Meditation - 9 - Last and Final Set of Questions & Answers on Meditation

[Guest guest]

Dear Learned Devotees,

 

Thank you very much for giving me this rare

opportunity to serve you. I am really indebted to you

all. These are the final set of questions and answers

in the booklet on Meditation. May God Bless All. Om.

 

40. D: How to do all this?

 

M: The lack of the feeling that we are the Self is the

root cause of the trouble. Leave off thoughts and be,

just be. It is the thoughts alone that create the

hindrance; they are the trouble. Find out to whom the

thoughts occur, so long as you think that an

individual self exists, it will appear to do so, but

find out where it arises and it will go.

 

Those who have discovered great Truths, have done so

in the still depth of the Self.

 

41. D: Is the state of unconsciousness close to

infinite being?

 

M: He who knows the Self has nothing more to do.

Henceforth the Infinite Power will do all further

actions that may be necessary through him. Nor has he

any more thoughts.

 

During meditation that is directed towards the Self,

the thoughts actually die down of their own accord.

Meditation can be directed to different objects, but

when directed to the true Self, it is turned to the

subject.

 

Thoughts are our enemy. When we are free of thoughts

we are naturally blissful. The gap between two

thoughts is our true state, it is the real Self. Get

rid of thoughts, be empty of them, be in a state of

perpetual thoughtlessness. Then you are consciously

Self-existent. Thoughts, desires and all qualities are

alien to our true nature. The West may praise a man as

a great thinker. But what is that? True greatness is

to be free of thoughts.

 

The true answer to the question Who Am I does not come

in thoughts. All thoughts disappear – even the thinker

himself disappears.

 

42. D: How can the mind be made to go?

 

M: No attempt is made to destroy it. To think or wish

is in itself a thought. If the thinker is sought, the

thoughts will disappear.

 

43. D: You say one can realise the Self by a search

for it. What is the character of this search?

 

M: You are the mind or think that you are the mind.

The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now, behind every

particular thought there is a general thought which is

the “I”, that is your Self. Let us call this “I” the

first thought. Stick to this I-thought and question it

to find out what it is. When this question takes

strong hold on you, you cannot think of other

thoughts.

 

D: When I do like this and cling to my self, i.e., the

thought, other thoughts do come and go, but I say to

myself ‘Who am I?’ and there is no answer forthcoming.

To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?

 

M: This is a mistake that people often make. What

happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is

that the I-thought as a thought disappears, something

else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not

the ‘I’ which commenced the quest.

 

D: What is this something else?

 

M: That is the real Self, the import of ‘I’. It is not

the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.

 

44. D: But you have often said that one must reject

other thoughts when he begins the quest, but the

thoughts are endless; if one thought is rejected,

another comes and there seems to be no end at all.

 

M: I do not say that you must go on rejecting

thoughts. If you cling to yourself, say the I-thought,

and when your interest keeps you to that single idea,

other thoughts get rejected, automatically they

vanish.

 

D: And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?

 

M: No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You

fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting

every thought when it rises. No. There is an end. If

you are vigilant, and make a stern effort to reject

every thought when it rises, you will soon find that

you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner

Self., where there is no need for your effort to

reject the thoughts.

 

 

D: Then it is possible to be without effort?

 

M: Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an

effort beyond a certain extent.

 

D: I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to

make no effort at all?

 

M: Here it is impossible for you to be without effort.

When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make

any effort.

 

45. D: Then I can dispense with outside help and by my

own effort get into the deeper with by myself.

 

M: True. But the very fact that you are possessed of

the quest of the Self is a manifestation of the divine

grace. It is effulgent in the Heart, the inner being,

the Real Self. It draws you from within. You have to

attempt to get in from without. Your attempt is

Vichara (earnest – quest), the deep inner movement is

Grace. That is why I say there is no real Vichara

without Grace, nor is Grace active for him who is

without Vichara. Bot are necessary.

 

46. D: If I go on rejecting thoughts, can I call it

Vichara?

 

M: It may be a stepping stone. But really Vichara

beings when you cling to your Self and are already off

the mental movement, the thought-waves.

 

D: Then Vichara is not intellectual?

 

M: No, it is inner quest.

 

D: That is dhyana?

 

M: To stick to a position unassailed by thoughts is

practice, you are watchful. But the condition grows

intenser and deeper when your effort and all

responsibilities are taken away from you; that is

Aroodha, Siddhi state.

 

47. D: What is the paramount duty of a human being

caught up in the cycle of births and deaths? Please

decide on one and expound it to me.

 

M: For those desiring the highest, discerning one’s

own true nature is most important. It is the basis of

all actions and their fruits.

 

D: Briefly by what spiritual practice does one become

aware of one’s own true nature? What effort brings

about the exalted inner vision?

 

M: Withdrawing all thoughts from sense objects through

effort, one should remain fixed in steady

non-objective enquiry.

 

48. D: What are the hindrances to Self-realisation?

 

M: Memory chiefly, habits of thought, accumulated

tendencies.

D: How to get rid of these hindrances?

 

M: Seek the Self by meditation in this manner. Trace

every thought to its origin, which is only the mind.

Never allow thought to run on. If you do, it would be

unending. Take it back to its starting place again and

again and the mind would die of inaction. Go back

constantly to question ‘Who am I?’ Tear everything

away until only the source of all is left. And then

live always in the present, only in it. There is no

past or future except in the mind.

 

D: What meditation would help me?

 

M: No meditation on any kind of object is helpful. You

must learn to realise that the subject and object are

one. In meditating on an object, whether concrete or

abstract, you are destroying the sense of oneness and

creating duality. Meditate on what you are in reality

…. You will find …..

 

D: What?

 

M: You will discover. It is not for me to say what an

individual experience would be. It would reveal

itself. Hold on to it.

 

49. D: Isn’t all that is seen one in the final

analysis?

 

M: You say that on final analysis all that I see or

think or do is one; but that really comprises two

notions; the all that is seen and the I that does the

seeing, thinking and doing, and says ‘I’. Which of

these two is true and important? Obviously the seer,

since the seen is dependent on it. So, turn your

attention to the seer who is the source of your ‘I’

and realise that. This is the real task. Up to now you

have been studying the object, not the subject; now

find out for what reality this word ‘I’ stands. Find

the entity which is the source of the expression ‘I’.

That is the Self, the Self of all selves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks a lot Gopi. It is extremely useful.

 

It re-inforces the importance of effort when Ramana says:

 

"Here it is impossible for you to be without effort.

When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make

any effort."

 

That removes the delusion that self-realisation is effortless for everybody

right from the beginning.

 

Love

Sachin

 

 

 

 

 

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Gopi Krishna

10/06/05 02:02:13

RamanaMaharshi

[RamanaMaharshi] Meditation - 9 - Last and Final Set of Questions &

Answers on Meditation

 

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