THE FALSE "I" - “Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk 222

 

"All these are only mental concepts. You are now identifying yourself with the wrong ‘I’, which is the ‘I-thought’. 

This ‘I-thought’ rises and sinks, whereas the true significance of ‘I’ is beyond both. 

There can not be a break in your being. You, who slept, are also now awake.

 There was no unhappiness in your sleep. Whereas it exists now. What is it that has happened now so that this difference is experienced? 

There was no ‘I-thought” in your sleep, whereas it is present now. The true ‘I’ is not apparent and the false ‘I’ is parading itself.

 This false ‘I’ is the obstacle to your right knowledge. Find out wherefrom this false ‘I’ arises. Then it will disappear. You will be only what you are, absolute Being. 

Search for the source of the ‘I-thought’. That is all that one has to do.

 The universe exists on account of the ‘I- thought’. If that ends there is an end of misery also. 

The false ‘I’ will end only when its source is sought.”

 

THE STARTING POINT

 

 

Before trying to understand some unusual concepts about reality, we must be willing to drop most of our core lifelong beliefs.

 

“You see that you have many opinions and conclusions.
You don’t know why you have them or how to be free of them.
Start with not knowing.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti

 

We did not question our beliefs, we took them as absolute truth:

 

“Many of our ideas and beliefs about ourselves and the world are so deeply ingrained that we are unaware that they are beliefs and take them, without questioning, for the absolute truth. For instance, we believe that we are a body, that we are a man or a women and that we were born and will die. We believe that we are an entity amongst other innumerable other entities, and that this entity resides somewhere in the body, usually behind the eyes or in the chest area. We believe that we are the subject of our experience and that everything and everyone else is the object. We believe that we, as this subject, are the doer of our actions, the thinker of our thoughts, the feeler of our feelings, the chooser of our choices. We believe that this entity we consider ourselves to be, has freedom of choice over some aspects of experience but not others. We believe that time and space are actually experienced, that they existed before we did and will continue to do so after we have died.”

Rupert Spira, “The Transparency of Things”

 

The mind will reject new, unconventional ideas that do not fit in with what has already been accepted:

 

“The mind has built a powerful edifice of concepts about Reality that bears little relation to actual experience and, as a result, Consciousness has veiled itself from itself.”

Rupert Spira, “The Transparency of Things”

 

 It is easier to start from a not-knowing state.

 

“It is only when the mind is free from the old that it meets everything anew, and in that there is joy.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti

 

The most clear, complete advice is:

 

“I hope that you will listen, but not with the memory of what you already know; and this is very difficult to do. You listen to something, and your mind immediately reacts with its knowledge, its conclusions, its opinions, its past memories. It listens, inquiring for a future understanding.

 

Just observe yourself, how you are listening, and you will see that this is what is taking place. Either you are listening with a conclusion, with knowledge with certain memories, experiences, or you want an answer and you are impatient. You want to know what is it all about, what life is all about, the extraordinary complexity of life. You are not actually listening at all.

 

You can only listen when the mind is quiet, when the mind doesn’t react immediately, when there is an interval between your reaction and what is being said. Then, in that interval there is a quietness, there is a silence in which alone there is a comprehension which is not intellectual understanding.

 If there is a gap between what is said and your own reaction to what is said, in that interval, whether you prolong it indefinitely, for a long period or for a few seconds – in that interval, if you observe, there comes clarity. It is the interval that is the new brain. The immediate reaction is the old brain, and the old brain functions in its own traditional, accepted, reactionary, animalistic sense.

 

When there is an abeyance of that, when the reaction is suspended, when there is an interval, then you will find that the new brain acts, and it is only the new brain that can understand, not the old brain.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti

ETERNAL AWARENESS

 

We appear to be sentient and residing inside a body, and this is indeed just an appearance. The body and the world appear inside our minds only, and the mind borrows it's light from consciousness.

“The body appears in your mind, your mind is the content of your consciousness; you are the motionless witness of the river of consciousness which changes eternally without changing you in any way."

Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

The mind is like a wave, a small movement in the ocean of consciousness.

Consciousness is ever changing, and it's not continuous, it might disappear, so, it can't be the ultimate reality.

There is an eternal absolute reality aware of consciousness, and this is pure awareness, the eternal witness, the substratum of any perceived reality.

Ultimately, we are that.

 

“You are so accustomed to think of yourselves as bodies having consciousness that you just cannot imagine consciousness as having bodies.

 Once you realize that bodily existence is but a state of mind, a  movement in consciousness, that the ocean of consciousness is infinite and eternal, and that, when in touch with consciousness, you are the witness only, you will be able to withdraw beyond consciousness altogether."

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

SHOULD WE GET ANGRY?

 

 

 

Our daily life is very rich in thoughts and emotions, giving us the impression that we are experiencing all kinds of good or bad situations.

