Nome

The Self is only Being

“The Self is only Being —
not being this or that.
It is simple Being.
BE, and
there is the end of ignorance.”

Truly seeing and meditating even once upon this much of Sri Bhagavan’s revelation of Reality—realizing its meaning, supremely profound—the “I” does not survive. It never makes it even to the last sentence. His Wisdom, His Grace, His Presence are all the Reality itself. That is the Self. The Self alone is; there is no other. There is, thus, no ignorance and no separate state of Knowledge, no bound state and no separate state of Liberation. The natural state of nonobjective, uncreated Being has no “other,” no alternative. There is no realizer, no “I,” and no tale to be told of an “I.” There has been no birth, there will be no death. There are no unrealized beings or realized beings; there is only Being. There is no creation. Not a single, objective thing has ever come to be. Being, which is, itself, limitless Consciousness and Bliss, alone is. It is unbroken Silence.

~ Timeless Presence

Egoless Self

The Reality, which is the Self, of the nature of Being-Consciousness-Bliss, has no division, no form and no ego-entity in it. It is singular, without a second, alternative, mode, or any kind of condition or change. Sri Ramana Maharshi says that the egoless state is the real state, the only real state there is.

It is the state of your Existence. It is innate. All illusion and all consequent trouble in the forms of bondage and suffering arise from the idea of an ego-entity. The ego does not truly exist, the illusion does not truly exist, and the bondage is unreal. The realization of this within yourself by Self-Knowledge is Liberation.

The key ingredient is egolessness. That is the nature of Reality and the nature of your Self. Though it is commonly said that you should make yourself egoless or attain the egoless state, really it is a matter of the truth of your Existence as it really is, which is innately egoless. It is without any individual entity whatsoever.

In your inquiry, “Who am I?”, to know the Self, egolessness, or the absence of individuality, is the key. This is the key for practice that yields Realization. Who or what is it that seems to correspond to the name “I”? This is what you ought to find within yourself. “I act,” “I perceive,” “I think,” “I am unrealized,” “I am going to be realized”: who is this “I”? Inquire into the nature of “I.” “I am like this. I am not like that. I am one thing. This is another thing. I am I, and Brahman is something different”: who is this “I” in all of these conceptions?

If you feel that you experience something, that is, you perceive or conceive it, implicit in such conception is this idea of “I.” It is the aham vrtti, the “I” mode, the mode of being an “I.” Who or what is this “I”? All that is built upon this “I” is as false as the “I” itself. Find the truth behind this “I,” and there is homogeneous, partless, indivisible Existence, partless, indivisible Consciousness, and causeless Bliss, the real peace of Reality.

All trouble comes from the assumption of the “I” as existent. All duality stems from it. To realize nondual Truth, in all its fullness, examine this “I.” Who am I? Who is it that says, “My body, my mind, or my God”? Stay with the Knowledge of yourself, or stay with the inquiry to find the Knowledge. The silliest thing is to read, hear, or comprehend within yourself that there is really no ego in your nature and, with the next breath, suppose “I think this, I do this, etc.”

The egoless state is the state of Silence. It is Reality as it is.

~ One Self

Identity

What we are, the Self, is Absolute Being. Being is Consciousness, and Being is Bliss. Its nature is Truth, its nature is Knowledge, and it is infinite. It is One only, invariable, and it is That which alone is.

Ignorance, which has no existence apart from the Self, for the Self is only One, appears to cast a veil over the single truth of the Self. When there is the veil, there is the projection of the unreal, which is characterized by multiplicity. To remove the delusion and, thereby, eliminate all duality and thus abide in the fullness and perfection of the Bliss of the Self, Sri Bhagavan gives the instruction to inquire, “Who am I?”

Why “Who am I?”? It is because what you regard as your identity is of paramount importance. Although the inquiry “Who am I?” can be used for a variety of goals, such as the submergence or removal of thought, the withdrawal of the senses from their objects, and such, the inquiry is of paramount importance because it deals with your identity.

What we regard as our identity goes into the composition of how we regard anything, even the view that there is anything to be regarded. The identity is the key, and the inquiry “Who am I?” is the introspective search to know your identity as it is. It is a nonobjective method because your identity, the Truth of the Self, is nonobjective. What you are can never be a known object or an unknown object. It cannot be an object, whether that object is gross or subtle, something sensed or something conceived.

