purusha's Blog

Absence of thoughts does not mean a blank

Ramana Maharshi in Talk 245. 

Misses Gulbai and Shirinbai Byramjee, two Parsi ladies, were asking questions round one central point. All their questions amounted to one. “I understand that the Self is beyond the ego. My knowledge is theoretical and not practical. How shall I gain practical realisation of the Self?” 

Maharshi.: Realisation is nothing to be got afresh. It is already there. All that is necessary is to be rid of the thought: “I have not realised.” 

D.: Then one need not attempt it. 

M.: No. Stillness of mind or peace is realisation. There is no moment when the Self is not. So long as there is doubt or the feeling of non-realisation, attempt must be made to rid oneself of these thoughts. The thoughts are due to identification of the Self with the non-self. When the non-self disappears the Self alone remains. To make room anywhere it is enough that things are removed from there. Room is not brought in afresh. Nay, more - room is there even in cramping. Absence of thoughts does not mean a blank. There must be one to know the blank. Knowledge and ignorance are of the mind. They are born of duality. But the Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance. It is light itself. There is no necessity to see the Self with another Self. There are no two selves. What is not Self is non-self. The non-self cannot see the Self. The Self has no sight or hearing. It lies beyond these - all alone, as pure consciousness.

Re: para bhakti

...and then the suppliant is no more. :)

from Talk 319, "The Alwar says: “I was all along seeking Thee. But on realising the Self I find you are the Self. The Self is my all, and so you are my All.”"

om vacadbhuve namah

In this verse, Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni, as the Seer, reveals the bIjAksharas (seed syllables and/or letters) which make up Sri Ramana Maharshi's special mantra. This mantra reveals various correspondences and is said to be endowed with Sakti (power). 

vedAdi - beginning (and end) of the Vedas - bIja - 'om' 

pAka damana (indra) uttara - mightier than Indra, the subduer of the demoncalled PAka (symbolic of the overcoming of ignorance). Sri Maharshi lies beyond even the Lord of the senses. Lord Indra's bIja is 'la'. When we go beyond this we find... bIja - 'va'

kacchapeSa - kurmeSa - Lord of tortoises - supporter of the Earth and all its jIvas - Rudra - bIja - 'ca'

dharAdhara - the Hill, Mount Arunachala - The Hill of Dawn. Supporter of the Universe. Epithet of Siva and symbolic of transcendence. (note: dharAdhara is also an epithet of Vishnu as preserver) - bIja - 'd'

sushupti - known as sleep - Here it represents Sakti - bIja - 'bha' (note: the vowel 'a' is omitted.)

amareSvara - Lord of Gods (Rudra) - bIja - 'u'

amRta - toyabIja - water, syllable of offering signifying dative case (along with next letter) - 'v'

sUkshmAmRtA - Siva Sakti - bIja - 'e'

praNatyA (pra-Nati) - obeisance/surrender of body and mind with humility - 'namaH'

This spells out the Guru mantra - 'om vacadbhuve namaH' - 'Obeisance to that 'place' of Being from whence the Word arises (and sets)' 

chit-jada granthi

From the functional point of view, [...] the ego has one and only one characteristic. The ego functions as the knot between 
the Self which is Pure Consciousness and the physical body which is inert and insentient. The ego is therefore called the chit-jada granthi. In your investigation into the source of aham-vritti, you take the essential chit aspect of the ego; and for this reason the enquiry must lead to the realization of the pure consciousness of the Self.
-Maharshi's Gospel Chapter 6


Chit-jada-granthi: the knot between the Self, which is pure consciousness, and the body, which is insentient.
-from the Glossary of Maharshi's Gospel

Who can grasp the Truth?

Talk 46. 

After hearing the Malayalam version of Upadesa Sara chanted, Mr. Ramachandra Iyer of Nagercoil asked in a characteristically unsophisticated way about the mind, concentration and control. The Master [Ramana Maharshi] said that the mind is only identity of the Self with the body. It is a false ego that is created; it creates false phenomena in its turn, and appears to move in them; all these are false. The Self is the only Reality. If the false identity vanishes the persistence of the Reality becomes apparent. It does not mean that Reality is not here and now. It is always there and eternally the same. It is also in everyone’s experience. For everyone knows that he is. “Who is he?” Subjectively, “Who am I?” The false ego is associated with objects; this ego itself is its own object. Objectivity is the falsity. Subject is alone the Reality. Do not confound yourself with the object, namely the body. This gives rise to the false ego, consequently of the world and your movements therein with the resulting misery. Do not think yourself to be this, that or anything; to be so and so, or to be such and such. Only leave off the falsity. The Reality will reveal itself. The scriptures say that the Self is nityasiddha, ever present, and yet speak of the removal of ajnana. If Self is (nitya) always and (siddha) present, how can there be ajnana? For whom is the ajnana? These are contradictory. But such statements are for guiding the earnest seeker in the right way. He does not readily understand the only Truth if mentioned in plain words as in natwam naham neme janadhipah (not thou, nor I, nor these kings ...). Sri Krishna declared the Truth, but Arjuna could not grasp it. Later Krishna plainly says that people confound Him with the body, whereas in reality He was not born nor will He die. Still Arjuna requires the whole Gita for the Truth to be made clear to him.

