Ramesh and Ramana

[Guest guest]

RamanaMaharshi, Alan Jacobs

<alanadamsjacobs> wrote:

> Dear jim , you write

> >

> > Who is a Sadhak?

> > [Ramesh S. Balsekar: The question – Who is Gary? The answer –

There

> > is no Gary! Gary, the ego, doesn't exist. If Gary doesn't exist

> > then what exists? Only the Source. Source is all there is.]

> >

> >

> > Ask yourself: who is a Sadhak, who is doing, thinking, feeling,

> > reacting, questioning, etc. as often as you can and a time may

come

> > when you suddenly know that you are not a person/body/mind/Sadhak

and

> > never was, and that the person/Sadhak, etc. that you took

yourself

> > for does not now or ever did exist - except as an image/concept

in

> > your own mind. When you stop believing in the personal object

you

> > have believed yourself to be since very early childhood, it will

> > vanish and that which you are will remain. Things will be much

> > better for you after that blessed remembrance.

>

> Dear Jim ,yes

>

> This paragraph above is in fact Self Enquiry.

>

> , Ramesh's writings are always interesting .It is quite true that

neither Jim or Alan or Gary

> doesn't really exist as a separate entity .Ramesh is a devotee of

Ramana[he pays obeisance to his

> Portrait every morning before holding Satsang] and once a pupil of

Nisagadatta , this statement is

> in full accordance with Bhagavan's teaching too .

>

> The danger is that if we only accept it as a concept , it is just

another thought , and of not a

> great deal of help except as more information for the mind.What is

important is actually to

> realize this finally ,and once and for all .This is what Ramesh

calls "the understanding".

 

Accepting the teaching as just another thought is not a danger, it's

part of the process by which the understanding may start out by

gathering information for the mind for many many years but end in a

sudden, total FELT realization and conviction that (for one thing)

you are not an ego/person as you took your self to be and that the

ego/person is not even real but a fictional character that you

created way back in eary childhood to help you cope with your

surroundings while covering or burying you true/real self. When all

that information culminates in the sudden felt conviction and belief

that you are not a someone/person, etc. you magically become what you

already are and were all along. Thanks to all that intellectual

information, you now realize without doubt what and who you are and

always were/will be. Give yourself whatever label/title you choose -

God, Self, All, Me, That, This, Brahman, Love, Tao, Joy, etc. if it

satisfies someone's mind/intellect but you just know beyond words and

concepts what you are as --------!

 

 

> Now spiritual practice ,which Ramesh does not deny .I have heard

him say in Mumbai "if it is the

> will of the Source you will do spiritual practice and nothing can

stop you".

 

It could be said that it is the will of impersonal Consciousness that

personal consciousness will do spiritual practice and nothing can

stop impersonal consciousness. All there is is Consciousness

 

 

 

He himself had a long

> search originally inspired by Ramana ,he had a Traditional Guru ,

as a Brahman , he obeyed his

> Guru and did the necessary Sadhanas .When he met Nisagaddatta

through reading about him in the

> Mountain Path he was led after three years to the "ultimate

understanding"

>

> The point about the Sadhaka is that he follows practices prescribed

by his Master[in our case

> Bhagavan] so that we are utterly convinced that there is no Jim or

Alan and there is no trace of

> him left.

 

LOL...there will be a trace of him left so long as one functions in

the world but it won't be a significant or dominant trace - it will

be a phantom in the background of your real life instead of the cruel

master of you as this little trace used to be....LOL.

When you are utterly convinced and feel the total absence of a

personal self that you no longer believe in, take seriously or

acknowledge as even existing - accept in your imagination, you will

have become yourself - alone. After that, you will no longer be a

seeker, Sadhaka or whatever title you used to carry - unless you take

such labels for practical/social purposes such as Bhagvan, Master,

Your Honor, Officer, etc.

 

 

 

That is what Atma Vichara is designed to do ,otherwise saying there

is no

> Alan,Jim,Michael or Gabriel could be in many cases just words.

 

 

Yet just words in many cases is the prelude to the final, sudden

awakening, realization and conviction or transformation, etc. So

just words can be an important and useful part of the process back to

one's self/being/reality.

 

 

>

> Every best wish in your quest , yours , Alan

> >

>

Alan:

 

 

Without folks like Ramesh, Poonja, Nisargadatta, etc. it might be

difficult to figure our what Ramana taught and one could take the

Atma Vichara to be just an intellectual/verbal/conceptual method to

discover what can be said but maybe never felt or realized - that you

are the Self/God etc.

 

Quoteing from WHO CARES by Ramesh Balsekar:

 

As long as you say "I am That," the persnal "I" is a separate one

from the Source, and what I am saying is, there is no "I" at all -

the "I" meaning the "me." The ego does not become one with the

Source. The ego disappears into the Source when there is the total

unconditional acceptance that there never was the ego. It is only a

direct withdrawl into impersonality that is more likely to bring

about the startling transformation known as metanoesis, whereby there

is a sudden and immediate conviction that the identitfication with a

separate individual entity never did really exist and was essintially

nothing but an illusion.

 

Thanks for sharing your knowledge of Ramesh and his teachings as they

relate to Ramana.

 

 

yours,

 

jim