Therefore, when you inquire to know the Self, you must actually inquire to know the Self and not be preoccupied with other nonexistent things. Plunge inward to know what your actual Being is. The negation of “not this, not this (neti, neti),” as stated in the Upanishads, is also for the purpose of revealing what your actual Existence, or identity, is. Loosely we speak of “becoming That” by virtue of such inquiry or meditation, but really this is not a becoming of anything. It is the Realization through Knowledge of that which is unborn, ever attained, and, when known in its own innate Knowledge, ever revealed.

It is the clarification of one’s own identity, which is the essence of Knowledge, that is the real fruit of any spiritual practice. It is that with which Self-Knowledge and the path of inquiry deal exclusively. Let us consider the case of devotion. What happens? First, the identity in relation to objects is dissolved. The attachment to things is dissolved. Then, the fruits of one’s actions, to the degree that they pertain to oneself, are lost or surrendered. Then, in such devotion, the idea of being the performer of action is lost. Clearly you can see the dissolution of false identity in this. Then, the very idea of life in the body, the senses, and being the enjoyer or the one who maneuvers the senses is dissolved or relinquished. Then, being the mind and the buddhi, which decides where the mind moves, is surrendered. Finally, the very notion of individuality, of existing distinct from God in any way, is abandoned. It is the same dissolution of false identity.

When we inquire “Who am I?”, we dive directly into what is our identity and relinquish what is not our identity. This is the discrimination between the Self and the not-Self.

If you deeply consider whatever you regard as an obstruction, obstacle, chasm, or barrier between you and Self-Realization, you will see that it is not so much the thing, the thought, or the pattern of thought that seems to be between you and the Truth, but rather the identity, however formed and by whatever qualities characterized, of the “you” that is apart from the Self that has this wall or obstruction. Do you see what is being pointed out? To remove or hop over the wall or obstruction, you have only to inquire as to who is, what makes up the identity of, the one who is apparently bound, separated, or divided from the Truth.

The Realization of Truth is nondual. How can your experience be nondual, unless there is the utter elimination of the assumption, the false supposition, of existing as an individual entity? Sri Ramana Maharshi says in Saddarsanam, unless there is the elimination of that “I,” how will the Truth be known?

The Truth alone can know the Truth. Consciousness alone can realize Consciousness. Another cannot do so. In nondual Truth, that which is realized and the realizer are identical. This means that they are one and the same thing and not two things of equal quality.

As long as the individual is taken to be real, how can there be this Realization? If one inquires, “Who is this that is styled as ‘I’?”, how could there be a state of non-Realization?

There are never two “I’s.” Instruction along the lines of a “higher Self and a lower self,” “a self and the Supreme Self,” “an ego self and the True Self,” are for purposes of aiding the aspirant to Realization and are not statements of concrete fact. What is true is that the Existence, or real Being of the Self, is always One and can never be divided. Duality, even the slight idea of “I and That,” is composed of mere illusion. It is delusion, only imagination. The cessation of such imagination is Knowledge.

(Silence)

Determine your identity. You will find yourself bodiless, without a mind, without senses, without prana, without beginning, without end, and without any thing or quality whatsoever, but perfectly full as ever-unchanging Existence.

~ One Self

No Differentiation

Undifferentiated is the nature of Reality. It is one indivisible, solitary Existence, without beginning and without end. Timeless, boundary-less, and utterly indivisible is the nature of true Being. Being is, simultaneously, Consciousness. It is indivisible, nonobjective, unformed Consciousness. This Being-Consciousness is, simultaneously, Bliss. It is the natural state of all beings. Abidance in this, as this, is known as Self-Realization, or Self-Knowledge. Some regard it as the highest state of love. The indivisibility and undifferentiated nature of Being is That. That is birthless, deathless, absolute Being.

This infinite, eternal, absolute Being is what you are. That is all that you are. It is not something removed from you. You are not removed from it. If this is your direct, continuous experience, yours is real Knowledge. You know your Self.

If, though listening to this instruction, reading this in an ancient text, or studying Sri Ramana Maharshi’s teaching, there still seems to be some differentiation for you, what is the cause of it? If there seems to be some differentiation between your identity and the Absolute Self, why is it so? What marks you off as anything other than the absolute, real Existence-Consciousness-Bliss? Whatever it is that marks you off as such makes boundless Being appear as if bound, makes infinite Consciousness appear as if finite thought, and makes unconditioned Bliss appear as suffering or as an absence of happiness. It makes that which is undifferentiated appear as if two or a plurality.

