Behind My Hand

D.: Thoughts cease suddenly, then ‘I-I’ rises up as suddenly and continues. It is only in the feeling and not in the intellect. Can it be right? M.: It is certainly right. Thoughts must cease and reason disappear for ‘I-I’ to rise up and be felt. Feeling is the prime factor and not reason. D.: Moreover it is not in the head but in the right side of the chest. M.: It ought to be so. Because the heart is there. D.: When I see outside it disappears. What is to be done? M.: It must be held tight. - from Talk 24; Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

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. 

Talk 159. Mr. Cohen desired to know if trance is a sine qua non for Self- Realisation. M.: You are always in the Self - now, in trance, in deep sleep, in Realisation. If you lose hold of the Self and identify yourself with the body or the mind, these states appear to overtake you, and it also looks like a blank in trance, etc.; whereas you are the Self and ever-present. - Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi.

I had to be away from the Ashram for nearly two months and when I returned I saw Sri Cohen in a much worse condition and confined to a wheel-chair. His talk was no longer coherent: "See, Ganesan, I am maimed. Yet, the management has suddenly shifted me to a room on the seventh floor and there is no water there. Whatcan I do?" - "They say they have given me an exclusive room for myself, but see, in the night nearly 12 people sleep here, squatting around me." - "Don't think there is only one Kannan (servant), There are nine Kannans, all looking alike!" I cried on seeing his pathetic condition and told Him: "Mr. Cohen! You are the most intelligent sadhak I have met. Why are you talking so incoherently?" He then adjusted himself and squarely looked at my face and said: "When the body becomes old, you lose control over it. And so over the mind! So, don't give any importance to how the body or mind behaves. They are not 'me'."...

Transmuting lead into gold,  Forged in the fire of Vicara,  Deep ... In the cave of the Heart. Alchemists one and all,  Having taken refuge in Him,  Multiplicity melts.  - MWright 2002