Self Inquiry

[Guest guest]

Self Inqiry is the backbone of teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi. But

there is not one and only one simple staightforward way to it. David

Godmann explains...Self-inquiry is a bit like swimming or riding a

bicycle. You don't learn it from books. You learn it by doing it

again and again till you get it right... . Besides the Q and A ...to

whom arises these thoghts...to me... who am I?, which could not be

proper for everybody, it seems that there are other approaches to

Self inquiry too.

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi explicitly explains this times after times...

 

S: It is elusive. What shall I meditate upon?

M: Meditation requires an object to meditate upon, whereas there

is only the subject without the object in vichara. Meditation

differs from vichara in this way.

 

Now see how Adyashanti describes true meditation.

 

True Meditation

 

--

 

True meditation has no direction, goals, or method. All methods aim

at achieving a certain state of mind. All states are limited,

impermanent and conditioned. Fascination with states leads only to

bondage and dependency. True meditation is abidance as primordial

consciousness.

 

True meditation appears in consciousness spontaneously when

awareness is not fixated on objects of perception. When you first

start to meditate you notice that awareness is always focused on

some object: on thoughts, bodily sensations, emotions, memories,

sounds, etc. This is because the mind is conditioned to focus and

contract upon objects. Then the mind compulsively interprets what it

is aware of (the object) in a mechanical and distorted way. It

begins to draw conclusions and make assumptions according to past

conditioning.

 

 

 

In true meditation all objects are left to their natural

functioning. This means that no effort should be made to manipulate

or suppress any object of awareness. In true meditation the emphasis

is on being awareness; not on being aware of objects, but on resting

as primordial awareness itself. Primordial awareness (consciousness)

is the source in which all objects arise and subside. As you gently

relax into awareness, into listening, the minds compulsive

contraction around objects will fade. Silence of being will come

more clearly into consciousness as a welcoming to rest and abide. An

attitude of open receptivity, free of any goal or anticipation, will

facilitate the presence of silence and stillness to be revealed as

your natural condition.

 

 

 

Silence and stillness are not states and therefore cannot be

produced or created. Silence is the non-state in which all states

arise and subside. Silence, stillness and awareness are not states

and can never be perceived in their totality as objects. Silence is

itself the eternal witness without form or attributes. As you rest

more profoundly as the witness, all objects take on their natural

functionality, and awareness becomes free of the mind's

compulsive

contractions and identifications, and returns to its natural non-

state of Presence.

 

 

 

The simple yet profound question, "Who Am I ?," can then reveal

one's self not to be the endless tyranny of the ego-personality,

but

objectless Freedom of Being—Primordial Consciousness in which all

states and all objects come and go as manifestations of the Eternal

Unborn Self that YOU ARE.

 

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

 

© Adyashanti 1998. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

So this meditation is Self inqiry. It is interesting that when this

meditation happens to you all other methods vanish instantaneously,

and you practice it choicelessly. Suddenly meditation shifts from a

dry action with effort to a blissful effortless state.

 

 

 

Michael L in his discovery, AWA, describes a method to Self inquiry.

The beauty of AWA is that it bypasses the conventional methods of

meditations based on subject and object or meditator and object of

meditation. And it prepares the ground to True meditation to

happen. As Michael states anybody who is not stablized in a sort of

Self inquiry, could give it a fair chance and try. Perhaps it is for

you.

 

 

 

May any person among us and practicing Self inquiry with positive

outcomes exlpain his way.

 

 

 

May Bagavand leads us to right path of Self inquiry

 

 

 

With Love

 

Abdel

[Guest guest]

Dear Abdel,

 

Some comments if I may.

 

I have been imbibing Ramana's teaching (From Nome at SAT,

www.satramana.org) since 1990.

 

At first I was more reflecting than inquiring, but inquired as I

could.

 

Maybe five years ago or so, I dedicated myself more to the actual

practice, and set up my life where I would at least start each day

meditating (inquiring).

 

I heard Nome say, again and again, that the Self is already who we

are, so there is nothing to attain, it is rather a matter of removing

the ignorance, the mid-identifications.

IK have read in many places in Ramana's teachings, like in "Talks,"

where Ramana said that chief among the mis-identifications is the mis-

identification with the body.

 

Hearing Nome's teachings, and reading such books as Adi Sankara's

Crest Jewel of Discrimination or Viveka-Chudamani, I started using

this with my inquiry, again maybe five years ago.

 

I started, just letting my mind go where it would in the body, and

would look at this deeply, then ask, "Is that who I am?" I would

notice that whatever it was, that it was objective, it is something

that was known. Nome taught me to ask, "Who is it that knows this?"

This took the inquiry deeper than the objective. Nome says something

like, "Let the aim of your inquiry be non-objective." I think he uses

this wording to get out of the object-subject duality.