What defines you? Inquire into this. If, upon such inquiry, you find that there is no valid definition that marks you off as some separate individual, the so-called experience of individuality, which is but a product of illusion, will vanish, because it is not real. Herein lies the efficacy of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s inquiry, “Who am I?”

How do you define yourself? As a body or within the confines of a body or with the attributes of a body? If such seems to make a difference between you and the Absolute Self, inquire into that very “you.” Find out if that “you” is a body or is defined by bodily attributes. Inquiring to discern if you are the body, know your Self as bodiless and undefined by the body. Then, where is differentiation? If you are the body, there is birth and death, which seems to contradict the birthless and the deathless. If you are a body, you are a finite form, which seems to be in contradiction to the infinite and the formless. If you are a body, you have activity for a limited time. The absolute, real Being is forever unmoving, actionless, and eternal. Are you the body? Plunge into your Existence with an inward-turned mind. Find out if you are the body or if all of the connection with the body is merely a product of ignorance. If you remove from yourself the misidentification with the body, what happens to your experience? What remains? What remains of you?

What makes the differentiation between you and absolute Being, the infinite Consciousness? Is it the thoughts, the ideas, about you? One of those ideas is a connection with the body. Question within yourself. Inquire. Can you be what you think? If you are not one thought, can you be a group of them or all of them put together? If you misidentify with the mind, which is thought, you seem to have a beginning and an end, and this is in contradiction to beginningless, endless Being. As every thought has a form, however subtle, you seem to be in contradiction to the formless, pure Consciousness. No thought lasts forever. Misidentification with thought contradicts eternal Consciousness, timeless Being. If, forever, wise sages have declared that your nature is absolute Being, Brahman or God, and the present state, which apparently exists for you, runs contrary to it in your mind, you are left with the choice of either all of those sages were wrong or you need to change your state of mind. By “to change your state of mind,” I mean to cease to misidentify with whatever is the content of thought, whatever is merely a mode of mind or a way of thinking.

Inquire within yourself: who is this differentiated “I”? If the differentiation by the body is not true, can it be true in terms of thought? A thought comes, and a thought goes. It does not actually exist when it appears, but, starting at the level of observation, it comes and it goes. Can whoever knows about its coming and going, and whoever knows about all those thoughts or ideas, be an idea?

Making your vision nonobjective, seek to know yourself. If the body does not give you individuality, because you are not the body, and if thinking does not make for an individual because your identity is not thought, what differentiates you? There seems to be the Self and yourself. What is this “yourself”? The more you question in this way, the less you will find of yourself. You will find that the notion, the assumption, of being a differentiated, individual, separated being is entirely false. It seems to exist only due to non-inquiry. Upon inquiry, it disappears. Make your inquiry so thorough that its disappearance is forever.

What is it that disappears? That which really has no existence. What remains, knowing itself? That which you have been the entire time. In Absolute Being, there is no such thing as ignorance. There are not two states of knowing and not knowing, or of bound and liberated. If you appear as if bound, gain release by inquiring into yourself. You will find only the Self. There is only one of you, which is why, I suppose, that you call yourself “I” rather than “we.”

If there is only the Self, and there is really not a trace of an individual self, only Brahman and no jiva, there is no multiplicity of beings here. We cannot count on account of disidentification from the body. There are no higher and lower beings. We stop differentiating based on the content of unreal thought. Just as there is no multiplicity of beings, there is no multiplicity of things; nor is there any other kind of plurality.

There is just one unborn, imperishable, real Being. This alone regard as ‘I.” Examine yourself, until you are quite sure of what really is “I” in you. Not knowing what the “I” is, not knowing oneself, is the cause of all kinds of trouble. All the trouble evaporates by knowing who you are. Absolute Being, the infinite Consciousness, has no trouble, ever. The undifferentiated state is alone the real state. Do not regard differentiation as real. There is only one of you.

Do not regard a second as real. You need not, in your mind, declare to yourself the second is not real. All you need merely do is to inquire to see if it is real. In the light of inquiry, Reality will stand, and the unreal will vanish.

