self-enquiry - misconceptions

[Guest guest]

Wonderful, thanks Vicky!

On Mon, 6 Aug 2001 06:35:19 +0200 "Viorica Weissman" <viorica (AT) zahav (DOT) net.il> writes:

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SELF-ENQUIRY - Misconceptions

David Godman - from Be As You Are

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Sri Ramana Maharshi's philosophical pronouncements were very

similar to those upheld by the followers of Advaita[non-dualistic]

Vedanta, an Indian philosophical school which has flourished for

well over a thousand years. Sri Ramana Maharshi and the Advaitins

agree on most theoretical matters but their attitudes to practice

are radically different. While Sri Ramana Maharshi advocated

self-enquiry, most advaitic teachers recommended a system of

meditation which mentally affirmed that the Self was the only

reality. These affirmations such as 'I am Brahman' or 'I am He',

are usually used as mantras, or, more rarely, one meditates on

their meaning and tries to experience the implications of the

statement

 

Because self-enquiry often starts with the question 'Who am I',

many of the traditional followers of Advaita assumed that the

answer to the question was 'I am Brahman' and they occupied their

minds with repetitions of this mental solution.

Sri Ramana Maharshi criticised this approach by saying that while

the mind was constantly engaged in finding or repeating solutions

to the question it would never sink into its source and disappear.

 

He was equally critical, for the same reason, of those who tried

to use 'Who am I?' as a mantra, saying that both approaches missed

the point of self-enquiry. The question 'Who am I?', he said, is

not an invitation to analyse the mind and to come to conclusions

about its nature, nor is it a mantric formula, it is simply a tool

which facilitates redirecting attention from the objects of thought

and perception to the thinker and perceiver of them.

In Sri Ramana Maharshi's opinion, the solution to the question

'Who am I?' is not to be found in or by the mind since the only

real answer is the experience of the absence of mind.

 

Another widespread misunderstanding arose from the belief that

the Self could be discovered by mentally rejecting all the objects

of thought and perception as not-self. Traditionally this is called

the Neti-Neti approach [not this, not this].

The practitioner of this system verbally rejects all the objects

that the 'I' identifies with -'I am not the mind', ' I am not the

body', etc.-in the expectation that the real 'I' will eventually

be experienced in the pure uncontaminated form.

Hinduism calls this practice 'self-enquiry' and, because of the

identity of names, it was often confused with Sri Ramana Maharshi's

method. Sri Ramana Maharshi's attitude to this traditional system

of self-analysis was wholly negative and he discouraged his own

followers from practising it by telling them that it was an

intellectual activity which could not take them beyond the mind.

In his standard reply to questions about the effectiveness of this

practice he would say that the 'I'-thought is sustained by such

acts of discrimination and that the 'I' which eliminates the body

and the mind as 'not I' can never eliminate itself.

 

The followers of the 'I am Brahman' and 'Neti-Neti' schools share

a common belief that the Self can be discovered by the mind,

either through affirmation or negation. This belief that the mind

can, by its own activities, reach the Self is the root of most of

the misconceptions about the practice of self-enquiry.

A classic example of this is the belief that self-enquiry involves

concentrating on a particular centre in the body called the

Heart-centre.This widely held view results from a misinterpretation

of some of Sri Ramana Maharshi's statements on the Heart,

and to understand how this belief has come about it will be

necessary to take a closer look at some of his ideas on the subject.

 

In describing the origin of the 'I'-thought he sometimes said that

it arose to the brain through a channel which started from a centre

in the right hand side of the chest. He called this centre the

Heart centre and said that when the 'I'-thought subsided into the

Self it went back into the centre and disappeared.

He also said that when the Self is consciously experienced,

there is a tangible awareness that this centre is the source of

both the mind and the world. However, these statements are not

strictly true and Sri Ramana Maharshi sometimes qualified them by

saying that they were only schematic representations which were

given to those people who persisted in identifying with their

bodies. He said that the Heart is not really located in the body

and that from the highest standpoint it is equally untrue to say

that the 'I'-thought arises and subsides into this centre

on the right of the chest.

 

Because Sri Ramana Maharshi often said 'Find the place where

the "I" arises' or 'Find the source of the mind', many people

interpreted these statements to mean that they should concentrate

in this particular centre while doing self-enquiry.

Sri Ramana Maharshi rejected this interpretation many times by

saying that the source of the mind or the 'I' could only be

discovered through attention to the 'I'-thought and not through

concentration on a particular part of the body.

He did sometimes say that putting attention on this centre is a

good concentration practice, but he never associated it with

self-enquiry. He also occasionally said that meditation on the

Heart was an effective way of reaching the Self, but again, he

never said that this should be done by concentrating on the Heart-

centre. Instead he said that one should meditate on the Heart

'as it is'. The Heart 'as it is' is not a location, it is the

immanent Self and one can only be aware of its real nature

by being it. It cannot be reached by concentration.

 

Although there are several potentially ambiguous comments of this

kind about the Heart and the Heart-centre, in all his writings and

recorded conversations there is not a single statement to support

the contention that self-enquiry is to be practised by

concentrating on this centre. In fact, by closely examining his

statements on the subject one can only conclude that while the

experience of the Self contains an awareness of this centre,

concentration on this centre will not result in the experience of

the Self.

 

/join

All paths go

somewhere. No path goes nowhere. Paths, places, sights, perceptions,

and indeed all experiences arise from and exist in and subside back

into the Space of Awareness. Like waves rising are not different than

the ocean, all things arising from Awareness are of the nature of

Awareness. Awareness does not come and go but is always Present. It

is Home. Home is where the Heart Is. Jnanis know the Heart to be the

Finality of Eternal Being. A true devotee relishes in the Truth of

Self-Knowledge, spontaneously arising from within into It Self.

Welcome all to a.Your use of is subject

to the

[Guest guest]

Dear Vicky,

A very big thank you for this post,

Love, Wim

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SELF-ENQUIRY - Misconceptions

David Godman - from Be As You Are

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