So that only Stillness (Subject-Self-Consciousness) remains.
All doubts, confusions and questions
Will gently fade away effortlessly,
By themselves,
Just through Being Still.
Have faith in your Self-Nature
(Or Guru or God),
Know you are One and All,
And armed with this Knowing-Faith-Intuition,
Surrender,
And Be Still
Once one starts to gain experience in Being Still/turning within,
All teachings that do not encourage stillness or turning within
To discover the Pure Subject-Self/Divine Essence,
Are seen to be utterly superficial, egoic
And of the nature of delusion.
The Simple Being
That is your own True Self or True Nature
(Also known by more grandiose terms
Such as ‘Ultimate Truth’ or ‘Thoughtless Reality’ or ‘God’)
Will be revealed as simply your own Being
Or Isness
Devoid of objective arisings,
Just through Being Still.
‘You’ will discover your own True Self,
which is naturally devoid of arising objective phenomena,
just through Being Still.
Suffering will slips away of its own accord,
there being nowhere for it to attach itself to,
just through Being Still.
Bliss overflows Infinity Dawns, Eternity Rises, Consuming all: One is thrust into Eternal Life-Joy-Bliss, One with Source (‘The Father’)
Just through Being Still
All duality is destroyed, And with it suffering and egoity also disappear, As the many waters of duality, Flow into the Ocean of Unity, (That is my Beloved Guru Bhagavan Sri Ramana, Who is Grace, Oneness itself)
Just through Being Still
Without Being Still, (Also known as Self-Enquiry, Self-Surrender, Abiding as Self, Being with God, Being with Guru, Residing in The Heart, Turning Within, Awareness Watching Awareness, Self-Attention, Parabhakti, Samadhi, Meditation, Yoga, Devotion, Loving Self/God Nididhyasana, Silence, Just Being), Without this Sadhana (Spiritual Practice), Know that ego-duality-confusion-suffering-samsara will continue potentially forever until the practice is undertaken.
Therefore, Be Still.
For those who find themselves unable to practice thus,
Contemplate deeply upon this:
What will bring Eternal Joy-Peace-Happiness-Bliss?
Attending to/paying attention to that which changes (ie. various objects that arise and fall)
Or paying attention to that which never changes (the Subject-Consciousness-Self)?
Contemplating thus,
Know that attending to objects/maya simply leads to more objects/maya,
And thus more ego & suffering.
Contemplate this deeply.
Contemplating deeply, and knowing thus, Discover what You Are: Abide as the Self, And Be Still.
Therefore
Be still.
Just be still.
Gently,
Without force,
Allow all thoughts to subside,
In their own time,
So that only Stillness (Subject-Self-Consciousness) remains.
In verse 931 of Guru Vachaka Kovai, Sri Ramana Maharshi says:
931. “The mukta [‘liberated sage’] like the rest of us perceives the world in all its vast variety and yet he sees non-difference in it”, so people say. This is not true.
Tom: the idea that the liberated sage still perceives differences ‘like the rest of us’ but perceives an underlying unity despite various objects being seen is here being refuted. Let us see Sri Sadhu Om’s commentary on Guru Vachaka Kovai verse 931:
Sri Sadhu Om: People have many wrong conceptions about the state of a Jnani or Jivanmukta, and one such misconception is refuted here. “What people see as water, the Jivanmukta also sees as water, and what they see as food, He also sees as food. Therefore, in His experience of sense-objects, the Jivanmukta is the same as other people. But even while the Jivanmukta thus sees these differences, He sees the non-difference in them” – are there not many pandits and lecturers who talk and write thus, even though they themselves have no experience of Advaita but have only read about it in books?
But who is the proper authority to say what is the actual experience of a Jivanmukta? Only a real Jivanmukta! Thus Bhagavan Sri Ramana, who has actually experienced the reality and who is the true Loka Maha Guru, declares in this verse that such statements are wrong, and in the next verse He explains how and why they are wrong.’
~Sri Sadhu Om
Tom: Let us see the next verse:
932. Those who mistakenly perceive the variegated universe believe the mukta [‘liberated sage’] too is a perceiver like them. But he is not the perceiver.
