Just being is enough. Not being this, not being that, just being, being at satsang.

And whether I
talk about ice cream, or jelly beans, it makes no difference. The words themselves have value be-
cause the sound of the words are the grace that you feel. But the meaning of the words are only
interpreted in your mind. Thats why whatever I say is taken differently by each one of you, for it
filters through your mind, and your consciousness and your beingness mix with the words, and the
words come out according to your way of life. But if you listen with no mind, then you get the true
meaning. In other words, do not put too much value on everything I say, but open your heart so
the grace portion of it may enter, and you may pick it up, and lift yourself upward.

How do you do this? Just by becoming still, by stopping the mental activity. And you may stop
the mental activity by any method you know. If you like to do pranayama, do that. If you like to
practice vipassana meditation, do that. If you wish to observe your breath, do that. If you wish
to practice self-inquiry, do that. In other words, do whatever you have to do to stop your mind
from thinking. Vichara, self-inquiry, is only to keep your mind from thinking. Thats all it is. All
the practices of yoga lead to the place where you stop thinking. All of the higher religions are to
make your thoughts one-pointed. And when your mind stops, you become your self. Youre free.

There are no rituals you have to go through really. You dont have to discipline yourself and try to
get rid of your guilt feelings, samskaras, or anything else. By identifying with an empty mind, will
do the job for you. But the empty mind is not realization. It is the step before realization. Real-
ization is not an empty mind. Realization can not be explained. Suffice it to say, that realization is
beyond everything and anything you can ever imagine. But if you achieve empty mind, then youre
on the way to realization. At that stage the guru within yourself, will pull you inwardly, and you
will awaken to your self.

So, number 1, you have to develop humility. You have to open your heart to loving kindness. Num-
ber 2, you have to forget about yourself and your problems, as if they never existed, and help oth-
ers, give of yourself to others, because there is only one self, and I am is that. Number 3, you have
to stop quoting teachers and telling yourself that I am Brahman, I am no-mind, I am conscious-
ness, for that really inflates your ego.

You have to stop comparing yourself with anybody or anything. In other words, you have to be-
come nothing, and that hurts some of you, because you say, After all Ive gone to school for fifty
years, Ive got a profession, Im doing this and Im doing that. And now you tell me I have to be-
come nothing? Well, consciousness is nothing, it is no thing. What you call God is nothing. So
if nothing is good enough for God, it should be good enough for you too. Cant you see now that
when you say to yourself, Well, Ill never be nothing, Im somebody. Ive studied for years, Im
somebody important, cant you see now that this is what holds you back? Every sage has come to
the point where they have thrown away the scriptures, thrown away the books, thrown away their
body, thrown away their knowledge, and thrown away themselves with a small s. When you get rid
of all that stuff, then you become your self.

~ Robert Adams

If you listen with no mind, then you get the true meaning.
How do you do this?
Just by becoming still, by stopping the mental activity.
And you may stop the mental activity by any method you know.
If you like to do pranayama, do that.
If you like to practice vipassana meditation, do that.
If you wish to observe your breath, do that.
If you wish to practice self-inquiry, do that.
In other words, do whatever you have to do to stop your mind from thinking.
Vichara, self-inquiry, is only to keep your mind from thinking.
Thats all it is.
All the practices of yoga lead to the place where you stop thinking.
All of the higher religions are to make your thoughts one-pointed.
And when your mind stops, you become your Self. Youre free.

~ Robert Adams

See what youre doing now. Youre thinking. That spoils it.

Learn to stay without thought. Even if for a few seconds.

Its hard isnt it.

This is the reason you have to ask yourself,

To whom do these thoughts come?

Its only a modality to cause you to stop thinking.

~ Robert Adams

You have to keep asking yourself this, over and over again,
What is reality?
What is consciousness?
What am I doing here? Find out.
Spend periods in the silence,
where you observe your breath,
where you watch your thoughts,
do this as often as you can.
Never react to the world no matter what it shows you.
Dive deep within the Self.

~ Robert Adams

You can become aware that you are like the screen in the movie.

You cannot see the screen, you see the images on the screen.

Yet the images are not real.

If you try to grab them, you grab the screen.

Just contemplating this helps.

And then you realize that you are like the screen, that is your real nature, and all the images in the
universe are superimposed upon you,

just as the images of the movie are superimposed on the screen.

~ Robert Adams

By being present, without taking thought, without manipulation, without playing mind games,
without trying to improve yourself, without thinking of yourself, without thinking of others, every-
thing good happens, all by itself.

Robert Adams

When you surrender youre surrendering the ego.

The way this is done, is by looking at the world with humility.
Looking at the world with love and peace.
Saying to yourself Not my will but thine.
Feeling that you have no will of your own any longer.
You have no questions, you have no wants, you have no desires,
you let them all melt in your heart.
You leave it alone.
You stop worrying, you stop fretting.
You stop trying to accomplish things or to change things.
By realizing there is a power greater than you.
Its available to you right now.
As you do this youre surrendering all of your wants,
all of your needs, all of your fears,
all of your stuff that youve been carrying on with all these years.
Youre surrendering it all.
Everything must go, everything.

~ Robert Adams

Actually the human body cannot keep silent.

Theres something else that enters the silence.
It has nothing to do with your humanity.
Its only after years perhaps of meditation in previous lives,
that you can be mature enough to really know what this path is all about. When I give you these
practices, its not for you as a human being.
You appear to be able to go through it as a human being,
but I can assure you your humanity has nothing to do with it.
When you enter the silence you enter a profound peace, bliss consciousness, pure awareness.
Thats what the silence is.
Its not being quiet. Its beyond that.
Its not just quieting your mind, like I say all the time.
Its understanding that theres no mind to quiet.
When you realize theres no mind, you automatically become silent.
When you still think youve got a mind,
you make every effort to quiet the mind, and you cant.
How many of you believe you can quiet the mind through effort?
You cant do that. Its not the effort that makes you quiet your mind.
Its the intelligent understanding that you have no mind to begin with.
Then you just keep still and everything takes care of itself.

~ Robert Adams

Surrender yourself totally. How do you surrender yourself? By letting go, letting go of all the con-
cepts, letting go of all the ideas, letting go of the beliefs, letting go of all your prejudices, all of
your emotions. Just drop it. If you can do this, all of your sadhana, all of your meditations, all of
your prayers, are no longer necessary. Ponder this very well. Your sadhana, your spiritual practice
does not begin when youve gone to many teachers, and youve read many books. It actually be-
gins when you give up everything. Thats when real sadhana begins, when you have surrendered
everything, when youve emptied yourself of all knowledge, all desires for liberation. When you
have become an empty shell, then your spiritual life begins. Until that time youre only playing
games with yourself.

You have to reconcile yourself with the whole universe, the mineral kingdom, the vegetable king-
dom, the animal kingdom, the human kingdom. When you have become friends with the entire
universe, you will not have to do atma-vichara. You will not have to trace the I, or worry about the
I. Just the reconciliation with the universe will free you. After all, when you love everything, un-
qualified, what else can you do? Theres nothing else. The total love of the whole universe kills the
ego. For it is the ego that plays the other games with you, that makes you love someone special or
hate someone special, that makes you despise certain animals and eat them, that makes you think
poison ivy is worse than a rose, that causes you to qualify life. A Sage sees everything as equal. No
thing is worse or better than any other thing. And just by hearing this, allowing it to go into your
heart, feeling it, will lead you to an awakening.

~ Robert Adams

...you will attract yourself to that thing that you need to do next for your unfoldment and ful-
fillment. This is why I always say that youre in your right place at the right time going through
those experiences that are necessary for you at this time. There are no mistakes. Everything is in
its right place. Never believe that there is something wrong in your life...

Who were you when you were born? You didnt have a name. You just appeared to be born. A
name was given to you and now you identify with your name. Just like a dog identifies with its
name. You call a dog by its name it will answer. Were the same as animals when we are the body.
We arent any different from an animal. Were only different in one way, an animal is conscious
and we are Self conscious.

Because we are Self conscious that should give you a clue and make you understand that you are
the Self. The Self is not the body or the mind or the world or the universe. The Self is pure be-
ingness. The Self is. The Self is total silence. There are no words to describe the Self. Yet you are
that.
You can only find the Self when you become quiet. This is why the procedures that you learn such
as atma-vichara, self-inquiry is to bring you deeply into the silence. To get you to a place where
there is total quietness. Total peace. Once you are in that place, the Self will reveal itself as you.

~ Robert Adams

The world responds to your new shape of your thoughts.

The universe responds to your new being.

In other words the universe always turns into what you are.

Whenever you look at the world youre seeing yourself never forget this.

All of the images in this world, including your body,

are like bubbles on the ocean, like waves.

They come and they go but the ocean never changes

the bubbles always change.

Theyre there for a while, they pop.

They become part of the ocean again.

Then another bubble pops up, lasts for a while and pops,

part of the ocean again.

And so it is with forms of this earth.

Your body, the world that you see are simply the bubbles on the ocean.

Do not be the bubble, be the ocean and become free.

For youre already free, awaken to it.

~Robert Adams - T:213: Is Everything Preordained?- December 30, 1992

Time passes very fast. Before you know it, its time to leave your body. What have you accom-
plished? Have you become free? If not, you have to go through the illusion of reincarnation and
karma, again and again and again, so it appears. Until you learn to let go, until you learn not to
react to anything. Not to find fault. Not to try to make the world spin your way, but to surrender
completely to your Self.

Surrendering is very important. To whom do you surrender? To the source, the Self. You may say
something like this: Okay, Self, take my problems. Take my negativity, take everything, Thy will
be done. I no longer have any concern about these things. And you stop reacting towards person,
place or thing. You mellow out. You become calm, in the face of all adversity. It makes no differ-
ence what is facing you. You become happy, peaceful and calm.

Robert Adams (T29: 09 Dec 1990)

You cannot understand yet that when you let go completely, another power comes along. This
power is called the self, and it takes the place of your mind, so that you seem to function cor-
rectly. And you find yourself in your right place. You find right actions coursing through your
veins. You find youre doing those things youre supposed to be doing, and all is well. You have
to stop thinking and stop believing in a power apart from you.

Never put yourself down.

