Michael James about nature of mind based on teachings of Ramana Maharshi - Final Part

[Guest guest]

Any world that we may perceive is nothing but a series of mental images or

thoughts that we form in our mind by our power of imagination. Since the

world is therefore nothing but our own thoughts, and since the root of all

our thoughts is our primary thought ‘I am this body’, the appearance of the

world, which includes the appearance of the body that we mistake to be

ourself, obscures our true knowledge of ourself – our non-dual consciousness

of our own essential being, ‘I am’. This process of obscuration is explained

clearly by Sri Ramana in the fourth paragraph of Nan Yar?:

 

That which is called ‘mind’ is an atisaya sakti [an extraordinary or

wonderful power] that exists in atma-svarupa [our essential self]. It

projects all thoughts [or causes all thoughts to appear].When [we] see [what

remains] having removed [relinquished, discarded, dispelled, erased or

destroyed] all [our] thoughts, [we will discover that] solitarily [separate

from or independent of thoughts] there is no such thing as ‘mind’; therefore

thought alone is the svarupa [the ‘own form’ or basic nature] of [our] mind.

Having removed [all our] thoughts, [we will discover that] there is no such

thing as ‘world’ [existing separately or independently] as other [than our

thoughts]. In sleep there are no thoughts, [and consequently] there is also

no world; in waking and dream there are thoughts, [and consequently] there

is also a world. Just as a spider spins out [a] thread from within itself

and again draws [it back] into itself, so [our] mind projects [this or some

other] world from within itself and again dissolves [it back] into itself.

 

Since our thoughts are the veil that obscures our true nature, which is

perfect peace and happiness, our experience of thoughts and the world

created by our thoughts is the real cause of all our unhappiness. As Sri

Ramana says at the end of the fourteenth paragraph of Nan Yar? (a complete

translation of which is given in the final pages of the first chapter):

 

… What is called the world is only thought. When the world disappears, that

is, when thought ceases, [our] mind experiences happiness; when the world

appears, it experiences unhappiness.

 

The existence of any world is dependent upon the body through which we

perceive it. The existence of any such body is dependent upon our mind,

which experiences it as ‘I’. The existence of our mind is dependent upon our

essential consciousness, without which it could not know either its own

existence or the existence of any other thing.

 

No machine can gain energy merely by ceasing to be active. We cannot

recharge a battery simply by ceasing to use it for a while. In order to

recharge it, we have to connect it to some source of power,such as the mains

electricity or a generator. Likewise, our mind does not renew its energy in

sleep merely because it is inactive. It does so because in sleep it is

connected to a source of power, which is our own essential being. The power

that our mind derives by remaining for a while in sleep does not come from

anywhere outside ourself. It comes only from a source within ourself, and

that source is our own real self or spirit, the essential nature of which is

our mere consciousness of being – our self-consciousness ‘I am’.

 

Source: Happiness and The Art of Being Book

which is a layman’s introduction to the philosophy and practice of the

spiritual teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana By Michael James

 

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Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth Jalasutram