Tom: ie. Taking yourself, in ignorance, to be a perceiver and doer, one also, in ignorance, takes the sage to be a perceiver and doer. The sage is not a perceiver! The sage is not a doer! It is just a projection of ignorance that views ‘a sage’ in this way, as a human being or individual person. Again let us see Sri Sadhu Om’s comments:
Sri Sadhu Om: Verse 119 of this work should again be read here. So long as one sees oneself as an individual who sees the world of differences, one cannot but see the Jnani likewise as an individual who sees differences. But since the jnani is in fact nothing but the bodiless and individuality-less Jnana Itself[Tom: ie. in reality we not a human being or body-mind entity at all – we are in fact Spirit, or the Bodiless Atman-Brahman], to see Him as a seer and to believe that even He is seeing differences like oneself, is true only in the outlook of ajnanis.
The absolute truth, however, is that the Jnani is not a seer and that He never sees any differences, for as Sri Bhagavan says in verse 13 of Ulladu Narpadu, “Knowledge of multiplicity is only ignorance [ajnana]”. Thus in the above two verses Sri Bhagavan clearly refutes the wrong idea expressed in the note at the end of the introduction to Sat-Darshana-Bhashya, 6th ed. pp. 35 to 38, namely the idea that a Jnani or liberated soul retains His individuality in spite of the destruction of the ego, and that He “perceives diversity in unity and experiences unity in diversity”.
Regarding this erroneous theory of bheda-abheda or unity in diversity, Sri Bhagavan used to say that if the least difference or diversity is perceived, it means that the ego or individuality is there, so if difference is experienced, non-difference or unity would merely be a theoretical proposition and not an actual experience.
Questioner: Surely though we are all Ultimate Reality. Everything that exists is really Ultimate Reality – and that includes thoughts. I don’t understand the obsession with stopping thought rather than accepting that thought is also part of the Absolute. If thinking wasn’t meant to be happening, it wouldn’t occur. I find Nisargadatta’s teachings regarding thinking – let the thoughts flow and don’t identify with them to be more realistic and helpful.
Tom: Sri Nisargadatta also recommended the total cessation of thoughts as the means to liberation – although both he and Sri Ramana (and most sages) also advised other (lower) practices depending on the context of the conversations. Shankara also taught cessation of thoughts.
It is not something that is easy to understand, and most share your view, which is fine of course.
My experience is that without cessation of thoughts, the resultant liberation is not really liberation at all – the Eternal Immortal and Blissful nature of the Self is not really discovered at all, and so suffering and ego keeps on coming back.
This is why the scriptures are so insistent upon cessation of thoughts. This is why the scriptures state that Reality is without thoughts.
Otherwise the scriptures would be much shorter, no? They would just say – ‘nobody here, what is happening is what is happening, nobody doing any of it!’ – but we never see this in the traditional scriptures of Vedanta or Buddhism – did you ever wonder why!
That said, if you find the teaching of Sri Nisargadatta that you mentioned to be more helpful, I agree that it is best to go with that!
Irrespective of what we believe or practice, if we are truly earnest and long for liberation, and follow that genuine longing within us, and allow it to lead us, we all find our way to liberation eventually. As you say, it is our nature already!
This is one of a series of introductory articles – please see the homepage of tomdas.com for more introductory articles.
Just to have and allow ‘genuine spiritual feeling’, just this is enough. If attended to and nurtured, if allowed to naturally deepen of its own accord, it will, in its own time and own way, overcome you with Love, destroying you, revealing All to be Divine Oneness-Love-Happiness-Bliss, your Own True Nature.
Like a tiny mustard seed that grows to overcome great city walls, simply by nurturing this ‘spiritual feeling’ or ‘connection with the Divine’, the vast ocean of duality is transcended, in time, effortlessly and with joy, without one even caring for concepts such as Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Progress, Liberation or Non-duality.
Beware to those who are stuck in the prison-house of concepts: those who cling to concepts of duality and non-duality, concepts doing and non-doing, concepts oneness and many – these people remain trapped in a prison of their own making, endlessly chattering to themselves, ignoring the Vast Open Fertile Pastures of Love that lie in their very midst.
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That which perceives the limited body-mind is itself the Unlimited. Growing more and more still, feeling more and more Love, following your Heart within, Infinite Truth-Reality-Oneness-Bliss is gently revealed as your Own Being
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To simply have ‘spiritual feeling’ moment by moment, to have this ‘spiritual connection’ of joy and love every day, whenever we remember, and to allow it to deepen of its own accord – this is a wonderful, intuitive & joyful way of effacing the ego and allowing the Divine Within that is All-Encompassing Love and our Own True Nature to blossom, flower and bloom.