Never compare yourself with anyone else.
Never be judgmental.
Learn to leave everything alone.
Do not come to a conclusion about anything.
There is no ultimate answer.
Do not search for reality.
Do not search for answers.
You will be searching for eternity.
~~~Robert Adams

Be honest with yourself. Dont say, Oh the I is consciousness. Thats the worst thing you can
ever do. Is to memorize certain words or phraseologies and use them at your own time. When you
ask the question, Then who is experiencing the body? Who is experiencing the world? Be hon-
est with yourself and say, I dont know? Its a mystery. Well then to whom is it a mystery too. To
me. It therefore seems that if everything is a mystery to me. Me, me, me. If I got rid of the me,
there would be no mystery. Now how do I get rid of the me. Who is the me? The me is another
word for I. I believe that everything is a mystery. I have nothing to do with my body or the world.
So you get back to I. Who is this I? I dont know its a mystery. There is the mystery again. So
Ill ask again, For whom is the mystery for? For me. Who am I? I dont know its a mystery. For
whom is the mystery for? As you keep talking to yourself this way something wonderful is going
to happen. Your question will begin to slow down and you will feel yourself becoming happy. You
may even start laughing at yourself. And your mind will become quieter and quieter and quieter.
You will begin to feel enormous joy. Just by doing that technique, without coming to any conclu-
sions. - January 10, 1991

The third rule is to practice self-inquiry and you can do this every minute of the hour every day.

There is no time you cannot practice.

To begin with this is the greatest psychotherapy that has ever been invented.

It makes you calm and peaceful and relaxed.

It removes the heavy burden from your shoulders that youre carrying and its very simple.

For every disturbance that your mind comes up with, simply ask yourself,

To whom does this come? Who is feeling this?

And if youre being true to yourself youll say,

I am. Im feeling this.

When you say, I-am , stop to think a moment what youre saying,

I am. What is the I ? From where did it come?

Take stock of yourself and realize that all day long you say,

I. I am happy. I am sad. I am sick. I am well. I am rich. I am poor. I feel this. I feel that. I feel
depressed. I feel happy.

Youre always thinking of yourself, youre always centered on yourself as I.

Who is this I ? What is this I ? Where did it come from? And you inquire, Who am I?

All the time keeping the I in your mind.

Thinking of the I . This I is your ego.

It is the first pronoun that you think of every morning when you wake up. When you say, I am
awake. Who is awake? I am. Who am I? You never answer that question. There is no answer
for that question. There is only the question, Who am I? No answer. Quietness, stillness.

You believe you are the doer, and

everything you accomplish you think that you did it.
Thats a lie.
You dont even exist!
You werent even born!
How can you be the doer?
There is no one who does anything.
Yet everything gets done.
Its a paradox.

Everything gets done because you believe youre the doer.

When you realize youre not the doer
everything gets done in a better way,
for you stop identifying with the object and the subject.
You become free of all attachments.
As long as you believe that youre responsible for anything
that takes place in this world, you have a problem.
You will have to go through that experience
over and over and over again,
until you realize that you have absolutely
nothing to do with anything.
You are pure consciousness.
Your real Self is absolute reality.
I tell you, you have nothing to do with this world.

~Robert Adams - T.38 - The Leela - January 24, 1991

First you have to awaken to yourself. You have to understand your true nature, your swarrupa.

You have to realize who you are. When you understand that you are consciousness, then you un-
derstand that you are everything, for consciousness is not limited to yourself, to your personal
self. Consciousness is all-pervading, omnipresence.Therefore you know youre every thing. You
are the planets. You are the trees, the leaves, the bedbugs, the cockroaches. Youre everything. The
whole universe is you. When the whole universe is you, of course you are Master of all. And then
you can do anything you like. But the paradox is, when you become that state, theres nothing you
need to do. Theres absolutely nothing you want to do, for you are all things.

When you realize youre all things, what is there to do?

It is only when you are limited to your body, or when you believe you are the body itself, then you
want to do things, you want to achieve things, become things. When you realize youre conscious-
ness, all-pervading,

youre already those things. Youre everything in the universe. You are the universe. The whole
universe emanates out of your Self. You then become God, and all the gods and goddesses will
come to you with folded hands, for you have become That.

~Robert Adams - T161: Consciousness

Who am I? What am I? What am I? Asking yourself again and again, Who am I? Forget about
time. Forget about space. Forget everything. Keep yourself from thinking. When the thoughts
come, ask yourself, To whom comes the thoughts? Again, They come to me. Hold onto the
me. I think these thoughts. Well then, who am I? Who thinks these thoughts? Who am I?

Surrender completely to God. Surrender everything, your problems, your ego, your body, your
mind, your work, your world. If you truly surrender, you will immediately become radiantly happy,
for you have given your ego to God. And whats left is God. You have no body. You have no mind.
You have no work. You have no problems. It has been your ego all the time fooling you, making
you believe that something is wrong, and youve been playing hide and seek, trying to find God
here, there and everywhere, when all the time God was within yourself as yourself. Begin to see
the truth. Begin to stand up tall. Become fearless. Become strong. Leave the world alone. Itll
take care of itself. There is a mysterious power that guides the world to its right destiny. It doesnt
need any help from you. If youre meant to do certain work in the world, it will be done but you
have nothing to do with that. It doesnt mean that you have to leave your job, or go sit in a cave,
or give up your life. Wherever you are right now is where youre supposed to be. Just feel, I am
not the doer and youre work will go on. Do not be attached to your work, Do not react to any
situation or any condition. Be yourself. Focus your attention on consciousness, and your body will
go on doing whatever it came here to do. Everything is preordained. Even when I raise my finger
like this it is preordained. Do not be egotistical to believe that you have any power over everybody
or anybody or that you are the doer. Its a privilege to have been born on this earth, and the rea-
son you have been born is to find your real self. Go for it, do it, and become free.

~ Robert Adams on Ramana Maharshi

Make no mistakes about it. If you want jnana, you have to have bhakti, in other words you have
to have an open heart. When your heart opens, automatically the self appears. But how does the
heart open? Through love, through devotion. Through devotion of that self. Many people do not
understand this. When people get involved in jnana they become very talkative, and they discuss
it, and talk about it, and memorize it, and read books about it. The years pass and you become
a walking encyclopedia, but youve hardly make any progress. To make progress there has to be
devotion. You have to love yourself, not what you appear to be, but your self, God. When you be-
gin to truly become a bhakta, and you love your self, the self you love becomes omnipresence, all-
pervading. So naturally, automatically, you love everybody in this world, insects, animals, insen-
tient and sentient beings, everything. You can only do that when you open your heart and you love
your self. That person becomes self-realized.

I have never known a person, who had a cold heart, who is self-realized. They may say they are,
but its impossible. You have to open yourself to the universe. You have to have a great compas-
sion, loving kindness, and thats when everything happens by itself. But there are so many mean
people around, so to speak, not here, but in the world. And they find out about self-realization,
Advaita Vedanta. They start to read book after book after book, and they add it on to their arro-
gance. When you try to talk to those people they throw quotations at you from the books theyve
read. Youve got to have love.

Think about your purpose. What do you really want? You should be an empty vessel. When you
empty yourself of all your preconceived ideas, all of your concepts, all of your desires, when you
empty yourself out completely, then reality shows itself. But you cannot add on what you learn
here to your existing self with a small s. Remember youve got samskaras to work out. Youve
got the brainwashing you received since you were a baby to get rid of. You are full of nonsen-
sical ideas, and that all has to go. Being here is the focal point for going further with your self-
realization. It makes no difference what I say. I can be talking about ice-cream, or chocolate bars.
It doesnt make any difference. Just by your being here there is a subtle energy that takes over and
pushes you forward.

~ Robert Adams

When youre in deep sleep, the I returns to the heart, to the source. There is nothing going on,
nothing happening. At that time you are unconsciously self-realized.

This is why, when you get up in the morning, you say to yourself, I slept good.Youre talk-
ing about I. I slept good. What you really mean to say is the I wasnt interfering with your life.
But as soon as you begin to think, you say, I am late for work. I have to catch the bus. I have
a headache. I have to eat breakfast. And you go on, and on, and on with this I. It never stops.
All day long its I, I, I, I. Think about this. Am I not telling you the truth? Youre always thinking
about I this and I that till the night time comes again, you go to sleep. Again the I goes back
into the source, into the heart, and youre at peace once more. Until you wake up and it starts all
over again.

After doing this for a million years, you get to the stage when youll ask yourself,Who am I? What
is this I? How did it arise? From whence does it come? And this is the beginning of wisdom,
when you inquire for the source of the I. You ultimately begin to trace the I to the source. When
you do this finally, when the I is in the source, it is just like when youre in deep sleep, except that
youre conscious.

Think about this for a moment. In deep sleep you have no I for it has returned to the source.
Youre totally happy, but youre unconscious of it. When you attain what we call self-realization,
it means that the I has returned to the source while youre awake.Theres nobody left to think.
Theres no one left to worry, or to fret, or to be unhappy.

You have merged with the infinite, with the all-pervading Brahman. If you understand this, and
you practice this, you will become the happiest person in the world, for on the way to finding the
I-source, you begin to feel happier and happier every day. The old thoughts melt away. The old
you dissolves. You become free.

~ Robert Adams

Source: M.T. Mind

The way the mind becomes weaker and weaker, is when you never come to a conclusion. For
when you do not come to a conclusion, the mind becomes stupefied. Its caught off guard. It
doesnt know where it belongs. It loses its power.

~ Robert Adams
Do not be disturbed by events in this world.

Do not take life so seriously.

Be of service to humanity.

When you see people suffering, help.

Come to the aid of the home-less, the poor, the sick.

When you realize there is only one,

who are you helping but your- self.

To whom are you giving service but yourself,

who is benefitting but yourself.

Be kind, be loving, everything else will take of itself.

You are the one, the holy one, the mighty one,

the true one, the loving one.

Go within your heart right now.

Dive deep within the heart center and lose yourself entirely.

The spiritual heart center is on the right side of the chest.

See a sphere of golden light in the heart center,

a sphere of beautiful golden light, throbbing.

See this globe of white light, golden light expanding,

expanding throughout the whole universe.

Where all of the planets, galaxies, everything

are super- impositions on this golden globe of light.

Everything is an image on this light.

Like the image on the screen.

This light is like boundless space.

It accommodates the whole universe.

Everything is in this light. Nothing is left out.

Understand that you are the light.

The light is you, the Self.

The imperishable Brahman, the ultimate reality, nirvana.

The I-am that I-am, that is the nature of this golden light.

See all the images disappearing and only the light remains.

Feel this light as your- self.

You are filled with joy, filled with bliss, with happiness.

You are now the true Self and there are no others.

Feel this deeply. Feel this bliss, this love, this joy,

pulsating within, without you.

All of your past has been wiped out.

There never was any room for a past or a present or a future.

There is just the one mighty Self, expressing itself as consciousness

and you are that!

Peace.
~Robert Adams.

STOP THINKING.....STOP THINKING...

There is a way for a person to awaken, and that way is to stop thinking. Stop thinking. He says
that sounds good, but how do you do it? When the mind becomes quiescent, quiet, still, realization
comes all by itself. There is absolutely nothing you have to do to bring it about.
.
As an example, the sun shines all by itself. Lets call the sun the Self, consciousness, pure aware-
ness. Yet every once in a while, clouds form beneath the sun. And the sun doesnt seem to shine
any longer.
.
Your thoughts are the clouds. Whatever you think, no matter what you think about, as long as you
think, youre covering up the sun, which is the Self. It makes no difference what youre thinking,
good thoughts, bad thoughts, or any kind of thoughts. All thoughts are clouds, all thoughts. And
they cover up the sun. So it is your true nature, is the Self. Youre really the Self, all-pervading,
reality. It is your thoughts that cover up the Self. Whatever you allow what you think, you cover up
the Self more and more and more. Youre only covering up the Self.
.
The Self will shine all by itself when you stop thinking. Stop thinking, totally, unconditionally. Stop
thinking.
.

.
~ Robert Adams _/\_
ONE without SECOND.

Empty the mind completely and totally. That is the whole purpose of spiritual life. To empty the
mind. Not to think intelligently and have all kinds of intellectual conceptions. But to totally empty
the mind ... Do not get confused by words. Speak less, think less and you will be everything youre
supposed to be.

I AM Meditation

There are so many people who try to practice Self- inquiry and they give it up. Then I tell them
to surrender, surrender completely. Thats the other way. Again this becomes difficult. They try it
for a while and they always revert back to themselves, your personal self. So I give them the I Am
meditation. Everybody can do that. When nothing seems to work, go back to the I Am. Its really
very powerful. Do not take it simple. I can guarantee you this. If you can practice I Am for one
day, just one day, all of your troubles will be transcended. You will feel happiness youve never
felt before. You will feel a peace that you never even knew existed. As you keep practicing I Am,
your thoughts will become less and less. Your personal self will go into the background and you
will begin to feel an inner Bliss. You will begin to feel that it no longer matters what Im going
through. It makes no difference, because it is God who is going through this, not me. And God
has no problems. You automatically become happy, just by using the I Am meditation.

In the Bhagavad Gita it says, Out of a million people, one searches for God. And out of a million
people who search, one finds Him. Its sort of difficult. Thats how it appears. But if you begin to
use I Am as a meditation and you allow the I Am to go deeper and deeper, your bodily conscious-
ness will disappear, and I Am will take over.

If you want to mix Self-inquiry, Atma Vichara, with I Am, thats permissible. You can use them
both together. Ill explain how. Say youre using the I Am meditation. In between, thoughts keep
popping up. Whether theyre good thoughts or bad thoughts makes no difference, but thoughts
keep interfering. You can now inquire, To whom come these thoughts? and you dont have to go
any further. Just observe and watch. When your mind becomes silent again, you go back to the I
Am meditation with your respiration. When thoughts come again you inquire, To whom do they
come? As you progress in this method, you complete the question. The thoughts come to me.
What is the Source of me? Who am I? What is the Source of I? You begin to feel and see that
the I that seems to have the problem is not you. You begin to feel, I have a problem. I am
sick. I am angry. I have no peace of mind. And you begin to laugh. For the realization tells
you, I has all these things, I dont. I is the culprit. I appears to want this and need that. So
it is with desires, wants, self-aggrandizement. All of this belongs to the I. Who is this I? Where
does it come from? If the I isnt really me, then who am I? And you keep still. Now you may go
back to I Am with the respiration. You inhale and you say I. You exhale and you say Am. As you
progress this way, youre going to find something interesting happening to your life. Youre going
to find theres more and more space between I Am. It will happen by itself. You will inhale and
you will say I, and all of a sudden nothing will come out of that. Then you will exhale with Am.
You will inhale again and say I. Remember youre not putting this on, youre not making it happen.
Its happening all by itself. And the space between I Am is the fourth dimension of Conscious-
ness. After waking, sleeping, dreaming. It is the state of the Jnani. It is your freedom. It is Pure
Awareness. Pure Awareness is not the I Am. The I Am leads to Pure Awareness. And when you
keep practicing, Who am I? alternating with both of them, there will be a greater space before
you say, Who am I? again. That space is Bliss. Youll feel something youve never felt before. An
inner joy, an inner delight. You will just know that the whole universe is the Self, and I Am That.
As the months progress, the words will become less and less. You may start off with I Am, and
then you will be in the Silence. You will not say another word. You will just experience the Silence.
That Silence is Nirvana, Emptiness. It is no thing. It is the nothing I was talking about. You will
just sit in the Silence.

~ Robert Adams
You must go to the root. The root is the I-thought. Question it by enquiring as to the source of
this concept: To whom does these questions appear? To me Who am I? Who is this me?
Where does this idea come from? Do not look for an answer. Only ask the question with patience
whenever thoughts arise. This serves to quiet the restless mind. As you do this in a relaxed, alert
way, you will notice that the space between the thoughts gets larger. Be aware of this space be-
tween your thoughts. That is your true nature, spotless, formless, pure Awareness. It shines like
the sun; only clouds of thoughts seem to obscure it.

~ Robert Adams ~

I am is God. I am is nirvana, emptiness. I am is consciousness, and that is your reality. So theres

no real difference between me and you. Absolute reality, consciousness, is all-pervading. If its all-
pervading, how can you be something else? You see the folly of your thinking? There is only abso-
lute consciousness. There is only the reality. It is all-pervading. Theres nothing else.

Just being aware of this, your thoughts stop. There is nothing to think about. There is no thing you
have to do. There are no mantras you have to keep chanting. There are no formulas that are going
to turn you into a jnani. There are no yoga practices that you have to keep doing. You simply have
to be aware that absolute reality is omnipresent, all-pervading, and there is no room for anything
else.

I am is Brahman. It goes further than that. I am is Parabrahman, beyond Brahman. Its unpro-
nounceable, unfathomable. You are that. You are that consciousness, and there is absolutely noth-
ing to think about. There is no thing you have to get rid of. There is no special reading you have
to do. There is no one you have to really see. You simply have to be aware of the fact that ab-
solute reality is all there is. Theres not even room for a thought, for a question, for an answer.
Theres no room, because the absolute reality takes up all the room.

There is nothing to wonder about. You do not have to be worthy. You do not have to deserve it.
There is no use thinking about your past, because your past never existed and never will exist. The
past and the future are just dreams. Awaken from the dream by realizing absolute reality is the
only power. It is everywhere. There is not the world and absolute reality, and then you have to
overcome the world to find your reality. There is no world to overcome. There is no God to pray
to. Brahman is yourself. Shiva is your consciousness. You are that.

What else is there to know? You do not have to be a scholar of the Upanishads. You do not have
to memorize various passages. You have to become like a little child and stay centered in the
present. No one exists but you. You are the only existence. There is no other existence.

If you took this room and everything in it, the tape recorders, the bodies, the flowers, the carpet,
and began to melt it down to its most minutest particles, you would get pure energy from every-
thing. Everything will come from the same source. That source is absolute reality. It is the substra-
tum of all existence. And that source is you. You are that. You are nothing else. Everything else is
a lie. Youre searching, and youre striving, and youre looking for this, and youre looking for that.
Give it up. Stay put. Do not allow your mind to think past your nose. Catch your mind. Observe it
thinking, and laugh.

~ Robert Adams

Who am I? What am I? What am I? Asking yourself again and again, Who am I? Forget about
time. Forget about space. Forget everything. Keep yourself from thinking. When the thoughts
come, ask yourself, To whom comes the thoughts? Again, They come to me. Hold onto the
me. I think these thoughts. Well then, who am I? Who thinks these thoughts? Who am I?

Surrender completely to God. Surrender everything, your problems, your ego, your body, your
mind, your work, your world. If you truly surrender, you will immediately become radiantly happy,
for you have given your ego to God. And whats left is God. You have no body. You have no mind.
You have no work. You have no problems. It has been your ego all the time fooling you, making
you believe that something is wrong, and youve been playing hide and seek, trying to find God
here, there and everywhere, when all the time God was within yourself as yourself. Begin to see
the truth. Begin to stand up tall. Become fearless. Become strong. Leave the world alone. Itll
take care of itself. There is a mysterious power that guides the world to its right destiny. It doesnt
need any help from you. If youre meant to do certain work in the world, it will be done but you
have nothing to do with that. It doesnt mean that you have to leave your job, or go sit in a cave,
or give up your life. Wherever you are right now is where youre supposed to be. Just feel, I am
not the doer and youre work will go on. Do not be attached to your work, Do not react to any
situation or any condition. Be yourself. Focus your attention on consciousness, and your body will
