This is too obvious for the mind.
We know nothing but this.
There is no process of knowing though:
Only this
Spontaneous happening.
yoga
How spiritual teachings work
This is one of a series of introductory articles – please see the homepage of tomdas.com for more introductory articles.
Buddha’s raft
The Buddha likened his teachings to a raft that takes you from the shore of suffering (samsara) across the river to the shore of enlightenment (nirvana). When you get to the land on the other side, you do not carry the raft around with you – the raft would actually be an impediment on land.
The teachings are therefore provisional constructs and concepts and are not true in themselves. Ultimately we can let go of attachment both to the teaching and teacher once it has done its work.
If we fall in love with the teaching or teacher, this is not necessarily a bad thing. It can serve as a useful and positive motivation force, keeping our search and inquiry strong through both good and bad times, and may well continue after a genuine enlightenment. However I have often seen how the attachment to (and belief in) a teaching or teacher can impede a genuine realisation, as it can restrict our ability to freely inquire and see things as they really are.
‘Use a thorn to remove a thorn, then throw them both away’
In this Hindu saying, a thorn represents a concept that gives rise to suffering when it pierces our skin. The teachings are another concept/thorn that you can use to remove the first thorn from your body. However you must throw the teaching away too when it’s work is done, otherwise it simply becomes a thorn in your side that binds you.
Ramana Maharshi used to speak of his teachings as being like a wooden stick used to prod the burning carcass in the funeral pyre. Once the teaching has done its job of ‘burning the ego (sense of being a separate doer)’, the stick is also pushed into the fire and it too burns away.
‘Eventually, all that one has learnt will have to be forgotten’
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Kill the Buddha
There is a famous Zen teaching: “If you see Buddha on the path, kill him”. Don’t even let Buddhism and Buddha’s teachings get in the way. Let go of all concepts and liberation is there as it always has been.
This idea is similarly indicated in Hindu teachings such as in the Yoga Vasistha:
‘When you realise that which is indicated by the words, then naturally you will abandon the jugglery of words’
Yoga Vasistha
Expedient Means
In Mahayana Buddhism the term ‘expedient means’ (Sanskrit: upaya) is used to signify that the best teaching is the one that produces the result – ie. enlightenment. What is good for one aspirant may not be good for another, depending on where they each are. This is also why various teachings can appear contradictory and may not be true in themselves. The point is that the teachings are not necessarily true, but as long as they work that’s what matters.
Some of my analogies and thoughts on how teachings work
- The teachings are not themselves ultimately true. They are just words. But like a finger pointing to the moon, they point to something greater than themselves.
- Teachings use words and concepts to point to or indicate that which is beyond all words and concepts.
- The teachings are like a virus. Once you have heard them, they get to work within you, chipping away at false beliefs and in doing so the Truth is revealed.
- Like when matter and anti-matter collide, the teachings destroy false notions and then when its work is done, the teaching also self-destructs.
- We think we chose to read or hear the teachings and apply them. When we understand the teachings more fully, we realised that the teachings came to us, they were a gift to us, that they chose us, and they work their magic on us.
- If you cling to words of the teachings, it is a sure indicator you have not understood what they are pointing to. Eventually you have to go beyond the teachings. Excessive clinging to notions such as Absolute Consciousness or ‘You are the Witness’ or overly complicated metaphysics is a sure sign of not seeing the essence of what is being pointed to.
- The teachings are like a recipe – you follow the instructions and get the results. Until the food is made, you treasure the recipe for it is the gateway to your meal. Note that the cooked meal looks nothing like the recipe and you can throw away the recipe once you have mastered the cooking and are eating the meal. However, please don’t worship the recipe, please don’t (just) discuss recipes endlessly with your friends, and please don’t forget to do what it says!
Don’t accept a lie
Don’t accept a lie.
If you see there is no evidence for there being a separate ‘you’,
Then whenever this thought or notion ‘you’ turns up in daily life,
See through it.
Deny it.
Not out of a belief,
Not as a formula to be repeated,
But as something that is clearly seen.
The root concept
It is the concept of a subject,
That gives rise to the concept of an object.
Or put another way,
The concept of ‘me’,
That gives rise to ‘not me’.
But look at your experience for yourself:
What was thought to be the subject
Is actually also an object.
The experiencing entity that we take ourselves to be,
Is actually something we are aware of,
and not the subject at all.
The person looking at and experiencing life,
Is just a part of life,
Totally inseparable from life.
The body,
thoughts,
emotions,
inner sensations,
intuitions,
visions,
dreams.
– all these are objects.
– all these are sensations.
– none of these are ‘me’.
– none of these are ‘mine’.
Sensations cannot themselves sense.
The perceived cannot perceive.
In fact, looking at our own experience,
Where is the subject at all?
Look!
-There are only sensations.
-There are only objects.
-There is only experience.
-There is never the experience of the subject.
Look!
Experience is a seamless whole,
One seamless happening,
And the so-called experiencer, the ‘me’,
Is simply part of that happening.
So what are we left with?
Just this.
Life simply happening,
All by itself.