namaskar and insincerity

Talk 549. 
Sri Bhagavan often speaks of namaskar (prostration) in the following strain: “This namaskar was originally meant by the ancient sages to serve as a means of surrender to God. The act still prevails but not the spirit behind it. The doer of namaskar intends to deceive the object of worship by his act. It is mostly insincere and deceitful. It is meant to cover up innumerable sins. Can God be deceived? The man thinks that God accepts his namaskar and that he himself is free to continue his old life. They need not come to me. I am not pleased with these namaskars. The people should keep their minds clean; instead of that they bend themselves or lie prostrate before me. I am not deceived by such acts.” 

'I-I'

That which rises and falls is the transient ‘I’. That which has neither origin nor end is the permanent ‘I-I’ consciousness.

-from Talk 268

Blessing by touch

[A devotee said], "I hear that Bhagavan blessed a devotee by touching his head. Is that a fact?"

"How is that possible? As I got up from the sofa or conversed with people or went about here and there, my hand might have unintentionally touched their heads, and they might have taken it as a way of blessing. In the case of people with whom I am a bit familiar, I might even have patted them. That is all. I have never deliberately done this. I like to move with people freely and in a natural manner. And they might take it as an act of grace from me. Just because of that, will it become initiation by touch?" said Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi].

-Arunachala Ramana, Volume 7, p.115

Don't use me to justify your crap!

U.G. Krishnamurti at Mill Valley.

That which is.. is

---Day by Day: 2-1-46 Afternoon

In soham there is dvaita. In surrender there is advaita. In the Reality there is neither dvaita nor advaita, but That which is, is. Surrender appears easy because people imagine that, once they say with their lips ‘I surrender’ and put their burdens on their Lord, they can be free and do what they like. But the fact is that you can have no likes or dislikes after your surrender and that your will should become completely non-existent, the Lord’s Will taking its place. Such death of the ego is nothing different from jnana. So by whatever path you may go, you must come to jnana or oneness.
---

Re: You must brush the answer aside.

... and the original UG site - http://www.well.com/user/jct/ where books in various languages are available to read online.

You must brush the answer aside.

UG Krishnamurti

No sadhanas are necessary

___

Reality is simply the loss of the ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because the ego is no entity it will automatically vanish and Reality will shine forth by itself. This is the direct method. Whereas all other methods are done, only retaining the ego. In those paths there arise so many doubts and the eternal question remains to be tackled finally. But in this method the final question is the only one and it is raised from the very beginning. No sadhanas are necessary for engaging in this quest. (Ramana Maharshi - Talk 146)
___

Re: "one light" / aar oLi in Day by Day, 17.3.45 and UN V. 1

...this State is not in time, so too It is not in space. We do not need to go somewhere — to some distant world — to be free and happy always. [...] Deliverance is here and now — if only we lose the ego. Ignorance, bondage and the incidents of bondage, namely all this multiplicity and difference, do not exist even now. Therefore it follows that the Sage who is egoless does not see all this, which seems so real to us. For him this cinema-show of the world and its seer, the ego, have ceased; so he does not recognise its having been seen before. For him the screen alone remains, the Light of Consciousness; the moving pictures have vanished. That screen, we know now, is the pure “I AM”, on which is imposed by ignorance the whole of this false appearance. Therefore said the Sage:

“Since we see the world, it follows that there is One Supreme Being, of whose power of illusion all this is a becoming; this cannot be disputed. All the four things, namely the pictures consisting of names and forms, their supporting screen, the light, and the seer, are not different from Him, the real Self in the Heart.” 

The true Self, it is here expressly pointed out, is not Itself the cause of this variety. It has no becoming, as shown before. What becomes the universe is Maya, the mysterious power that has to be assumed as belonging to the Self, to account for the world-appearance. This Maya is the same as mind, which is the ego. Out of this Maya come forth the four, of which the individual soul is one, that is why he is unreal. Therefore it follows that this false appearance will persist only so long as the ego-sense continues, not after the extinction of the ego. Therefore we have to understand that to the Sage the world does not appear, though it may appear to others that the Sage sees the world, and though the Sage himself does not always deny seeing the world.

(K. Lakshmana Sarma in Maha Yoga, Chapter 8)

Behaving as transcendental beings

..from Talk 190

M.: Enough! Enough! You and another visitor behave as transcendental beings! You are both fully learned. You need not learn more. I would not have said all this had you not been coming here frequently. Do as you please. But these eccentricities of the beginner’s stage will become known in their true light after some time.

..
This Ramana Maharshi talk is fascinating. Some believe that Ramana never criticised those who visited him. This episode seems to disprove such a theory.

Thought is one thing ....

..from Talk 30

D.: Should it be realised as “I am not the body, nor the agent, nor the enjoyer, etc.”? 