go on doing whatever it came here to do. Everything is preordained. Even when I raise my finger
like this it is preordained. Do not be egotistical to believe that you have any power over everybody
or anybody or that you are the doer. Its a privilege to have been born on this earth, and the rea-
son you have been born is to find your real self. Go for it, do it, and become free.

~ Robert Adams on Ramana Maharshi

What Im simply telling you is this. Make your life simple. Keep inquiring, Who am I? Whatever
your need may be, whatever your position is, wherever you come from, makes no difference. Do
not compare yourself with anyone else. Keep inquiring, Who am I? Where did this I come from?
What is its source? Follow the I to the spiritual heart center, on the right side of your chest. Allow
it to merge.

** Abide in the I ***

The method to remember is to catch yourself all during the day.

Who believes this?

To whom does this come?

Who feels this? over and over again.

When you say, Who am I? for some people it is better to say, Who is I? the same thing.

What you are really doing is youre finding the source of the I.

Youre looking for the source of I, the personal-I.

Who am I?

Youre always talking about the personal-I.

Who is this I?

Where did it come from?

Who gave it birth?

Never answer those questions.

Pose those questions, but never answer them.

Keep it up.

Dont give up.

Do not look for results.

Because its your true nature, sooner or later the results must presume themselves, but it comes
without your help.

You cannot help God.

God does not need your help.

just be yourself .

Its difficult to be totally honest with yourself, yet this is exactly what you have to do.

Forget about being a Jnani, or enlightened, or having self-realization.

I get too many calls like that.

People are calling me from all over the world telling me that they are self-realized.

So now I just say, Good, what do you want me to do? They want the confirmation.

So I was thinking of printing certificates, and mailing them out.

This is to inform you that you are now self-realized.

Congratulations.

Forget about those things.

Dont even desire it.

Just do the work and youll be surprised.

The more you want it, the more it eludes you.

And thats natural, because youre chasing after yourself.

Youre trying to catch yourself when youre already caught.

So the more you chase yourself, the faster you are going to run away from yourself.

Stop doing that.

Its simplicity itself.

There is really nothing intellectual about it.

You dont have to know certain words or certain phraseologies.

You dont have to memorize certain text.

You simply have to remember the I.

Abide in the I.

Thats all you have to do.

Abide in the I.
Hold on to the I.

Everything is attached to the I, your body, the world, the universe.

When you discover the source of I, everything else will go with it, into the ocean of bliss.

Bliss is a natural outcome of your search.

When you stop searching and you calm down, and you put your books away, and you confront
yourself and see what you are all about, that will bring it faster than anything else, than you can
ever imagine, or ever do.

Its not in chanting mantras.

Its not in being a good guy or a bad guy.

Its not by doing penance.

Its simply by observing your I.

Abiding in the I.

Whew did I come from? When you say that youre not saying where did my body come from?

Youre saying Where did I come from? I.

I is separate from your body.

Your body is attached to I.

The I is not your body.

I is separate from the world, but the world is attached to I.

God is separate from the world, but God is attached to I.

Therefore when you ask, Where did I come from? something happens to your mind.

Your mind becomes weaker and weaker.

And when your mind becomes weaker and weaker, the I begins to expand and becomes all-
pervading.
Then the I becomes another word for the Self and you begin to realize I is none other than the
Self.

I am that.

You become free.

It isnt hard and it isnt easy.

It just is.

Think about yourself for a moment.

Watch what thoughts come to you when you think about yourself.

Some of you are saying, Im hungry.

Some of you are thinking of your needs.

As soon as you think about yourself, you think about your body.

But your Self is not your body.

Your body is only a heap of rotten flesh, but thats not you.

You are I.

I am.

I am not this and not that.

I am.

Theres nothing else.

Nothing else exists but I am.

There is nothing to say about it.

There are no speeches to make about I am.

There is only I am.

When you say, I-am to yourself, what happens?

Isnt there a quietness that comes over you, a stillness, because another name for I am is silence.

~ Robert Adams

I AM

Meditation by Robert Adams

I Am is the first name of God. When you want to think of God, you think of I Am with your res-
piration. I Am is the first name of God. Close your eyes and try. Inhale and say, I. Exhale and
say, Am. Doesnt that make you feel good? Just by saying I Am to yourself, it lifts you up. So
the thing to do is this: Whenever you have a problem, I dont care what it is, I dont care how seri-
ous you think it is, whether its worldly or personal, wherever it came from, the secret is to forget
yourself. For the moment, forget about the problem for as long as you can, and do the I Am medi-
tation. If your mind wanders, bring it back again, and do the I Am meditation.

When I explain this to some people they say, Robert, but you tell us we have to get rid of our
minds. We have to annihilate the mind, not think with it. This is true. This is the highest truth.
But most people cannot do this. Remember Advaita Vedanta is really for mature souls, people who
have practiced sadhana in previous lives. Its like going to school. Self-inquiry, Advaita Vedanta, is
like the university of spiritual life. You cannot fool yourself.

There are so many people who try to practice Self-inquiry and they give it up. Then I tell them to
surrender, surrender completely. Thats the other way. Again this becomes difficult. They try it for
a while and they always revert back to themselves, your personal self. So, I give them the I Am
meditation.

Everybody can do that. When nothing seems to work, go back to the I Am. Its really powerful. Do
not take it as simple. I can guarantee you this: if you practice I Am for one day, all of your trou-
bles will be transcended. You will feel happiness like you have never felt before. You will feel a
peace that you never even knew existed.

As you keep practicing the I Am, your thoughts will become less and less. Your personal self will
go into the background and you will feel an inner bliss. You will begin to feel that it no longer
matters what Im going through. It makes no difference, because it is God that is going through
this, not me. And God has no problems. You automatically become happy, just by using the I Am
meditation.

In the Bhagavad Gita it says, Out of a million people, one searches for God. And out of a million
people who search, one finds Him. Its sort of difficult. Thats how it appears. But, if you begin to
use I Am as a meditation and you allow the I Am to go deeper and deeper, your bodily conscious-
ness will disappear, and the I Am will take over.
If you want to mix Self-inquiry, Atma Vichara, with I Am, thats permissible. You can use them
both together. Ill explain how. Say youre using the I Am meditation. In between, thoughts keep
popping up. Whether theyre good thoughts or bad thoughts makes no difference, but thoughts
keep interfering. You can now inquire To whom come these thoughts? Just observe and watch.

When your mind becomes silent again, you go back to the I Am meditation with your respira-
tion. When thoughts come again you inquire, To whom do they come? As you progress in this
method, you complete the question. The thoughts come to me. What is the source of me? Who
am I? What is the source of I?

You begin to feel and see that the I that seems to have the problem is not you. You begin to
feel I have a problem. I am sick. I am angry. I have no peace of mind. And you begin
to laugh. For the realization tells you, I has all these things, I dont. I is the culprit. I ap-
pears to want this and need that. So it is with wants, desires and self-aggrandizement. All of this
belongs to the I. Who is this I? Where does it come from? If the I isnt really me, then who
am I? And you keep still.

Now you may go back to the I Am with respiration. You inhale and you say I. You exhale and say
Am. As you progress this way, youre going to find out something interesting happens to your life.
Youre going to find theres more space between I Am. It will happen by itself. You will inhale and
you will say I, and all of a sudden, nothing will come out of that. Then you will exhale with Am.
You will inhale again and say I. Remember youre not putting this on, youre not making this hap-
pen. Its happening all by itself and the space between I Am is the fourth dimension of conscious-
ness. After waking, sleeping, dreaming. It is the state of the Jnani. It is your freedom. It is Pure
Awareness. And when you keep practicing, Who am I? alternating with both of them, there will
be a greater space before you say, Who am I? again.

That space is bliss. Youll feel something youve never felt before. An inner joy. An inner delight.
You will just know that the whole universe is the Self, and I Am That. As the months progress, the
words become less and less. You may start off with I Am, and then you will be in the Silence. You
will not say another word. You will just experience the Silence. That Silence is Nirvana, Emptiness.
It is no thing. It is the nothing I was talking about. You will just sit in the Silence.

Silence of the Heart, pages 101-104

I Am

Chanting is very helpful to make you one-pointed, to put you into a state where you can absorb
your own reality. So lets do a little chanting together, shall we?

Have you ever wondered where everything comes from? Think about that.

Wheredoes everything come from? Take a look at your life right now. Think whats going on in
your life. Are you happy, are you miserable, are you healthy, are you sick, are you rich, are you
poor? Doesnt matter. The only thing that matters is everything you are is what you have identi-
fied with, somewhere, somehow. There is no power outside of your Self. There is no world outside
of your Self. There is no creation outside of your Self. There is no universe outside of your Self.
There is no God outside of your Self. You have given birth to all of these things. You are playing a
game with yourself. Youre putting on an act.

Why? Ask yourself.

How do you start? By realizing you know nothing. Not by trying to be smart and recite affirma-
tions that you learnt in a book, but to realize, I know absolutely nothing.

The next step is to realize that you exist. Thats the only thing Im sure about, I exist. Who exists?
I do. Well, who is this I that seems to exist? Where did it come from? I dont know. Who doesnt
know? I. Were back to I. So something within you begins to tell you that I is responsible for every-
thing I believe. Where did I come from? Who am I? You

begin to search for the source of the I.

You do not affirm where the source is. There is no use affirming the source is consciousness if you
have not experienced it, but what you do is you follow the I to its source. How do you do this? By
asking yourself Who am I? or What am I? Taking a pause and asking yourself again, Who am
I?

As you keep practicing this something very interesting is going to ensue. You are going to find that
youre becoming happier and happier, that youre acquiring a feeling of immortality. You dont
know why. You just feel it. All these truths become revealed to you.

You start to understand that there never was a time when you were born, and you dont even pre-
vail now as a body. There will never be a time when you disappear. You, as consciousness, has
always existed as pure awareness, as absolute reality. This will all come to you.

Do not believe a word I say. Experiment on yourself. You do not have to go anywhere. Just where
you are yourself at home, begin to spend more time diving within yourself, watching, witnessing.
When thoughts pop up, simply ask yourself, To whom do these thoughts come? To me. I think
them. Who am I? What is the source of the I? As you do this, my friends, I can assure you a mar-
velous change will take place in your life, sooner or later, and you will become free.

See what youre doing now. Youre thinking. That spoils it.
Learn to stay without thought. Even if for a few seconds.
Its hard isnt it.
This is the reason you have to ask yourself,
To whom do these thoughts come?
Its only a modality to cause you to stop thinking.
~ Robert Adams

Your body knows what to do by itself. Its your mind that makes up all these things, that holds
grudges, that holds malice, day after day, week after week, thats hurt by words. Give it all up.
Even the job that you have. You dont have to think about your job. Your body will know what to
do. But if you allow your mind to get into control, you will hate your job. You will wonder why you
have to do this kind of work. You will compare yourself with others, and cause all kinds of prob-
lems for yourself.

Remember where you are at the present time is your right place. There are no mistakes. Do not
try to analyze it. Just be. And if you identify with God, with the self, with absolute reality, with
consciousness, it will not even seem like work. You will always be filled with joy, with happiness,
for your mind is on God, and your body is doing the work.

Now how do you keep your mind on God? By asking, Who am I? By inquiring, Who am I? Who
does the work? Who has the problems? I do. Who is this I? From whence did it come? In other
words, How did the I arise? and trace the I back. Trace the I back to its origin, which is your
spiritual heart at the right side of your chest. As you abide in the I by tracing it back, thats how
youre thinking about God. Its just another name for God, I.

Then you will do your work without thinking about your work, whatever you have to do.

So you see, its your mind that causes you the problem. Your mind is just another name for I. If
there were no I there would be no mind. Whatever pops up, ask yourself, To whom does it come?
Where did it come from? Who gave it birth?

~ Robert Adams

Watch the sense I Am, and dont let it get converted into anything else. Watch that sense with all
your being. Feel it, its there. Forget about any pilgrimage or any mantra or any prayers. Stay only
with the feeling I Am. And dont give an image to it.Do this for five minutes, ten minutes, as you
can, and then get about and carry on with your life. And I will guarantee you, you will be a much
greater human being than you have been before. You will somehow have found a peace without
religion, without joining a cult, without calling yourself a member of something, or wearing white
or shaving your head or anything like this.

~ ? Mooji ~

Rupert Spira #############

Consciousness attending to Consciousness is the pure I am. However, Consciousness doesnt at-
tend to itself as an object. It attends to itself just by being itself

#################

Hence, simply abide knowingly as pure Consciousness. You will find everything you have ever
truly.

#################

For the sake of clarity, let me define the way I use the terms Awareness and mind.

By Awareness I mean whatever it is that is aware of our experience.

By mind I mean thoughts and images

Awareness is ever-present; thoughts are intermittent.

#####################

Ana: Is there something I have to do about it?

Rupert: If we think we are a separate entity there is something to be done. What needs to be
done? Investigate the belief and explore the feeling of separation. If it is clear that what we are
is Awareness, live as that, even if it seems to require an effort. In due time it will become more
and more effortless and likewise it will be seen more and more clearly that it was

Presence all along that was taking the shape both of the apparent veiling and the apparent reveal-
ing.

##################

Rupert: I feel that way because it is my experience is that it is that way. Why do you not feel it?
Simply because you have not looked closely, simply and honestly at your experience. Your experi-
ence is exactly the same as mine, but you have superimposed upon it a layer of concepts and be-
liefs and have mistaken them for reality.

Fiona: How do I get what youve got?

Rupert: By exploring these beliefs and seeing clearly that they are not a true representation of
your direct experience. This will leave you completely open to another possibility. As we stand
open and unknowing on the threshold of this possibility, it will gather us in.
Fiona: Have you any tools that I might find useful to experience? You mention that Francis Lucille intro-
duced you to the Direct Path, what is that because I cant find it on his website. Please explain!!!

Rupert: Yes, there are many tools that are available. My website is full of them. Likewise my
book, the Transparency of Things. Also, there are many meditations and conversations available
for download on my site which deal with exactly these issues in great detail.

The Direct Path is the path that points out that we are Awareness (whatever it is that is seeing
these words) and from there explores the experience of the mind, body and world. Francis and I
talk of little else!

##################

The belief that there is a world out there made out of matter is predicated on the belief that there
is a self in here made out of mind. However, if, in order to know the nature of itself, the mind
turns its attention away from the objects that it seems to know and redirects it towards the know-
ing with which it knows its experience, its attention is gradually drawn back and back and back
towards its source. In fact, its not a directing of the attention; it is a falling back of the attention.
It is what Rumi referred to when he said, Flow down and down and down in ever-widening rings
of being. It is a sinking of the

attention into its source.

#####################

Hence, to be present and aware is inherent in I, which for this reason is sometimes referred to as
Awareness, which simply means the presence of that which is aware. This Awareness that is our
essential nature is like an aware, empty openness in which all experience takes place, but is not
itself an experience

####################

There is something present which is experiencing the current situation. We do not know what that

something is, yet we know for certain that it is present, that it is conscious.

We know that it is not the mind, the body or the world,

If we try to find this Consciousness, if we turn our attention towards it, we are unable to see it or
find it,

because it does not have any objective qualities.

it is our direct experience that this witnessing presence of Consciousness is undeniably present. It
is our most intimate Self.

It is what we know ourselves to be. It is what we call I.

######################

you may direct your consciousness towards the space in which all these objects appear. This space
is the subtlest of all objects. It is not a physical space; it is aknowingspace.

Having done so, gently remove the space-like quality from this knowing space, leaving only pure
Knowing or Consciousness.

Consciousness attending to Consciousness is the pure I am. However, Consciousness doesnt at-
tend to itself as an object. It attends to itself just by being itself.

Hence, simply abide knowingly as pure Consciousness. You will find everything you have ever truly
longed for there.

You may then turn towards the objects again, and infuse them with this understanding

(Consciousness Attending to Consciousness is the Pure I am)

Paul: How do I let go and just BE?

Rupert: Are you not present seeing these words? Whatever it is that is present and seeing is
what we call I. Do you have to do anything special in order to be the one who is seeing or who is
aware of these words?

If the eyes close, these words disappear, but does the one who is aware of them cease to be? No, it
remains present and aware, experiencing the next perception.

You are simply this Present Awareness without having to do anything about it.

Have you ever been or could you ever be anything other than this Present Awareness? Could you
do anything that would take you closer to or further from this Present Awareness?

How do I just let go and be?

The I that is aware that I am aware, is itself both present and aware. Otherwise it would not
be possible for I to know that I am aware. However, the I that knows that I am and that I
am aware is the same I that is known to be both present and aware. In other words, in simply
knowing that I am and that I am aware, Awareness knows or is aware of itself. This is the most
simple, obvious and ordinary fact of experience.

Awareness is not any kind of an object. However, such a statement is only partially true. It is true
in response to the belief that Awareness may be an object. However, the statement that Awareness
is not an object presupposes that there are such things as objects. There arent! Nobody has ever
found or experienced an object as such, that is, as it is normally conceived to be.

Likewise, the statement that Awareness is absolute emptiness is partially true. In fact, strictly
speaking, it is a contradiction of terms. It would be truer to say that Awareness was relative empti-
ness, relative, that is, to the belief in the reality of fullness or object-ness. In relation to apparent
objects Awareness can be said to be empty, that is, empty of all objective or observable qualities.

However, once it becomes clear that there are no objects, it no longer makes sense to say that
Awareness has no objective qualities. In other words, it no longer makes sense to say that Aware-
ness is empty for there is is no longer a full-of-objects or object-ness with which to compare it.

Thus Awareness is beyond emptiness and fullness.

There is always only Awareness knowing and being itself and this is simply known as experience.
It is seamless and intimate and, there being nothing else present with which to compare it, it can-
not rightfully be given a name. Hence the ancients, in their wisdom and humility, only went as far
as saying that it is not two, a-dvaita, knowing that to call it One, is to say one thing too much.

Words Are More Than Pointers

There is only one teacher - Presence. I suggest you stay with that one.

As regards the human teacher, I suggest you follow your heart in this matter and see where it
takes you.

If, one day, you meet someone in whose company you find yourself peaceful and happy for no ap-
parent reason, you may like to keep their company from time to time.

However, there are no rules be guided by freedom and love. That will keep you safe.

Is It Necessary To Have Only One Teacher?

Can Awareness without an object, as in deep sleep, be experienced and, if not, how is it known
that it is present at all?
Now, if you say that deep sleep is your experience and at the same time equate deep sleep with
Awareness without an object, the answer to your question is simple: you know that Awareness
without an object is present and real in the same way that you know deep sleep is present and
real.

Ask yourself, Am I present now? We may not know what this I is, but can you say from your ex-
perience, in this moment, I am?

And is not this I that we intimately know ourselves to be, also aware?

In other words, I is simultaneously present (I am) and aware (I know). But I is not two things,
so being and knowing are one in myself.

Now ask yourself, How do I know for certain (and this is the only thing we know for absolute cer-
tain) that I am present and aware? And the answer is, of course, simply because it is our experi-
ence.

So now ask yourself what it is that experiences your own presence and awareness? Whatever that
