Fwd: Help on the Quest for Self-realization-Reminders-93-END

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ThePowerOfSilence , " saikali6362 "

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Help on the Quest for Self-realization-Reminders-93-END

 

THE UNITY OF SURRENDER AND SELF-ENQUIRY – PART

II - CONCLUSION

 

Bearing this in mind it will now be constructive to have a closer

look at the practice of self-enquiry, and to focus attention on the

large overlap that exists between enquiry and surrender. Ramana's

advice on self-enquiry was clear, simple and direct, but like his

advice on surrender, it has often been misunderstood and

misrepresented. The easiest way to avoid errors is to remember three

simple but fundamental tenets of Ramana's teachings; firstly, that

we are all Realized here and now and that the only purpose of

sadhana is to remove the idea that we are not; secondly, there is no

individual self to extinguish because the individual self never at

any time existed; and thirdly no amount of mental sadhana is helpful

because the mind cannot do anything except extend the frontiers of

its own ignorance. If an awareness of these points is continually

maintained, then the most obvious errors in practice can be avoided.

One immediately sees that concentration on a point in the body is

counterproductive because it involves mental effort. One can also

eliminate the idea that self-enquiry is a mantra or an exercise in

self-analysis because both of these approaches involve mental

activity. On a more subtle Ievel, if one maintains an awareness that

the individual self at no time ever exists then one can avoid the

dangerous but often deeply-rooted notion that self-enquiry involves

one self looking for another self.

 

To cut through the entanglements of these and similar

misconceptions, and to find out what positive practical advice

Ramana had to offer on self-enquiry, one cannot do better than go

back to the words of Ramana himself. In Maharshi's Gospel, he says

that: " The purpose of self-enquiry is to focus the entire mind at

its source " . (p.48). The purpose of this focusing is the same as

that which has just been outlined for the practice of surrender.

According to Ramana the mind is only a connection of ignorant ideas

and unless one steps completely outside this mental realm by keeping

attention on the being from which the mind emerges, then the

ignorance and the wrong ideas inevitably continue. It is important

to note that Ramana never explains self-enquiry as a practice by

which an individual self is eliminated, he always phrases his advice

to indicate that when one looks for the source of the mind or the

ego, they both disappear, and it is discovered that neither of them

ever existed. This stepping outside the mind is as crucial to an

understanding of self-enquiry as it is to an understanding of

surrender.

 

In a passage in Talks he says: " The fact is that the mind is only a

bundle of thoughts. How can you extinguish it by the thought of

doing so or by a desire… Your thoughts and desires are part and

parcel of the mind! The mind is simply fattened by new thoughts

rising up. Therefore it is foolish to attempt to kill the mind by

means of the mind. The only way to do it is to find its source and

hold on to it.'' (p. 463).

 

This finding the source and holding on to it is the beginning, end

and purpose of self-enquiry. The precise method is simple and well

known. When thoughts arise one does not allow them to develop. One

asks oneself the words " To whom do these thoughts occur? " And the

answer is " To me, " and then the question occurs " Then who am I? What

is this thing in me which I keep calling `I'? "

 

By doing this practice one is shifting attention from the world of

thoughts to the being from where the thought and the thinker first

emerged. The transfer of attention is simply executed because if one

holds onto the feeling " I am " the initial thought of " I " will

gradually give way to the feeling of " I " and then sooner or later

this feeling " I am " will merge into being itself, to a state where

there is no longer either a thinker of the thought `I' or a feeler

of the feeling `I am'; there will only be being itself. This is the

stage where attention to the feeling of " I am " has merged with the

being from which it came so that there is no longer the dualistic

distinction of a person giving attention to the feeling of " I am " .

There is only being and awareness of being.

 

lf this practice is done persistently, then the verbal redirection

of attention soon becomes redundant; as soon as there is the

awareness of attachment to a particular thought then attention is

immediately switched back to the being, from which the thoughts and

the imaginary thinker came.

 

It is important to stress that the verbal preliminaries of

asking " Who am I? " or " To whom do these thoughts occur? " are simply

tools to redirect the attention; the real self-enquiry begins with

the subsequent witnessing of the disappearance of the thoughts and

the re-emergence of being as the mind subsides into temporary

abeyance.

 

Ramana summarized this very succinctly when he said in

Talks: " Abhyasa (spiritual practice) consists of withdrawal into the

self every time you are disturbed by thought. It is not

concentration or destruction of the mind, but withdrawal into the

Self " . (p. 464).

 

Since, in Ramana's terminology the terms being and Self are

virtually synonymous, what he is describing here is the practice of

withdrawing into being, and remaining there undisturbed by the

transient distractions of thoughts.

 

This practice may be viewed from two perspectives. On the higher

levels of surrender maintaining awareness of being can be seen as a

surrendering of wrong ideas including the wrong idea that there is

someone to surrender, whereas in self-enquiry, one reaches this same

point of being by actively discarding thoughts and by tracing back

the feeling of " I am " , until it finally subsides into the being from

which it came.

 

Though the two descriptions might appear to be describing two

completely different approaches, particularly in the preliminary

stages, if the practices of surrender and self-enquiry are

persistently and earnestly pursued, the two approaches finally merge

imperceptibly into the single practice of being. To surrender false

ideas is simply to be and that same state of being is the point

where thoughts and the idea of the thinker disappear. This point,

this state of being, is beautifully described in Talks when Ramana

says: " It is the state of perfect awareness and perfect stillness

combined. It is the interval between two successive thoughts, and

the source from which the thoughts spring… Go to the root of the

thoughts and you reach the stillness of sleep. But you reach it in

the full vigor of search, that is with perfect awareness. " (p. 564)

 

This point which Ramana describes so graphically is the point of

convergence between the path of self-enquiry and the path of

surrender. The final, definitive detachment from ignorance has not

yet happened, for this final elimination is a matter for the Self.

Until that elimination takes place one can only be, and once the

awareness of being is maintained effortlessly, then the being of

surrender in which one has given up all ideas, is the same being

which results from witnessing the disappearance of the " I–thought " .

 

This state of being is still a stage of sadhana, for it lacks

permanence and the mind is liable to reassert its dominance at any

time. However it is the final stage, and as such it is the purest

and deepest level of both surrender and self-enquiry. It is a state

which belongs neither to the world of ignorance nor to the Absolute

Reality, but somehow, mysteriously, according to Ramana, it provides

the link between the two.

 

When Ramana said on one occasion, " Do not meditate, BE, do not think

that you are, BE " , (Secret of Anurachala, p. 73), he was summarizing

the whole of his practical teachings, because for Ramana, it is only

in this state of effortless awareness of being that the final

Realization will be revealed.

 

The Mountain Path, 1981) Om Sri Ramanarpanamastu

 

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