Sri Ramana Maharshi - Who am I? ( # 13 )

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Keeping the mind fixed in the Self at all times is called

self-enquiry, whereas thinking oneself to be Brahman, which is

'sat-chit-ananda' [being-consciousness-bliss], is meditation. Eventually,

all that one has learnt will have to be forgotten.

 

[sri David Godman's comments:

One can distinguish different levels of experiance in the practice of

self-enquiry. In the beginning one attempts to eliminate all transient thoughts

by concentrating on or looking for the primal 'I'-thought. This corresponds to

the stage Bhagawan described earlier in the essay when one cuts down all the

enemies, the thoughts, as they emerge from the fortress of the mind. If one

achieves success in this for any length of time, the 'I'-thought, deprived of

new thoughts to attach itself to, begins to subside, and one then moves to a

deeper level of experiance. The 'I'-thought descends into the Heart and remains

there temporarily until the residual 'vasanas' cause it to rise again. It is

this second stage that Bhagavan refers to when he says that 'keeping the mind

fixed in the Self alone can be called self-enquiry'. Most practitioners of

sely-enquiry will readily admit that this rarely happens to them, but

neverthless, according

to Bhagavan's teachings, fixing the mind in the Self should be regarded as an

intermediate goal on the path to full realisation.

It is interesting to note that Bhagavan restricts the term

'self-enquiry' to this phase of the practice. This unusual definition was more

or less repeated in an answer he gave to Kapali Sastri:

 

Q.: If I go on rejecting thoughts, can I call it 'vichara'

[self-enquiry]?

A.: It may be a stepping stone. But real 'vichara' begins when

you cling to yourself and are already off the mental

movements, the thought waves.

(Sad Darshana bhashya, 1975 ed., p.ix)

 

The following optimistic answers by Bhagavan, on keeping the mind in the

Heart, may provide encouragement to those practitioners who often feel that such

experiances may never come their way:

 

Q.: How long can the mind stay or be kept in the Heart?

A.: The period extends by practice.

Q.: What will happen at the end of that period?

A.: The mind returns to the present normal state. Unity in the

Heart is replaced by a variety of perceived phenomena.

This is called the outgoing mind. The Heart-going mind is

called the resting mind.

When one daily practices more and more in this manner,

the mind will become extremely pure due to the removal

of its defects and the practice will become so easy that the

purified mind will plunge into the Heart as soon as the

enquiry is commenced.

(Be As You Are, p.66)

 

Bhagavan noted that 'thinking oneself to be 'Brahman' ....is

maditation', not enquiry. Traditional advaitic 'sadhana' follows the path of

negation and affirmation. In the negative approach, one continuously rejects

all thoughts, feelings and sensations as 'not I'. On the affirmative route one

attempts to cultivate the attitude 'I am Brahman' or 'I am the Self'. Bhagavan

called this latter approach, and all other techniques in which one concentrates

on an idea or a form, 'meditation', and regarded all such methods as being

indirect and inferior to self-enquiry.

 

Q.: Is not affirmation of God more effective than the quest 'Who am I?'

 

Affirmation is positive, whereas the other is negation. Moreover,

it

indicates seperateness.

A.: So long as you seek to know how to realise, this advice is

given to find your Self. Your seeking the method denotes

your seperateness.

Q.: Is it not better to say 'I am the Supreme Being' than ask 'Who am

I?'

A.: Who affirms? There must be one to do it. Find that one.

Q.: Is not meditation better than investigation?

A.: Meditation implies mental imagery, whereas investigation

is for the reality. The former is objective, whereas the latter

is subjective.

Q.: There must be a scientific approach to this subject.

A.: To eschew unreality and seek the reality is scientific.

( Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk no 338 )]

 

 

 

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