We can’t really see our experiences, because our view is obstructed by the conditioning of our mind.

We might have asked ourselves, repeatedly: “Why this keeps happening to me?”, in regard to bad, unpleasant experiences; those kind of situations that make us angry and upset.

We must find the reason why we seem to be locked in a repeated cycle of suffering causing experiences.

Should we get angry? Should we ignore the entire experience, and get interested only in our anger?

We are superimposing our anger, our reaction, over the real experience.

We are saving this anger in our memory, and we are using it next time, as a reaction to a bad experience.

So, next time we are not going to experience anything else but our own memory.

 

“You will learn much more by asking yourself what exactly is an experience.

Do we ever really experience a situation or do we experience only our reactions to it?
                                                                                                             Jean Klein

 

We are always reacting to any situation, and then we get absorbed in our own reaction, in our thoughts, emotions and feelings.

We are taking only a short, superficial look at the experience, and then, our ego, is taking over.

Our minds are programmed to react in the same way that we have previously reacted:

 

“In order to fully experience anything the mind must be empty, free from memory-emotivity, gain and expectation.
What we call experience is generally the repetition of sensation or the projections of memory. "
                                                                                                                       Jean Klein

 

As human beings, we have to experience suffering too, but we should not become identified with this suffering.

We should watch with detachment the experience and the experiencer, and the experience will unfold.

We have to try to see what happens if we don’t distract ourselves from the experience by getting angry.

We have to try to really experience something, not to suffer the experience.

So, should we get angry?

No, not anymore.

Martin Heidegger, about the true Self

 

 

Martin Heidegger asked an important question:

 

 

"Why are there beings at all, instead of Nothing?"

Martin Heidegger (”Introduction to Metaphysics”)

 

 

 He also asked the most important question:

 

  

“Do we know ourselves – our ‘self’?

How are we supposed to be ourselves, if we are not our selves?

And how can we be ourselves without knowing who we are, such that we are certain of being the ones we are?”

Martin Heidegger (“Contributions to Philosophy”)

 

 

Martin Heidegger did not refer to the person, but to our essential Beingness, as the Presence that precedes the Ego, and he described it  as : “There is”

 

 

He understood the nature of reality, as we can see from the following statements:

 

 

“Everyone is the other, and no one is himself.”

Martin Heidegger (“Being and Time”)

 

 

“Thinking only begins at the point where we have come to know that Reason, glorified for centuries, is the most obstinate adversary of thinking.”
 Martin Heidegger

 

 

For some , the truth of these statements will find confirmation in their inner knowing, and they will understand exactly what Heidegger is saying:

 

“Only he who already understands can listen.”

Martin Heidegger (“Being and Time”)

 

 

CHANGING OUR IMPRESSION ABOUT WHO WE ARE

 

 

First, we should investigate if we are the: body, mind, thoughts, emotions, feelings, past life roles, or anything that we could perceive ourselves to be.

We can’t be the perceived, we are that which perceives.

Once we understand that we can’t be any of these, we realize that we don’t know who we are.

We are not the person that we created for ourselves, and we should watch our person and all the situations from a neutral position.

 

There are two ways to get our attention towards what we really are, suggested by Sri Ramana Maharaj, and by Nisargadatta Maharaj.

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi advised asking the question : “Who am I?”, for which there is no answer that could be expressed in words.

This question will silence the mind, and will turn it toward it’s source.

 

 “You have to ask yourself the question ‘Who am I?” This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind.”

Sri Ramana Maharshi

 

This question will end the questioner, the ego, the mind.

It is not possible to find our true eternal, infinite Self, and to look at it from the position of the mind, because we are always looking from the position of our true Self.

 

“The one you are looking for is the One who is looking.”

St. Francis of Assisi

 

Nisargadatta Maharaj advised to focus all our attention to the feeling “I am”, the only fact that we know for sure.

 

“My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense ‘I am’ and to give attention to nothing else.

I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of scriptures.

Whatever happened, I would turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense ‘I am’.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

The ultimate reality can’t be described in words, so all these are just pointers :

 

“As you watch your mind, you discover your self as the watcher. When you stand motionless, only watching , you discover your self as the light behind the watcher. The source of light is dark, unknown it is the source of knowledge. That source alone is. Go back to that source and abide there.

Nisargadatta Maharaj, “I Am That”

 

 

SELF - ENQUIRY

 

 

 

Self-enquiry is the way to discover what we really are, and  was recommended by Sri Ramana Maharshi as the most direct way.
When we ask ourselves this question: “Who Am I?”, we are not going to get the answer, but we will become aware of the unreality of the questioner, which will eventually disappear.

 

“The question ‘Who am I?’ is not really meant to get an answer,
the question ‘Who am I?’ is meant to dissolve the questioner.”
Ramana Maharshi

 

We can’t be something that we perceive, because we are the perceiver.

