laya and recognition

[Guest guest]

From Talks with Ramana Maharshi:

 

D: Without the mind concentrating on it the work cannot be performed

satisfactorily. How is the mind to be spiritually disposed and the work kept

going as well?

 

M: The mind is only a projection from the Self, appearing in the waking

state. In deep sleep, you do not say whose son you are and so on. As soon as

you wake up you say you are so and so, and recognise the world and so on.The

world is only lokah (what is percieved is the world). That which is seen is

lokah or the world. Which is the eye that sees it? That is the ego which

rises and sinks periodically. But you exist always. Therefore That which

lies beyond the ego is Consciousness- the Self.

 

In deep sleep mind is merged and not destroyed. That which merges reappears.

It may happen in meditation also. But the mind which is destroyed cannot

reappear. The yogi's aim must be to destroy it and not to sink in laya

(dissolution). In the peace of dhyana, laya ensues but it is not enough. It

must be supplemented with other practices for destroying the mind. Some

people have gone into samadhi with a triffling thought and after a long time

awakened in the trail of the same thought. In the meantime generations have

passed away in the world. Such a yogi has not destroyed his mind. Its

destruction is the non-recognition of it as as being apart from the Self.

Even now the mind is not. Recognise it. How can you do it if not in everyday

activities? They go on automatically. Know that the mind promoting them is

not real but a phantom proceeding from the Self. That is how the mind is

destroyed.

 

78. A man from Masulla asked the Master: " How to realise the Self? "

 

M: Everyone has experience of the Self every moment of his life.

 

D: But the Self is not realised as one would like.

 

M: Yes. The present experience is viparita- different from real. What is

not is confounded with what is.

 

D: How to find the Atman?

 

M: There is no investigation into the Atman. The investigation can only be

into the non-self. Elimination of the non-self is alone possible. The Self

being always self evident will shine forth of itself.