Behind My Hand

  Explanations are always expressed using existent knowledge.  If you do not share this knowledge, they have little value. While they may be considered to be pointers, without appropriate discrimination,  they are like decomposing heaps of dung.

Pratibhā pratibhā is every individual’s pre-thought experience of reality as it is. This level of speech is called paśyanti. It is undifferentiated in any way and word and meaning remain without sequence or form. This is the unmanifested Śabdabrahman. The essential prompt of this inner self stimulates a wordless intuition of the complete and indivisible reality.    However as soon as words arise, division ensues. Words may attempt to describe it but they can do no more than offer an unreal representation of it. Bhartrhari writes: śabdeśvevāśritā śaktir viśvasyāsya nibandhani /  yannetrah pratibhātmāyam bhedarupah pratiyate // (VP, 1. 118) “The power which resides in words is the sole cause of this universe. Led by that intuitive self, this appearance of division is recognised.” Pratibhā is innate in all living beings. It is the reason that the natural behaviour of birds and animals takes place without instruction or any other prompting. It is the ...

Who knows  Speaks not Who speaks  Knows not.  - Lao Tzu George Harrison

Just what exactly do you mean by consciousness? You are conscious, aware, only through thought. The other animals use thought. The dog, for example, can recognize its owner in a simple manner. They recognize without using language. Humans have added to the structure of thought, making it much more complex. - The Natural State, In the Words of U.G. Krishnamurti pdf, p. 62; Peter Maverick

In Sri Ramanaparavidyopanishad, K. Lakshmana Sarma (aka 'Who') writes "praśnasya ko'smīti sadaiva sādhordvārāṇi sarvatra ca sambhavanti" - "everywhere and at all times doors (opportunities) pop up which lead to the question "Who am I?" The point being that there is no point in setting aside place and time to do vichara. Nor lighting the correct incense and wearing appropriately ethnic clothes while sitting in the lotus position, chanting a mantra you have never taken time to understand. If this is your idea of vichara then you have missed the point. Enquiry is the simple control of wayward thoughts. Thoughts like "setting aside place and time, lighting the correct incense and wearing appropriately ethnic clothes while sitting in the lotus position (or any other yoga position), chanting a mantra you misunderstand" any one of which will provide ample fuel for atma vichara. Ask the question... "Who is this poser?"  “Buddhi stan...

Ramana Maharshi said, "The mind must be cut off, root and branch. See who the thinker is, who the seeker is. Abide as the thinker, the seeker. All thoughts will disappear."  D. : Then there will be the ego - the thinker.  Ramana Maharshi  : That ego is pure Ego purged of thoughts. It is the same as the Self. So long as false identification persists doubts will persist, questions will arise, there will be no end of them. Doubts will cease only when the non-self is put an end to. That will result in realisation of the Self. There will remain no other there to doubt or ask. All these doubts should be solved within oneself. No amount of words will satisfy. Hold the thinker. Only when the thinker is not held do objects appear outside or doubts arise in the mind.  Talk 245

yathā somyai kena mrtpindena sarvam mrnmayam vijñātam syādvācārambhanam vikāro nāmadheyam mrttiketyeva satyam || 6. 1. 4 | “O gentle sir, as by knowing a lump of earth everything made of earth becomes known, the transformation begins with speech. It is name only. In fact, ‘earth’ is the reality.” ( Chandogya Upanishad) na so ’sti pratyayo loke yah śabdānugamād rte |  anuviddham iva jñānam sarvam śabdena bhāsate   ||   Bhartrhari’s   Vakyapadiya 1. 123 “In this world, there is no cognition which does not follow language. All knowledge appears as if permeated by words.” api prayoktur ātmānau śabdam antaravasthitam | prāhur mahāntam rsabham yena sāyujyam isyate || tasmād yah śabdasamskārah sā siddhih paramātmanah |  tasya pravrttitattvajñas tad brahmāmrtam aśnute || VP 1. 130-131 “It is also said that the self of the speaker is the word situated within, the Great Bull with whom one desires union. Therefore that which purifies the word i...

“Lokavichara is paying attention to the world of externals rather than holding the substratum of the ‘I’. Whereas Atma Vichara opens the ‘secret’ of the Self and reveals that the world is unreal apart from the underlying Reality.” Excerpt From Talks on Self Enquiry Miles Wright & Gabriele Ebert https://books.apple.com/gb/book/talks-on-self-enquiry/id1078197373 This material may be protected by copyright.

