs]

24th January, 1935

Only Being

Seeker: How long did it take Maharshi to realize the Self?
Ramana: This question is asked because the name and form are perceived. These are the perceptions consequent on the identification of the ego with the gross body. If the ego identifies itself with the subtle mind, as in dream, the perceptions are subtle also. But in sleep there are no perceptions. Was there not the ego still? Unless it was, there cannot be the memory of having slept. Who was it that slept? You did not say in your sleep that you slept. You say it now in your wakeful state. The ego therefore is the same in wakefulness, dream and sleep. Find out the underlying Reality behind these states. That is the Reality underlying these. In that state there is Being alone. There is no you, nor I, nor he; no present, nor past, nor future. It is beyond time and space, beyond expression. It is ever there.

[Reefs]

23rd February, 1939

'That Thou art'

Ramana: Leaving out what is intimate and immediate, why should one seek the rest? The scriptures say “That Thou art”. In this statement ‘Thou’ is directly experienced; but leaving it out they go on seeking ‘That’!
Seeker: In order to find the oneness of ‘That’ and of ‘Thou’.
Ramana: ‘Thou’ is the Inner Self immanent in all; in order to find the same, he leaves himself out and sees the world objectively. What is the world? What is Immanent in it? It is ‘That’. All such ideas arise only on forgetting one’s own Self. I never bothered myself with such matters. Only after a time it occurred to me that men had investigated such matters.

[Reefs]

23rd February, 1939

Progress

Ramana: Progress is for the mind and not for the Self. The Self is ever perfect.

[Reefs]

13th November, 1935

No one can deny his own being

Seeker: Of what nature is the realization of Westerners who relate that they have had flashes of cosmic consciousness?
Ramana: It came as a flash and disappeared as such. That which has a beginning must also end. Only when the ever-present consciousness is realized will it be permanent. Consciousness is indeed always with us. Everyone knows ‘I am!’ No one can deny his own being. The man in deep slumber is not aware; while awake he seems to be aware. But it is the same person. There is no change in the one who slept and the one who is now awake. In deep sleep he was not aware of his body; there was no body-consciousness. In the wakeful state he is aware of his body; there is body-consciousness. Therefore the difference lies in the emergence of body-consciousness and not in any change in the Real Consciousness. The body and body-consciousness arise together and sink together. All this amounts to saying that there are no limitations in deep sleep, whereas there are limitations in the waking state. These limitations are the bondage; the feeling ‘The body is I’ is the error. This false sense of ‘I’ must go. The real ‘I’ is always there. It is here and now. It never appears anew and disappears again. That which is must also persist for ever. That which appears anew will also be lost. Compare deep sleep and waking. The body appears in one state but not in the other. Therefore the body will be lost. The consciousness was pre-existent and will survive the body. In fact, there is no one who does not say ‘I am’. The wrong knowledge of ‘I am the body’ is the cause of all the mischief. This wrong knowledge must go. That is Realization. Realization is not acquisition of anything new nor it is a new faculty. It is only removal of all camouflage.

[Reefs]

13th March, 1936

Mind

Ramana: The essence of mind is only awareness or consciousness. When the ego, however, dominates it, it functions as the reasoning, thinking or sensing faculty. The cosmic mind being not limited by the ego, has nothing separate from itself and is therefore only aware. This is what the Bible means by “I am that I AM”. The ego-ridden mind has its strength sapped and is too weak to resist the torturing thoughts. The egoless mind is happy in deep, dreamless sleep. Clearly therefore Bliss and misery are only modes of mind; but the weak mode is not easily interchangeable with the strong mode. Activity is weakness and consequently miserable; passivity is strength and therefore blissful. The dormant strength is not apparent and therefore not availed of. The cosmic mind, manifesting in some rare being, is able to effect the linkage in others of the individual (weak) mind with the universal (strong) mind of the inner recess. Such a rare being is called the GURU or God in manifestation.

[Deleted]

Ramana on Mind

Question : What is the nature of the mind?
Ramana Maharshi : The mind is nothing other than the `I'-thought. The mind and the ego are one and the same. The other mental faculties such as the intellect and the memory are only this. Mind [manas], intellect [buddhi], the storehouse of mental tendencies [chittam], and ego [ahamkara]; all these are only the one mind itself. This is like different names being given to a man according to his different functions. The individual soul [jiva] is nothing but this soul or ego.

Question : How shall we discover the nature of the mind, that is, its ultimate cause, or the noumenon of which it is a manifestation?
Ramana Maharshi: Arranging thoughts in the order of value, the `I'-thought is the all-important thought. Personality-idea or thought is also the root or the stem of all other thoughts, since each idea or thought arises only as someone's thought and is not known to exist independently of the ego. The ego therefore exhibits thought activity. The second and the third persons [he, you, that, etc.] do not appear except to the first person . Therefore they arise only after the first person appears, so all the three persons seem to rise and sink together. Trace, then, the ultimate cause of `I' or personality.

From where does this `I' arise? Seek for it within; it then vanishes. This is the pursuit of wisdom. When the mind unceasingly investigates its own nature, it transpires that there is no such thing as mind. This is the direct path for all. The mind is merely thoughts. Of all thoughts the thought `I' is the root. Therefore the mind is only the thought `I'. The birth of the `I'-thought is one's own birth, its death is the person's death. After the `I'-thought has arisen, the wrong identity with the body arises. Get rid of the `I'-thought. So long as `I' is alive there is grief. When `I' ceases to exist there is no grief.

Question : Yes, but when I take to the `I'-thought, other thoughts arise and disturb me.
Ramana Maharshi: See whose thoughts they are. They will vanish. They have their root in the single `I'-thought. Hold it and they will disappear.

Question : How can any enquiry initiated by the ego reveal its own unreality?
Ramana Maharshi: The ego's phenomenal existence is transcended when you dive into the source from where the `I'-thought rises.

Source: from David Godman Excellent Book "Be As You are"
www.messagefrommasters.com/ramana_meditation/nature_of_mind.htm

[laughter]

Free will and destiny are ever existent. Destiny is the result of past action; it concerns the body. Let the body act as may suit it. Why are you concerned about it? Why do you pay attention to it? Free will and destiny last as long as the body lasts. But jnana transcends both. The Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance. Whatever happens, happens as the result of one's past actions, of divine will and of other factors.

(source of attribution)

[maxdprophet]

10. How will the mind become quiescent?


By the inquiry ‘Who am I?’. The thought ‘who am I?’ will destroy all other thoughts, and like the

stick used for stirring the burning pyre, it will itself in the end get destroyed. Then, there will arise

Self-realization.