Behind My Hand

Huineng, the sixth patriarch, overheard two monks arguing about a flag in the courtyard. The first declared, “The flag is moving.” The other disagreed and said, “No, it is the wind that is moving.” Huineng immediately countered, “Neither wind nor flag is moving. It is mind that is moving.” “Elimination of drisya [the seen] means elimination of separate identities of the subject and object. The object is unreal. All drisya (including ego) is the object. Eliminating the unreal, the Reality survives.” (Ramana Maharshi in Talk 25)

A monk approached Zen Master Yakusan with a problem. Master Yakusan told him to wait until the evening session. At the end of the evening session, Master Yakusan said, "will the monk who approached me, earlier today, regarding a problem with practice, come forward.” As soon as the monk came forward Yakusan barged past him, without a word, and retired to his room. Zen like Vichara deals in immediacy. Eagerness to practice... “must be equal to that of a man kept under water trying to rise up to the surface for his life.” (Ramana Maharshi in Talk 28) Waiting is not a valid option.

Q. What is the use of yoga-practice? Is it for personal use or universal benefit? M.: Yoga means union of two entities. What are they? Enquire. Use or benefit is in relation to some centre. What is it? Enquire. Ramana Maharshi - Talk 507 

Ramana Maharshi in Talk 40: Meditation on forms is according to one’s own mind. It is meant for ridding oneself of other forms and confining oneself to one form. It leads to the goal. It is impossible to fix the mind in the Heart to start with. So these aids are necessary.

"Self- Realisation is only a euphemism for elimination of ignorance." - Talk 500

There is no posture like Siddha asana "Of the different postures, eighty-four are the main ones. Of these, again, four, viz., simha, bhadra, padma, and siddha are said to be excellent. Of these too, it is only siddha, that is the most excellent. Thus the yoga texts declare." (from Ramana's "Self Enquiry") When a Muslim visitor asked Bhagavan about asana, he replied that "abidance in God is the only true posture." (Talk 234) On another occasion, he said "nididhyasana (one-pointedness of the mind) is the best." (Talk 557) The one-pointed mind focussed by vichara (Self-enquiry) is indeed pure abidance in the Self. When the ego rises up, confusion ensues and the world of differentiated objects is taken to be real, ego goes off searching for the best asana. In truth, only one is the centre (heart) of all and forms the basis for all - the seat upon which all else abides, including the multitude of asanas. This is siddhāsana.

Talk 38. When one of the present attendants came the first time to Bhagavan, he asked: “What is the way for liberation?” Maharshi replied: “The way already taken leads to liberation.”