~ One Self

The Revelation of Truth

The revelation of Truth is the eternal Knowledge of the Self’s own Being. As this is eternal Knowledge, it does not, therefore, belong to an individual, for an individual is not eternal. Indeed, the assumption of individuality is not real. The revelation of Truth is eternal Knowledge, for it is Being’s own Knowledge of itself, which is not something in time. The Knowledge is not something that is not present at one time and attained later. Rather, it is of the nature of Consciousness, which is the very self-luminosity of Being.

Being is absolute. It is pure Existence, and it is to be realized as one’s own Self. With the revelation of That as one’s own Self, one’s own Existence, there are no more differences, no further doubts, no questions and their answers, and no idea of something happening or someone for whom it would happen. There is just blissful Being, in all of its perfect fullness. The revelation of Truth is the non-conceptual Knowledge of Being’s own nature, for itself, by itself, and entirely within itself.

The revelation of Truth is always the revelation of your own Being. For this revelation, we have Sri Ramana Maharshi’s luminous guidance, which is the revelation of the Truth, of Self-Knowledge, by the Truth, itself. There can not possibly be any better guidance. His instructions are the clearest of the clear. If we comprehend even a particle of them, the Truth stands revealed. That is the highest good and the greatest peace. Indeed, it is an understatement to say, “It is supreme Bliss.”

In the attempt to pursue Sri Ramana Maharshi’s instructions, it is essential that you recognize that they are about you and not about something else, for the idea of something else is built upon the imagined stance of being an ego-entity. Rather, the instructions are about you; they are about your very Existence. To keep the mind turned inward, pointed at its very source, immersed in the inquiry to know who you actually are, is the right way to understand his teachings. So, he has taught no topic, but he has revealed the Truth, and the Truth that is revealed is always the nature of the one by whom it has been sought.

It is most important to have this Saddarsanam, this darshanam, or vision, of Sat, of Being, of Existence, for yourself. It is not difficult, for you, yourself, are the Self. The Existence of the Self is always, and the Knowledge of this Existence is never apart from the Existence. There is no obstruction. There is no difficulty. All that is necessary for the revelation of Truth is the abandonment of imagination, of whatever ignorance or delusive concepts that seem to superimpose limitation on the innately unlimited, that superimpose objective appearance on that which is forever nonobjective, that superimpose birth and death upon the unborn and the imperishable, a body upon the bodiless, a mind upon that which is free from thought, and an “I” upon the innately “I”-less, or egoless. If such imagination ceases, Truth is revealed to itself, all by itself.

~ One Self

The Mind

The Self is non-individualized, indivisible, Being-Consciousness-Bliss that is forever without misidentification and without modification. It is the Reality, which is one without anything else whatsoever. If individuality is assumed, and so long as it is assumed, there appears to be a mind, yet what is the mind?

Sri Bhagavan said that the mind is only a collection or bundle of thoughts. He also said that the primary thought upon which all other thoughts depend is the notion “I.” So, the form of the mind is the various thoughts; the various thoughts form the mind or are the substance, as it were, of the mind’s form. If the thought forms were removed, what would remain of the mind?

None of the thoughts are capable of knowing themselves. They are known by something else that is not a thought. If we remain without inquiring into the “I,” assuming the thought-forms to be real and to be us, we appear to be bound. If we become aware of that which knows the thoughts, but is not a thought, here lies the doorway to Liberation, which is freedom from the imagined bondage. The forms of thought are known by something. That something is Consciousness. Apart from Consciousness, the thoughts cannot even appear, just as the images in a movie do not appear independent of the screen upon which they are projected. Thoughts have no existence of their own but depend utterly on the Consciousness that knows them. The Consciousness, which knows them, does not correspond to, or is not defined by, any of the forms of thought. Yet, not one thought can stand independent of the Consciousness. So, the only existence imagined as thought is the Consciousness, which is innately transcendent of thought. If we understand in this manner, we find ourselves free from thought.

The Knowledge of the Self is of the nature of pure Consciousness. It is not a thought-form. It is not a mode of mind. It is quite beyond all of that. Similarly, it is not a state of mind, and it does not occur within the contexts of the states of minds, such as waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. Consciousness, which is really the Self, transcends the three states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep and is not contained within them, though it is the only substance of which they are made. Since it is the only substance of which they are made, of which the entirety of the mind is made, and because it is forever without modification, is there a mind? Do these states actually exist? What exists is the Consciousness of the real Self. To be eternal, Knowledge of the Self, which is Self-Realization, must be of the very same nature as the Self that is realized. So, if the Self is beyond any mode of mind and any state of mind, the Knowledge that is to be realized is also beyond any state of mind and beyond any mode of mind.