is, must also be present and aware!

Now are there two Awarenesses in your experience, one that knows and one that is known? No,
obviously not, because if there were two Awarenesses, one of them (in fact both of them) would
have to be an object.

So, in this very simple way we come to see that our certainty that I am and I am aware, derives
directly from the aware presence that I am, directly and intimately knowing itself.

However, in knowing itself it does not know itself as some kind of an object. It knows itself simply
by being itself. In fact, as long as we are looking for Awareness as an object, we are by definition
denying its presence now, thereby projecting it in the future.

Now, if Awareness is not present now and is only to be found in the future, what exactly is aware
of these words, your thoughts, sensations etc. right now?

Therefore, it is our most simple, obvious, intimate and ever-present experience that Awareness
knows itself by itself, in itself, as itself.

How Do We Know That Awareness Is Ever-Present?

The body/mind plus the world are experienced as a stream of thoughts, feelings, sensations and
perceptions. These constitute what could be called objective experience, in the sense that a flow of
conceived or perceived objects are experienced.
There is, however, something that knows or is aware of this flow of objects and whatever that is,
is not itself an object. It is the knower or experiencer of all objects. It is most commonly known as
I, for we all known that our experience is known by I, by myself, not by someone or something
else. It is also known sometimes as Awareness because it is both present and aware although it has
no objective qualities.

You can easily check this in your experience. Is the world known or perceived by the mind
(thoughts) or by the body (sensations)? No, the world, which we know only through perception,
is not known by another thought or sensation. Perceptions, thoughts and sensations are all know
by I, by myself, by this aware presence.

So our true I identity is this presence of Awareness, which has no objective quality such as an
age, a shape, a colour, a location or a duration.

Our Unique I Identity

What is it that knows? You, the true I, Awareness is the only one present to know anything. That
one has no observable qualities it is just pure Knowing and Being.

Where to go from here? The Where to go? is the residual activity of doing or becoming that is in-
evitable if we imagine ourselves to be a separate, inside self. It is the subtle movement away from
the Now and the This that characterises the imaginary self.

The imaginary separate self is that movement, that dynamism of becoming which seemingly veils
the peace of Being.

Simply see that clearly. You are already the transparent presence of Awareness. Why do you want
to go somewhere? Only because you imagine that you are not already that one and are not, as a
result, tasting the peace that is inherent in it. You are looking for that peace in a future object or
situation.

Could you get closer to Awareness than you are now? And who is the one that could move away
from or get closer to Awareness? Only an imaginary self could move closer to or further from
Awareness. Such a one is utterly non-existent. And is there anywhere in your experience that is
at a distance from Awareness towards which you could go? What does an imaginary self have to
do? What can it do? Where could it go or not go?

Where To Go From Here?

For instance, in a movie the characters, houses, fields, trees and sky are not made out of flesh,
bones, bricks, soil, wood and air. They are made of the screen. Their essential substance or real-
ity is the screen.
The characters, houses, fields, trees and sky are not real as objects as objects they are empty,
void, nothing (not-a-thing) but as screen they are real. In fact, the characters, houses, fields, trees
and sky are not real as screen but rather only the screen is real. There is only the screen. The
characters, houses, fields, trees and sky only appear to be real from the illusory point of view of
one of the characters.

Likewise in experience only Awareness is real. The apparent reality of the mind, body and world
is imagined with the thought that thinks it. In other words, the constructs of thought, that is, the
beliefs we have about the mind, body and world - are only real for thought itself.

So, if we believe in the reality of objects, we may say as a halfway stage that these so called ob-
jects are empty, nothing, not-a-thing, not made out of something solid or real such as matter.
However, the word emptiness is said only in reference to the belief in the absolute reality of mat-
ter. In that sense objects are said to be empty or void of matter, that is, empty of any substance or
reality other than Awareness.

However, experience (of apparent objects) is not nothing. Even the experience of nothing requires
Awareness and is, therefore, not nothing. Whatever it is that is present during the experience of
apparent objects or during their absence is known as Presence or Awareness because it is both
present and aware.

So the true no-thingness or emptiness of an apparent object is made only of the fullness of Pres-
ence.

In this sense emptiness and Presence are one.

However, even to call it Presence is not quite right for by giving it a name we are qualifying it in
some albeit very subtle way. However, the mind cannot go further than this...

Emptiness and Presence

I would suggest simply following your interest in the nature of reality, wherever it takes you. Your
desire to find it again is just as spontaneous as the previous experience you mention.

If you follow this interest and love it places you on a sort of track, as it were, where you will be
given whatever you needa book, a meeting, a teacher, a friendwhatever. All that is necessary
from your side is your genuine interest and love.

Simply follow that and say Yes to whatever it leads you.

If you believe that all seeking is contrived you deny yourself one of the main possibilities open to
you.investigating and exploring your true nature. Seeking is not contrived. It is an act of love.
Believing that seeking is contrived, is itself contrived.
Seeking Is An Act Of Love

Self-remembering simply means to remember our true self of present Awareness. Now what is it
that can remember the Self? Obviously not thinking,

So what does Self-remembering mean? The Self, that is, Awareness, cannot be remembered be-
cause only an apparent object can be remembered. For the same reason deep sleep cannot be re-
membered.

So Self-remembering is a contradiction of terms. Only that which is apparently not the Self can be
remembered.

The Self is ever-present - to remember it or to long for it is to seemingly deny its presence here
and now.

And what is it that could remember or know Awareness? Only Awareness of course! There is noth-
ing else present such as an independent entity with its own individual ability to know, that could
know or be aware of anything.

And is Awareness not knowing itself in this and every moment? Are you not present now? The
answer yes, comes from the knowing of your own being, that is, Awareness knowing of itself.

Simply abide as that. Be yourself. That is Self-remembering. No effort can take you to this pres-
ence of Awareness. In fact, it would require an effort to pretend not to be this Presence. And that
is exactly what the imaginary entity is - the effort of pretending to be something other than this
ever-presence of Awareness.

Let all your efforts bring you repeatedly to this understanding until they arise less and less, leaving
you at the threshold of your true nature.

Simply abide there open, silent and unknowing. That is true Self-remembering

What Is Self-Remembering?

Whatever is not present right now, is not worthy of the name love and is likewise not worthy of
our desire.

Forget it. Whatever is not present now, even if it is one day found, will by definition one day dis-
appear.
Let your tears be the river into which everything you know is offered up, all your longing, every-
thing.

Someone once asked Mother Meera if it was okay to offer everything to God or whether only good
things should be offered, and she replied: A child offers its mother a snail, a stick or a stone; the
mother doesnt care what is offered; she is just happy to have been remembered.

Offer everything. The love you seek is all that will remain behind.

All We Ever Long For

This Awareness, which is simply another name for I, is free of fear because nothing can harm or
destroy it. It is free of death because it has no knowledge of its own disappearance. It is innately
peaceful because nothing can agitate it. It is innately happy because it knows no lack and it is in-
nately loving because it knows know other.

This I is too close to you to be known in relationship. But it need not be known for it is what you
essentially are.

Give you attention to it, which simply means cease investing your attention in objects. Notice it
first in the background of all seeming objects and then see that in fact it fills and pervades those
objects.

Cease Investing Your Attention In Objects

Guided Meditation Francis Lucille

Turn your attention towards the Presence in you, which is aware of these words.

Now ask yourself the question, Where is this Presence, which is aware of these words and these

thoughts, located? Make this determination based upon your own experience in this very mo-
ment, not

based upon what you have read in books. And you may have a first answer that would say that this

Presence is located in the head somewhere. Now take a closer look at this first answer. You will
see
that this first answer is a feeling, a sensation located in the head or in the chest or somewhere
else.

This first answer is a sensation, a localization, a location in the body.

Now, that which appears, the answer, the localization, the sensation, seems to be localized, but ask

yourself the question, Where is the Presence, to which the localized sensation appears, located?
If

the sensation is localized does that make the Presence localized? Ponder this based upon your

experience. In other words, How do I know this presence I call I is localized?

Find the answer for yourself. Dont let me tell you what the answer is. What I tell you has no
value.

What you find by yourself, what you discover firsthand has value. If you decide this presence is

localized, thats your decision based upon your experience. My advice is: check it out, again and
again.

It is your experience alone which makes the decision. My advise is: check it out, again and again,
until

you reach a rock-solid conviction one way or the other as to whether, based upon your experience,
this

Presence which you are, is localized or not.

Now you may say, I dont know. Fair enough. Or you may say, I dont know, but other people
know.

Thats not fair enough, because how would they know better than you where your Presence is lo-
cated?

Only you know your Presence. They know their Presence, assuming their Presence is different
from

yours, but they dont know yours. So they have truly no say as to where your Presence is located. I
have no say in this matter. Thats why I dont want to tell you anything. Thats why I suggest you
find

out for yourself. Its called freedom.

You have to understand the weight of peer pressure, the weight of false knowledge, or knowledge

accumulated through generations, that has been transmitted to you though your genes, through
your

education, through your relations. That doesnt make it true. The fact that knowledge has been

communicated to you, imprinted on you doesnt make it true.

You are the gatekeeper of true and false knowledge. You are the final judge of truth. Thats the
esoteric

meaning of the the final judgment, because you are the truth. As Al-Hallaj said, I am the truth.
They

killed him for having said that.

You cannot find the localization of this Presence, which is hearing these words right this moment.

Nobody can. And if nobody can, perhaps it means that this very simple Presence is non-local, non-
local

meaning it is not the product of this body or this flesh. It is more like a property of the totality, of

the cosmos-if we see the cosmos as Gods creation, as Gods body. It is one more property, one

more quality of that power that created the cosmos.

Presence, one more name for the ultimate.

And if we think about this body, which most of us see in isolation from the rest of the cosmos-if
we

take a closer look, there is no such a thing as an isolated body, other than a concept of it. The
body is

in total symbiosis with the rest of the universe, with the air it breathes, with the water it drinks,
the
space in which it moves, the things it eats, the other beings it relates with and the stars. And just
as the

body is not isolated, the mind is not isolated, always exchanging information with the rest of the

universe. So that even from the vantage point of physics or biology or information theory, we are
led to

the conclusion that there is no isolated system in the universe, that there are no isolated bodies. It
is a

childish concept to consider parts of the universe in isolation.

And if it is true that the body and the mind are not isolated, even if we believe that consciousness
is the

byproduct of the bodymind, (since bodyminds are, in that case simply a byproduct of the totality),
we

have to reach the unavoidable conclusion that this Consciousness, this Presence that I call mine is

not produced by the bodymind but rather, at its deepest origin, by the totality of the universe. It is
not

the Consciousness of the body, but ultimately the Consciousness of the universe.

We are the flowers of the tree of life. Many flowers, only one tree.

In ancient times in the West, people believed that the sky was closed, that we were inside a blue

sphere and that the stars were diamonds attached to the blue sphere. We believed that space was

limited. And then we knew better; we knew better because we investigated the sky.

But as we investigated the sky and the universe around us, we didnt investigate the inside of us.
And

because of this lack of investigation of the inside, we believed that our Presence was limited, that
it

was bounded just as we believed the sky was bounded. And just as the boundary of the sky was a
man-made creation, so the inner boundary of Consciousness, which we call ignorance, is of our
own

making.

Just as the sky out there, space, the universe has always been unbounded, the inside sky of Pres-
ence

has always been without limits.

D : How shall I reach the Self?

M : There is no reaching the Self. If the Self were to be reached, it would mean that the Self is
not now and here, but that it should be got anew. What is got afresh, will also be lost. So it will
be impermanent. What is not permanent is not worth striving for. So I say, the Self is not reached.
You are the Self. You are already That. The fact is that you are ignorant of your blissful state. Ig-
norance supervenes and draws a veil over the pure Bliss. Attempts are directed only to remove this
ignorance. This ignorance consists in the false identification of the Self with the body, the mind,
etc. This false identity must go and there remains the Self.

D : How is that to happen?

M :By enquiry into the Self.

D : It is difficult. Can I realise the Self, Maharaj? Kindly tell me. It looks so difficult.

M : You are already the Self. Therefore realisation is common to everyone. Realisation knows no
difference in the aspirants. This very doubt, Can I realise? or the feeling, I have not realised
are the obstacles. Be free from these also.

D : But there should be the experience. Unless I have the experience how can I be free from these
afflicting thoughts?

M : These are also in the mind. They are there because you have identified yourself with the body.
If this false identify drops away, ignorance vanishes and Truth is revealed

Day By Day

A visitor asked, Am I not to say (in answer to my question Who am i?) I am not this body but a
spirit etc,? Bhagavan then said, No. The enquiry Who am I? means really the enquiry within one-
self as to wherefrom within the body I thought arises. If you concentrate your attention on such an
enquiry, the I thought being the root of all other thoughts, all thoughts will be destroyed and then
the Self or the Big I alone will remain as ever. You do not get anything new, or reach somewhere
where you were not before. When all other thoughts which were hiding the Self are removed, the
Self shines by itself.

A visiter then referred to the portion in the book (Who am i?) where it is said, Even if you keep on
saying I, I, it will take you to the Self or reality and asked whether that was not the proper thing to
be done.

D.M :The book says one must try and follow the enquiry method which consists in turning ones
thoughts inwards and trying to find out wherefrom the I, which is the root of all thoughts, arises.
If one finds one is not able to do it, one may simply go on repeating I, I, as if it were a mantra
like Krishna or Rama which people use in their japa. The idea is to concentrate on one thought to
exclude all other thoughts and then eventually even the one thought will die.

On this visitor asked, Will it be of any use if one simply repeats I, I mechanically?

D.M :When one uses I or other words like Krishna, one surely has in ones own mind some idea
of the God one calls by the name I or anything else. When a man goes on repeating Rama or Kr-
ishna, he cant be thinking of a tree as the meaning behind it.

After all this, Bhagavan said, Now you consider you are making an effort and uttering I, I or other
mantrams and making meditation. But when you reach the final stage, meditation will go on with-
out any effort on your part. You cant get away from it or stop it, for meditation, japa, or whatever
else you call it, is your real nature.

Always keeping the mind (the attention) fixed In Self (in the feeling I) alone is called Self en-
quiry...

Remaining firmly in Self-abidance, without giving even the least room to the rising of any thought
other than the thought of Self

Maharshi Raman

Q: How is one to know the Self ?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

Knowing the Self means being the Self.

Can you say that you do not know the Self ?
Though you cannot see your own eyes and
though not provided with a mirror to look in,
do you deny the existence of your eyes ?

Similarly,
you are aware of the Self even though the Self is not objectified. Or, do you deny your Self be-
cause

it is not objectified ?
When you say I cannot know the Self ,
it means absence in terms of relative knowledge,
because you have been so accustomed to relative knowledge that you identify yourself with it.

Such wrong identity has forged the difficulty of not knowing the obvious Self because it cannot be
objectified.

And then you ask how is one to know the Self ?

~ Be as you are

Maharshi :
Ignorance-ajnana-is of two kinds :
1) Forgetfulness of the Self.
2) Obstruction to the knowledge of the Self.

Aids or mean for eradicating thoughts; these thoughts are the re-manifestations of the predisposi-
tions remaining in seed-form; they give rise to diversity from which all troubles arise. These aids
are : hearing the truth from the master (sravana), etc.

The effects of sravana may be immediate and the disciple realises the truth all at once. This can
happen only for the well-advanced disciple.

otherwise, the disciple feels that he is unable to realise the truth, even after repeatedly hearing it.
What is it due to? Impurities in his mind: ignorance, doubt and wrong identity are the obstacles to
be removed.

1) To remove ignorance completely, he has to hear the truth repeatedly, untlil his knowledge of the
subject-matter becomes perfect;
2) to remove doubts, he must reflect on what he has heard; ultimately his knowledge will be free
from doubts of any kind;

3) to remove the wrong identity of the Self with the non-self (such as the body, the senses, the
mind or the intellect) his mind must become one-pointed.

All these things accomplished, the obstacles are at an end and samadhi results, that is, Peace
reigns.

Some say that one should never cease to engage in hearing, reflection and one-pointedness. These
are not fulfilled by reading books, but only by continued practice to keep the mind withdrawn.

The aspirant may be kritopasaka or akritopasaka. The former is fit to realise the Self, even with
the slightest stimulus: only some little doubt stands in his way, it is easily removed if he hears
the truth once from the Master. Immediately he gains the samadhi state. It is presumed that he
had already completed sravana, reflection, etc., in previous births, they are no more necessary for
him. For the other all these aids are necessary; for him doubts crop up even after repeated hear-
ing; therefore he must not give up aids until he gains the samadhi state.

Sravana removes the illusion of the Self being one with the body, etc. Reflection makes it clear
that Knowledge is Self. One-pointedness reveals the Self as being Infinite and Blissful.

In every moment you only have one real choice:

to be aware of the Self or to identify with the body and the mind. ~~~~~~~~~Annamalai Swami

Q: I am aware of the I. Yet my troubles are not ended.

Sri Ramana Maharshi : This I-thought is not pure. It is contaminated with the association of the
body and senses. See to whom the trouble is.

It is to the I-thought.

Hold it.

Then the other thoughts vanish.

Q: Yes. How to do it? That is the whole trouble.

Sri Ramana Maharshi :Think I, I, and hold to that one thought to the exclusion of all others.
~ Be as you are

Q: Is not discarding of the sheaths (neti-neti) mentioned in the sastras?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

After the rise of the I-thought there is the false identification of the I with the body, the senses,
the mind, etc.

I is wrongly associated with them and the true I is lost sight of. In order to sift the pure I from
the contaminated I,

this discarding is mentioned.

But it does not mean exactly discarding of the non - Self,

it means the finding of the real Self.

The real Self is the infinite I.

That I is perfection. It is eternal.

It has no origin and no end.

The other I is born and also dies.

It is impermanent.

See to whom the changing thoughts belong.

They will be found to arise after the I-thought.

Hold the I-thought and they subside.

Trace back the source of the I-thought.

The Self alone will remain.

Q: It is difficult to follow. I understand the theory. But what is the practice?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

The other methods are meant for those

who cannot take to the investigation of the Self.

Even to repeat aham Brahmasmi or think of it,

a doer is necessary.

Who is it?

It is I. Be that I.

It is the direct method.

The other methods also will ultimately lead everyone to this method of the investigation of the
Self.

~ Be as you are

Q: What is the correct way to pursue self-enquiry?

AS: Bhagavan has said: When thoughts arise stop them from developing by enquiring: To whom
is this thought coming? as soon as soon as the thought appears. What does it matter if many
thoughts keep coming up? Enquire into their origin or find out who has the thoughts and sooner
or later the flow of thoughts will stop.

This is how self-enquiry should be practiced.

When Bhagavan spoke like this he sometimes used the analogy of a besieged fort. If one system-
atically closes off all the entrances to such a fort and then picks off the occupants one by one as
they try to come out, sooner or later the fort will be empty. Bhagavan said that we should apply
these same tactics to the mind.

How to go about doing this? Seal off the entrances and exits to the mind by not reacting to rising
thoughts or sense impressions. Dont let new ideas, judgments, likes, dislikes, etc. enter the mind,
and dont let rising thoughts flourish and escape your attention.