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Those overly reliant on intellectual arguments, scriptures and concepts will never connect to the true Spiritual Way which shines from Within* with Wholeness, Oneness and Love.
We must leave behind the barren field of words to discover the fertile pastures of the Divine that is All-Embracing Love.
(*’Within’ here just means you don’t have to go anywhere ‘outside’ to find it and that it is not dependent on any particular object of perception that arises or falls)
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What is ‘Spiritual Feeling’? It is simply to feel good, wholesome, happy, connected. It is to connect with Presence. It is an Openness and Gentle Surrender to Life and Love and God and Self.
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Question: But I thought the practice of Self-Enquiry is that of Self-Attention or Awareness Watching Awareness and for that we need to turn away from objects towards the Subject-Self. How does this fit in?
Tom: This simple practice of allowing Natural Spiritual Feeling to arise by itself will take you everywhere you need to go. It is the path of Love, the path of Surrender, the path of Bhakti. It will calm and purify the mind, filling it with joy and love, removing it of negative (tamasic) qualities. It will then quieten the mind, removing the passionate and anxious aspects of mind (Rajas). Thus far the practice has not turned away from the world – it is a Saguna or Savikalpa practice (ie. practice with objects being present). Then the practice, when it is ready, will naturally turn Nirvikalpa or Nirguna (ie. practice without objects being perceived or being present) , ie. there will be a natural turning towards Source or Self, also known as God or Sri Ramana (the Guru Within). All will happen in good time. It may well happen quicker than you think!
Only when you turn within through self-enquiry is your true nature revealed as not body nor mind, but Spirit, Love, God, Bliss.
For this to happen it is useful to have read and been aware of Bhagavan Ramana’s teachings, eg. as set out in The Path of Sri Ramana, and it can also be useful to adopt Vivarta Vada, which is the view that everything perceived (ie. mind, body and world) is actually an illusory projection of ignorance/ego/maya. Often if Bhagavan’s Teachings are not known, the mind will continue to cling to objects, taking them to be real and thinking objects will lead us to our goal.
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As recorded in the text Sadhanai Saram (The Essence of Spiritual Instruction, a record of teachings from Sri Ramana Maharshi) by Sri Sadhu Om:
79.
To the extent to which love for God arises in one’s heart, to that extent will one acquire knowledge about Him. And to the extent to which one knows the nature of God, to that extent will the mind gain steadfast love for Him. Thus, knowledge (jnana) will be increased by devotion (bhakti), and devotion (bhakti) will be increased by knowledge (jnana).
80.
By means of our love for God, He will give us more knowledge of Him, and by means of our knowledge of Him, He will give us more love for Him. Therefore, of these two paths, bhakti and jnana, follow that one for which you first gain a liking, because that one path will lead you to follow the other one into the heart.
81.
In the life of an aspirant who is seeking liberation, bhakti and jnana will be experienced as inseparable, like the two sides of one sheet of paper. Hence, each one is equal to the other. They are not two different things, for the true nature of both of them is one and the same; know that bhakti and jnana are merely two names for that one thing. (Garland of Guru’s Sayings (Guru Vachaka Kovai) verses 722, 731)
82.
The state of abiding firmly in Self-alone is wisdom (jnana). Would it be possible to abide thus in Self if one did not have love for Self? Love for Self-alone is bhakti; abiding firmly in Self on account of that love alone is jnana. What difference is there between these two? Discriminate and know this truth. (Maharshi’s Gospel p.24)
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Question. What is our Goal?
Tom: Our goal is One. It is simply to be Happy and Free, without any misery, as Sri Bhagavan states in the opening paragraph of Nan Yar? (Who am I?). We just want to feel good. There is nothing wrong with this. This desire for Happiness is an innocent desire and is the greatest of our desires. It is actually the Desire for Liberation, the Desire to Know and Be What We Truly Are.
For this, the only way is Self-Enquiry. The Path of Bhakti naturally and joyfully takes us to Self-Enquiry. The only danger on this path is that we remain caught up in objects and fail to transcend them. Eventually we must ‘go Nirvikalpa’ (ie. we must turn away from objects) in order to realise the Self, our true nature, the Divine Within.
This is why Bhagavan Sri Ramana writes in his text ‘Who am I?’:
Question: When will the realization of the Self be gained? Sri Ramana Maharshi: When the world which is what-is-seen has been removed, there will be realization of the Self which is the seer.
