Mind -- Sri Ramana Maharshi

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You can never find the mind through the mind.

Pass beyond it in order to find it non-existent.

 

There is no difference between the mind and the Self.

The mind turned inward is the Self; turned outwards

it becomes the ego and all the world.

 

But the mind does not exist apart from the Self,

it has no independent existence. The Self exists

without the mind, never the mind without the Self.

 

The mind is intangible, in fact it does not exist.

The surest way to control it is to seek it.

Then its activities cease.

 

That which arises as "I" in the body is the mind.

If one enquires as to where in the body the thought "I"

rises first, one discovers that it rises in the heart.

That is the place of the mind and mind's origin.

Even if one thinks constantly "I" - "I" one will be

led to that place.

 

Mind will exist only as long as you think of external

things. When you draw it from external things and make

it think of the mind or "I", in other words introvert it,

it ceases to exist.

 

If the mind is turned in, towards the source of illumination,

objective knowledge ceases, and the Self alone shines as the heart.

 

When turned inwards, it merges into the source of illumination

which shines by itself and the mind is then like the moon

in the day-time.

 

The mind cannot kill itself. So your business is to find

the real nature of the mind. Then you will know that there

is no mind. When the Self is sought, the mind is nowhere.

Abiding in the Self, one need not worry about the mind.

 

What is mind after all? It is a projection of the Self,

see for whom it appears and from where it rises. The "I" -

thought will be found to be the root cause. Go deeper.

The "I" - thought disappears and there is an infinitely

expanded "I" - consciousness.

 

You are the mind or think you are the mind. The mind

is nothing but thoughts. Now behind any particular

thought there is a thought which is the "I", that is

yourself. Let us call it "I", the first thought.

Stick to this "I" - thought and question it to find

out what it is. When this question takes strong hold

of you, you cannot think of other thoughts. The mind is

merely thoughts. Of all thoughts the thought "I" is the root.

Therefore the mind is only the thought "I".

 

Mind is nothing but the stream of thoughts that passes

over consciousness. Of all these thoughts the first one is

the thought "I am the body". This is a false thought, but

because it is taken as true all the other thoughts arise.

Mind causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts

there is no such thing as mind. Therefore thought is the

nature of mind.

 

The mind is born of the ego. The ego rises from the Self.

Search the source of the ego and the Self is revealed.

There is no difference between the mind and the Self.

The mind does not exist apart from the Self. It has no

independent existence.

 

By means of earnest endeavor of holding the ego in the heart

of perfect purity and absolute knowledge, the destruction

of latent tendencies of the mind, along with breath-control,

is of its own accord accomplished.

 

The divine gives light to the mind and shines in its interior.

Except by turning the mind inward and fixing it in the divine

how else to know him through the mind?

 

When the mind melts with love and reaches the cave of the heart

in which the benign supreme dwells, the eye of consciousness

will open and you will know the truth, for it will become manifest.

 

~Sri Ramana Maharshi - "Absolute Consciousness"