self-inquiry

Why do so many people practice self inquiry by Ramana Maharshi incorrectly?

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

ramana maharshi

Q. Why do so many people practice self inquiry by Ramana Maharshi incorrectly? Ramana said the question ‘who am I’ should not be asked but one should put the attention on the “I” inner feeling. Sadhu Om and Sri Muruganar confirmed that that’s the correct way to practice.

Tom: Yes, true. Perhaps it was because Ramana gave slightly different instructions to different people. For some he said to ask the question verbally, to others he said be with the feeling ‘I’, to others he simply said ‘Summa iru’ (Be still).

A common instruction he gave was to dive into the heart…Anyway, all these methods culminate in the same place, and that is the key.

A living teacher can be very useful in finding how the living teaching interacts with the living seeker.

To confuse things more, Ramana also said there is no fixed teaching, and to some he prescribed work and chores, to others meditation, and so on.

That said, here is a collection of quotes from Ramana’s teachings that I compiled that may be helpful to some, with a brief summary at the end, best wishes:

Ramana Maharshi: the path to self-realisation

Here is one possible summary of the essence of Ramana’s teachings:

Ramana Maharshi: Self-abidance, the ‘vision of God’ and the end of suffering

​POETRY: TAKE A REST, MY FRIEND

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

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Turn away from thought.

Turn away from that web of chatter,
from that activity of apparent separation and all the existential pain it brings.

Turn away from all that self-imposed suffering.

Rest a while, my friend:
You deserve it, you deserve that much.

Take a rest…
…be that space in which all things appear but on which nothing leaves a mark.
…know yourself as that.

(you are already that)

Ramana Maharshi: Self-inquiry (atma vichara) and doership

~ Tom Das ~ 4 Comments

Ramana Maharshi sitting

“The differences are the result of the sense of doership.

The fruits will be destroyed if the root is destroyed.

So relinquish the sense of doership.

The differences will vanish and the essential reality will reveal itself.

In order to give up the sense of doership one must seek to find out who the doer is.

Inquire within. The sense of doership will vanish.

Vichara (inquiry) is the method.”

Taken from Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 429

Tom’s comments:

The root of suffering is the sense of doership, the sense that there is a doer-entity, the sense that you are a doer. The root is the notion ‘I am a doer’, the fruit is suffering and duality.

Let go of this sense of doership, either by simply relaxing and letting go, or, as suggested above, look and find out what the doer is. Look at your own direct experience: can you see the doer? Can you feel the doer? What does the doer look and feel like exactly? Where does the doer begin and end? How big is the doer? Where is the doer located?

When you look, as you keep on noticing, you may start to realise/see that there is no actual experience of a doer at all. All there are are sensations, feelings and thoughts. Specifically there may be the thought ‘I am the doer’ or ‘this is the doer’, but no actual doer is seen/experienced apart from the thought. The doer is seen to be an imagined entity. The doer (ie. ego) is revealed to be a fiction.

Ramana uses the word ‘reality’ above. What is reality? It’s just what’s left over when the sense of doership is seen through. It’s just what’s left over when false illusions are seen for what they are: false.