Because we can perceive our body, our mind, our emotions, our feelings, we should not identify with them.

 

“The perception of ‘I’ is associated with a form, maybe the body.
There should be nothing associated with the pure Self.”
Sri Ramana Maharshi

 

Realizing what we are not is helpful, it is a weakening of our attachments, of our ego.

Our intellect is prepared to consider a different idea:

 

”The Self is the unassociated, pure reality, in whose light the body and the ego shine,
On stilling all thoughts, the pure consciousness remains.”
Sri Ramana Maharshi

 

Every time when we perceive something , we should turn our attention inward, toward the Awareness that perceives.

Usually we are completely ignoring this  Awareness.

 

"The thing to do is to concentrate on the seer and not on the seen,
not on the objects, but on the Light which reveals them.”
Ramana Maharshi

 

In other words, we must be Aware of the Awareness....We are this awareness.

 

LET'S DO THE MIND SHIFT!

“ To live as a personality is to live in restriction.
Don’t live in restriction!
Let the personality live in you.”
Jean Klein

If  we are limited beings, than we should feel comfortable within our limits, but we don’t.

Sometimes, we feel restrained within the skin of this body and within our mind and personality.

We are always searching for ways to increase our physical performance or to “expand our mind”....without lasting results.

We should start by investigating our mistaken belief that we are limited beings.

Maybe we are not, maybe we are the unlimited consciousness in which the limited forms have appeared.

“You are pure Consciousness – the substance of the universe.

The Universe exists within you.

Don’t be small- minded.”

Ashtavakra Gita

Maybe it’s a simple case of mistaken identity , we identify with the limited forms ( mind, body, personality)

Those forms appeared in us and they borrow their reality from our real beingness...they are sustained by it.

The only limitation is our belief, an imaginary prison.

 Let’s switch to the belief that we are unlimited beings, based only on intellectual understanding, without any other proof.

With this mind shift, in a very short time, the feeling of unboundedness  will follow.Could this be a confirmation that we have aligned ourselves with the truth?

“The choice of refusing to be limited by the body and mind is open to everybody.

At every moment there is the possibility to turn the light of our attention around on itself
so as to know the nature of our Self,
that is the nature of the Knowing with which we know our experience.”
Rupert Spira ( Advaita Vedanta teacher)

“That which has form is not real.

Only the formless is permanent.

Once this is known, you will not return to illusion.”

Ashtavakra Gita

QUOTES ABOUT SIMPLICITY

 

“Simplicity is the glory of expression.”

Walt Whitman

 

 

“Nature is pleased with simplicity and affects not the pomp of superfluous causes.”

Isaac Newton

 

 

“Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.”

Alan Perlis

 

 

“Voluntary simplicity means going fewer places in one day rather than more, seeing less so I can see more, doing less so I can do more, acquiring less so I can have more.”

John Kabat-Zinn

 

 

 “Simplicity is a state of mind.”

Charles Wagner

 

 

“Simplicity in character, in manners, in style; In all things the supreme excellence is simplicity.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

 

“Simplicity and naturalness are the truest marks of distinction.”

W. Somerset Maugham

 

 

“Nothing is true, but that which is simple.”

Johann Wolfgang

 

 

“Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life,

are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have even lived a more simple and meager life than the poor.”

Henry David Thoreau

 

 

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

Confucius

 

 

“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.”

Henry Wadsworth

 

 

“Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.”

Plato

 

 

“Everything is both simpler than we can imagine, and more complicated that we can conceive.”

Goethe

 

 

“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion,

These three are your greatest treasures.”

Lao Tsu

THE REAL MEANING OF "BE PRESENT"

To “BE PRESENT” is not the same thing as to pay attention to the present moment in time.

We are identified with our mind, without knowing our real self.

We are not what we can see, and can see our body, mind, feelings, emotions, ego, person, individual self....

 

 

“Do understand it clearly – whatever you may perceive, you are not what you perceive.

You can see both the image and the mirror.

You are neither.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

 

What is it that sees, that is aware of these? It is our true Self.

 

 

”The Self is the one Reality that always exists, and it is by the light of the Self that all other things are seen.”

Sri Ramana Maharshi

 

 

 To “BE PRESENT” means to be one with the “Presence”, the absolute reality that gives us the feeling of here and now , our true Self.

 

 

"As it is my presence,which is always here and now, that gives the quality of actual to any event,

I must be beyond time and space,

I was never born,nor will ever die."

Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

 

Being in the present moment helps to get your attention from your mind, back to your Presence.

 

 

“If you are in a state of intense presence you are free of thought, yet highly alert.

If your conscious attention sinks below a certain level, thought rushes in,

the mental noise returns, stillness is lost,

you’re back in time.”

