Help on the Quest for Self-realization-Reminders-64

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Help on the Quest for Self-realization-Reminders-64

 

The Quest of the real Self consists in gathering all the energies of

the body and the mind by banishing (dismiss from one's presence or

mind) all alien thoughts, and then directing all those energies into

a single current, namely the resolve to find the answer to the

question: "Who am I?" The question may take the form of "Whence am

I?". "Who am I?" means "What is the truth of me?". "Whence am I?"

means "What is the source of the sense of self in the ego?"

 

The seeker must be devoted to (apply or give over (resources etc.,

or oneself) to) the finding of the real Self-the source of "I am" in

the ego-by the ingathering of all the vital and mental energies and

directing them Self-wards. The resolve to find the Self is the

dynamic (an energizing or motive force) element in the Quest,

without which there can be no diving into the heart. The

question "Who am I?" or "Whence am I?" implies this resolve.

 

Every alien thought that arises in the Quest and is quelled (crush

or put down) adds to the mind's strength, says the Sage, and thus

takes the seeker one step closer to his goal [self-Realization].

 

Practice means removal of age-old predispositions (samskaras), which

form, so to speak, grooves (an established routine or habit) on the

mind. So long as they are not smoothed out and their roots cut,

illusion and suffering will prevail, as this pertains to embodied

life in ignorance of the Truth.

 

The ego is synonymous with illusion. To know that there never was

ignorance is the goal of all spiritual teaching.

 

It is no use saying that there is not an ego and behaving as though

there is. It is living on the assumption that there is an ego that

prevents one from realizing that there is not, that is from

attaining Liberation.

 

Conscious deliberate effort is needed to attain that effortless

state of stillness. So long as the mind is not steady enough to

retain the experience of eternity the greatest effort and

perseverance are essential.

 

Live each day as it comes on the assumption of the unreality of the

individual self. That would imply complete renunciation

(renouncing / abandoning or giving up) of egoism, of boasting and

craving and domineering and other encroachments. A technique is

usually needed for it. The one that Krishna enjoined in the Gita is

cool, efficient, impersonal activity, doing what is right because it

is right, irrespective of gain or loss, or of pain or pleasure.

That does not mean, of course, that there must be no profit or

pleasure. Only profit and pleasure should not override duty and

become the dominating motive in life. But even a discipline of

disinterested activity seldom suffices to dissolve the ego-sense.

It is an attempt to starve out the ego but needs a more violent

campaign to destroy him. This can be surrender or enquiry. The

Maharshi said: "there are two ways; ask yourself "Who am I?", or

submit".

 

Meditation that leads to Self-realization is neither idle reverie (a

fantastic notion or theory) nor vacant inaction but an intense inner

struggle to gain control over the mind. Earnest effort never fails.

 

One who rests satisfied at the stage of intellectual understanding

is far from the goal and is likely to fall into the illusion

of "having arrived without arriving".

 

Source: Various reliable publications of / on Sri Ramana Maharshi's

teachings.