When you have sealed off the mind in this way, challenge each emerging thought as it appears by
asking, Where have you come from? or Who is the person who is having this thought?9 If you
can do this continuously, with full attention, new thoughts will appear momentarily and then dis-
appear. If you can maintain the siege for long enough, a time will come when no more thoughts
arise; or if they do, they will only be fleeting, undistracting images on the periphery of conscious-
ness. In that thought-free state you will begin to experience yourself as consciousness, not as mind
or
body.

However, if you relax your vigilance even for a few seconds and allow new thoughts to escape and
develop unchallenged, the siege will be lifted and the mind will regain some or all of it former
strength.

Living by the Words of Bhagavan

** Ribhu Gita ***

There is no greater testimony to the unique value of Ribhu Gita than the fact that Bhagavan Ra-
mana himself told one of his little educated devotees, Sampurnamma,

It does not matter if you dont understand the book.

Just go through it, it will be of immense benefit to you.

Bhagavan would often say that the recitation of Ribhu Gita is as good as Samadhi and would him-
self take part in the recitation.

So, let us read, chant and be absorbed in His Grace.

Q: Am I to keep on repeating Who am I? so as to make a mantra of it?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

No.

Who am I ? is not a mantra.

It means that you must find out where in you arises the I-thought which is the source of all other
thoughts.

~ Be as you are
Q: When I think Who am I?, the answer comes I am not this mortal body but I am chaitanya,
atma (consciousness, the Self ). And suddenly another question arises, Why has atma come into
maya [illusion]? or in other words, Why has God created this world?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

To enquire Who am I ?

really means trying to find out the source of the ego or

the I-thought.

You are not to think of other thoughts,

such as I am not this body.

Seeking the source of I serves as a means of getting rid of all other thoughts.

We should not give scope to other thoughts,

such as you mention, but must keep the attention fixed on finding out the source of the I -
thought by asking, as each thought arises, to whom the thought arises.

If the answer is I get the thought continue the enquiry by asking Who is this I and what is its
source?

~ Be as you are

Basically self-enquiry is the constant attention to the inner awareness of I or I amSri Ra-
mana Maharshi frequently recommended it as the most efficient and direct way of discover-
ing the unreality of the I-thought. Enquiring the I-thought, one realizes that it raises in
the hdayam (heart[note 25]). The I-thought will disappear and only I-I[web 28] or Self-
awareness remains, which is Self-realization or liberation:[76] What is finally realized as a
result of such enquiry into the Source of Aham-vritti (I-thought) is verily the Heart as the
undifferentiated Light of Pure Consciousness, into which the reflected light of the mind is com-
pletely absorbed.[77]

Ramana warned against considering self-enquiry as an intellectual exercise. Properly done, it in-
volves fixing the attention firmly and intensely on the feeling of I, without thinking. Attention
must be fixed on the I until the sense of I disappears and the Self is realized.

Q: I begin to ask myself Who am I?, eliminate the body as not I, the breath as not I, and I am
not able to proceed further.

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

Well, that is as far as the intellect can go.

Your process is only intellectual. Indeed, all the scriptures mention the process only to guide the
seeker to know the truth.

The truth cannot be directly pointed out.Hence this intellectual process.

You see, the one who eliminates all the not I cannot eliminate the I.

To say I am not this or I am that there must be the I.

This I is only the ego or the I-thought.

After the rising up of this I-thought, all other thoughts arise.

The I-thought is therefore the root-thought.

If the root is pulled out all others are at the same time uprooted. Therefore seek the root I, ques-
tion yourself Who am I?.

Find out its source, and then all these other ideas will vanish and the pure Self will remain.

Q: How to do it?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

The I is always there - in deep sleep, in dream and in wakefulness.

The one in sleep is the same as that who now speaks.

There is always the feeling of I.

Otherwise do you deny your existence?

You do not.

You say I am.

Find out who is.

~ Be as you are

Self-Enquiry ~ Practice

Beginners in self-enquiry were advised by Sri Ramana to put their attention on the inner feeling
of I and to hold that feeling as long as possible. They would be told that if their attention was
distracted by other thoughts they should revert to awareness of the I-thought whenever they be-
came aware that their attention had wandered. He suggested various aids to assist this process-
one could ask oneself Who am I? or Where does this I come from?- but the ultimate aim was
to be continuously aware of the I which assumes that it is responsible for all the activities of the
body and the mind.In the early stages of practice attention to the feeling I is a mental activity
which takes the form of a thought or a perception. As the practice develops, the thought I gives
way to a subjectively experienced feeling of I, and when this feeling ceases to connect and iden-
tify with thoughts and objects, it completely vanishes. What remains is an experience of being in
which the sense of individuality has temporarily ceased to operate. The experience may be in-
termittent at first but with repeated practice it becomes easier and easier to reach and maintain.
When self-enquiry reaches this level there is an effortless awareness of being in which individual
effort is no longer possible since the I who makes the effort has temporarily ceased to exist. It
is not Self-realisation since the I-thought periodically reasserts itself but it is the highest level of
practice. Repeated experience of this state of being weakens and destroys the Vasanas (mental ten-
dencies) which cause the I-thought to rise, and, when their hold has been sufficiently weakened,
the power of the Self destroys the residual tendencies so completely that the I-thought never
rises again. This is the final and irreversible state of Self-realisation.This practice of Self-attention
or awareness of the I-thought is a gentle technique, which bypasses the usual repressive meth-
ods of controlling the mind. It is not an exercise in concentration, nor does it aim at suppressing
thoughts; it merely invokes awareness of the source from which the mind springs. The method and
goal of self-enquiry is to abide in the source of the mind and to be aware of what one really is by
withdrawing attention and interest from what one is not. In the early stages effort in the form of
transferring attention from the thoughts to the thinker is essential, but once awareness of the I-
feeling has been firmly established, further effort is counter-productive. From then on it is more a
process of being than doing, of effortless being rather than an effort to be. Being what one already
is is effortless since beingness is always present and always experienced. On the other hand, pre-
tending to be what one is not (i.e. the body and the mind) requires continuous mental effort even
though the effort is nearly always at a subconscious level. It therefore follows that in the higher
stages of self-enquiry effort takes attention away from the experience of being while the cessation
of mental effort reveals it. Ultimately, the Self is not discovered as a result of doing anything, but
only by being.

As Sri Ramana Maharshi himself once remarked: Do not meditate be! Do not think that you are
be! Dont think about being you are!
The Practice of Self-Inquiry Self Inquiry & Its Practice

Self-inquiry can be done at all times, places and circumstances. It does not require knowledge of
special yoga techniques. It does not require that we otherwise try to overtly change ourselves or
what we are doing. It only requires that we place our attention on the source from which thought
naturally springs. This, however, is one of the most difficult of all things because it requires control
of the wavering and fickle mind. Yet there are several things that can help promote it. Self-inquiry
is done most easily when we are sitting alone, particularly in nature. The outer nature is the door
to the inner nature. It provides the space and peace that allows the mind to return to its source. In
nature, apart from our personal involvements, we can more easily inquire into who we really are,
into not only the meaning of human life but that of cosmic existence. We can practice Self-inquiry
when we are around other people, but this requires more effort because social contact pulls the
mind outward. It is important therefore to reduce our outer activities and social contacts to aid in
Self-inquiry. Generally in India Self-inquiry is not done in a group setting, in a standardized man-
ner or according to a specific course of practice. It is mainly done on an individual basis, though
communion between practitioners is encouraged as is specific instruction

from the teacher.

To practice Self-inquiry while we are engaged in action we can call to mind the inquiry Who is
the doer? In this way we will not let our actions dominate our awareness. This in fact gives us
better skill in action because it removes any ego distortions from what we are attempting to do.
Perhaps the easiest way to approach to Self-inquiry is to learn to discriminate between the seer
and the seen.

First, one discriminates the seer from objects in the external world, like looking at the leaves of
a tree blowing in the wind. One holds to the eye as the seer and what the eye sees as the seen,
noting that fluctuations in external objects do not cause the eye to change. Ones power of seeing
remains constant through the various objects seen.

Second, one discriminates the seer from the sense organs. In this instance the mind is the seer
and the senses are the seen. There are several senses and each one varies in acuity but the seer of
the senses is constant and not altered by their fluctuations. For example, the seer of the eye is not
tarnished by any impairments in the eye, like loss of visual acuity.

Third, one discriminates between the seer and mental states. The self is the seer and the mind is
the seen.Thoughts and feelings continually change but their seer, if we look deeply, remains the
same. Our seeing as a child and as an adult is the same seeing, not only of external objects but of
our internal thoughts and feelings.

Fourth, one discriminates between the seer and the ego, between the pure-I or higher Self and and
the lower self, the I identified with body, emotion or thought. We learn to observe ourselves and
our personal limitations, as external forms like our house or our car. We see the ego as various
mental conditions but not the true Self that is beyond the mind. The pure Self devoid of external
associations can then shine forth. One then strives to abide in that state of pure awareness. And in
this process one is to negate external objects as not
the Self or not I. Then one can negate internal thoughts and feelings, including the ego itself.
Whatever one can perceive as an object externally or internally is not the Self who is the witness
of all.

HOLDING ON TO THE SELF

By holding on tightly to the motionless Self, taking as ones support, the mind will become free of
agitation. (Padamalai)

The ego is the reflection of the Self in the water of the mind, which is constantly throwing out
thought-waves. If one searches for a method to still its movement, the correct way is to cling to
the Self, the true import of the ego, as the object, remaining determinedly still, paying no attention
to that reflection which makes one slip away from ones true state. (Muruganar)

Because we exist, the ego appears to exist too. If we look on the Self as the ego, then we are the
ego, if as the mind, we are the mind, if as the body, we are the body. It is the thought that works
up in many ways. Looking at the shadow on the water, it is found to be shaking. Can anyone stop
the shaking of the shadow? If it should cease to shake, you should not look on the water. Look
at your Self. Therefore, do not look to the ego. The ego is the I-thought. The true I is the Self.
(Bhagavan in Conscious Immortality)

Core Practice The sense of I AM

You as you think you are, do not exist.Realizing that I and me are only ideas is a critical
revelation in awakeningperhaps the most critical.What does it take to allow this realization?

Intellectual agreement that the I is an idea is helpful, but not the same as the feeling-realization
of Truth.

What I suggest, and talk about here, are Awareness, Release and self-honesty. These can lead to
stillness and silence, in which the realization that I is not real may be allowed.

Awareness is connecting with inner silence. This is the effortless, object-less, choice-less aware-
ness. It can be developed through meditation, inner-observing, and other techniques. When atten-
tion dwells effortlessly in this thoughtless awareness, it can be seen that the I thought comes and
goes.

Release is learning (remembering) how to let go. Many of us come to awakening because our lives
are not working and we have anxiety and fearsand so releasing can help us let go the pain-body
immediately.
Self-honesty (Willingness, readiness) is crucial. This is a deeper sort of willingness than what most
of us experience as honesty in our conventional lives. All our thoughts and emotions and inten-
tions must be aligned to allow this realization. There must be an utter openness, without any ex-
pectation at all.

A radical inquiry to see that I do not exist. This is the method I am using, and I will write more
about this as I gain experience with it:

1. Notice a thought passing. (or emotion, experience, intention and so on)

2. Try to find the self thats thinking the thought. Notice there is none.

3.There is nobody thinking the thought. There is only thinking, which does not belong to anyone.

This is what I am looking at these days:

1. Be radically willing and radically ready and radically honest with yourself

2. Do not anticipate or expect

3. Set aside everything that you think you know

4. Do not concentrate hard, just look

5. Look. You actually have to look. Its easy to distract yourself and go do something else, or to
read more, try to understand more.

6. Look, and try to find the you that you think you are, with the intent of recognizing there is no
you.

7. There may be feelings of frustration, impatience, and the thought that somehow you are not do-
ing this right. As far as I can tell, this is natural part to the inquiry.

Bringing yourself back to the present moment

self-enquiry is ordinarily said to proceed in three steps. Firstly, the stream of thoughts in the mind
is brought to a halt in order to bring the I-thought into focus. The source of this I-thought is
then investigated to attain abidance in the Self. Next, the state of abidance in the Self is allowed
to last as long as possible. The cycle is repeated till all the vasanas are eliminated, culminating in
Liberation.

Of the three steps enumerated, the first one is plain enough to understand and follow. At any rate,
it is soon found to be redundant. The third step requires no special skills since it is only a matter
of holding on to what has been gained in the second step. So, if any difficulty is experienced with
Self-enquiry, it is only with the second step of investigating the source of the I-thought. Many
seekers find it difficult to understand the true nature of this step. It shall be our endeavour here
to delve into and obtain as clear a picture as possible of this crucial step.1 Thought and Feeling

Our mind operates broadly on two planes of consciousness, namely, thought and feeling. To take
an example, we all know what it feels to be angry. At such times, what we sense with our mind
is the feeling of anger. When a Guru speaks to his disciples on the need to shun anger, by re-
counting its many evils, what occurs in the minds of those people is the thought of anger. Thus,
thought and feeling are entirely different things.2

Feeling may be said to be more intimate to us than thought. We can see this clearly from the
fact that, generally speaking, we can change a thought quickly at will, but not so a feeling. While
thought may be said to be superficial, being essentially confined to the the mind, feeling would
somehow appear to run deeper in our being. Feeling is therefore said to belong to the category of
experience, while thought is to that of knowledge.

I-thought and I-feeling

The I-thought and I-feeling occupy a central place in Self-enquiry, because the very purpose of
Self-enquiry is to unveil the Self, which is our true I. As with any other thought-feeling pair, the
I-feeling is more intimate to us than the I-thought. It means, of the two, the I-feeling is closer to
our Self, and plays by far the greater role in the practice of Self-enquiry.3

When we refer to ourselves in everyday life as I, what operates in our mind as I is the I-
thought. It is not our true-I, but a pseudo-I, otherwise known as the ego,4 which alone projects
all other thoughts. It operates primarily as the idea I-am-the-body, or I-am-the-mind. For in-
stance, when we say, I had been to Chennai yesterday, the I there is mostly identified with our
body. When we say, I like poetry better than prose, that I is identified more with our mind. It
is hence that Bhagavan said, This I-thought is contaminated with the association of the body
and senses.5 Being thus composed of parts, the I-thought is classed as dualistic.6

The I-thought may take other derivative forms too, such as I-am-the-doer, I-am-the-enjoyer, I-
am-the-parent, I-am-the-shopper, etc depending on the situation.7 Each form is composed of
two parts: the subjective part I,8 which represents the sentient principle, and a predicative, in-
sentient part such as body, doer, parent etc. The idea such as I-am-the-body superimposes
a false sense of sentience of the I on the predicative part. In most situations in life, we identify
ourselves with this falsely sentient predicative part. We are therefore, most of the time, a doer, a
parent, a shopper or some other cognizable object, but not our original, subjective I. This, in brief,
is the nature of the I-thought.

But, then, there can be certain situations in which we take part with a noticeable level of aware-
ness of our subjective I. A typical instance is when we brood over a misfortune that has visited
us most unexpectedly. Another is when we offer our grateful thanks to a stranger, who had gone
out of his way to help us in a crisis situation. The feeling of I that we become aware of and expe-
rience in ourselves at such times is what we call the I-feeling. In the examples cited, this I-feeling
plays a subordinate role to the I-thought which actually runs the proceedings. We may call it the
implicit I-feeling. We can see that even such a second-grade I-feeling occurs a little deeper in
us than the I-thought we have when we make a matter-of-fact statement like I like poetry better
than prose.

Once we have some inkling of what I-feeling is, we may be able to summon it at will with a little
practice. The practice consists in merely turning our attention inwards, and looking for a feel of
our subjective I. In other words, we straightaway intuit the I-feeling. It is an explicit type of I-
feeling, in which thought, if any, takes a mere secondary role. It is the only kind of I-feeling that
is relevant in Self-enquiry. Hence from now on when we say I-feeling, we shall mean only the
explicit kind.

Initially, we may find the I-feeling a little too elusive, but after some practice, will be able to hold
it for a few moments at a time. Even at this early stage, we can see how remarkably different it is
from the I-thought. We distinctly experience some kind of abidance within us: we feel we are at
one with where we belong, untouched by any objective feature of our existence. We get a feeling
of being in something of a safe-house, beyond limits for intrusive thought. The world would seem
to lie somewhere out there, and not in our immediate ken. It will appear there is nothing that can
threaten our existence in that pure state, and so we feel we ought to be eternal in that state. All
these we experience within the brief span over which the I-feeling lingers. The criss-crossing of
any thoughts expressive of this state does not seem to hamper the feeling of our abidance. Such
a state of abidance co-existing as a capsule alongside non-intrusive thoughts, is what we shall call
the impure I-feeling. It is the key element in the take-off to Self-enquiry.

Although we have deduced the I-feeling as only a kind of I-thought, in which we identify ourselves
mostly with the subjective I, we see that it is profoundly different from the usual, predicative type
of I-thought, in which we identify ourselves with all kinds of insentient things. We shall therefore
treat them as two separate and distinct entities. The I-thought may then be broadly characterised
as being predicative, conceptual, of the nature of knowledge, and dualistic. The I-feeling, on the
other hand, is largely subjective, intuitional, of the nature of experience,9 and unitary (or integral).

The Essence of Self-enquiry Practice

The second step in Self-enquiry, which is our main area of concern here, might be stated some-
what thus: When we investigate the source of the I-thought (or ego),10 there results our sponta-
neous abidance in the Self.11 We are usually deceived by the simplicity of the statement. If we
take it literally, we find it odd that we do not get the real non-dual experience, said to be char-
acteristic of the Self, upon an attempted investigation of the I-thought. All that we get to is the
I-feeling, with a few thoughts fluttering about. But, then, we arrived at the I-thought only after
eliminating other thoughts, and now its investigation brings us back to some thoughts again. We
wonder if we are to proceed once more with the question, To whom are these thoughts?, and if
so how it would end.

The fact is that the statement of the second step is an over-simplification. Taken literally, it holds
good only in the case of a very advanced sadhaka (to whom the one-step model of Self-enquiry ap-
plies). To the rest of us, the abidance in the Self can come only over a period of time,12 and not
spontaneously. Alternatively, if we want to rely on the term spontaneously, then we have to take
the statement in a different sense. Then the statement applies to practically all of us. We shall re-
turn to this point later.

Strictly speaking, for the practice of Self-enquiry, we do not need any more understanding than
what has been given above of the I-feeling, and a general insight into the method as given in Part
One. We can then, if we have normal levels of intuition, practise Self-enquiry to its logical end.
The practice consists in merely holding on to the abidance found in the I-feeling all the way, till,
at long last, Realization is obtained.13 The state of Realization will be unmistakeable,14 and so we
will know when we come to it. It lasts for some time, and then the former duality sets in. We have
then to go through the cycle once again. Eventually, when all the vasanas are destroyed, we attain
Liberation.

In case a sadhaka finds it beyond his capacity to intuit the I-feeling, he need not be disheartened.
He can take to a vocal or mental japa of I, incessantly.15 His mind will then automatically catch
the I-feeling within. It must be understood that the practice must be continued each time till the
onset of I-feeling, which must then be held on to. Without it, merely indulging in the I-thought