It is axiomatic that the end and the means must be of the same nature. Often, you have heard me say that the end itself appears as the means. That which is pure, absolute Knowledge appears as Self-inquiry, and this Self-inquiry is not a mode of mind. A mode of mind, however refined, can take one only so far. For Self-Realization, there must be this absolute Knowledge, which is invariable and utterly mind-transcendent. It is often described as that in which the mind is absorbed or that in which the mind is utterly destroyed without a trace. Such traceless destruction lies in the Realization of the perpetual Existence of the indivisible Consciousness, which also signifies the perpetual nonexistence of the “I” or the mind. The Knowledge, therefore, which constitutes the inquiry and the Realization of the Self, is not a form of thought, is not a particular thought, and is beyond a train of thought. It is quite beyond a mode of mind or any state of mind.

Similarly, it is beyond the scope of mental attention. If one assumes the mind exists, then, in the context of that assumption, one is told to turn the mind inward. Turning the mind inward, one comes to the real nature of the mind, which is pure Consciousness that is free of the mind. Within the context of the mind, one is told to focus and to pay attention to the Self, but how could the Self, which is always the Knower and never the known, be an object of attention or an object of concentration? Turning one’s focus, one’s attention, or one’s concentration inward bears some results. The fruit is due to the Knowledge-essence and not to any form of the illusory mind.

Sometimes, the mind is spoken of in terms of its various parts or aspects, such as manas, which means “mind,” and in this context, that aspect of the mind that contains all kinds of cognitions, buddhi, intellect, which seems to be endowed with the ability to discern, and chitta, which also means “mind,” but, in this context, may be taken to be memory, that which can not only remember or recall thoughts from the past, but also possesses the ability of the mind to be able to compare one state from the past with the present state now. The appearance of continuity of memory is called chitta, while buddhi manifests the actual discernment that discriminates as to which is better and which is not. Because of the light of Knowledge shining as discrimination, Adi Sankara said in Atma Bodha, Self-Knowledge, that the Self, or pure Consciousness, shines, but it is reflected especially, or shines especially, in the buddhi, in the intellect, for it is that which has the ability to discriminate.

If we trace this ability to discriminate, we find that it is of the Knowledge-essence and does not belong to the mind, or buddhi, however described, at all. If we assume that the mind has some knowing ability, this is the false combination of pure Consciousness with the forms of thought that constitute the mind. Those very thoughts have no existence independent of the Consciousness and so, in truth, do not exist at all. That which has no actual existence does not have the capacity for Self-Knowledge. The Self has the capacity of Self-Knowledge. The Knowledge is innate. It is of the perpetual shining of the Being-Consciousness-Bliss that all truly are.

If you misidentify with the mind or take the mind to be an existent entity, it will either appear to give you trouble in the form of it being an obstruction or it will seem as if you are situated within the mind and attempting to know the Self or Brahman. As long as that duality prevails, the Knowledge will not be realized, or, though it may shine sporadically, it will seem to fade as soon as the dualism reasserts itself. Self-Realization is said to be the destruction of the mind, which includes the complete abandonment of the misidentification as being a mind or being a mental entity, the core of which, as Sri Ramana Maharshi stated, is the notion “I.” Nonexistence of “I” is the nature of the Self. Destruction of mind is the nature of Liberation. Turn the mind outward, and it becomes engrossed in its own imagination. Turn the mind inward, and its form dissolves. What remains is the pure Consciousness of the real Self.

Now, what is this “turning the mind inward”? It is the profound inquiry to know the Existence of the Self as it truly is. Such succeeds by the abandonment of the supposed identity of the one who so searches. The mind will never know the Self. As for the Self, it never has a mind. Thought passes, mental modes pass, states of mind pass, the attention given to any object passes, the attention given to anything else also passes, concentration and diffusion both pass—all pass—and the Consciousness remains unborn, undivided, and undying. What is your mind? Who seeks to know this? The mind, being unreal, knows nothing. The Self, alone being real, knows itself only.

~ One Self

Self-inquiry

That you exist there is no doubt. You must come to know this Existence as it is at the same depth that you now know that you exist. How do you know that you are? This knowledge does not depend upon sensory impressions, and you need not think that you are in order to know that you are. How do you know? Who, in truth, is this Being? Deeply wonder about this.