Q. Will there not be realization of the Self even while the world is there? Sri Ramana Maharshi: There will not be.
Question: When will the world which is the object seen be removed? Sri Ramana Maharshi: When the mind, which is the cause of all cognition’s and of all actions, becomes quiescent, the world will disappear.
Question: How will the mind become quiescent? Sri Ramana Maharshi: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.
Question: Are there no other means for making the mind quiescent? Sri Ramana Maharshi: Other than inquiry, there are no adequate means. If through other means it is sought to control the mind, the mind will appear to be controlled, but will again go forth.
But all in good time. Bhakti will turn us within and lead us to Self-Enquiry when the time is right without us (the ego) having to worry about such things – practically speaking all we have to do is connect with ‘spiritual feeling’, have faith in it, let this feeling grow and guide us. Ultimately it will consume and destroy us (ego) and reveal to us the Divine Truth that is our very own Self. It will take us Home.
1. On the night of the 14th of August, I put a question to Maharshi regarding granthibheda [severance of the knot] on which even the learned have doubts.
2. The effulgent Bhagavan Sri Ramana Rishi, listened to my question, thought for a while and in his divine way spoke.
3. “The nexus of the body and the Self is called the granthi. It is only by this connection with the Self that one is aware of the body.
4. This body is insentient. The Self is pure awareness. The connection between the two is deduced through the intellect.
5. O child, enveloped by the diffused light of pure awareness, the body functions. Owing to non-apprehension (of the world) in sleep, (swoon) and so on, the location of the Self has to be inferred.
6. Even as the subtle forces like the electric current pass through visible wires, the light of awareness flows through a nadi in the body.
7. The effulgent light of pure awareness, taking hold of a centre, lights up the entire body as the Sun illumines the world.
8. Owing to the diffusion of that light in the body, one has experiences in the body. That centre of radiation the sages say, is the Heart.
9. From the play of forces in the nadis one infers the flow of the light of awareness. The forces course through the body each hugging its special nadi.
10. The particular nadi through which pure awareness flows is called sushumna. It is also called atma nadi, para nadi and amrita nadi.
11. As the light pervades the entire body, one gets attached to the body, mistakes the body for the Self and regards the world as different from oneself.
12. When the discerning one renounces attachment and the identification of himself with the body and pursues one-pointed enquiry, a churning starts in the nadis.
13. With this churning of the nadis, the Self gets separated from the other nadis, and clinging to the amrita nadi alone, shines forth.
14. When the effulgent light of awareness shines in atma nadi alone, nothing else shines except the Self.
15. Anything that appears before (such a jnani) has no separate existence. He knows the Self as clearly as the ignorant one his body.
16. He for whom the atman alone shines, within, without and everywhere, as (clearly as) objects to the ignorant, is called one who has cut the nexus.
17. The nexus is two-fold; one the bond of the nadis, the other mental attachment. The perceiver, though subtle, perceives through the bond of the nadis the entire gross world.
18. When the light, withdrawn from all the other nadis, dwells in one nadi alone, the bond (between awareness and the body) is sundered and the light abides as the Self.
19. As a heated iron-ball appears as a ball of fire, this (body) heated in the fire of Self-enquiry shines as the Self.
20. The old vasanas pertaining to the body, (mind and so on) are destroyed. Being free from body-consciousness one never has the sense of doership.
21. Since such a one has no sense of doership, his karma, it is said, is completely destroyed. As nothing but the Self exists, no doubts arise for him.
22. Once the knot is cut, one is never bound again. This is considered the state of power supreme and peace supreme.”
This is the ninth chapter entitled ‘ON CUTTING THE KNOT’ in Sri Ramana Gita, the Science of Brahman and the Scripture of Yoga, composed by Ramana’s disciple Vasishta Ganapati.
242. When we are lacking in earnestness or faith (sraddha), whatever practice (sadhana) we may take to will appear to be equally difficult. But if our earnestness is firm and one-pointed, no sadhana will be felt to be difficult, and without any aid we will be able to remain firmly established in the state of Self-abidance.
243. Where there is a will, there is a way. That is, if a sincere liking to attain something arises in one’s heart, a path whereby one can attain it will also be found, and because of that liking one’s mind will unceasingly seek the goal until it is attained. Only when the liking to attain that goal does not truly arise in one’s heart, will one experience difficulty in the practice (sadhana) or means adopted to attain it. Know that this is the secret underlying all methods of practice.