 

After a while (some months) with this approach, I started a more

organized approach, inquiring from gross to subtle through the five

sheaths. Am I this body? Am I this life energy? Am I this thought? Am

I bound by the repeating ignorance that arises out of deep sleep? In

each case, it is something objective. Who I am MUST be closer to the

knower than the known.

 

I learned to start my inquiry just noticing that I exist. This is

something that is certain, that is not any kind of mental knowledge.

 

Finally, I just slowed down to the base of this, Am I this body? My

inquiry basically stayed here for maybe four years.

 

Starting a few weeks ago (after I returned from Tiruvannamalai and

Ramanasramam) I have started getting the clear sense, "How can I be

this "meat' body? I never rises from it, it is always projected onto

the body." As this came to me, my meditations started getting deeper.

When I came back from the trip, my desire for liberation was much

greater. My practice has become more intense. Maybe that is a part of

the changes I am seeing as well. I find I am much more certain that

nothing in this changing ego-world will bring any lasting happiness.

So more focus on practice.

 

So now, usually I will `sit' in inquiry four times a day. I get up a

five AM and meditate twice before I go to work, and twice more after

I get home.

 

I have started getting more sense that since I am not any of

the "meat" body, how can I be the organs of action (hands, feet,

mouth, etc.). With this comes more of a sense of how can I be this

body?

 

I certainly am still just another seeker. But my practice is

more `alive,' and the peace of Being is much more at hand. And I have

had glimpses of the freedom and joy found when one is no longer

identified as the body.

 

And when the mis-identification with the body is resolved, then the

go does not have much to stand on.

 

That is my experience with practice. Ramana wrote in `Self-inquiry"

that first he discriminated that he was not this body, then he was

able to find the unchanging Knowledge of the Self. This is basically

what I practice. Still my practice is ongoing, but I feel that

somehow, it will never turn back. We all stand in the Grace of

Ramana. (But I think that it is up to the seeker whether (s)he stakes

advantage of that Grace.

 

Not two,

Richard

 

 

 

 

RamanaMaharshi, "aroushan2000"

<a_roushan@s...> wrote:

>

(Big snip)

>

> May any person among us and practicing Self inquiry with positive

> outcomes explain his way.