Always the Existence is, regardless of states of the body and the mind. It does not commence at the birth or cease at the death of the body. Thought never defines it. What is the real nature of this Existence? Ask yourself, “Who am I?”

What do you regard as yourself? Examine this. Inwardly trace the sense of “I,” your sense of identity, to its source, and liberate it from the false association of the non-Self with the Self.

As for the steps of the practice, an Upanishad declares that the attempt to conceive of the path that the knowers of Truth have taken is like trying to trace out the footprints of the birds in the sky. The path is as formless as the end, itself, yet it does not lack precision. The end is the beginning, say the wise. The end, itself, appears as the means. There is no distance to traverse between the Self and you, for the Self is indivisible. Yet, Self-Knowledge is imperative. Therefore, Sankara states that it is he who strives who realizes. Detaching yourself from all else, intensely inquire to know yourself.

Consider for how long and in how many ways you have desired to be happy. Seeking it externally, it is not found, for it exists in fullness within you. Within means the Self. If you comprehend what has just been indicated, all the intensity of all the desires, including their inverted forms as fear, etc. remains focused on one thing, and that one thing is the Self. Thereby, one becomes nonattached to and not afflicted by anything of the world, attains single-minded focus in meditation, and practices inquiry that is like a lamp inspecting darkness. In addition, it is good to contemplate upon life and death, so as to use the diminishing remaining time most wisely. Self-Knowledge yields immortal Bliss.

~ Ever Yours in Truth

Surrender and Inquiry

Surrender is the dissolution of the ego, which is the false assumption of existing as an individual entity, and the delusive tendencies (vāsanās) that appear as its forms. Surrender is only to God, which is the Self. That which is known as God in the context of the universe and which is known as the witnessing Consciousness in relation to the mind, is realized to be the nondual Self upon profound inquiry or complete surrender. That alone is real, and That alone exists. It is infinite and eternal, and Realization of it is of the same nature. Surrender should not be misinterpreted to mean some transient emotional change or temporary placement of mental attention on some objective thing such as the immediate sensory perceptions, a fleeting moment of time, etc.

The path to Self-Realization, whether practiced as inquiry or surrender, is completely joyful. It is sweet in the beginning, middle, and end. Ignorance alone is the cause of suffering. Surrender, or inquiry, destroys the ignorance by revealing it to be only ignorance. Both the delusion and its effects are found to be illusory. The Reality, which is of the nature of Being-Consciousness-Bliss, remains. That which is the end manifests as the means.

In surrender, attachments and misidentifications are abandoned, and happiness, the sense of reality, and identity return to their source, which is the one Self, or God. The false notions of “I” and “mine” compose ignorance, bondage, and suffering. Absence of “I”’ and “mine” is real Knowledge, Liberation, and limitless happiness. Self-inquiry eliminates the “I” and, with it, the “mine,” while surrender eliminates the “mine,” and, with it, the “I.”

If one keenly discerns the nature of the ego or mind, there is found to be no such existent thing as an ego or a mind. Or it may be said that the individual “I” is Being misperceived and the mind is Consciousness misperceived. However, who is it that so misperceives? It cannot be the true absolute Self; nor are there two selves. If you inquire in such a manner, there is no misperception or one who possesses such.

One need not wait for or do something else previous to surrender. What has been indicated above can be practiced even now.

~ Ever Yours in Truth

Love

[In response to a seeker who was endeavoring to apply Sri Ramana’s teachings to her married life.]

The duality superimposed upon love is not true. Love must always be for the sake of the Self and not for any objective thing in itself. So, if you say that you love another, such as [name omitted], what is it actually that you love? Can he be an object? Is he not the Self as all are? To remain detached from the unreal and thus transcendent of all forms does not indicate a loveless state. In Truth, divine love and detachment are of the same nature, for both are rooted in the Knowledge of the Self. So, to say that one needs another to love is false, but to say that one should refrain from loving another is also false, because who else is the other but the Self?

[in another response to the seeker]

You have now seen that expectations of love or happiness from without meet with disappointment. Diving within, you find that Bliss shines in all its perfect fullness within you. You can very easily remain in this deeper Knowledge whenever you relate to anyone, man or monkey. That will not guarantee the other’s response to you, but it will guarantee your happiness.

