Guest guest Posted May 21, 2007 Report Share Posted May 21, 2007 Nisargadatta , " Cecilia " <martone wrote: > > Hi Bill > > Thank you for your thoughts. > > I meant the Self as " I " really..in In the book " Self Inquiry " ( p.4), we > read Sri Ramana Maharshi saying: > " ... the thoughts that appear in the heart have as their basis the egoity > which is the first mental mode `I', the cognition of the form `I > > am the body'; thus, it is the rise of egoity that is the cause and source of > the rise of all other > > thoughts(...) " > > I was asking about the mental mode " I " , in fact. If the " I " that is the > origin of all thoughts was not the real Self. > > > > Thank you again > > Cecilia > > Ramana uses the term " I " in different ways. Striving for analytic clarity about Ramana's use of terms could be an arduous undertaking. He also talks about the " I-I " ... which means something quite different from " the mental mode 'I' " , just as he talks about Self and self. I'll make a rough stab at it: When he says " mental mode 'I' " he is referring to a conceptualized entity that participates in activities, owns things, etc. The I-I, on the other hand, is not an agent in phenomenal appearance, but the " ground " wherein all phenomenal appearance arises. The I-I then, is not " somebody " , while the " mental mode 'I' " is. The " mental mode 'I' " is the fly-in-the-ointment, a distraction that hides the profound depth of I-I which is ever and always present but missed by attention to the shallow, much like the silence of the forest is missed when one has an ipod plugged into one's ears. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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