Fw: [RamanaMaharshi] Annamalai Swami - wanderings of the mind

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Note: Vicki is taking a break from HS, so I will be forwarding her

quote messages from RamanaMaharshi for a while. Glo

- Viorica Weissman

RamanaMaharshi

Saturday, August 25, 2001 1:23 AM

[RamanaMaharshi] Annamalai Swami - wanderings of the mind

Let the mind go wherever it wants to go. You don't have to

pay any attention to all its wanderings. Just be the Self and

don't concern yourself with the activities of the mind. If you

take this attitude , the activities and wanderings of the mind

will become less and less. The mind only wanders around all

day because you identify with it and pay attention to all its

activities. If you could establish yourself as consciousness

alone, thoughts would no longer have any power to distract you.

When you have no interests in thoughts they fade away as soon as

they appear. Instead of attaching themselves to other thoughts,

which then spin off countless other thoughts and ideas , they just

appear for a second or two and then vanish. One's vasanas* make

thoughts arise. Once they have arisen , they will repeat

theselves in regular chains and patterns again and again.

If you have any desires or attachments, thoughts about them will

be constantly appearing in the mind. You cannot fight them

because they thrive on the attention you give them . If you try

to repress them , you can only do it by giving them attention. And

that means identifying with the mind. This method never works. You

can only stop the flow of thoughts by refusing to have any interest

in it. If you remain in the source , the Self, you can easily catch

each thought as it rises. If you don't catch the thoughts as

they rise , they sprout , become plants and , if you still neglect

them, they grow into great trees. Usually , the inattentive

sadhaka** only catches his thoughts at the tree stage. If you

can be continuously aware of each thought as it rises , and if

you can be so indifferent to it that it doesn't sprout or

flourish , you are well on the way to escaping from the

entanglements of the mind. * vasanas = latent tendencies

of the mind formed by former actions , thoughts and

desires ** sadhaka = spiritual aspirant

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Living by the Words of

Bhagavan David Godman ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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