~ Ever Yours in Truth

Vāsanās or Tendencies

The vāsanās, or tendencies, recur until you find and destroy their root. Destruction is by Knowledge, since a vāsanā is composed of ignorance. If a tendency recurs, it is an indication that thoroughness and more depth are needed. Trace the mode (e.g. anxiety, anger, fear, etc.) to the specific thoughts constituting the mode. Trace those thoughts to the misidentifications, and those to the ego notion. To “trace” implies realizing the falseness of that mode, thought, misidentification, etc. If you know such as false, you no longer mix up your identity, the reality, or your happiness with it. You cease to create it. If you are still subject to what is false, you do not yet really know that such is false, though you may be on the way to knowing that it is. The same applies to realizing what is true.

That you are aware of the vasanas arising is good. Perhaps, previously, you may have called such tendencies “life,” or even thought that one could just “be in the now” with them, but now you are wiser, so they stand out to your discernment as being unsatisfactory. This leads to a deeper and more thorough inquiry that actually dissolves the delusion.

***

Tendencies are repeated thoughts. Whatever be the analysis, inclusive of causality, of such tendencies, they are still composed of repetitive thought. Such thought is not real but seems real due to misidentification. There are innumerable ways of effecting abeyance of such thoughts, but, for permanent destruction of them, that is, for the permanent destruction of the ignorance of misidentification, Self-Knowledge alone is the means.

***

Self-inquiry destroys all the vasana-s by yielding clarity about happiness, reality, and identity, which are ultimately one.

~ Ever Yours in Truth

Pain and Suffering

Questioner: There is a difference between suffering and pain, the suffering and the physical imposition that happens. The suffering does not seem to be here. However, the discomfort is here. Am I still discriminating two things, when I should not? I am not entirely clear.

Nome: Pain is of the body. Truth is not an anesthetic. It does not get rid of pain, at least not on its own level. If we realize that there is no such thing as the world, and that the Uncreated alone is, we can say that pain has been obliterated, but not at the level of the senses. In Reality, we know there is no such thing as pain, because there is no such thing as a world or a body. As a consequence, we do not suffer, even when pain occurs. Obviously, infirmity and illness, as you have been experiencing, and the onset of death cause pain, but they need not cause suffering. Pain is the sensation. Suffering is when you think you are the one who is encapsulated within that experience of pain. Pain affects the body. When it seems to affect you, such is called suffering.

~ Self-Knowledge

[in response to a seeker afflicted by diabetes]

Certainly, the body is transient. It is subject to various diseases and pains. It is an objective form; an animated corpse. To remedy the disease of mortality, by which all who are embodied are afflicted, there is no cure comparable to the Knowledge of the Self, which is immortal Being. That Knowledge, which is final and the end of all knowledge (literally, Vedanta) has been revealed by the sages such as Sri Ramana Maharshi. It is the Self-revelation of the nondual Absolute. Dive within, with a heart full of devotion, inquiring within yourself as to, “Who am I?” and thus be blissful and at peace.

~ Ever Yours in Truth

Happiness

The desire for happiness is ongoing—except in deep sleep, for then you are not in trouble. In all your waking state experiences, there is this running desire for happiness. People pursue things that are even miserable for the sake of happiness. It is a strange phenomenon, but that is what human beings do. They do all sorts of things just for happiness, for a very profound kind of happiness. They may desire endlessly, but what they desire, they do not know. It manifests in the form of desire for various objects, circumstances, people, relations, and such. Such is the search for happiness. At some point, there is the recognition that happiness is not going to be found externally. It is going to be found within. “Within” means the Self. Right then and there, the inquiry of “Who Am I?” commences. The importance of knowing “Who Am I?” is understood when we recognize that happiness has its source within. The place where it will be experienced is within. By inquiry, we find that the very substance of the happiness is the within-ness itself; hence, sat-chit-ananda, Being-Consciousness-Bliss.

So, we are detached, because we know where happiness is. We are no longer entangled in worldly things. Even if our bodies are active, we are not, ourselves, bound. Inquire, “Who Am I?”

If there are distracting thoughts or various tendencies in the mind, inquire, “Who am I? Is this what I am?” If utterly distracted, inquire, “For whom is this?” Sense your Existence as distinct from the tendency, from the thought, and from the ob­jective content. “Who Am I?”

~ Ever Yours in Truth

Beyond Praise and Blame

Q.: I would like to know, how do you actually live your daily life? If someone says to you, “You are a jerk,” how do you usually react?

