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Latest Blog

How we Sabotage Vichara

Ramana Group Picture

Aham Sphurana

A Glimpse of Self Realisation

New Book about Sri Ramana Maharshi

Available Worldwide

On  www.openskypress.com  and Amazon:

A Glimpse of Self Realisation

New Book about Sri Ramana Maharshi

“In my opinion, Aham Sphurana, a Glimpse of Self Realisation, will become a Treasure Trove of Wisdom to the Seekers of Truth in general, and particularly to the devotees of Bhagavan.”

Swami Hamsananda – Athithi Ashram, Tiruvannamalai

Available Worldwide

on  www.openskypress.com  and Amazon:

How we Sabotage Vichara

Chadwick: [unhappily] I have been staying here for months. I see no improvement in me. If anything, my condition seems to be taking a turn for the worse. I am desperate to Realise in this lifetime
B: Give up the idea that you are striving for Realisation. 
 
C: [Aghast] What?! Bhagavan would have me abandon the quest? Has he decided I am unworthy to Realise? 
B: Did you pay attention to what was said to you? You were not asked to abandon the quest. You were asked to abandon the spurious idea that there is a ‘you’ which is trying to merge with a ‘super-you’.
 
C: [gloomily] I understand nothing. 
B: Throw away the belief in the existence of the personal self. It is only on that erroneous basis that you are now asking questions.
 
C: But I must remain to perform sadhana! 
B: What is the objective of sadhana? 
 
C: Destruction of the ego. 
B: No, transcendence of the idea of its existence. 
 
C: So, if I just free myself from the idea that I exist as an individual person, the Who am I? method is not needed? 
B: First discard that erroneous idea. In having discarded that idea, do not bring in any other idea in its place, such as Aham Brahmasmi [I am Brahman], I am being consciousness, etc. Remain free from all ideas, that is from all mental identification. Let the mind remain in the state of pure Subjective Consciousness free from all objectification or identification. 
      Then, as and when thoughts arise, tackle them with the counter-thought, ‘To whom has this thought arisen?’. This arrests the further development of the thought. Then return the mind to its native state of pure Subjective Consciousness. This is the way. 

Edited by John David Nov 2024

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Am I doing Vichara Correctly?

Ramana 3

Aham Sphurana

A Glimpse of Self Realisation

New Book about Sri Ramana Maharshi

Available Worldwide

On  www.openskypress.com  and Amazon:

A Glimpse of Self Realisation

New Book about Sri Ramana Maharshi

“In my opinion, Aham Sphurana, a Glimpse of Self Realisation, will become a Treasure Trove of Wisdom to the Seekers of Truth in general, and particularly to the devotees of Bhagavan.”

Swami Hamsananda – Athithi Ashram, Tiruvannamalai

Available Worldwide

on  www.openskypress.com  and Amazon:

Am I doing Vichara Correctly?

Yes when Aham Sphurana flashes forth

Q: What are the indicators based on which I shall be enabled to find out for myself whether I am doing vichara correctly or not? 
B: If vichara has resulted in a state of mind wherein it abides as identical with pure Subjective Consciousness, then you have done it correctly. However, it is not easy for the neophyte to tell whether his mind is presently abiding as identical with pure Subjective Consciousness, because the torpid mental state of manolayam [state where mind structures are hazily projected] is often mistakenly regarded as being the tabula-rasa mental state of pure Subjective Consciousness. 
      When mind abides as identical with pure Subjective Consciousness, it unmistakeably scintillates ‘I’-’I’. Thus, the definitive answer to your question is that vichara has been done correctly when doing it has resulted in the Aham Sphurana flashing forth.
 

Q: And how to recognise the Aham Sphurana when it ‘flashes forth’? 
B: There is no possibility of mistaking it when the experience actually occurs. Whatever description is given, is not only useless but also counter-productive, because if a description of the experience of Aham Sphurana is given, the mind twists and contorts the present banal experience of outward protruding, satiation craving mental impulses into one that seems to perfectly match with the description given; because it wants to avoid getting destroyed.
       So, even if you have heard a description of the experience of the Aham Sphurana being furnished in this Hall, please make no effort to recollect it. When the Aham Sphurana actually flashes forth, you will know it alright. Cognition of the Aham Sphurana is not based on intellectual corroboration it is a direct experience of the Self, inferior only to the Sahajastithi of the Jnani.

Edited by John David Nov 2024

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Mixed Blogs

Aham Sphurana

Only the Self, No God

Q.: What is the difference between jivanmukti[ and videhamukti?
B.: There is no difference. They say that the jivanmukta attains videhamukti when the body dies. But think can there be anything which he has yet to attain? Such differences are exclusively from the point of view of the onlooker. They do not exist from the Jnani’s point of view. There is no change in the Jnani’s state before or after abandoning the body.

Blog Posts

War and Peace

There will be War until you find Inner Peace which is your Essential Nature.