fleetingly, howsoever often, does not serve any purpose.

A useful suggestion at this juncture is that the seeker should not over-exert himself for obtaining
or retaining the I-feeling. This is because when the mind gets active, intuition takes a back seat.
Only intuition can bring in abidance. Folding up the analytical mind, and adopting a laid-back at-
titude, is what is needed to bring intuition into play. It is like withdrawing into the now of the
moment.

The practical-minded seeker can, therefore, straightaway plunge into practice on the basis of these
indications. He has everything to gain and nothing to lose thereby. If, however, the seeker is one
of an inquisitive type, who would not take a step forward before he understands the in and out of
a thing, then he needs put himself to a little more study. In this cyber age, we may suppose, most
seekers would belong to this category. We shall, for their sake, attempt a detailed analysis below.

Identity of the I-feeling vis--vis the Self; Evolution and Involution

When the unmanifest Self begins to manifest, its light issues out as I or aham.16 We may refer
to it as the undifferentiated-I. Bhagavan often refers to it as the light of II (or reflected light
from the Self ).17 Sometimes he calls it light of I in the sense of the I that is light.18 The Maya
mode begins here.

The undifferentiated-I, upon further evolution, divides itself into what we may designate as the
particularised-I (also known as aham), and the object, idam.19 The two may be looked upon as
the sentient and the insentient principles respectively. The particularised-I, by its very nature,
seeks an object for its identity. So it grabs a part of the idam, such as the body, and superim-
poses itself on the latter forming the ego. The rest of the idam takes on the role of the world.
The particularised-I, that now forms the sentient constituent of the ego, is what we have called
the subject-I (i.e., subjective I). The portion of idam constituting the insentient part of the ego,
is called the predicate.20 In Self-enquiry, we aim to precisely reverse this process of evolution,
by taking the consciousness up the scale from the ego to the Self.21 We call it involution. Two
important stages in this ascent are the subject-I (in the I-feeling) and the undifferentiated-I.

When we wish to investigate the source of the I-thought, we instinctively try to look for our Self,
but it being too remote, we reach only the subject-I. It involves shifting of our attention that is
presently locked in the predicate part of the ego, to the subject-I. While doing so, we do not find
it necessary to identify what that predicate part is, since it may consist of many identities, all lying
in a jumble. It suffices if we merely fix our attention in the direction of the subject-I. The shifting
then occurs by itself, as desired.

Our abidance in the subject-I is at first accompanied by some thoughts. This is what we have
called the impure I-feeling. From now on, our practice consists in merely holding on to the abid-
ance found in it.22 The abidance becomes more and more intense and steady, as the practice goes
on.23 As for the thoughts, we do not have to specifically try to control them. If we remain keen
with the abidance, the thoughts (and with them the breath) will subside in due course. The control
of thoughts was once necessary to arrive at the I-thought for investigating its source, but that pur-
pose is now served with the onset of the I-feeling, and we have no more concern with either the
presence or absence of thoughts.24

In due course, we attain a perfect, unwavering abidance in the subject-I. Since this is tantamount
to holding it in isolation from its predicate, the subject-I transpires to be the particularised-I it-
self. Our continued abidance, now in this particularised-I, amounts to its isolation from idam; and
so, it being unstable in this condition, resolves itself into its cause, the undifferentiated-I. We thus
arrive at abidance in the undifferentiated-I. Bhagavan considers this as an indispensable stage be-
fore Realization. He terms it therefore as the forestate of Realisation,25 and refers to it often as
the transitional-I.26 At times, he refers to it as pure-I too.27

When the undifferentiated-I is held steady, it itself is realised to be the Self.28 It is somewhat like
this. The Self is like a person resting in the interior of his house. The undifferentiated-I is like the
person standing at the front door intending to go out.29 The sadhaka is like a passer-by who can
strike conversation with the person standing at the front door, but not with the one in the interior.
If, now, the passer-by engages the person at the door in conversation long enough, the latters in-
tention to go out is frustrated, and he becomes as good as the person resting in the house. In the
same way, the urge of the undifferentiated-I to evolve as aham and idam is defeated by our con-
stant attention to (or abidance in) it, and in absence of that urge, it is no different from the Self.30

It is clear from the above, that the I-feeling has nothing to do with the true Self. But in parts of
spiritual literature, the I-feeling is identified with abidance in the Self. We have to understand that
such passages are only simplified presentations. Else, we will be confronted with the anomaly that
the Self, known to be beyond the mind,31 is being cognized by the mind. The fact that we need to
expend effort to maintain the I-feeling, also shows that it cannot be a state of abidance in the Self,
which is known to be effortless. Besides, Bhagavan has ruled out any connection between feeling
and the Self.32 Hence, the I-feeling must be understood as merely abidance in subject-I, and not
the Self.
In general, whenever we see references to the Self in literature in a dualistic context, we might do
well to take them as referring to a manifestation of the Self, (known in common as I, aham, naan
or pure-I) such as the subject-I or undifferentiated-I, and not the true Self (otherwise called II,
atma, taan, or true-I). The statement of step two of Self-enquiry we saw earlier, may therefore be
understood (inclusive of its reference to spontaneity) to refer to a manifested form of the Self as
far as a beginner is concerned.

Subconscious Processes in Self-enquiry

When we investigate the source of the I-thought, we instinctively shift our attention from the pred-
icate part of the ego to the subject-I.33 These two parts of the ego are joined together by a knot,
called the chit-jada-granthi.34 It consists of age-old vasanas, and belongs to the causal sphere. So,
shifting of our attention from the predicate to the subject involves crossing of this causal zone by
our intellect, the agent of action. Since the intellect cannot discern causal objects, this passage of
the intellect through causal zone has been compared to the groping of ones way in a dark room
past obstacles towards a ticking clock (see Part One). It is thus that the knot is transited (tran-
scended) subconsciously.

When we attain abidance in the subject-I, the light of the subject-I falls on the vasanas, causing
their annihilation to an extent.35 Since it is only a reflected light, its intensity is less as compared
to the light of the true Self. Hence only the grosser of the vasanas are eliminated at this stage. In
the subsequent stage of abidance in undifferentiated-I, the less gross vasanas start to be eliminated.
When, finally the Self is realised, its direct light shines on the vasanas, and hence even the subtlest
of vasanas start to be eliminated. Continued practice at these different stages eliminates all vasanas
and leads to Liberation.

Concept of Sphurana

Sphurana stands for abidance in a manifestation of the Self (in the Maya mode), such as the
subject-I or the undifferentiated-I. Sphurana is short for aham-sphurana, which means shining forth
of I. It is a figurative way of referring to the seekers glimpsing of the I (aham) during the said
states of abidance. Thus, when we enter the I-feeling, we are said to have sphurana of the subject-
I. A characteristic of sphurana is that it is cognized by the mind. So, sphurana has a semblance of
non-duality in the form of abidance, and duality in the form of knowledge of the mind.

The concept of sphurana allows us to discuss abidance in subject-I and undifferentiated-I in com-
mon. It is advantageous, since, for all practical purposes, we as sadhakas do not have to distinguish
between them any time. All that we do is merely keep holding our abidance, and it changes from
subject-I to undifferentiated-I on its own. The subsequent abidance in the Self too follows on its
own, except that a brief discontinuity will be encountered before this ultimate step.36 The fact that
the intellect is able to cognize the higher manifestations of I in sphurana may be understood from
two viewpoints. Firstly, as Bhagavan said quoting from Kaivalya Navaneeta, Maya cannot obscure
Sat (being) but it does obscure Chit and Ananda.37 Hence the being aspect of the Self is trans-
parent to the intellect, and is realised as sphurana. Secondly, the intellect becomes subtler and
subtler, as sadhana progresses.38
Bhagavan wants us not to think of sphurana as something too far out of the ordinary. He assures
us, Sphurana is felt on several occasions, such as fear, excitement, etc.39 In its pure form, it is
said to occur immediately upon our waking from sleep for a brief moment. Bhagavan suggests
holding on to it as a viable way to Realization.40 Sphurana is also said to be experienced in the
brief interval between two consecutive thoughts.41

Sphurana stays with us from the time we attain the impure I-feeling till we are on the verge of real-
izing the Self. It ensures that we never lose track of our goal, just as a dog that is in possession of
its masters scent, or a mountaineer with a hazy view of the distant peak, do not.

Incentive to Practice

A sound understanding of Self-enquiry is itself the best incentive to its practice. The knowledge
that the vasanas start getting depleted from as early a stage as abidance in subject-I (I-feeling), en-
thuses us to proceed with hope even if we do not presently measure up to sky-high levels of aspi-
ration. We feel optimistic that both our aspiration and practice will pick up as time passes. It be-
hoves us to keep persevering and translate this hope into reality.

Here is an excerpt from an article by Eckhart Tolle called How to Stay in the Present Moment

1.

Inhabit the body.

Sense the aliveness that is in the body.

This takes your attention away from thought.

The practice of physical movements such as Tai Chi helps.

Sensing the body becomes an anchor for staying present in the now.

2.

Make it your practice to welcome this moment, no matter what form it takes.

Say yes to whatever is now.

There is only one moment, but different forms of it.

The secret is not to resist these forms.

Surrendering to the forms that arise takes you to the formless in yourself.

You then sense a spaciousness around whatever happens in your life.

People, events, situations, objects come and go.

Being in the now moment liberates you from form, from the world.

With that liberation comes enormous peace.

What Tolle says about inhabiting the body is simple to experience.

As you sit there, stop reading briefly and sense the life in your hands or any other body part right
this minute. You

could instead focus your attention on the air passing in and out of your lungs.

Noticealso that as you do so, your thoughts stop.

As you sense the life in your body you may detect a buzz or feeling of life inside you. This is
a brilliant way to

come back to the present moment because you can do it anytime.

Initially it can take some getting your head around the realization that only this one present mo-
ment exists. It is not a

denial of yesterday or the past or of your memories, thoughts and experiences. It is not a denial of
what is coming

tomorrow or next week or next year.

What it is is simply realising that when you were living yesterday or last year, it was the
present moment and when

you are living tomorrow it will also be the present moment.

It takes a while for this realization to truly sink in and once it does you will always realise it; the
change will be

permanent, yet you will also be able to slip away from this present moment at times as it is the
nature of the brain to
think and make thoughts.

This forgetting of the present moment is only temporary and only thought-based. So, when you
lose the present

moment, all that is really happening is your thoughts are wandering; you most likely havent
moved anywhere; you

havent actually moved away from this present moment at all at least physically.

Often a shock or accident wakes your senses up to this present moment and it is this alertness that
grounds you in the

now. Animals live in the present moment to watch an animal you can see that they are totally
immersedin what

they are doing; they havent got an identity and they arent playing from memory. The next time
you see a dog sitting

patiently waiting for its owner to return you couldbe witnessing a Zen master!

Notice the alert attention and the patience to simply wait. Notice also the speed with which ani-
mals operate birds

are a brilliant example; could you fly through the trees and twist and turn as quickly as they do?
Fantastic agility and

finesse.

You may wish to get yourself a drink and return fresh before reading the final section.

Core Practice The sense of I AM

You as you think you are, do not exist.Realizing that I and me are only ideas is a critical
revelation in awakeningperhaps the most critical.What does it take to allow this realization?

Intellectual agreement that the I is an idea is helpful, but not the same as the feeling-realization
of Truth.

What I suggest, and talk about here, are Awareness, Release and self-honesty. These can lead to
stillness and silence, in which the realization that I is not real may be allowed.
Awareness is connecting with inner silence. This is the effortless, object-less, choice-less aware-
ness. It can be developed through meditation, inner-observing, and other techniques. When atten-
tion dwells effortlessly in this thoughtless awareness, it can be seen that the I thought comes and
goes.

Release is learning (remembering) how to let go. Many of us come to awakening because our lives
are not working and we have anxiety and fearsand so releasing can help us let go the pain-body
immediately.

Self-honesty (Willingness, readiness) is crucial. This is a deeper sort of willingness than what most
of us experience as honesty in our conventional lives. All our thoughts and emotions and inten-
tions must be aligned to allow this realization. There must be an utter openness, without any ex-
pectation at all.

A radical inquiry to see that I do not exist. This is the method I am using, and I will write more
about this as I gain experience with it:

1. Notice a thought passing. (or emotion, experience, intention and so on)

2. Try to find the self thats thinking the thought. Notice there is none.

3.There is nobody thinking the thought. There is only thinking, which does not belong to anyone.

This is what I am looking at these days:

1. Be radically willing and radically ready and radically honest with yourself

2. Do not anticipate or expect

3. Set aside everything that you think you know

4. Do not concentrate hard, just look

5. Look. You actually have to look. Its easy to distract yourself and go do something else, or to
read more, try to understand more.

6. Look, and try to find the you that you think you are, with the intent of recognizing there is no
you.

7. There may be feelings of frustration, impatience, and the thought that somehow you are not do-
ing this right. As far as I can tell, this is natural part to the inquiry.
So whats my spiritual practice?

My spiritual practice is neither.

When I remember to, I bring attention to the sense of I AM, or very simply, the ordinary sense of
me (as suggested by Nisargadutt and Ramana, and very cleanly clarified byJohnSherman). This is
effortless now. I see that what it feels like to be me is constant and has always been the same. I
see that the sense of me is really awareness, presence, stillness.

I try to be aware whenever I remember. I try to fall back out of conditioned thoughts and emo-
tions to a quieter place inside, and allow and observe.

I use the release technique whenever I feel harsh emotions.

I am patient.

THE EXERCISE AS GIVEN BY MR. G (with some minimal editing)

this version differs slightly from the text given in the Third Series

The totality of mans attention received from the whole of him, from all his spiritualised parts, he
can divide into two directions. For real man there is one attention. Only this attention can be di-
vided into two directions. In general If the sources of mans attention are taken into account, there
are three kinds of attention. You must first understand and then recognise the difference. When
this attention is concentrated, then our associations are in galoches.

Associations can never stop. If they would stop men would die. Associations always flow. Even
after death they continue to flow by momentum. Only when attention is seriously occupied, associ-
ations are not constated; all the same they flow automatically. Even in sleep they continue and are
sometime remembered- this is what constitutes dreams. Those who remember their dreams were
only half asleep. If a man really sleeps, his attention also sleeps.

Real man has one attention. When this is concentrated seriously somewhere, whether on his body
or on something outside, and all the forces of his attention are concentrated, his associations do
not hinder him. For example I am now looking at L.. and my attention is directed on my right
foot; so although I look, I see only automatically, my attention being elsewhere.

I will now show you that new exercise, the one to which is attached the risk I spoke of, the com-
promise exercise.

It Is a serious experiment; many of you have such data In you for auto-suggestion that impressions
may be obtained which will be the result of some kind of self-hypnotism.
If you are now a nonentity, you may become a thousand times more so. You might, if you will
excuse my using this word, stink. Be careful with the experiment . It is not quality that is nec-
essary, but quantity. Do it often. Don t try to get absolute results. Make repeated efforts. Then
only little by little, can you actualize results. Then only will you be able to do. And parallel with
wishing to do, there will arise in you the possibility of doing.

Do this without excessive zeal, without self- enthusing, which is a very harmful property. If you
repeat this exercise often, your auto-suggestiveness will diminish.

This is the exercise.

Outwardly , at the first glance, this exercise is simple. For instance, you see, I sit here in my usual
posture. I am dividing my attention. But no one can see this inner process. I divide my attention
consciously into two parts. With one part I now sense, feel and constate simultaneously with one
conscious concentration. Now I breathe. I feel that something happening to the air that I breath
in. Part of it goes in, part goes out, and a part remains. My organism, that is my lungs, take a part,
then a part leaves and a part remains. I feel what is happening in my lungs. When I breath in, part
of the air is assimilated and I feel its flow all over the body. It goes everywhere. I keep my atten-
tion fixed; I feel, I sense how this air is being assimilated in me and how It flows in my presence.
It is not necessary to find out where it goes, it just flows in my presence.

One part of my attention is occupied with this - breathing, assimilating and flowing of the air. Al-
ready my mental associations are very weak. I notice them sometimes, by the way, because part of
my attention is free, and is able to notice mental associations.

Now I will concentrate the ether half of my attention on my mind. my head brain. I feel that in
my head-brain something arises from the total of the flow of associations there. I dont know what
is taking place there, but there is something, and with my half attention I notice this very thin
something arise, so small, so light, so thin, that nobody feel it the first few times, not until con-
stant practice gives the feeling. I know this subjectively because I have practised it. I feel , I sense,
l constate, that something arises in my head-brain. All the time, of course, the other half of my
attention is occupied with the breathing process. Even while speaking, this exercise is being auto-
matically done.

Now I direct my attention to help this something in my brain to flow towards my solar plexus.
What arises in the brain is not important. What is important is that the something that arises there
should flow into the solar plexus. Now I feel how it flows. My attention is fully occupied and I
dont see any more associations All my attention is occupied pied with feeling, sensing, and as-
similating the flow of air. and also with this arising in my head-brain.

This flow of assimilated air, and this something which arises in my head brain, I specially, con-
sciously, with my wish, concentrate to let it flow Into my solar plexus.. Now. by the way I feel and
constate that I breathe , I assimilate and that this flow goes to the solar plexus. And all the time
the flow from the air I breathe and the flow from my head-associations go to the solar plexus al-
though they issue from different sources.
For me personally, at the same time, I feel very strongly that I AM. I feel that I AM ten times
stronger. My I takes in this food more intensely, but for you, at the present moment, do not do
this exercise in order to be stronger. For you this exercise is only a preparation to have an I and
so that you should constate the two sources from which this I can arise. For me it gives food to
my I. It makes it stronger, so that now I am not tail of donkey. I AM.

But you can not yet use this exercise to make yourself stronger; you must first learn and constate
the two sources from which this possibility can arise, to have a real I - from air and from men-
tation, even automatic mentation; and then , when you will have practised this exercise a great
deal, you may be able to have possibilities for real active mentation. And then with real active
mentation, the I can become stronger.

Enough. I stop and let these processes proceed in me automatically. Now, without titillation with-
out philosophizing and manipulation, try to understand the total of all this and formulate it accord-
ing to your subjective understanding, according to whatever kind of idiot you are. Then do [it].

Dont imagine things.

Dont be the slave of the data you have in yourselves for autosuggestion, but try very hard.

EXERCISE BY MR GURDJIEFF From hand-written note 1939

Fifteen minutes relax. Break tempo of ordinary life before doing exercise.

Breathe in - I. Breathe out - am. With all three parts do. Not just mind. Feeling and body also.
Make strong! Not easy

thing.

When breathe out, imagine part of air stays in and flows to corresponding place. Where flow, how
flow, that is its

business. Only feel that part remains. Before beginning exercise say: I wish to keep this substance
for myself .

Without this conscious and voluntary labour on your part nothing at all will be coated. All in time
will evaporate. Just

this small property in blood makes possible very big result if done with conscious labour. Without
this, one month you

must work for such result.

When doing, must be careful not to change exterior. It is inner thing. No one need know. Outside
keep same exterior.

Inside you do. Not hold breath. Just breathe in and out. Of course, to change thinking will take
time. Automatically

breath will adjust. To be able to do exercise not lopsidedly you must whole attention on it.

To arouse feeling, interest and attention, for co-operation you must think following before begin-
