Talks on Self Enquiry E-Book

Miles Wright

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Seitenzahl: 112

Beschreibung

This is a collection of writings by Miles Wright about Self Enquiry (Atma Vichara) as taught by Ramana Maharshi. They are mostly responses to questions asked by members on various yahoo-groups (Ramana Maharshi, Atma Vichara, The Sage of Arunachala and Acalayoga) from 2000 to 2007. Before this groups have been deleted I managed to save the most important writings, or what I felt may be of interest for a later reading and study for my personal use. Amongst them many are on Atma Vichara and also deal with misconceptions, which still circulate. I feel these questions and answers may also be of great value for others, and with Miles’ permission this collection can now be offered to the public. Gabriele Ebert (editor)

Leseprobe

Table Of Contents

FOREWORD BY THE EDITOR

THE LIVING TEACHER

WHAT IS ATMA VICHARA?

TALKS ON ATMA VICHARA

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Copyright

FOREWORD BY THE EDITOR

This is a collection of writings by Miles Wright about Self Enquiry (Atma Vichara) as taught by Ramana Maharshi. They are mostly responses to questions asked by members on various yahoo-groups (Ramana Maharshi, Atma Vichara, The Sage of Arunachala and Acalayoga) from 2000 to 2007.

Before this groups have been deleted I managed to save the most important writings, or what I felt may be of interest for a later reading and study for my personal use. Amongst them many are on Atma Vichara and also deal with misconceptions, which still circulate. I feel these questions and answers may also be of great value for others, and with Miles’ permission this collection can now be offered to the public.

Gabriele Ebert

Note: The painting on the cover is by Miles Wright. It says hRd (heart) and hrdaya kuhara madhye (in the centre of the cave of the Heart) in Sanskrit from Ramana’s famous verse Ramana Gita 2.2.

THE LIVING TEACHER

“I have a living teacher. Many seekers do not.” This is a subject which has been written about on numerous occasions. It seems pertinent to write about it again. I trust you will be patient when I say, without flippancy “I also have a "living" teacher, His name is Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.”

The living versus dead controversy seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the philosophy of Sri Ramana Maharshi (certainly fundamental in my sadhana). If I could relate a little of my own sadhana regarding this.

When I was a child I came across the name of Ramana Maharshi in a book about yoga. While I began to practice hatha yoga, (with relative ease, and to the amusement of my parents) the name ‘Ramana Maharshi’ fascinated and seemed to permeate my entire being. In this small book there is only one paragraph about the Sage, but this one paragraph sufficed to leave an indelible mark: 

“’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.’”

Interestingly, the book was called ‘Teach Yourself Yoga’ written by James Hewitt. While I read this single paragraph over and over again, I never knew, nor did I consider, that Ramana Maharshi was other than alive. Did it matter? As I was only 13 years of age, it was not possible to travel to see him, but I did give vague consideration to finding out where he lived with a view to visiting at some future date. Months later, as my small Yoga Library began to take shape, the realisation that he was in fact dead came about (this may have been after reading a Paul Brunton book). While initially problematic, I very quickly understood that the Teaching (as revealed in the paragraph above) was, in effect, Ramana Maharshi’s core teaching. A few years later I contacted the Ashram and purchased Talks, and a few other publications. During this time the practice of Vichara became my primary sadhana. My fascination with Sanskrit and Yoga continued and I met various yogis and spiritual teachers of the time (early 70s) but none could offer anything remotely as effective, at hitting the Heart of the matter, as the above paragraph.

In the early years my practice was limited to a certain time and place, and pursued as a meditation. However fuelled by the conversations found in Talks, it soon developed into the primary occupation of mind and continued throughout the working day. This vivid teaching occupied my entire life. 

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi is considered to be a jivanmukta (one who has attained freedom while living). So what is this confusion about ‘living’? 

A friend sent me a book, ‘Surpassing Love and Grace’. In it Chadwick says, “The whole mistake is initial, in the interpretation they put on the word jivanmukta; or in what they think a jnani really is and how he functions. When it is found that a jivanmukta is already absorbed in the Infinite and that for him the apparent change he undergoes is no change at all, there should be no more misapprehensions. There is no further step for a jnani to take; he lost all sense of doership or association with a particular body when he finally knew himself to be a jnani. The physical death is only just a happening in the myriad strange happenings in maya. He was in no way limited to a body while it was functioning. It was there, one might almost say, for us. We needed something that we could see, somebody who could speak to us. Now we must get along without the comfort of the physical presence, but it does not mean Bhagavan has gone anywhere, indeed, as he said himself: ‘Where could I go? I am always here.’” (p. 260)

For anyone requiring a ‘physical’ presence the Ashram remains and publishes books which reveal Ramana Maharshi’s teachings. For those with a more esoteric inclination, Guru stands resplendent as the hill, Sri Arunachala. The most potent representation, however, is the practice of Vichara (Self-enquiry). To quote Chadwick again, “To what after all, did his spoken instructions amount? There is only one Self. You are that. Amplifying it slightly it becomes: there is nothing to do, nothing to seek. There is only false identification with limitation to discard and that is done by concentration on the eternal witness, the One behind all phenomena. Know who you are and there is no more to know.” (p. 261) And this is also the instruction revealed (above), from day one, to the young lad reading his first book on Yoga. 

From Talks; p. 434:

“D. : Sadguru is necessary to guide me to understand it.

M. : The Sadguru is within.

D. : I want a visible Guru.

M. : That visible Guru says that He is within.

D. : Can I throw myself at the mercy of the Sadguru?

M. : Yes. Instructions are necessary only so long as one has not surrendered oneself.

This is the Truth. Of that there is absolutely no doubt.”