Peace is your essential nature. Therefore there is nothing to do to be at Peace. We arrive on this planet in tremendous Peace with an invitation to enjoy, play and have fun! Then our parents raise us to be adults and without knowing better, they condition us to be nearly constantly at war.

Blog Posts

Osho´s dentist left his Body

Devageet – Osho’s personal dentist recently left his body. He wrote this poem after having been diagnosed with cancer. He was a giant made of gold who left this world a better place through the richness of his generous sharing… I bow down in gratitude to his roaring sprit..

Blog Posts

Zen Verses on Faith

Sōsan’s Master for six years was Huike whose Master was Bodhidharma who Buddha sent to China.

Sōsan: I am riddled with sickness. Please absolve me of my sin.
Huike: Bring your sin here and I will absolve you.
Sōsan: (after a long pause): When I look for my sin, I cannot
find it.
Huike: I have absolved you. You should live by the Buddha, the
Dharma, and the Sangha.

Ramana Maharshi, Aham Sphurana
Aham Sphurana

Non-Doing

Q.: If I stay at the root of the mind or abide as pure consciousness, will I Realise the Self?
B.: The question shows that the arbitrary mental conceptualisation, ‘Realising the Self’, is still present in the mind. Staying in the root of the mind should be a matter of course; it must be the natural state. On the other hand, you are trying to deliberately do it so that you can thereby gain the reward you call ‘Self-Realisation’. Can it work? No.

Ramana eyes
Blog Posts

Rooting Out the Ego and Persevering on the Path

Q: Which is genuine Vichara – asking myself Who am I? every time a thought arises or keenly investigating the problem of who I am?
B: The latter. If you want to get rid of a poisonous tree, do you lop off its leaves one by one? What is the use of such an approach? In the time it takes for you to cut down one leaf, leaves multitudinous in number and multifarious in variety would have sprouted forth from the vicious tree. Instead, attack the poisonous root of illusion, namely the ahamvritti, straightaway!

Blog Posts

My Job is to Destroy You

Then one day, this was the big change, I’ll never forget it, never to this day.
He sat up cross-legged on His bed and I was sitting on the floor in the hospital.
He drew a line and He said, “Look.” He said it like, “Look (gruffly), this is a line. On this side of the line is everything you’ve ever known, everything…

Sex and Spirituality
Blog Posts

Sex and Spirituality

Does sex help me to wake up or does it prevent me from that?

I think it can help and hinder. It depends. When sex is just pure, then actually it isn’t such a big deal. It’s an energy phenomenon.
Intimate relating creates an energy field, a circle between the two people. Normally, with sex, it’s between two people, but it could be the energy flowing through twenty people.

Blog Posts

Sunrise

SUDDENLY THE SOUND OF
SINGING BIRDS AT SUNRISE
PENETRATES MY BEING

AWARENESS
OF A SUBTLE POWER
THE EARLY MORNING SUN…

Blog Posts

A Glimpse is Enough

There are a couple of things that Papaji says: ‘Having the longing for enlightenment is enlightenment.’ I think that is a very beautiful statement; it’s both profound and compelling at the same time. One other thing: ‘A little bit is enough. There is no more, a glimpse is enough.’

Aham Sphurana

A Dialogue with a Mature Visiter

Mind is only a notion. Have you ever investigated into what it actually is?

GL.: No… I seem to have taken its existence for granted so long.
B.: That is the mistake. The mind is accepted as being the Self. The Self is always – whereas the mind appears and disappears. Is there any mind in deep slumber? But your Self is always there. The mind, which has deluded itself into imagining that it is a mortal with a physical form living in an objectively real world as its perceiver, is beset with limitations.
On the other hand, pure Subjective Consciousness knows no limitation.

Aham Sphurana

Mind and Jesus Teachings

Q.: I have heard Bhagawan saying “Knowledge of the world is exclusively knowledge of the knower of the world.” What does it mean?
B.: That the world is only in the mind–that the appearance of any world, or the phenomenon of manifestation, is not possible in isolation from your mind.

Q.: Are there as many minds in the world as there are people? Are all these minds emanating from the Self at the same time?
B.: There are not multiple minds. Only your mind emerges from the Self, styles itself “I”.

Aham Sphurana
Aham Sphurana

Sri Gajapathi Aiyyer Ashram Report

For the most part of today I was unable to go to the Ashram. Since Sri Cycle-Pillai seemed to be indisposed for the time-being with one of his occasional abdominal ailments, and was thus not in a position to do his usual chores for the Ashram. The sarvadhikari [manager] has asked me to purchase roots of the shathavari [Asparagus racemosus] plant from a herbs-dealer who put up his wares in different parts of the town on different days.

Blog Posts

The Thinking Mind

I went into stillness immediately. But I kept going back to my mind and believing my mind and feeling caught up. Mind is a tricky thing, it can make you believe it, even when it’s a lie, it can make you believe it’s not a lie.

        That’s why I say forget everything the mind tells you, because it’s a deceitful thing the mind…