ning: I am now about

to begin this exercise. With full attention I will draw in my breath, saying I and sensing the
whole of myself. I wish

very much to do this in order that I may digest air.

To arouse body to co-operate, take corresponding posture. Inner tension of forces. Mobilise your
centres for working

together for this aim.

In breathing, imagine something flows, like when inhaling cigarette. I am now about to begin this
exercise, which I have been fortunate enough to learn from Mr. Gurdjieff, and which will enable
me with the aid of conscious labour, to

coat higher bodies in myself from active elements in the air I breathe.

I AM Exercise

This exercise is given by Gurdjieff in his book Life is Real. It is actually quite simple, yet profound.

One intones out loud or silently, depending on the situation, I AM, and tries to Sense a reverber-
ation or flow of energy in the solar plexus.

Another variation is given by Ouspensky :

On one occasion, in connection with the description of exercises in concentration and bringing the
attention from one part of the body to another, G. asked:
When you pronounce the word I aloud, have you noticed where this word sounds in you?
We did not at once understand what he meant. But we very soon began to notice that when pro-
nouncing the word I some of us definitely felt as if this word sounded in the head, others felt it
in the chest, and others over the headoutside the body.
I must mention here that personally I was entirely unable to evoke this sensation in myself and
that I have to rely on others.
G. listened to all these remarks and said that there was an exercise connected with this which, ac-
cording to him, had been preserved up to our time in the monasteries of Mount Athos.
A monk kneels or stands in a certain position and, lifting his arms, which are bent at the elbows,
he saysEgo aloud and drawn out while listening at the same time where the word Ego sounds.
The purpose of this exercise is to feel I every moment a man thinks of himself and to bring I
from one center to another.
(Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, p. 304)

A reflection of the watcher in the mind creates the sense of I and the person acquires an ap-
parently independent existence. In reality there is no person, only the watcher identifying himself
with the I and the mine. The teacher tells the watcher: you are not this, there is nothing of
yours in this, except the little point of I am, which is the bridge between the watcher and his
dream. I am this, I am that is dream, while pure I am has the stamp of reality on it.

Nisgardatta

You as you think you are, do not exist.

Realizing that I and me are only ideas is a critical revelation in awakeningperhaps the most
critical.

What does it take to allow this realization?

Intellectual agreement that the I is an idea is helpful, but not the same as the feeling-realization
of Truth.

What I suggest, and talk about here, are Awareness, Release and self-honesty. These can lead to
stillness and silence, in which the realization that I is not real may be allowed.

Awareness is connecting with inner silence. This is the effortless, object-less, choice-less
awareness. It can be developed through meditation, inner-observing, and other techniques. When
attention dwells effortlessly in this thoughtless awareness, it can be seen that the I thought
comes and goes.
Release is learning (remembering) how to let go. Many of us come to awakening because our lives
are not working and we have anxiety and fearsand so releasing can help us let go the pain-body
immediately.

Self-honesty (Willingness, readiness) is crucial. This is a deeper sort of willingness than what most
of us experience as honesty in our conventional lives. All our thoughts and emotions and inten-
tions must be aligned to allow this realization. There must be an utter openness, without any ex-
pectation at all.

A radical inquiry to see that I do not exist. This is the method I am using, and I will write more
about this as I gain experience with it:

1.Notice a thought passing. (or emotion, experience, intention and so on)

2.Try to find the self thats thinking the thought. Notice there is none.

3.There is nobody thinking the thought. There is only thinking, which does not belong to anyone.

I Wish, I Can, I Am Exercise

This is similar to the I Am exercise. One repeats silently or aloud, I Wish, I Can, I Am and tries
to Sense a reverberation in the head, the heart and the solar plexus, respectively. Each phrase
should be done with a fresh breath.

Pondering on Sensing

Who is Sensing?

What is Sensation?

Why is Sensation important?

Can I live without Sensation?

How many types of Sensation are there?

What Sensations do I dislike?

Always keep your Hua Tou in your mind. Never be parted from it. It will become the source of
your resourcefulness. - Master Hsu Yun
Dahui emphasised that initial insight is essential for Zen-training.[7] Dahui stressed that it was
possible for laymen to achieve enlightenment through this practice. He often gave instructions
through letters to his pupils.

To practice Hua Tou, one concentrates on the phrase, initially repeating it silently with a question-
ing and open mind and then thinking about Who or What is generating the Hua Tou, this
brings about Great Doubt.[8] Hua Tou can be practiced during sitting meditation, after the mind
has been calmed through an initial period of breath meditation. [9]

Hsu Yun said of practicing Hua Tou:

The important thing is to stick to Hua Tou at all times, when walking, lying, or standing. From
morning to night observing Hua Tou vividly and clearly, until it appears in your mind like the au-
tumn moon reflected limpidly in quiet water. If you practice this way, you can be assured of reach-
ing the state of Enlightenment.

In meditation, if you feel sleepy, you may open your eyes widely and straighten your back; you will
then feel fresher and more alert than before.

When working on the Hua Tou, you should be neither too subtle nor too loose. If you are too
subtle you may feel very serene and comfortable, but you are apt to lose the Hua Tou. The con-
sequence will then be that you will fall into the dead emptiness. Right in the state of serenity,
if you do not loose the Hua Tou, you may then be able to progress further than the top of the
hundred-foot pole you have already ascended. If you are to loose, too many errant thought will
attack you. You will then find it difficult to subdue them. In short, the Zen practitioner should be
well adjusted neither too tight nor too loose; in the looseness there should be tightness, and in the
tightness there should be looseness.[10]

According to Chan master Sheng Yen, there are three stages of Hua Tou practice: reciting the Hua
Tou, asking the Hua Tou and investigating the Hua Tou. [11] Through these stages it is impor-
tant not to try to answer the Hua Tou intellectually, but to persistently ask the question mindfully
with genuine interest and sincere desire to know. [12] It is through this constant practice that great
doubt and then insight arises.

Examples of Hua Tou

What is it?

What is this?

Who is repeating the Buddhas name?

Who is dragging this corpse around? (popularized by Hsu Yun)

Who am I?

What was my Original face before my father and mother were born?

What is Mu?[note 1]

Suppose a man were all of a sudden to make his appearance here and cut your head off with a
sword! HUI-CHUNG

Behead yourself! ... Dissolve your whole body into Vision: become seeing, seeing, seeing! RUMI

My Soul has been carried away, and usually my head as well, without my being able to prevent it.
ST.TERESA

Cover your breast with nothingness, and draw over your head the robe of non-existence. ATTAR

Give yourself utterly ... Even though the head itself must be given, why should you weep over it?
KABIR

Seeing into Nothingness - this is the true seeing, the eternal seeing. SHEN-HUI

I think Ill go and meet her, said Alice ... You cant possibly do that, said the Rose. I should
advise you to walk the other way. This sounded nonsense to Alice, so she said nothing but set off
at once towards the Red Queen. To her surprise, she lost sight of her in a moment. Through the
Looking Glass.

The soul has now no awareness of the body and will give herself no foreign name, not man, not
living being, nor anything at all. Plotinus

After the body has been cast off to a distance like a corpse, the Sage never attaches himself to it.
Sankara

If one opens ones eyes and seeks the body, it is not to be found anymore. This is called: In the
empry chamber it grows light. Inside and outside, everything is equally light. That is a very favor-
able sign. The secret of the Golden flower.

Vow to acheive the perfect understanding that the illusory body is like dew and lightning. Zen
Master Hsu Yun (on his death-bed, in 1959)

OSHO Disidentify From Your Thoughts

Close your eyes, then focus both of them just in the middle of the two eyebrows, as if you are
looking there with your two eyes. Give total attention to it.

At the right point, suddenly your eyes will become fixed. And if your attention is there, you will
experience a strange phenomenon: for the first time you will see thoughts running before you; you
will become the witness. It is just like a film screen: thoughts are running and you are a witness.

Ordinarily you are not the witness, you are identified with thoughts. If anger is there, you become
anger. If a thought moves you are not the witness; you become one with the thought, identified,
and you move with it. You become the thought; you take the form of the thought. When sex is
there you become sex, when anger is there you become anger, when greed is there you become
greed. Any thought moving becomes identified with you; you do not have any gap between you
and the thought.

But focused at the third eye, suddenly you become a witness. Through the third eye you can see
thoughts running like clouds in the sky, or people moving on the street.

Osho, The Book of Secrets, Talk #5

How to look at yourself

What do we mean by look?

Looking is what we do naturally when we focus our attention on anything present in our con-
sciousness. You can notice

that right now, for example, your attention is focused mostly on this text, more or less ignoring
everything else.

Notice that you can move your attention at will

Now move the focus of your attention away from this text for a moment and place it on the feel of
your breath as it

moves in and out of your body through your nose.

Focus on the sensation it causes as it passes across the flesh of your nostrils on the way out.
You may find it easier to do this with your eyes closed.

Breathe in. Breathe out. When the outbreath ends, count silently to yourself: 1.

Breathe in. Breathe out. When the outbreath ends, count silently to yourself: 2.

Continue counting each outbreath in this way, until you reach 10, and then start over at 1.

If you lose count, just do the same thing: start over at 1.

Take one minute now to try this for yourself, and then return here and continue reading.

Move your attention to the sense of me

You can see from what you just did that its relatively easy to move your attention and focus it on
any sensation you

choose.

Now, in the same way that you moved the focus of your attention to your breath, move the focus
of attention inward,

looking for the faint sensation of what it feels like to be you. What you would call me.

What you are looking for here is the simple me-ness of you. Not the thoughts that pass through
you, or the emotions

that play within you, or the sensations that rise and fall within you. You are that which is always
here. Everything else

thought, emotion, sensation comes and goes in you.

If you are unsure now whether you succeeded in getting that moment of a direct taste of
you,heres something that may help.

Try to remember a moment in your childhood. It can be anything that you can remember yourself
doing. It doesnt

need to be anything special, just an ordinary memory of an ordinary event. Try it now.

Now just see if you can remember what it felt like to be you in that moment. Thats exactly what
it feels like to be you
right now, isnt it? Look and see.

Its the same feeling of me. Exactly the same me-ness as now.

Thats all there is to it

Nothing more needs to be done now. This simple act of inward looking will automatically dissolve
the background of

anxiety, distrust and dissatisfaction that is the experience of life for most of us.

There is no need to try and stay there, or rest in yourself there. The moment of looking is very
brief so brief that

you will hardly notice it. You can do this simple act of looking at yourself in whatever manner
works for you, whenever

it occurs to you to do so.

What comes next?

In time, your relationship with your life will change. Things that used to drive you crazy wont
have the same effect on

you anymore. Patterns of neurotic behavior and self-destructive reactions will be replaced by more
positive, non-

destructive ones.

The distance between you and your life will disappear and a new kind of intimacy with your life
will slowly begin to

emerge.

Too simple, too good to be true? It might seem so, but thousands of people all over the world have
already experienced the power of this simple act to transform their relationship with life

This is what I am looking at these days:

1. Be radically willing and radically ready and radically honest with yourself
2. Do not anticipate or expect

3. Set aside everything that you think you know

4. Do not concentrate hard, just look

5. Look. You actually have to look. Its easy to distract yourself and go do something else, or to
read more, try to understand more.

6. Look, and try to find the you that you think you are, with the intent of recognizing there is no
you.

7. There may be feelings of frustration, impatience, and the thought that somehow you are not do-
ing this right. As far as I can tell, this is natural part to the inquiry.

Top of Form

Sri Ramana Maharshi Teachings.

** I AM Mediation ***

Q. What exactly is I am in simple words, and what is it not?

Ramakant Maharaj : I am is an indication of your Spontaneous, Anonymous Presence,

but it is without any shape, without any colour.
Names are given to Atma, Paramatma, God,
just to understand, to communicate.
Reality is beyond imagination.
There should not be any confusion.
It sounds like some people have created a special house for I am.
At the advanced stage, I am is also illusion.
Again, be clear, there is no I am, there is no you are -
these are words.
Prior to beingness,
you did not know what the I or the you was.
What has happened is that
you are artificially moulding yourself,
saying I am somebody else (an individual),
and in the light of that knowledge thinking and meditating on I am.

You are limiting your Reality by naming it, enclosing it.

Remember, I am is a concept.
We are just using words to try and understand,
exchanging words through which we are inviting attention of the Invisible, Anonymous Listener
within you.
All words are used for the purpose of understanding.

Try to know your identity.

Try to know your Unidentifiable Identity.
The knower will disappear.
Trying to know Ultimate Truth,
the knower will disappear. No knowledge, no knower.
You are limiting your Reality by naming it.

Q. The understanding is that I Am is very deep

Ramkant Maharaj :
Who is understanding that I am understanding?
Who is understanding that?
All this requires Presence,
but your Presence is not any shape or form. It is formless.
No beingness, no non-beingness,
no consciousness, no unconsciousness, no awareness,
no unawareness.

No knower, no knowledge, etc.

You are neglecting the that which already exists within you,
the Formless, Invisible Unidentified Identity.
You are That. You are Brahman, Atman. I is just like the sky. Does the sky say I am?
Sky is totally unaware of its existence.
Likewise, your Presence is totally unaware of your existence.

All these words are body-knowledge.

Beingness is also illusion.
Who says beingness and non-beingness?
When you came across with the body you created a big illusionary field:
beingness, non-beingness, awareness, unawareness, consciousness.
You are roaming in the field and trying to extract knowledge.
Come out of the field! Be brave, be courageous!
You are roaming in a big illusionary field and trying to extract knowledge.

Q. Has the I Am practice maybe been taken too literally and grown out of proportion?
There is a lot of confusion around it, a third of a century since Nisargadatta Maharajs passing.
It has perhaps ballooned into something?

Ramakant Maharaj : What happens is that devotees read books,

and on the basis of their reading, they form a square,
and then they expect answers from within the square.
Master is not in the square,he is out of the square.

So you have to leave all that.

Whatever is realized from the existence of the body (body-knowledge), is illusion.
You have brought yourself into the confusion field,
using confusing words.
You are a victim of your own ideas, your own concepts:
I am you are, he, she, Brahman.

Q. When we abide in I Am , well, how are we to stay, or go beyond, I Am?

Ramakant Maharaj. Forget about spiritual talk.

To say I is ego.
Why are you trying to remain in/as I?
It means you are taking some ego, and saying I am somebody else. I am, this means you are
somebody else,
and you are to stay like this, (eyes closed), I.
This is duality.

You have not to make any efforts.

In the beginning, you are to accept that your I am is in existence, and that you know I am
through the body only.
It is an open fact that the body is not your identity.
But while remaining in the I am,
you are considering yourself as somebody else and,
with the subtle ego,
you are staying as I Am.
This is not the Ultimate Truth and will not give you happiness.

Your Presence is spontaneous dont think, dont apply the intellect. To stay in the I am, how to
stay there?
This is all illusion.
You are already in that. It is already within you.
But you are trying deliberately to remain in the I am.

I am somebody else, and I am to remain in the I am.

Illusory concept! Be as it is! Reality!
Dont think, dont pressure the brain.
The spontaneous feeling is just that, I am, there is no concept.

As Nisargadatta Maharaj says: What is this body?

Just glimpses of I. Just the glimpses of I which has no shape, no colour, no witness, no experi-
encer, just,
Maharaj holds his hands up, relaxes and, says I.
Were trying to experience I, to be Brahman,
Atman, and to do that, you are having to be somebody else.

Q. So there is duality, there is a split?

Ramakant Maharaj. Immediately! When you try to stay like that. Why try? I want to stay as
John. I am John.
You are already John.
John is the name which has been given to this body.
It is not your Ultimate Reality.
Similarly, your Spontaneous Presence, existence is without shape.

Q. I think the understanding is that if you stay in the I am, meditate on the I am, then you will
go beyond the I am. But it seems we are not managing to go beyond?
Your Spontaneous Presence, Existence is without shape.

Ramakant Maharaj. You see, your Spontaneous Existence manifested ,

so without you, there is no focus. When I say I am,
I stays there, the subtle ego.
Dont make any effort.
Dont take the literal meaning of these spiritual words, rather, take what they are trying to convey.
You cannot realize Presence through the bodily I.

You are your own Master. So whatever you read or listen, to some extent, it is helpful, but after
reaching the Final Destination, you do not need an address.
Dont take the literal meaning of what the Masters say.
What they want to convey is most important. To remain in I is keeping you stuck.
You have created a balloon, a concept out of how to stay?
Its not like that.

Why remain in the I am, when you are already there?

All you have to do is realize that the body is not your identity.
You are posing as someone else when you meditate, and therefore the meditation has become
dual.

Q. Why did Nisargadatta Maharaj not make this teaching clearer?

Ramakant Maharaj. Listen to me!

The I am is only an indication, so not to analyze it so much.
This I am is also a concept, which maybe has been over-emphasized and misunderstood.
All this meditation, concentration, knowledge, self-inquiry
these are all only various steps, a process, and through the I,
you are coming to the Final Truth. After Conviction, that you are not the body,
there is nothing left to do. Your reaction is Spontaneous Action.

You are already I am, without saying.

So you just have to know yourself in the real sense because your Spontaneous, Invisible Presence
is there,
to whom you are giving the name, I am. Except your Selfless Self, there is no I am. So why stay
in the little world of I am?
You are already there.
You are already 24 hrs in the I am, but you are unaware.
You are 24 hrs together. You are I am only.
Why to remain in something thats artificially created or imagined, guesswork?
Why to remain like that I am in the square?

So dont struggle with I am - the words are just indications of Ultimate Truth and how that truth
is your Identity,
but it is Invisible and Anonymous. So dont imagine, dont guess, dont use logic or intellect.
You are 24 hr Presence, so no need to try to be, or think of I am at all.
Dont try to stay as I am

Source : www.ramakantmaharaj.netwith Richard Saints and Raju Upadhyay.

As Sri Ramana Maharshi himself once remarked: Do not meditate be! Do not think that you are
be! Dont think about being you are!

Q: If I am always here and now, why dont I feel it?

M: Thats is the point! Who says that it is not felt? Does the real I say it or the false I? Exam-
ine it. You will find it is the wrong I. The wrong I is the obstruction. It has to be removed in
order that the true I might not be hidden.The feeling, I have not realized, is the obstruction
to realization. In fact, you are already realized; there is nothing to realize. If there were, it would
have to be something new, not existing so far, that would occur sometime in the future.What has
birth will also die. If realization were not eternal it would not be worth having. Therefore, what
we seek is not that which must happen afresh. It is only that which is eternal and which is not
known, due to obstructions, that is what we seek. Ignorance is the obstruction. Remove it, and all
will be well.The ignorance is identical with the I-thought. Find its source and it will vanish. The
I-thought is like a spirit which is not palpable, and it rises up simultaneously with the body, flour-
ishes on it and disappears with it. The body-consciousness is the wrong I. Give it up! This is done
by seeking the source of the I. The body does not say I am. It is you who says, I am the body.
Find out who this I is. Seeking its source, it will
vanish.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Q: What is the correct way to pursue self-enquiry?

AS: Bhagavan has said: When thoughts arise stop them from developing by enquiring: To whom
is this thought coming? as soon as soon as the thought appears. What does it matter if many
thoughts keep coming up? Enquire into their origin or find out who has the thoughts and sooner
or later the flow of thoughts will stop.

This is how self-enquiry should be practiced.

When Bhagavan spoke like this he sometimes used the analogy of a besieged fort. If one system-
atically closes off all the entrances to such a fort and then picks off the occupants one by one as
they try to come out, sooner or later the fort will be empty. Bhagavan said that we should apply
these same tactics to the mind.

How to go about doing this? Seal off the entrances and exits to the mind by not reacting to rising
thoughts or sense impressions. Dont let new ideas, judgments, likes, dislikes, etc. enter the mind,
and dont let rising thoughts flourish and escape your attention.

When you have sealed off the mind in this way, challenge each emerging thought as it appears by
