There Is No Path -- Sri Ramana

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When you speak of a path, where are you now? And where do

you want to go? If these are known, then we can talk of a path.

Know first where you are and what you are. There is nothing to

be reached. There is no goal to be reached. There is nothing to be

attained. The conception that there is a goal and a path to it is

wrong. We are the goal or peace always. You are the Self. You

exist always.

 

If there is a goal to be reached it cannot be permanent. The goal

must already be there. We seek to reach the goal with the ego,

but the goal exists before the ego. What is in the goal is even

prior to our birth, that is, to the birth of the ego. Because we

exist the ego appears to exist too.

 

There is no reaching the Self. If Self were to be reached, it would

mean that the Self is not here and now and that is yet to be

obtained. What is got afresh will also be lost. So it will be

impermanent. What is not permanent is not worth striving for,

Self-enquiry is the process and the goal also. "I am" is the goal

and the final reality. To hold to it with effort is self-enquiry.

When spontaneous and natural it is realisation. If one leaves aside

self-enquiry, the most efficacious spiritual practice, there are

no other adequate means whatsoever to make the mind subside. If made

to subside by other means, it will remain as if subsided but will

rise again. Self-enquiry is the one infallible means, the only direct

one, to realise the unconditioned absolute being that you really are.

 

~Sri Ramana Maharshi - "Absolute Consciousness"