Non-dual devotion, worship and prayer
In advaita (non-duality), we know that the God which is devote ourselves to is not separate from us.
Also see:
Does Jnana (Knowledge) lead to Bhakti (Devotion) or the other way round?
Should I bow to Sri Ramana Maharshi?
Grace alone is of prime importance
Bhakti Yoga (love and devotion) as a complete path to liberation
Ramana Maharshi on those who mock Idol-Worship
For many purists there is no place for devotion and prayer in non-duality. But devotion has always had a prominent role in spiritual traditions, and for good reason: it can be a hugely purifying and uplifting part of spiritual practice with many positive effects on the body and mind and our relationships. (click here for how devotion can be part of a wider spiritual path)
Om! May Brahman protect us!
May Brahman nourish us!
May we have energy!
May we become illumined!
May we not hate!
Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti!
(A traditional invocation or prayer from the Upanishads)
God is everywhere
God is everywhere
– where is She not?
All there is is God. It is not right to say God is in all things, for that implies a duality between things and God. It is not right to say God is in you, for that implies you are a container for God and different to God.
There are no things, only God. The idea of separate things is illusory. There is just an interconnected whole. Call this wholeness God, or Life, or The Great Spirit, or anything you like. There is no room for anything else. Only God. No ‘you’, no ‘I’, just ‘Him’.
Is there even a single particle where ‘She’ is not? (Is She not omnipresent and infinite?)
Everything moves and has its being in Him. Everything that moves and has being (exists) is also Him.
All there is is God. All is God.
Roadmap to enlightenment: a (fairly) comprehensive guide to spiritual practices
This is one of a series of introductory articles – please see the homepage of tomdas.com for more introductory articles. Also see:
In Brief: how to attain Liberation
The entire path explained: the Path of Sri Ramana (Parts 1 and 2; PDF downloads)
This is one of the most important posts I have written – it condenses years of spiritual seeking which has involved exploring dozens of spiritual teachings, reading hundreds of books and texts from spiritual teachers and spiritual traditions across the world, undergoing all sorts of spiritual practices and meditations over the years, entering samadhi’s and experiencing visions of infinite oneness, and a genuine realisation of the Freedom-that-already-is.
The aim of the post is to guide you to a Freedom beyond words, but also stay concise. For all those people who have asked me: ‘That’s all very well but how do I actually become enlightened? How can we free ourselves from suffering? What do we do?’, this is for you, and others like you.
Nisargadatta Maharaj: Ignore your thoughts
“It is the mind that tells you that the mind is there. Don’t be deceived. All the endless arguments about the mind are produced by the mind itself, for its own protection, continuation and expansion. It is the blank refusal to consider the convolutions and convulsions of the mind that can take you beyond it.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That
My comments:
The word ‘mind’ in the above quote is synonymous with the false sense of individual separate self. This self, this ‘I’, is just a notion, an idea reinforced by the mind. The ‘I’ is a thought, and it is reinforced by thoughts.
Trying to figure this all out (ie. more thought) is a function of the same mind that is ultimately false, imaginary: it is a fruitless endeavour.
A particularly effective sadhana (spiritual practice) is to ignore the content of thoughts as they appear within our consciousness. The energy of the sense of ‘I’ then begins to loosen and its mechanics are exposed and revealed. We can then start to see things as they actually are.
There are broadly two ways this can be done:
1) by concentrating on something else such as a mantra, the breath, or by chanting, etc – ie. a distraction from thoughts;
2) by allowing thoughts to wash past you like clouds in the sky, and in so doing not paying attention to the content of thoughts, eg. a surrender, acceptance, gratitude or mindfulness practice.
When looking for a sadhana, you will naturally be able to find the one that works for you by looking to see which one gives you greatest sense of peace and relief, and by seeing which practice you are naturally inclined towards.
For more about spiritual practices and how they work click here
Direct ‘perception’
The mind cannot get this,
Just as it cannot deduce the existence of a tree.
The tree is perceived directly,
This is perceived directly.
Whatever is perceived is this.
Perception is just an idea,
That implies the existence of a perceiver,
A perceiver with some physiological apparatus.
There is no experience of perception,
Only an inference,
An inference based on the idea of a perceiver,
For which there is no direct evidence.
So,
There is only this,
Just this.
Perception is just another name
For our experience of life,
ie. this
Life,
Naked,
Is without conceptual overlay.
Unadorned,
It adorns itself,
creating its own beauty.
Life,
Unadorned by concepts,
But including concepts as they rise and fall:
– No thinker can be found.
Forget words, definitions, theories and beliefs:
– They are all useless here;
Just more conceptual overlay:
– It could all be entirely mistaken.
Bhagavad Gita: Krishna teaches that nature does everything
Under the influence of false ego one thinks himself to be the doer of activities, while in reality all the activities are carried out by nature as natural process
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3 verse 27
Here, in the Bhagavad Gita (The Lord’s Song), Krishna tells his friend Arjuna a great truth: that the notion of there being any separate entity that takes itself to be the doer is false. There is no doer, the ego is a false entity; there is only nature acting according to its own inherent principles.
Tom Das 