Behind My Hand

I first came across Ramana Maharshi, in 1968, mentioned in a book called "Teach Yourself Yoga." The author was James Hewitt. I still have the book. It is an excellent introduction to Yoga and continues to surpass other yoga books for beginners. Here is the short passage, from the book, which introduces the teaching of Sri Ramana Maharshi –– ""Pursue the enquiry 'Who am I?' relentlessly," advised an Indian guru, Sri Ramana Maharshi. "Analyse your entire personality. Try to find out where the I-thought begins. Go on with your meditations. Keep turning your attention within. One day the wheel of thought will slow down and an intuition will mysteriously arise. Follow that intuition, let your thinking stop and it will eventually lead you to the goal."" (p. 121) A wonderfully succinct passage. This 1968 edition of Teach Yourself Yoga also contained a rather useful bibliography which led to further research via Paul Brunton's The Quest of...

The question 'Who am I' has no answer. No experience can answer it, for the Self is beyond experience.  ... It has no answer in consciousness and, therefore, helps to go beyond consciousness.   "All I can say truly is: 'I am', all else is inference. But the inference has become a  habit. Destroy all habits of thinking and seeing. The sense 'I am' is the manifestation of a deeper  cause, which you may call self, God, reality or by any other name. The 'I am' is in the world; but it is  the key which can open the door out of the world. The moon dancing on the water is seen in the  water, but it is caused by the moon in the sky and not by the water."  (Nisargadatta, in "I am That")  --- --- --- Dr. Srinivasa Rao asked Bhagavan, “When we enquire within ‘who am I?’ what is that?” Bhagavan: It is the ego. It is only that which makes the vichara also. The Self has no vichara. That which makes the enquiry is the ego. The ‘I’ a...

All practice is simply a rehearsal for that eternal, innate and spontaneous enquiry.