WHAT IS ATMA VICHARA?

A South Indian Sage advised, “Pursue the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ relentlessly! Seek out the root of your personality! Find out wherefrom the I-thought arises! Turn the mind within. With practice, the current of thoughts will slow down and an unerring intuition will be felt. Yield to that intuition, let your thinking stop, and it will pull you to the goal.” (Hewitt: Teach yourself Yoga)

Vichara is often confused with meditation. Meditation however requires subject and object whereas Vichara eliminates the obsession with object completely.

Ramana Maharshi said, “Dhyana (meditation) is concentration on an object. It fulfils the purpose of keeping away diverse thoughts and fixing the mind on a single thought, which must also disappear before Realisation. But Realisation is nothing new to be acquired. It is already there, but obstructed by a screen of thoughts. All our attempts are directed for lifting this screen and then Realisation is revealed. If a true seeker is advised to meditate, many may go away satisfied with the advice. But someone among them may turn round and ask, ‘Who am I to meditate on an object?’ Such a one must be told to find the Self. That is the finality. That is Vichara.” (Talk 390)

“Do not spread out the mind inquiring, ‘Who may you be?’ and ‘Who is he?’ Turn it inward questing, steadily, keenly, ‘Who am I?’” (from Muruganar: Ramana Mandiram).

Atma Vichara (Self Enquiry) should not be considered as a mere yogic exercise to be done at certain times of the day and then forgotten until the next session, although that is certainly a valid way of introducing the mind to enquiry (but don't get lost in the introduction – how long does it take to shake hands?) Nor is Vichara a hobby, it is a way of life. The Vichara method focusses on the meditator (the thinker) from the very outset. It is radical.

When, through Self Enquiry, brought about by intense practice, thoughts subside, there stands revealed an unbroken, eternal awareness, ‘I’-‘I’. It is not a watched awareness. Who is the subject that can claim such dualistic nonsense! The snake in the rope will never see the rope. ‘I’-‘I’ is both herald and death knell. 

“In the course of tracing ourselves back to our source, when all thoughts have vanished, there arises a throb from the Hridaya on the right, manifesting as ‘Aham’ ‘Aham’ ‘I’-‘I’. This is the sign that Pure Consciousness is beginning to reveal itself. But that is not the end in itself. Watch wherefrom this sphurana (throbbing) arises and wait attentively and continually for the revelation of the Self. Then comes the awareness, oneness of existence.” (from a reply, approved by Bhagavan, which was sent to an English devotee; recorded in ‘Moments Remembered’ by V. Ganesan, p. 53)

“Thoughts must cease and reason disappear for ‘I’-‘I’ to rise up and be felt. Feeling is the prime factor and not reason.” (Talk 24)

“That which is does not even say ‘I am’. For, does any doubt rise that ‘I am not’.“ (from Talk 197)Method

“When other thoughts arise, one should not pursue them, but should inquire: ‘To whom do they arise?’ It does not matter how many thoughts arise. As each thought arises, one should inquire with diligence, ‘To whom has this thought arisen?’. The answer that would emerge would be ‘To me’. Thereupon if one inquires ‘Who am I?’, the mind will go back to its source; and the thought that arose will become quiescent. With repeated practice in this manner, the mind will develop the skill to stay in its source.” (from ‘Who am I?’)

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 again and again engage the mind in this Quest. The answer to this question is not an intellectual conclusion. The (proper) answer to it is only the Experience of the Real Self in the Supreme State, arising on the death of the ego, the questioner, named the ‘individual self’ (the soul).” (Sri Ramanaparavidyopanishad, 483 and 484; cf. 469-485) 

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", p. 191) 

To halt mindstuff, Self Enquiry (Vichara) is employed. Self Enquiry is becoming aware of aberrant thought and asking to whom it appears. This is it. Anything more is mindstuff. In this method, awareness of the absurdity of thought becomes heightened and, through practice, Self Enquiry cuts in more and more often.

“Q.: How will the mind become quiescent? 

A.: By the inquiry ‘Who am I?’ The thought ‘who am I?’ will destroy all other thoughts, and like the stick used for stirring the burning pyre, it will itself in the end get destroyed. Then, there will arise Self-realization.” (from Ramana Maharshi's ‘Who Am I?’) 

Mind alone is the cause of bondage and liberation. A mind devoted to the world of objects is bound while a mind that is not devoted to the world of objects is liberated. Vichara reveals the ever present substrate upon which the mind relies. Since, in truth, there is no answer to the question, any answer the mind concocts provides fodder for further Enquiry. The path is therefore clear.   

“If once Vichara takes root, the highest good has, for all practical purposes, been reached in this life. As long as Vichara is absent from a human being, the most desirable form of birth, so long is the tree of life barren and therefore useless. The only useful fruit of life is Vichara.”  (Tripura Rahasya, chapter 2)

Maharshi makes it very clear that there is no advanced method only maturation of the Vichara. Vichara is the direct method. “There is nothing more to be known than what you find in books. No secret technique. It is all an open secret, in this system.” (Day by Day, 8.10.1946)

TALKS ON ATMA VICHARA

2.1.2000

When speaking to people I find that Vichara is often confused with meditation. Meditation however requires subject and object whereas Vichara eliminates the obsession with object completely.

As Ramana says in Talks [390] “The unreality is an obsession at present. Reality is our true nature... If a seeker is advised to meditate, many may go away satisfied with the advice. But someone among them may turn round and ask, ‘Who am I to meditate on an object?’ Such a one must be told to find the Self. That is the finality. That is Vichara... When spontaneous and natural it is Realisation.”

4.1.2000