mayy eva mana ādhatsva mayi buddhiṁ niveśaya | nivasiṣyasi mayy eva ata ūrdhvaṁ na saṁśayaḥ || Fix the mind on me alone, place the thought process in me. Hereafter, without doubt, you will abide in me alone.  (Bhagavad Gita 12.8, - Trans. MWright) The above Verse from Bhagavad Gita is a concise description of vicāra (Self-enquiry).  Note: “Who am l?” - the thought process arises from “me”. Trace the source. Remain there.  ————- “Atma Vichara leads to the source of the ego. There the ego disappears. Remaining as that source the ego no longer arises.” (Excerpt From Talks on Self Enquiry, Miles Wright & Gabriele Ebert;  https://books.apple.com/gb/book/talks-on-self-enquiry/id1078197373)

||3|| He, who seeks from where the ‘I’ arises, with pure mind, turned inwards, realising his own nature, O Arunachala, merges in you... like the river in the sea.” —- —- —- “Atma-vichara is the means and the goal. The ‘I’ that rises and sets is not the real ‘I’. It is nothing more than the meandering cloud, which moves, changes, and finally empties when at last it approaches the mountain. When the mind becomes pure, it, naturally, rushes to its source, like a mountain stream rushing towards the sea, effortlessly overcoming all obstacles in its path. Atma-vichara is the purifying process which rids the mind of all impurities (mindstuff). Take up the quest ‘Who am I?’ Seek the impostor (ego-'I'). In the end, he is nowhere to be found!” Excerpt From Arunachala Pancharatna Ramana Maharshi https://books.apple.com/gb/book/arunachala-pancharatna/id948625238 This material may be protected by copyright.

Talk 618. A gentleman from Hardwar: When I go on analysing myself I go beyond the intellect, and then there is no happiness. M.: Intellect is only an instrument of the Self. It cannot help you to know what is beyond itself. D.: I understand it. But there is no happiness beyond it. M.: The intellect is the instrument wherewith to know unknown things. But you are already known, being the Self which is itself knowledge; so you do not become the object of knowledge. The intellect makes you see things outside, and not that which is its own source. D.: The question is repeated. M.: The intellect is useful thus far, it helps you to analyse yourself, and no further. It must then be merged into the ego, and the source of the ego must be sought. If that be done the ego disappears. Remain as that source and then the ego does not arise. D.: There is no happiness in that state. M.: ‘There is no happiness’ is only a thought. The Self is bliss, pure and simple. You are the Self. So you canno...

All insights, however extraordinary they may be, are worthless because it is thought that has created what we call insight and through that it is maintaining its continuity and status quo. - U G Krishnamurti in “The Natural State”

Bhartrhari (The Grammarian) asserts that powers such as kālaśakti (time), karanaśakti (causality), dikśakti (direction), sādhanaśakti (means) and kriyaśakti (action) are non-different from Brahman. Although they might be considered in some philosophies, such as by the Vaißesikas, to be separately existing entities, in the Vakyapadiya, they are considered powers of Sabdabrahman. They always appear united in the same object, function together, and have no independent reality at any level of discussion. A multiplicity of powers belonging to the Ultimate reality is admitted in preference to postulating multiple entities. The latter moves too far from the fundamental assertion that Brahman is one.

Brahman is other than the universe. Brahman is not other than the universe. Note: bhedābheda - a seeming contradiction which serves as an interesting koan. “Different and the same.”

From UG Krishnamurti: Q: Where do all these thoughts come from? A: They are all over. There is a thought sphere in which we are all functioning. But one question (I don't ask myself that question because there is no point in posing that question to myself, nor am I interested in finding an answer for it) for which the answer is not very clear is: do these thoughts come from outside passed on from generation to generation, or are they also transmitted through the genes? I have every reason to believe that the totality of knowledge is not only transmitted through our education in all forms, shapes, sizes, and degrees, but also, to a greater extent, through the genes. Now they are saying that the capacity to learn not only languages but a language is genetically controlled. (Thought Is Your Enemy)

Bhartrhari writes in Vākyapadīya, ś abde ś vev āś rit ā ś aktir vi ś vasy ā sya nibandhani / yannetrah pratibh ā tm ā yam bhedarupah pratiyate // ( VP , 1. 118) “The power which resides in words is the sole cause of this universe. Led by the  intuitive (unerring) self, this appearance of division is recognised.” (trans. MWright)

Sabdapurvayoga is the return to that state prior to the arising of the ego. This method of attaining the Self traces the mind back to its source. At that point, the unreality of the ego is discovered. This is the true purification of the word. 

“You say I. ‘I want to know.’ Tell me, who is that I?” What does he mean? He has now cut across the services of the interpreter and speaks direct to me in English. Bewilderment creeps across my brain. “I am afraid I do not understand your question,” I reply blankly. “Is it not clear? Think again!” I puzzle over his words once more. An idea suddenly flashes into my head. I point a finger towards myself and mention my name. “And do you know him?” “All my life!” I smile back at him. “But that is only your body! Again I ask, ‘Who are you’?” I cannot find a ready answer to this extraordinary query. The Maharshi continues: “Know first that I and then you shall know the truth.” (Paul Brunton, A Search in Secret India, 1972; 144/5)

Ancient pool,  A frog jumps in, [the sound of splashing water] - Basho —- —- —- Ego sinks,  into the Self. Who hears the sound? - MWright

So take it or leave it! You will be better off if you leave it. Anything you listen to is turned into a method, a system. You want to get something through this. For example, somebody says there is a mind and you must uncondition your mind. How are you going to uncondition your mind? You are conditioning your mind through this lingo. That is all that it is necessary for you to see. ... All paths must go. As long as you follow somebody else's path, the path is the product of thought. So it is actually not a new path, it's the same old path, and you are playing the same old game in a new way. It is not a new game. It is the same old game that you are playing all the time, but you think you are playing a new game. You have to come to a point where you can't do anything at all. - The Natural State, U. G. Krishnamurti