Awareness watching awareness

[Guest guest]

Dear Michael,

 

I have contemplated what you have written at length on "Awareness watching

awareness". No doubt, it could be a means of ultimately realising the Self

(albeit a rather circuitous and possibly protracted means), but nevertheless it

may prove "comfortable" for some to practice it.

 

Ramana Maharshi says, "Actually, the idea of the Self being the witness is only

in the mind; it is not the absolute truth of the Self. Witnessing is relative

to objects witnessed. Both the witness and his object are mental creations".

(page 14, Be As You Are, by David Godman).

 

It appears to me that using the Awareness watching awareness approach would (if

practised intensely) merely dissociate the Self from the not-Self in our

consciousness, the not-Self still existing in thoughts. It does little to

reinforce deeply, to ingrain indelibly in our consciousness the advaitic truth,

I AM GOD (the Self, the Atma in our Heart). Let's reflect seriously what Ramana

Maharshi says, "Knowing the Self is BEING THE SELF, and being means existence,

one's own existence .........". (Pg 25 Be As You Are). Also Ramana Maharshi

emphasises again and again, "There is no goal to be reached. There is nothing

to be attained. You are the Self. .......... Seeing God or the Self is only

BEING THE SELF. All that is required of you is to give up the thought that you

are this body and to give up all thoughts of the external things or the

not-Self". (Pg 24). Yet again, I

want to quote once more what beloved Ramana Maharshi says, "We go round and

round in search of atma (Self) saying, 'Where is atma?' Where is it? till at

last the dawn of jnana drishti (vision of knowledge) is reached, and we say,

'This is atma this is me.' We should acquire that vision." We cannot fail to

see that the central thread running through Ramana's expositions is simply this:

BE THE SELF.

Love, I AM RAMANA.

 

------------

 

 

"Michael L." <uarelove > wrote:

A quote by Sri Muruganar from Garland of Guru's(Sri Ramana Maharshi's

Sayings):1038. "Awareness is not a quality of the Self.The Self is without

qualities.Awareness is not an action of the Self.The Self does nothing.The

Self, our Being, IS Awareness."A quote by Sri Ramana Maharshi from Day by Day

withBhagavan:"You are awareness.Awareness is another name for you.All that you

have to do is to give up being aware ofother things;that is, of the

not-Self."If one gives up being aware of them,then pure awareness alone

remains,and that is the Self."Since the Self is Awareness,Self Awareness

is:Awareness of Awareness.This discovery, translated into practice asawareness

watching awarenesswas a great blessing for me.I was trying

to find a clear easy way of understandingand practicing Sri Ramana Maharshi's

and Sri Nisargadatta's instructions regardingfocussing the attention on I or I

AM.The awareness watching awareness discovery solved everything.I wrote about

the details of what lead up to thatincluding practice instructions

here:http://uarelove1.tripod.com/AWA_DISCOVERY.htmThat discovery was back in

December of 2001and I have not yet put an update on theDirect Path Linksydescribing the progression of the practice.The following is a brief

reporton the progression of the actual practice ofawareness watching

awareness:In the beginning of the practice,Sri Muruganar's quotes

regardingrefraining from looking at thought, the body, theworld etc., and

instead turning the attention towardsawareness watching awarenesswere

helpful.Because the habit of looking outward is so strong,reading these practice

instructionsand then actually practicing them was

helpful:http://uarelove1.tripod.com/inquiry_abidance.htmhttp://uarelove1.tripod.com/world.htmhttp://uarelove1.tripod.com/READING_AND_DISCUSSING.htmhttp://uarelove1.tripod.com/TURNING_INWARD.htmThere