>

>

>

> May Bagavan leads us to right path of Self inquiry

>

>

>

> With Love

>

> Abdel

[Guest guest]

~~~~~~~

Hi:

 

I was doing it 24/7 for a long time. Then, one afternoon I was reading

something that Bobby Meizer said about John Wheeler and it clicked.

There was like a shift in consciousness. I went into some kind of

samadhi or ecstatic bliss. It hasn't stopped.

 

There's no more inquiry. I AM is all there is. I AM awareness.

Everything else is just like dust particles floating in and out;

impermanent. The Self is all. It's awesome.

 

Yours,

 

fuzzie

[Guest guest]

Om Namo Bhagavathe Sri Ramanaaya...

 

>Everything else is just like dust particles floating in and out;> impermanent.

 

>I AM is all there is

 

Indeed! ... but..

Why stop here?

Who experiences this?

Even here, especially here, the enquiry must be continued...

 

Siva—Siva

 

-

"fuzzie_wuz" <fuzzie_wuz >

<RamanaMaharshi>

Friday, April 22, 2005 2:00 AM

[RamanaMaharshi] Re: Self Inquiry

> > > ~~~~~~~> Hi:> > I was doing it 24/7 for a long time. Then, one afternoon I

was reading> something that Bobby Meizer said about John Wheeler and it

clicked.> There was like a shift in consciousness. I went into some kind of>

samadhi or ecstatic bliss. It hasn't stopped. > > There's no more inquiry. I AM

is all there is. I AM awareness.> Everything else is just like dust particles

floating in and out;> impermanent. The Self is all. It's awesome. > > Yours, >

> fuzzie....

 

 

Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 266.9.17 - Release 19/04/2005

[Guest guest]

In David Godman's book Be as you are Ramana admonishes the aspirant

to hold on to the thought I until it to is consumed by the light of

the self. To attempt to continue to hold on, to continue to enquire

once the experience of the self is evident is wrong and he warns

against it. There is a point where one must let go of the thought I

and allow all mental activity to focus on the self.

 

RamanaMaharshi, "John" <ramanachala@o...>

wrote:

> Om Namo Bhagavathe Sri Ramanaaya...

>

> >Everything else is just like dust particles floating in and out;

> > impermanent.

>

> >I AM is all there is

>

> Indeed! ... but..

> Why stop here?

> Who experiences this?

> Even here, especially here, the enquiry must be continued...

>

> Siva-Siva

>

> -

> "fuzzie_wuz" <fuzzie_wuz>

> <RamanaMaharshi>

> Friday, April 22, 2005 2:00 AM

> [RamanaMaharshi] Re: Self Inquiry

>

>

> >

> >

> > ~~~~~~~

> > Hi:

> >

> > I was doing it 24/7 for a long time. Then, one afternoon I was

reading

> > something that Bobby Meizer said about John Wheeler and it

clicked.

> > There was like a shift in consciousness. I went into some kind of

> > samadhi or ecstatic bliss. It hasn't stopped.

> >

> > There's no more inquiry. I AM is all there is. I AM awareness.

> > Everything else is just like dust particles floating in and out;

> > impermanent. The Self is all. It's awesome.

> >

> > Yours,

> >

> > fuzzie

> ....

>

>

> Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 266.9.17 - Release Date:

19/04/2005

[Guest guest]

Dear Member,

 

Please remember to quote text properly, where appropriate.

"in David Godman's book 'Be as you are'" doesn't really mean much.

Where in the book? What is actually said? Please quote more precisely.

Thank you.

 

Kind Regards,

Miles

---------

 

On 22 Apr 2005, at 11:45, everbodystalkinatme wrote:

 

> In David Godman's book Be as you are Ramana admonishes the aspirant

> to hold on to the thought I until it to is consumed by the light of

> the self.  To attempt to continue to hold on, to continue to enquire

> once the experience of the self is evident is wrong and he warns

> against it.  There is a point where one must let go of the thought I

> and allow all mental activity to focus on the self.

>

Attachment: (text/enriched) [not stored]

[Guest guest]

Dear contributor,

 

I can't find a quote in David Godmans book which would say this. The last part

of your statement seems me indeed a torally wrong interpretation.

 

Here is a quote in "Be As you Are" from Chapter 5 p, 56, which explains it more correctly:

First comes vichara - vichara - vichara - and again vichara - then perhaps ...

this may happen,

when vichara becomes continuous:

"Repeated experience of this state of being weakens and destroys the vasanas

(mental tendencies) which cause the 'I'-thought to rise, and when their hold

has been sufficiently weakened, the power of the Self destroys the residual

tendencies so completely that the 'I'-thought never rises again. This is the final

and irreversible state of Self-Realisation."

 

This is something quite different, isn't it.

I think we all have just to practice vichara and not to care for more for now - taking myself

by the nose too

 

Kind Regards

Gabriele

-

everbodystalkinatme

RamanaMaharshi

Friday, April 22, 2005 12:45 PM

[RamanaMaharshi] Re: Self Inquiry

In David Godman's book Be as you are Ramana admonishes the aspirant to hold on

to the thought I until it to is consumed by the light of the self. To attempt

to continue to hold on, to continue to enquire once the experience of the self

is evident is wrong and he warns against it. There is a point where one must

let go of the thought I and allow all mental activity to focus on the self.

[Guest guest]

RamanaMaharshi, "John" <ramanachala@o...> wrote:

> Om Namo Bhagavathe Sri Ramanaaya...

>

> >Everything else is just like dust particles floating in and out;

> > impermanent.

>

> >I AM is all there is

>

> Indeed! ... but..

> Why stop here?

> Who experiences this?

> Even here, especially here, the enquiry must be continued...

>

> Siva-Siva

>

>

Hi, John and Everbodystalking:

 

It is pointless to question it any longer. I am it.

 

You know that you exist, right? And, you know that you exist because

you are aware that you exist. And, that is it; I AM; being-awareness.

That is self-realization, in a nutshell. It is so simple; just be.

 

Continue atma vichara until there is no longer any question, any doubt.

 

Yours,

 

fuzzie

[Guest guest]

Hi Fuz

Its obvious isn't it! You are Brahman.....totally joyous.

congratulations.

dan

[Guest guest]

Om Namo Bhagavathe Sri Ramanaaya...

 

“Forget about being a Jñani or ‘enlightened’, or having Self-Realization.

I get too many calls like that. People are calling me from all over the world

telling me that they are Self-Realized. So now I just say,

“Good. What do you want me to do?”

They want the confirmation.

So I was thinking of printing certificates and mailing them out.

 

This is to inform you that you are now Self-realized.

Congratulations!”

 

Taken from

 

The Silence of the Heart, by Robert Adams.

 

anbudan

 

John

Siva—Siva

 

-

"everbodystalkinatme" <sitting.quietly (AT) msa (DOT) hinet.net>

<RamanaMaharshi>

Monday, April 25, 2005 7:58 AM

[RamanaMaharshi] Re: Self Inquiry

> > > Hi Fuz> Its obvious isn't it! You are Brahman.....totally joyous.>

congratulations.> dan> > > > > > > > > > ------------------------

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