Eckhart Tolle

 

 

To “Be present” means to be your true Self, the Awareness:

 

 

“I am that which knows or is aware of all experience, but I am not myself an experience. I am aware of thoughts but am not myself a thought; I am aware of feelings and sensations but am not myself a sensation; I am aware of perceptions but am not myself a perception. Whatever the content of experience, I know or am aware of it. Thus, knowing or being aware is the essential element in all knowledge, the common factor in all experience.”

Rupert Spira, “The Nature of Consciousness: Essays on the Unity of Mind and Matter”

 

 

The only true meditation is that which disidentify us from anything that we are not, and let us remain what we really are.

The meditation is a kind of paying attention to the attention, or being aware of awareness.

Because only Awareness can be aware, we are the Awareness itself.

 

 

“Only that which is always with you can be said to be your self

and if you look closely and simply at experience,

only awareness is always ‘with you’.”

Rupert Spira, “Presence: The Art of Peace and Happiness”

 

 

To “Be present” means to cease being what you are not, and to abide as you  are:

 

 

“That which is alive in you is immortal. In reality there is only the source, dark in itself, making everything shine.

Unperceived, it causes perception. Unfelt, it causes feeling. Unthinkable, it causes thought. Non-being, it gives birth to being.

It is the immovable background of motion.

Once you are there, you are at home everywhere.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

 

To “Be Present” is not something that we have to achieve, because  our real Self is always with us , hidden under our mind, and we “Are Present” right now, and always.

Knowing that we are not “Present”, when we are in the room of our mind,  is a very good reminder about our true nature: the unbound Presence.

 

STILLNESS

QUOTES ABOUT STILLNESS, SILENCE, PEACE - OUR TRUE IDENTITY

“Silence is not the absence of sound, but the absence of self.”
Anthony de Mello

“Our original nature is...void, omnipresent, silent, pure; it is glorious and mysterious peaceful joy – and that is all. Enter deeply into it by awakening yourself.”

Huangbo Xiyun ( died in 850, Chinese master of Zen Buddhism )

 

"Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity."
Lao Tzu (6 century BD, Chinese philosopher and writer, author of Tao Te Ching, founder of philosophical Taoism)

"The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.”
Rumi

“That in which consciousness happens, the universal consciousness or mind, we call the ether of consciousness.
All the objects of consciousness form the universe.
What is beyond both, supporting both, is the supreme state, a state of utter stillness and silence.
Whoever goes there, disappears. It is unreachable by words, or mind.
You may call it God, or Parabrahman, or Supreme Reality, but these are names given by the mind.
It is the nameless, contentless, effortless and spontaneous state, beyond being and not being.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981, Hindu guru, teacher of nondualism )

 

“Everything that's created comes out of silence. Your thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Your words come out of this void. Your very essence emerged from emptiness. All creativity requires some stillness.”

Eckhart Tolle 

“Attention pays attention to a lot of things, but when attention pays attention to attention, then there is stillness, and that stillness introduces you to your Self.”
Mooji



"True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.'
Eckhart Tolle

"Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself."
Hermann Hesse

"In listening and stillness there is nobody who is still, and this stillness doesn't refer to any object; it is absolutely objectless; it is our real nature."
Jean Klein

“Where can I find a man who has forgotten words, so I can talk with him?”
Zhuangzi ( 369BC-286BC, Chinese philosopher)

“When there is silence one finds the anchor of the universe within oneself.” 
 Lao Tzu (6 century BD, Chinese philosopher and writer, author of Tao Te Ching, founder of philosophical Taoism)

“Pay attention to the gap – the gap between two thoughts, the brief, silent space between words in a conversation, between the notes of a piano or flute, or the gap between the in-breath and the out-breath. When you pay attention to those gaps, awareness of ‘something’ becomes – just awareness. The formless dimension of pure consciousness arises from within you and replaces identification with form.”
Eckhart Tolle“

"Shift your attention from words to silence and you will hear.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981, Hindu guru teacher of nondualism)

"Take away all the characteristics,all that you believe yourself to be,all that is phenomenal,and what is left?
No-thing,simply being,stillness,presence.
Why then spend a lifetime exploring the realm of illusory ego and its projections?
Why not go directly to what you are?"
Jean Klein

“To meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise is the greatest gift you can offer the universe.”
Eckhart Tolle

“Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it.
How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being.
Allow nature to teach you stillness.”
Eckhart Tolle

“Be still. It takes no effort to be still; it is utterly simple.
When your mind is still, you have no name, you have no past, you have no relationship, you have no country, you have no spiritual attainment, you have no lack of spiritual attainment.
There is just the presence of beingness with itself.”
Gangaji

“It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts passing before you.

Just witnessing, not interfering, not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness.”
Osho

“With stillness comes the benediction of Peace.”

Eckhart Tolle