The Nature of The Self - [2]

[Guest guest]

Q: When a man realises the Self, what will he see?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi:

There is no seeing. Seeing is only being. The state of Self-

realisation, as we call it, is not attaining something new or

reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you

always are and which you always have been. All that is needed is that

you give up your realisation of the not-true as true. All of us are

regarding as real that which is not real. We have only to give up

this practice on our part. Then we shall realise the Self as the

Self, in other words, `Be the Self.' At one stage you will laugh at

yourself for trying to discover the Self which is not self-evident.

So, what can we say to this question?

 

That stage transcends the seer and the seen. There is no seer there

to see anything. The seer who is seeing all this now ceases to exist

and the Self alone remains.

 

Q: How to know this by direct experience?

 

A:If we talk of knowing the Self, there must be two selves, one a

knowing self, another the self which is known, and the process of

knowing. The state we call realisation is simply being oneself, not

knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realised, one is

that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot

describe that state. One can only be that. Of course, we loosely talk

of Self-realisation, for want of a better term. How to `real-ise' or

make the real that which alone is real?

 

___ from BE AS YOU ARE, David Godman