Satsang with Nome - You Are - Question 1

[Guest guest]

Q.: In much of Ramana's teachings, it seems that he says that the

mind and the ego are the same thing. My view is that they are just

two different views through the crystal. What I really want to

understand is that this mind or ego never existed to begin with, that

is, that they are the same nonexistent thing.

 

N.: Do you consider them as existing now?

 

Q.: (laughing) Yes and no. When you spoke of who we are as the

Silence, there was the Presence of the Silence. Still, they recur as

the identification. I want to be clear that I can't identify with

them because they don't exist. Identification with something that

does not exist is remarkably stupid.

 

N.: For the clarity you seek, inquire into the " me " to whom these

reappear. That " me " may be referred to as a mind, because these

things are conceived, or as an ego, for the notion " I " is integral to

every other thought or idea. It may be regarded as something subtle

or as a thought or as a vague supposition. However it is regarded,

see what the nature of that thing is. If there is a thing

corresponding to the name " I, " there will be differentiation,

delusion, bondage, and the rest of samsara. If, upon inquiry, you

find that it is rootless, that there is nothing there, that there is

one who is existing, but there is not a trace of an ego or mind in

it, all the instruction about the unborn, the uncreated, and the

undifferentiated will be self-evident.

 

Q.: Though they are subtle, there is still something finer and

subtler.

 

N.: You see the mind. You see this misidentification as an ego. The

nature of the seer is far subtler than they. It is also far more

enduring. It is much more your identity than they.

 

From the Maharshi's instruction, you know that the mind is nothing

more than a bundle of thoughts. If we regard them as a bundle, such

is called " a mind. " If not, there is a multiplicity of thoughts. He

also refers to the ego as a ghost with no form of its own and also a

knot that seems to tie together pure Consciousness and the insentient

body. It is neither, but it seems to appear as a knot between them

that ties them together. When we combine the two that cannot really

be combined, that is, the body and pure Consciousness, bundled

together such is called an " ego. " Examine these bundles.

 

Q.: Can Consciousness turn into a thing?

 

N.: Without knowing about it?

 

Q.: (laughter)

 

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Not two,

Richard