Guest guest Posted May 18, 2005 Report Share Posted May 18, 2005 3. The jnani (excerpt) Many of the Sri Ramana's visitors appeared to have an insatiable curiosity about the state of Self-realization and they were particularly interested to know how a jnani experienced himself and the world around him. Some of the questions he was asked on the subject reflected the bizarre notions that many people had about this state, but most of them tended to be variations of one of the four following questions: 1. How can a jnani function without any individual awareness of consciousness? 2. How can he say that he 'does nothing' (a statement which Sri Ramana often made) when others see him active in the world? 3. How does he perceive the world? Does he perceive the world at all? 4. How does the jnani's awareness of pure consciousness relate to the alternating states of body and mind consciousness experienced in waking, dreaming and sleeping? The hidden premise behind all such questions is the belief that there is a person (the jnani) who experiences a state he calls the Self. This assumption is not true. It is merely a mental construct devised by those who have not realized the Self (ajnanis) to make sense of the jnani's experience. Even the use of the word jnani is indicative of this erroneous belief since it literally means a knower of jnana, the reality. The ajnani uses this term because he imagines that the world is made up of seekers of reality and knowers of reality; the truth of the Self is that there are neither jnanis nor ajnanis, there is only jnana. Sri Ramana pointed this out both directly and indirectly on many occasions, but few of his questioners were able to grasp, even conceptually, the implications of such a statement. Because of this he usually adapted his ideas in such a way that they conformed to the prejudices of his listeners. In most of the conversations in this chapter he accepts that his questioners perceive a distinction between the jnani and the ajnani,and without challenging the basis of that assumption, he assumes the role of the jnani and attempts to explain the implications of being in that state. http://www.geocities.com/_library/Books/be_as_you_are.html Discover Stay in touch with email, IM, photo sharing more. Check it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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