244. To the extent to which one approaches and lives close to true devotees, to that extent will the liking arise in one’s heart to attain salvation, the real goal of human life. By having more and more association with such true devotees, that liking will gradually increase until finally one will attain salvation by abiding firmly in Self.
The above are verses from the wonderfully clarifying text Sadhanai Saram, written by Sri Sadhu Om, a direct devotee of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. You can read the full text here.
I have not written any commentary on the above verses as hopefully the meaning of the verses are self-evident, and any lack of clarity can hopefully be remedied by simply reading the verses more slowly and reflecting upon them.
In Satsang this week some people were asking about the relationship between the breath and Self-Enquiry – this prompted me to put the following verses and videos together which hopefully gives the full context for the teachings.
The Breath and Self-Enquiry
229. If one takes to Self-attention, the practice of keenly observing only the consciousness ‘I’, then one need not perform any other practice (sadhana). But let those who cannot take to this practice of Self Attention from the very outset, practice for a short while either repetition of mantras (japa) or watching of the movement of the breath, and then let them give up all such practices and cling only to Self Attention.
231. For those who attend keenly to both the inward-going and the outward-coming movements of the breath, the length of both these movements will decrease, and within a short time the breath will be rising and subsiding only within a very slight manner. If they attain this state, it is a sufficient sign (to show that the agitated activity of the mind has decreased). (Therefore at that stage let them give up attending to the breath, and let them attend instead only to the Self.)
234. Relating to the breath, there are two suitable methods of practice (sadhana): one method is, after watching the movements of the breath for a short while, in order that the raging activity of the wavering mind may subside, to leave that breath attention and to engage in Self-attention. The other method is to attend within oneself to the one power that draws in and pushes out the breath, knowing that that one power is not other than the consciousness ‘I’. For some people these methods are appropriate.
The True Path
230. The path that Sadguru Sri Ramana was for fifty-four years repeatedly teaching to us for our salvation was only this primary practice of Self-Attention. Know that the practice of watching the breath was only one among the hundreds of thousands of other methods that He taught so as to guide on the path towards salvation even those people who were not ready to come to the path of Self-inquiry, which alone was His principle teaching.
236. For those who listen and pay heed to what Sri Ramana Bhagavan has said, the path of Self Inquiry is very easy. Only to those who ask, ‘What is this path? What is that path?’, having already confused their mind by learning so much, does it become necessary to teach all the other superficial and extroverted methods of sadhana saying, ‘First subdue the breath (by practicing pranayama), subdue the tongue (by observing silence), and subdue the mischief of the mind (by practicing meditation).’
Developing One-Pointedness through Self-Attention
238. If the mind practices any one thing incessantly, it will naturally gain one-pointedness in that one thing. However, rather than any external object, the first person consciousness ‘I’ is alone the most worthy thing for the mind to have as the target of its attention, is it not? By taking any second person object, such as the movement of the breath, or the right side of the chest, as the target of its attention, the mind will attain only a state of temporary absorption in that object.
239. The state in which the mind, by the strength of practice (abhyasa-bala), abides or immerses itself in the attention to any second person object, however exalted that object may be, is only a state of temporary absorption of the mind (manolaya). On the other hand, by abiding in the state of Self-attention, the natural state of true awakening, the state of destruction of the mind (mano-nasa) will be attained. Since this natural state of Self Knowledge alone is our goal, cling firmly only to this flawless practice (sadhana), or incessantly thinking ‘I, I’.
240. The one-pointedness of mind, which is gained by the practice of repetition of a mantra (japa) or meditation (dhyana), will also be gained by practicing Self-inquiry; but in a very easy manner without the need of any restriction or restraint, such as those that are to be observed while practicing other methods of practice (sadhana). Rather than the common existence-consciousness ‘I am’, which is always experienced by all people, what more worthy and easy target of attention (dhyana-lakshana) is now needed?
241. Whatever kind of person they may be, everyone says, ‘I am’; so what obstacle can there be for anyone to attend unceasingly to that Self- consciousness ‘I am?’ Therefore, without giving room for even an iota of doubt, attend with love and joy only to your own being.
The above verses are taken from the wonderfully clarifying text Sadhanai Saram by Sri Sadhu Om, a direct devotee of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. You can read the entire text here.
‘Therefore, without giving room for even an iota of doubt, attend with love and joy only to your own being.‘
Tom Das 