M.: Why these thoughts? Do we now think that we are men, etc.? By not thinking so, do we cease to be men? 

D.: Should one realise it then by the scriptural text such as “There are no differences here”. 

M.: Why even that? 

D.: If we think “I am the real,” will it do? 

M.: All thoughts are inconsistent with realisation. The correct state is to exclude thoughts of ourselves and all other thoughts. Thought is one thing and realisation is quite another.
..

With or without sequence

..
Thoughts are transitory (anitya) and sequential.
Self is permanent (nitya) and without sequence.

That which is transitory, like thought, is produced.
Self, which is permanent, is never produced.

Vichara merely reveals that which is already there.

..

Re: A Private Question

It is, indeed, fair to say that it is better to have immersed oneself in the path of enquiry prior to any crisis. That way any cataclysmic event, whether brought about by 'wrong pursuits', or, for that matter, by a mundane event, will automatically trigger the vichara and destroy the 'perverted personality.'

Re: The ego-wayfarer

A similar story is found in Talk 612, "in a Hindu marriage function, the feasts continue five or six days. A stranger was mistaken for the best man by the bride’s party and they therefore treated him with special regard. Seeing him treated with special regard by the bride’s party, the bridegroom’s party considered him to be some man of importance related to the bride’s party and therefore they too showed him special respect. The stranger had altogether a happy time of it. He was also all along aware of the real situation. On one occasion the groom’s party wanted to refer to him on some point. They asked for him. He scented trouble and made himself scarce. So it is with the ego. If looked for, it disappears. If not, it continues to give trouble."

and in Maha Yoga
"On the occasion of a marriage an uninvited guest, an utter stranger to both the parties, came in pretending to be an intimate friend of the bridegroom. At first the hosts, namely the bride’s party, believed him and honoured him accordingly. But after a time suspicions arose and inquiries began to be made as to who he was and what right he had to come in. The two parties met and began to question each other. The impostor saw that he was sure to be exposed and treated as he deserved if he remained; so he quietly disappeared. Just like the impostor in this parable is the ego. It is neither the real Self, nor the body; so long as no inquiry is made, the ego persists and enjoys the status of the real Self; but when an inquiry is made — when the quest of the real Self is begun and persisted in — it will vanish, leaving no trace. This is exactly what we are told by the Sage in the following passage: “This ego, which is but a ghost without a form of its own, comes into being by taking hold of a form; keeping hold of the form and enjoying sense-objects, it waxes greatly in strength: if the truth of it be sought, it will run away.” (Ulladu Narpadu verse 25)"

It is also found in "Be As You Are" and elsewhere but the sources defeat me at the moment. :)

On wrong identification

D.: Can one remain without thoughts rising all the 24 hours of the day? Should I remain without meditation? 

M.: What is ‘hours’ again? It is a concept. Each question of yours is prompted by a thought. 

Your nature is Peace and Happiness. Thoughts are the obstacles to realisation. One’s meditation or concentration is meant to get rid of obstacles and not to gain the Self.  Does anyone remain apart from the Self? No! The true nature of the Self is declared to be Peace. If the same peace is not found, the non-finding is only a thought which is alien to the Self. One practises meditation only to get rid of these alien fancies. So, then, a thought must be quelled as soon as it rises. Whenever a thought arises, do not be carried away by it. You become aware of the body when you forget the Self. But can you forget the Self? Being the Self how can you forget it? There must be two selves for one to forget the other. It is absurd. So the Self is not depressed; it is not imperfect: it is ever happy. The contrary feeling is a mere thought which has actually no stamina in it. Be rid of thoughts. Why should one attempt meditation? Being the Self one remains always realised, only be free from thoughts. 

You think that your health does not permit your meditation. This depression must be traced to its origin. The origin is the wrong identification of the body with the Self. The disease is not of the Self. It is of the body. But the body does not come and tell you that it is possessed by the disease. It is you who say it. Why? Because you have wrongly identified yourself with the body. The body itself is a thought. Be as you really are. There is no reason to be depressed.

-from Talk 462

Material and spiritual

.
"Unfortunately we have divided life into material and spiritual -- that is the greatest and biggest escape that we have created. You see, it's all one; you can't divide life into material and spiritual. That is where we have gone wrong. So, like the West: only on Sunday are they all religious -- they go to the church on Sundays -- and the rest of the week they are monsters." 

-UG Krishnamurti
--------------

Spiritual values?

U. G. Krishnamurti on spiritual values and shoddy goods in the market place.
Thought as a tool. 

State of not knowing

U.G. Krishnamurti

Re: There is nothing to renounce

māya - measuring, calculating and comparing.
-useful for navigating life's journey
--but without due diligence soon deteriorates into mere māyā - illusion.

U. G. Krishnamurti and Byron Katie

There are 5 parts to this conversation - all available on YouTube.
Part 5 appears to be of particular interest to those who persist on "the search for the Real Self." 

[To access the other parts, click the arrow at the bottom right hand corner (whilst video is running or at the end of the video). This presents the menu of related videos. Or simply go to the YouTube pages.]