N.: Why should I react? To whom am I supposed to react? Furthermore, who is to react?

Q.: I just experienced someone who had just given you a compliment. My experience was that you did not even react to the compliment. That triggered me to ask you.

N.: One can be completely beyond praise and blame. After all, if you have something that is true, praise does not make it any more worthwhile. If it is blamed, it does not really detract from it. Sri Ramana Maharshi’s advice is to jump on the side of the criticizer. So, his response would be, “Yes, I too disagree with this.” He had no identity with the ego.

Moreover, a person may praise at one time. The same person may blame later. Then he may praise again. Then he may blame. It is watching the vicissitudes and whimsical nature of a monkey-like mind. So, why take this into account? If someone offers some statement, which provides you with some useful information, that is all to the good. So, praise and blame are just the same. “Who is saying what to whom?”

~ Self-Knowledge

Truly Self-reliant

Believing the world to be real, in other words, other than the Self, and of a different nature than you, and seeking for happiness externally (attachment): these things obscure your infinity. Your infinity is obscured by all erroneous conceptions or misidentifications, such as believing that you are a limited body and mind.

You lend reality to the world or you project your own innate happiness on it, and then the illusion seems real. This is ignorance. Let the sense of happiness return to your within-ness and the sense of reality return to the one changeless Being-Consciousness.

By following the instruction above you will be truly Self-reliant. Turning within to the changeless Being-Consciousness will give you the sense of freedom, peace and equanimity needed to conduct your relative phenomenal affairs in a detached, harmonious way.

~ Ever Yours in Truth

Nonobjective Knowledge

With or without thoughts, you exist. This Existence, which is truly the nondual Self, is the foundation and goal of Self-inquiry and the teachings regarding Self-Knowledge.

True Knowledge is thought-transcendent. Thoughts possess no knowing power. They neither know each other nor know themselves. Consciousness, which is the Self, alone knows. This Consciousness knowing itself nonobjectively, not through sensory perception, mental conception, etc., is inquiry.

The inquiry is constituted of nonobjective knowledge. If thoughts appear, inquire for whom they appear. If a state that contains no thought appears, inquire for whom such appears. Whatever be the case, it is essential to know yourself. Inquire, “Who am I?”

***

Yes, nonobjective is the nature of Truth.

~ Ever Yours in Truth

Vanishing of Differentiation

With the illusory rise of the ego, or individual, all objectivity arises, and, with its demise, it is realized that the Self alone exists and that there has never been a single objective thing. Only so long as an individual is mistakenly assumed to exist is there the appearance of differentiation. Upon the false assumption of individuality, objectivity or differentiation illusorily appears in the forms, or concepts, of mind, personality, a body, a world, etc. This gives rise to all sorts of dualism such as life and death, higher and lower, sin and virtue, thought and consciousness, bondage and liberation, and you and I. As a result, the ultimate bliss, or peace, of Absolute Being seems to vanish. Awakening to the Truth of no-ego, that is to say, the Self which you always are, is the finding of the silent peace that was never really lost. Upon this awakening, all differentiation, being an illusion, simply vanishes.

~ Ever Yours in Truth

The Desire for Liberation

~ Self-Knowledge

***

The prerequisite for any spiritual aspirant is sincerity of heart and intensity of spiritual practice.

Intense love of the Truth, self-examination to dissolve tendencies (vasanas and the personality), keeping holy company, and determination on the spiritual path give spiritual stability.

If you are truly in earnest, spiritually, everything will work out all right.

~ Ever Yours in Truth

Spiritual

One way of reading [spiritual texts] is to consider the texts as philosophical and later to apply such to meditation. Another way of reading is to regard such as a form of meditation and thus experience what you read (the meaning) as you read it. In the latter approach, what was previously conceived as expositions will be experienced as details of inquiry.

***

You may wish to question the assumption of a connection between the body and that which is spiritual. Spiritual is bodiless and sense-transcendent. Truly, it is mind-transcendent. This applies both to the assumption of bodily causes and acts as producing the spiritual and to the conception of the spiritual having a bodily effect.

~ Ever Yours in Truth

Grace

The “Master” or “Guru” is not the body, so the concepts of living or dead simply do not apply. The Guru’s help is present in a manner that transcends all such seeming boundaries, time, space, etc.

***

There is never a lack of Grace. When effort is full, Grace is experienced fully.

***

~ Ever Yours in Truth