time

How long did it take for Sri Ramana Maharshi to realise the Self?

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

Also see: Was Ramana Maharshi’s self-realisation final and complete when he was a teenager?

Tom: as usual my explanatory comments are inserted in italiscised red

Questioner: How long did it take Maharshi to realise the Self?

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: 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.

Tom’s comments: Bhagavan Sri Ramana is stating that perception of name and form only occur after ignorance, ignorance being the notion that I am the body (or body-mind). This is consistent with his writing in ‘Who Am I?‘:

When the mind comes out (rises) from Self, the world appears. Therefore, when the world appears, Self will not appear; and when Self appears (shines), the world will not appear

Therefore, Sri Ramana is stating this question only is asked due to ignorance of taking Sri Ramana to be a person (ie. a body-mind entity) who at one time attained realisation, when in fact Sri Ramana is just the ever-realised Self, which is the only existent reality. That said, the fact that Sri Ramana gave out this teaching to this devotee in itself meant that the devotee was spiritually developed enough to receive this higher teaching.

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.

Tom’s comments: Sri Ramana is stating that objects are seen in dream but not seen in deep sleep. In this instance he states that the ego is present in all 3 states of waking/dream/deep sleep and next he will say we are to find the reality that underlies these 3 states. When that is found, the 3 states are no longer present, he will say:

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.

Just as a plantain tree produces shoots at its roots, before yielding fruits and perishing, and these shoots, being transplanted, do the same again, so also the original primeval Master of antiquity (Dakshinamurti), who cleared the doubts of his rishi disciples in silence, has left shoots which are ever multiplying. The Guru is a shoot of that Dakshinamurti.

The question does not arise when the Self is realised.

~ Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk no. 17

Liberation has nothing to do with the body or mind

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

If liberation or self-knowledge was something to do with the mind, then a firm and swift blow to the head could put an end to that liberation.

Luckily, liberation has nothing to do with the body or the mind.

It is beyond time and space.

🙏❤️

Why turn away from the world? The outer is a reflection of the inner

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

‘The mind is by nature restless. Begin liberating it from its restlessness; give it peace; make it free from distractions; train it to look inward; make this a habit. This is done by ignoring the external world and removing the obstacles to peace of mind’

~Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no. 26

Objection: I have a slightly different view then Ramana perhaps did on ignoring the external world. It seems to me that the external world is the reflection of the inner. Becoming conscious of the beauty in nature resonates with the inner. This is perhaps a more indigenous view and is much older then even Vedanta and goes back even to the time when humans were Neanderthals as well as Homo sapiens when everything in nature was animating in presence.

Tom: Yes, being with nature is one of many things that can bring us in tune with the Self and bring us genuine peace and genuine insight, but ultimately for realisation to occur (and thus for suffering to end) one must turn within and all thoughts must cease. Otherwise the illusion of time and space are not seen through and suffering (and duality) continue, even if in a subtle way.

This is why Sri Ramana Maharshi writes in Who Am I?:

Q. When will the realization of the Self be gained?
Sri Ramana: When the world which is what-is-seen [ie. objects] 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: There will not be.

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Who Am I?

Tom: What we call the world (ie. space and time and people) is actually a projection of mind/thought. Put simply, the world, space and time are simply thoughts. Again, this cannot be known unless we turn within, away from the world, towards the Self, and thoughts competely cease. From Sri Ramana Maharshi:

‘When the mind, which is the cause of all cognition’s and of all actions, becomes quiescent, the world will disappear…All the texts say that in order to gain release one should render the mind quiescent; therefore teaching is that the mind should be rendered quiescent.’

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Who Am I?

Tom: When thoughts completely cease, time and space disappear. If time and space are still appearing, it is because thought (namely the ‘I-thought’, which is the notion or thought or belief that ‘I am a body-mind’) still persists.

Therefore, when the world appears, the Self does not appear; and when the Self appears the world does not appear.

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Who Am I?

When the mind comes out of the Self, the world appears.

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Who Am I?

Does time exist? Is the world real? Are spiritual practices useful?

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment
hummingbird
Does time exist? Or is time an illusion?
Is the world real? Or is this all an empty projection?
Does the world disappear upon liberation, or does it persist?
Is a spiritual practice needed? Or do all practices simply reinforce the egoic-me?
 
…these are all questions for the egoic-mind, the false-I.
 
…Liberation is simply freedom from this egoic-mind.
 
Liberation already IS, fully and totally,
And Liberation is all that IS, always and already.
 
❤️

Krishnamurti: stillness can in no way be manufactured by thought

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

Continuing the series of Krishnamurti posts this week, the following is written by Jiddu Krishnamurti, taken from BULLETIN 4, 1969:

Innocence alone can be passionate. The innocent have no sorrow, no suffering, though they have had a thousand experiences.

It is not the experiences that corrupt the mind but what they leave behind, the residue, the scars, the memories. These accumulate, pile up one on top of the other, and then sorrow begins.

This sorrow is time. Where time is, innocency is not. Passion is not born of sorrow. Sorrow is experience, the experience of everyday life, the life of agony and fleeting pleasures, fears and certainties. You cannot escape from experiences, but they need not take root in the soil of the mind. These roots give rise to problems, conflicts and constant struggle. There is no way out of this but to die each day to every yesterday.

The clear mind alone can be passionate. Without passion you cannot see the breeze among the leaves or the sunlight on the water. Without passion there is no love.

Seeing is the doing. The interval between seeing and doing is the waste of energy.

Love can only be when thought is still. This stillness can in no way be manufactured by thought. Thought can only put together images, formulas, ideas, but this stillness can never be touched by thought.

Thought is always old, but love is not.