were other things that were helpful to readsuch as descriptions of

liberationwhich helped increase the desire for liberationand quotes by Sri

Ramana Maharshi, Sri AnnamalaiSwami,Sri Muruganar and Sri Nisargadatta

Maharajthat encouraged intense, constant, continuous practice.I won't list all

those links here, they can all be

found here:http://uarelove.comAs the practiced progressed there was far less

reading.Very rapidly the practice simplifiesand it is just awareness watching

awareness.Awareness watching awareness is the perfect practice.It instantly

becomes awareness of awarenesswhich instantly becomes abiding as

awareness,which instantly becomes being awareness.Or one might say:awareness

watching awarenessis really awareness of awarenesswhich is really abiding as

awarenesswhich is really being awareness.I prefer to shut the eyes.Because the

habit of abiding as awareness is there,upon shutting the eyes,there it

is.Instant abidance.Just awareness by itself.As the practice progresses,it

becomes simpler.One just abides as awareness.Awareness only.No thought, no

body, no world, no universe.As Sri Ramana

describes it in Talk 17:Questioner:"Does Maharshi enter the nirvikalpa

samadhi?"Sri Ramana:"If the eyes are closed, it is nirvikalpa;if open, it is

(though differentiated, still inabsolute repose)savikalpa.The ever-present

state is the natural state sahaja."If the attention is turned inward away from

the body,thought, world, universe, etc.and towards awareness watching

awarenessit does not take long to realizethat I am that awareness that lives

forever.Thinking will not help.One has to feel the eternal life withinfor the

fear of ending the human known to disappear.Awareness watching awarenessmakes

one aware of that feelingafter only a little practice.Having felt that eternal

life within,one wants only that,and the desire for a bodily imagined

existencethat is really a kind of death and not life at all,diappears.Or as Sri

Ramana Maharshi described

it:"So I am the spirit transcending the body.The body dies but the Spirit

transcending itcannot be touched by death.That means I am the deathless

Spirit.""All this was not dull thought;it flashed through me vividly as living

truthwhich I perceived directly..."It begins just as a subtle feeling,then

rapidly it emerges as the Reality.That subtle feeling can be felt after only a

little time spent turning within towardsawareness watching awareness.Maybe from

the very first time one attempts it,or maybe after a few attempts.Because of the

long habit of looking outwardand calling a dream reality,it is good to continue

to look inwardlong after one's first glimpse-feeling-awarenessof what one

really is.Knowing who one really is,is to remain without any sorrow, suffering,

disease or death.Thus one trades in this limited imaginationfor

Infinite-Eternal-Being-Awareness-Bliss-Love-Peaceand those are not seven,that is

just one.The solution to the fear of losing the known(imagining oneself to be a

body living in a world)is just to turn inward,to cease looking outward at a

world, body and thoughtand towards awareness watching awareness.The ending of

the fear comes with the experience.Some experience comes very quickly.One

begins to feel the eternal life within.As that feeling grows,the worry about

losing what one formerly called life,which was not life at all,disappears.If

one just starts turning inward towardsawareness watching awareness,there is

nothing one need think about.One falls in love with empty awareness,and

discovers I am empty awareness,then I am disappearsand one remains

as:being-awareness.That being-awareness is eternal life.Just see the beauty of

it!Being-Awareness

is:Awareness.There is no thought, no body, no world and no universein that

awareness.Although empty of all these, it is full.Full, whole, complete,

perfect Awareness.The above is the progress report.Here is a brief

commentary:Due to the fear of ending the known,almost no human wishes to end

the human known.In almost all humans the desire to preservethe ego illusion is

trillions of times greaterthan the desire to end the ego illusion.This includes

those humans who study,think about and discuss spiritual topics.Therefore,

having a means to end the ego illusionwhich is extremely quick rapid and

Direct,really does not matter,until the desire for liberation is

awakened.Pretending that it has been awakened when it has not been

awakened,while the fear of ending the known is still there,does not help to

awaken it.Self honesty does help.There is

more that should be said about this,however, to keep this email message from

being toolong, it can wait.There are thousands of relevant quotes by Sri Ramana

Maharshi, Sri Muruganar, Sri Sadhu Om, Sri Annamalai Swami and Sri Nisargadatta

Maharajand I will continue to add them to theDirect Path Linksy.Ceasing to think about such quotes,and intstead taking one quote at a

time,and not moving from ituntil it has been put into practice,is a powerful

key.Here is a quote by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:"Give up all questions except

one:'Who am I?'"One might read such a quote many times with no effect,because

the extremely intense desire for liberationhas not yet been awakened.After the

extremely intense desire for liberationawakens, then when one reads the very

same quote,instead of thinking about it, or discussing it,one puts it into

practice.Putting it into

practice,there are no more questions,not even questions on spiritual topics.One

never allows the mind to give the answer to thequeston 'Who am I?'. The answer

to the question is the end of theexperiencer and the end of the human known.In

the practice of awareness watching awareness,no questions arise.Take care,with

Love,Michael L.New

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