Behind My Hand

Received a YouTube link purporting to explain Ramana's Self Enquiry method. Once again it was unnecessarily long winded. The speaker seemed hell bent on turning it into a philosophical exercise instead of the philosophy elimination technique it truly is. :) --------- --------- --------- Vichara is a simple process. Here is that process:  Giving up the unreal claim on reality of the body and mind, the sadhaka must fix the mind on the individual "I"-sense, which, although unreal, appears to be superimposed on the eternal substratum of the real Self.  The question "Who am I?" is the means. If during this quest, the mind turns outwards again, predicating on this or that, the sadhaka should ask "to whom do these thoughts occur?" and thus move back to the primary quest "Who am I?" Sri K. Lakshmana Sarma says "Always and everywhere there are doorways for getting at the question 'Who am I?'. By any one of these the seeker must agai...

satyam eva jayate n ā nritam Truth alone triumphs, not falsehood.  (Mundaka Upanisad 3. 6) 

10-6-46, Day by Day with Ramana Maharshi Brahman is not to be seen or known. It is beyond the triputis (triads) of seer, seen and seeing or knower, knowledge and knowing. The Reality remains ever as it is; that there is ajnana or the world is due to our moham or illusion. Neither knowledge nor ignorance is real; what is beyond this, as all other pairs of opposites, is the Reality. It is neither light nor darkness but beyond both, though we sometimes have to speak of it as light and of ignorance as its shadow. 

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.