asking, Where have you come from? or Who is the person who is having this thought?9 If you
can do this continuously, with full attention, new thoughts will appear momentarily and then dis-
appear. If you can maintain the siege for long enough, a time will come when no more thoughts
arise; or if they do, they will only be fleeting, undistracting images on the periphery of conscious-
ness. In that thought-free state you will begin to experience yourself as consciousness, not as mind
or
body.

However, if you relax your vigilance even for a few seconds and allow new thoughts to escape and
develop unchallenged, the siege will be lifted and the mind will regain some or all of it former
strength.

Living by the Words of Bhagavan

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

Think I, I, and hold to that one thought to the exclusion of all others.

~ Be as you are

If you can be continuously aware of each thought as it arises, and if you can be so indifferent to it
so that it doesnt sprout or flourishes, you are well on your way to escape from the entanglement
of the mind.

~ Annamalai Swami ~

HOLDING ON TO THE SELF

By holding on tightly to the motionless Self, taking as ones support, the mind will become free of
agitation. (Padamalai)

The ego is the reflection of the Self in the water of the mind, which is constantly throwing out
thought-waves. If one searches for a method to still its movement, the correct way is to cling to
the Self, the true import of the ego, as the object, remaining determinedly still, paying no attention
to that reflection which makes one slip away from ones true state. (Muruganar)

Because we exist, the ego appears to exist too. If we look on the Self as the ego, then we are the
ego, if as the mind, we are the mind, if as the body, we are the body. It is the thought that works
up in many ways. Looking at the shadow on the water, it is found to be shaking. Can anyone stop
the shaking of the shadow? If it should cease to shake, you should not look on the water. Look
at your Self. Therefore, do not look to the ego. The ego is the I-thought. The true I is the Self.
(Bhagavan in Conscious Immortality)

SRI GANESANS TALK (The transcript of this talk by Sri V. Ganesan was sent to me by Sri Alan
Jacobs who is the President of Ramana Maharshi Foundation in UK.)

DIRECT PERCEPTION IS INSIGHT Today, each one of us is directly going to dive within
into oneself into the Inner Silence the I AM.

To understand and attain God, Truth, Liberation, Self-Realization, Mukti, through outward sources,
through external knowledge, seekers after Truth have already wasted 3,000 years. Yet, we remain
ignorant still not knowing what Truth is. At the same time, we have raised enormous Churches,
Temples, Mosques and various religions, with their own scriptures.
If one truly takes notice of this tremendous contradiction between humanitys great capabilities to
achieve things outwardly and hopeless inabilities to attain inner Wisdom, one instantly recognizes
the lacuna in us. Realizing this folly of ours is the beginning of dawning of Wisdom!

So, let us take the next saving step of listening to the sacred words of GURU RAMANA, who com-
mands us to turn our outward-turned attention inwards, by diving within and be the Truth. He
thus urges us not to waste any more time searching outside of oneself to find TRUTH.

Sri Bhagavan never asked anyone of himself about what mode of spiritual practice one was doing.
Even if a visitor put questions to Sri Bhagavan about the modes of sadhana, he would reply:

Who is the one who raises these questions? Find it out first. Then, you can enquire about them.
You are there. You exist. That is certain. Admit your existence. If you come to know who you re-
ally are, you will realise that you are the birthless and deathless I AM, which is eternal, incompa-
rable WHOLE the ONE, transcending time, space, body and world.

By diving within, one is blessed with the Direct Perception of Truth, which is the Insight of I
AM beyond all limitations as time, space, body and world.

In the process of diving within, three principles are directly involved :

(1) Total Focus on the person who dives within : YOU

(2) Apply the act of diving within DAILY the sadhana of Self-Enquiry constantly done, all
alone, by oneself. That is, staying unmoved on Reality as the NOW, while rejecting the un-
reality of body and mind which project past and future.

(3) OWN IT Process what all one has already understood, experienced and gained should be-
come ones own.

It would become easier to grasp the significance of these three principles, by recollecting the rem-
iniscences of the Old Devotees of Sri Bhagavan. I will thus share with you three instances in the
life of my teacher T.K. SUNDARESA IYER to elucidate the three principles. I am sure each one
of you also is interested in listening to stories ! Are we all not a child still in our Heart?

[ I ] TOTAL FOCUS ON THE ONE WHO DIVES WITHIN = YOU!

In the later half of 1910s, when Sri Bhagavan was living at Skandashram up on the Mountain
ARUNACHALA, T.K. Sundaresa Iyer { T.K.S. }, who was a youth living at the town, was daily go-
ing up the Hill and spending time with Sri Bhagavan.

On all such occasions, without fail he used to take with him a small quantity of raisins or sugar
candy or something to eat, purchased from the market, as offering to Sri Bhagavan. T.K.S. was
a poor teacher. One day, he had no money. He stood before Bhagavan with a dejected face and
said, Bhagavan ! This poor man has brought nothing.! Bhagavan looked at him enquiringly and
remarked, Why ? You brought the main thing. All else is unimportant !

T.K.S. looked up in wonder, not knowing what he had brought !

Dont you understand ? You brought yourself !

Sri Bhagavan laughed heartily !

*************************************************************************************************

Yes ! Brothers and Sisters ! The most precious thing in the world is YOU the You in every-
one of us ! Are we each not the Truth ! What can be more important than the Truth ! Sri Bha-
gagan, the Great Master says,

Bhagavan Ramana

Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi,untill his realization in Madurai, outwardly lead a life of average
human being. At his school he is was more interested in games than studies. His performance at
school was average. Some of the things noted about Bhagavan are that his sleep was very deep and
that he was quite taken by the devotion of the 63 Saivite saints.

At the time of his death experience Sri Ramana did Self-inquiry spontaneously without knowing
that it was Self-inquiry. He was witnessing the event of death with full awareness.

Unlike others, Sri Ramana never practiced Self-inquiry nor did he have any intellectual compre-
hension about Self-inquiry before death experience. He settled in the Self once and forever in a
timeless dimension during the death experience.

The process took about 20 minutes!

Once one of his relative said that he had just returned from Arunachala. Bhagawan was perplexed
at that statement because he thought Arunachala is the name of God and never knew such a place
existed on earth geographically.

After realization when Sri Ramana went to Arunachala he went to Arunachaleswara temple and
before Siva he said Father I have come as per your order. From then onwards he surrendered to
whole existence through Arunachaleswara.

Having attained realization through the path of knowledge (Jnana marga), Sri Ramana exhibited
devotion towards the whole existence through Arunachaleswara. He wrote Akshara Mana Malai
and other books in praise of Arunachaleswara.This is quite surprising.
Usually those who attain Self knowledge through the path of knowledge do not show or talk much
about devotion. Those who attain realization through devotion dont talk about witnessing aware-
ness which is fundamental to the path of knowledge.

But Bhagawan Ramana gave importance to both equally.

Self-inquiry is more concerned to know the source of ego. In Self-inquiry, the inner Self is awak-
ened and ego disappears as a consequence. Once we know the art of abiding in the source of ego,
ego is no longer a hindrance because it is bypassed. Witnessing is the beginning and abiding unin-
terruptedly is the fulfillment of Self-inquiry.

Self-inquiry demands uninterrupted Self awareness.

But for many this is not possible because their innate tendencies distract their awareness towards
the objective reality.

The other method for Self-Realization is surrendering of ego to the existence or to God, guru, or
Self. All mean the same thing. Surrendering is focused on the ego. The sense of I or me has
to be surrendered. It is not directly concerned with the Self.

When ego disappears the inner Self is awakened automatically.

So Self-inquiry and surrender, although appearing to be diametrically opposite reach the same goal,
the same realization.

Both paths are valid and there is no question of which is better.

Bhagavan used to say that there are only two methods. Either engage in self-inquiry and ask,
Who am I or surrender to the higher power and let it do everything.

Each method is perfect and organic whole. In the end, both methods merge for Self-Realization.

Dr. Raju

Editors note: All of Dr. Rajus articles are edited from the original. Please bring any mistakes to
my attention

This posting is from a series of sharings done by V. Ganesan in Tiruvannamalai in 2009.

Bhagavan Ramana emphasized that nothing is more productive of the highest spiritual results than
concentration of the mind on ones True Nature, which is the Absolute Reality, God and Inner
Guru.
To adhere to this injunction of Sri Bhagavan, even the physical form of the Guru should not be an
obstacle for a true seeker. Listen to the story of Uddhava in Srimad Bhagavatham :

When Lord Krishna ended His mission on earth and was prepared to return to his eternal abode
in Heaven, Uddhava, who was greatly attached to His person, appealed to Him with tears in his
eyes to take him along with Him, saying : I have strong forebodings, O Supreme Lord, that after
destroying the Yadu race you will leave the earth altogether. I cannot bear to be away from your
holy feet even for a moment. Grant that I may be taken with You to Your Divine Abode in Heaven.
How can I now be separated from you ?

Lord Krishna answered that it would be in Uddhavas own interest not to cling to His body but to
stay on after Him and practice the Inner Yoga in the Himalayas, after shaking off all attachments
to his family and kinsfolk, keeping his mind fixed wholly on Him, within his Heart.

Sri Krishna added : You must always remember, dear friend Uddhava, that whatever is thought
by the mind, perceived by the eyes and ears and spoken by the tongue is the creation of the mind
and therefore illusory. By controlling your mind and senses, you will see the world as only the pro-
jection of your own Self and that your Self is in ME, the Supreme Lord. Possessed of this Wisdom,
be immersed in the Supreme Peace of Self-Realisation. Then, you will experience no obstruction in
regaining ME, in your Heart.

There was a pious lady, who once prayed to Sri Bhagavan to bless her by selecting a few important
verses from his written works, so as to help her progress in her spiritual emancipation. Sri Bhaga-
van gave her a glance of compassion. It seemed to endorse Jesus Christs statement : Ask, it shall
be given. Instantly, he quoted two verses from Sri Bhagavad Gita . He had already selected 42
verses from out of the 700 and odd total verses of the Gita and had translated them into Tamil
verses. They are :

The faith of everyone is according to his nature. Man is essentially endowed with faith. What his
faith is, that indeed is he. [xvii (3) ]

One who has faith and one-pointed attention and has subdued his senses, attains Wisdom. Hav-
ing gained Wisdom, he speedily attains Supreme Peace. [ iv (39) ]

These two are Verses 17 and 18 of The Song Celestial - the 42 verses that Sri Bhagavan had se-
lected from the ancient classical, spiritual treatise : The Bhagavad Gita .

The first verse [ No.17 ] affirms the traditionally upheld Law of Karma, which dictates that ones
present life is due to the past actions and that ones nature is thus ever controlled. The second
verse [ No.18 ], however, postulates the certain possibility of ones turning ones attention within
and thus getting rooted in Wisdom, resulting in the attainment of Supreme Peace.

Whatever is ones sadhana-mode as referred to in verse 17 one is always free to make a con-
certed effort to turn ones attention inwards and thus supersede the law of karma and be es-
tablished in the SELF . The choice is all the time available to each seeker in the solid form of
NOW.
Ignore one should the prarabdha and pay full attention [ within ] to ATTENTION ! The very ef-
fort of one to plunge within is due to Grace, affirms Bhagavan Ramana !

Attention is NOW, which swallows ones faith and ones nature, thus establishing one in the
Supreme Truth of Existence, the I AM .

All karmas project a past and then a future the two non-existents. Bhagavan Ramanas com-
mandment is :

Shift your attention from non-truth to Truth. Let us remove our attention from the past and
future

Wisdom and Action (No. 1): By V. Ganesan

Posted by Harsha

This is the first part of three sharings from Ganesan, at his house in Tiruvannamalai.

Today is the Happy Christmas day 25th December,2008 !

When I opened the computer, the glorious, serene and the saintly picture of JESUS CHRIST blos-
somed before me, with the following powerful words written beneath Him :

TRUST in the Lord, with your Heart; and, Dont lean on your own understanding. In all things
acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your way.

PROVERBS 3:5. 6

I felt blessed !

The Great Master: JESUS CHRIST thus was directing me the way of what with and how I should
commence the Morning Sharing with fellow-seekers !

In our last session, we quoted FOUR varied sayings of the Great Master : BHAGAVAN RAMANA,
on which the mode of sharing would be taking place for a few more sessions. They are :

(1) In 1936, Paul Brunton asked the Maharshi : Can a man of the world [ viz., one who is involved
in worldly activities ] practice this Jnana Marga Wisdom Path ?

Sri Bhagavans cryptic answer was : There is no contradiction between Work and Wisdom.

(2) On another occasion, Sri Bhagavan said : The only purpose of life is to realize the SELF. All
other activities are waste of time.
(3) Yet another affirmative statement of Sri Bhagavan is : If one identifies oneself with the body,
Karma [ destiny ] is inevitable and unavoidable [ which means, one is ever bound, one is ever in
bondage ]. If ones attention is turned inwards, one is always free. One is ever a Free Man.

(4) When asked whether his teachings could be put in one word,

Sri Bhagavan answered : ATTENTION [ Unar ]

For clarity in spiritual striving, Sages and Saints of yore had conveniently classified the approach
to spiritual attainment into four branches : Jnana , Bhakti, Yoga and Karma . The Bhagavad
Gita deals elaborately on all the four methods. Sri Bhagavan also refers to these four paths in his
original composition : Upadesa Sara . However, Sri Bhagavans Direct Teaching is To turn
the outgoing mind inwards and merge it in the Inner Reality . Any theory which gave emphasis
on the mind to move out or go outwards, Sri Bhagavan warned the seeker to be vigilant. He said
: Constant vigilance is the price a seeker has to pay.

In that light, it is interesting to observe that Bhagavan gave greater importance only to TWO of the
four methods : JNANA and KARMA . He further elucidated the reason for doing so. He said that
Bhakti and Yoga are included, imbued into Jnana and Karma.

Attention turned outwards is KARMA which is body-based and mind-based [ Destiny ] .

Attention turned inwards is JNANA which is Attention paying attention to Attention [ Ulladu
Unar ] .

When one identifies with the body, one is bound by rules, regulations, dos and donts that is
Karma . They are unavoidable if one is the body only. Sri Bhagavan raises the question : Are you
only the body ?

Body is perceptible in the waking; and, vaguely and differently in the dreaming; and, totally absent
in the deep sleep state. But, the inward awareness of I AM is continuous and uninterrupted.

Body is there, temporarily. Awareness is ever there !

Am I the body only ? The mind only ? Or, am I the awareness ? WHO AM I ? Vichara [ Enquiry
] results. Vichara takes one to the inner depths of Truth to the threshold of TRUTH itself. All
other methods are mind based. Vichara transcends mind. When Paul Brunton reported thus to Sri
Bhagavan : I have been acquainting myself with the various teachings in India before coming to
you.

Every one of them preaches the same truth. You also say the same. So, how is your teaching dif-
ferent from the others ? Sri Bhagavan replied : All other teachings are based on the mind .
Mine does not. It transcends the mind.
Every spiritual practice is based on body & mind and thus only secondary including med

Everything as they are, is perfectly all right Bhagavan Ramana.

Accept things as they are Bhagavan Ramana.

Have faith Bhagavan Ramana.

Surrender the me to the I AM Bhagavan Ramana.

God and Guru are one and the same. Guru is God in human form. Guru knows what is best for
you and what is to be given to you, including your emotional fulfillments. He anticipates as how
best he could extend his help to you.

Surrendering ones me is the only loss a seeker has to meet with. But, what a great gain it
brings about : the Absolute Truth I AM ! The Truth that is extolled in all scriptures and by
all sages and saints !

Has not Jesus Christ proclaimed : Only h

A reflection of the watcher in the mind creates the sense of I and the person acquires an ap-
parently independent existence. In reality there is no person, only the watcher identifying himself
with the I and the mine. The teacher tells the watcher: you are not this, there is nothing of
yours in this, except the little point of I am, which is the bridge between the watcher and his
dream. I am this, I am that is dream, while pure I am has the stamp of reality on it.

Nisgardatta

The three points of awareness mind map highlights three simple steps to acknowledge and deepen
present moment awareness.

The three steps are:

(1) Notice your thoughts

(2) Notice the life inside you

(3) Notice your surroundings

Step (1) Notice your thoughts

When you notice that you are thinking you become more present and alert. You can break free
from thinking mechanically and begin to consider what you are thinking. The awareness of
your thoughts allows you to choose where you put your attention and also helps you notice gaps
in thought that offer moments of stillness and silence; freedom from incessant thinking. When you
notice your thoughts you can then question your thinking, explore and clarify or drop unhelpful
thoughts. Questioning your thoughts helps you break free from troubling or erroneous thinking.

Step one Notice your thoughts need not result in analysis and questioning unless you wish to;
simply become aware that you are thinking and it helps you become more present.

Step (2) Notice the life inside you

Become aware of the life in your body; it may appear as a cool or warm feeling or simply a
buzz. Consider how your body is busy keeping you alive on your behalf; a beautifully orches-
trated collection of miracles working in harmony to maintain your life. Heartbeat, blood flow,
breathing, digestion and other internal organ functions all working tirelessly for your survival. Ac-
knowledge and appreciate the process for a moment.

Step two Notice the life inside you is simply to notice the buzz of life; the fact that you are
alive in the moment.

Step (3) Notice your surroundings

Raise your awareness of where you are; enhance your senses and drink in your surroundings,
whether you define or label what you see or acknowledge your surroundings silently. You might
sense temperature, textures, shapes, light, shade, shadows and more.

Step three Notice your surroundings is simply acknowledging where you are in the present mo-
ment.

The three steps used together bring you back to the present moment as opposed to operating
mostly in your head.

Notice your thoughts, notice the life inside you and notice your surroundings. All three steps are
easy to experiment with and experience. The more you explore these three key areas the more
present you will become and in time, with practice, you will be able to detect sooner when you
have forgotten the present moment. You could experiment with checking in on one area through-
out your day. For example, you might spend a day paying complete attention to your surround-
ings. You may discover you feel like you are seeing your environment for the first time; observing
greater detail and noticing things you never noticed before.
Here is an extract from a book called Knowing Yourself by Barry Long

There is only one thing in your life you can be sure of. That one thing is this moment, now. The
last moment has gone forever. The next moment has not come. It is an inescapable fact that only
the moment, now, exists in relation to you. The future exists only in your imagination and that is
why, no matter how hard you try to imagine it, you will not be able to tell the future

The three points of awareness again:

(1) Notice your thoughts

(2) Notice the life inside you

(3) Notice your surroundings

The three points of awareness may feel strange at first; the key is to allow it to become an effort-
less part of your day. For more on questioning your thinking and present moment awareness check
out the links below and the suggested further reading.

Who Seeks Self-Realization?

by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati
SwamiJ.com
 Who seeks Self-Realization?
We say I am a man or woman, I am a daughter, son, father,
mother, sister or brother, I am from this or that country, I am the
doer of this or that action, I am good or bad, I am happy or sad, I
am a seeker, I am spiritual, I am a lover of God.
We speak of my home, my family, my friends, my enemies, my
job, my stuff, my strengths, my weaknesses, my thoughts, my
emotions, my problems, my joy, my karma, my past, my future, my
spiritual path, even of my God.
What is this I and my who claims to be and own such things?
Are these things, claims, and identities who I really am?
What are all these things, these objects, this world?
What is the stuff of which they are made?
And from where do all these many things arise?
Who am I, really? Who am I?
One who is not able to refrain from asking such nagging questions
is a candidate to travel the path of Self-Realization, wherein all of
these questions are resolved in the direct experience of the
Absolute Reality.
The path of the Himalayan sages is an ancient-most path of
Self-Realization encompassing the oral Yoga Meditation system
recorded by Patanjali, Advaita Vedanta, and purely internal
Tantra.

HAPPINESS AND THE ART OF BEING

WHO AM I?

Since our consciousness is not an object, it cannot be observed by means of any mechanical aid,
nor can it be observed by means of any of our five senses. The one and only instrument by which
we can observe and know our consciousness is our own power of attention, unaided by anything
else. Since we are consciousness, and since our consciousness knows itself without any sort of aid,
all we need to do to obtain a clear knowledge of our consciousness as it really is, is to withdraw
our attention from all the objects known by our consciousness and to concentrate it only upon our
consciousness itself.

Since our power of attention is our power of knowing or consciousness, which we are free to di-
rect towards whatever we wish to know, concentrating our attention upon our own consciousness
means concentrating our attention upon itself, or concentrating our consciousness upon itself.
Since we experience our consciousness or power of knowing as I, as our own essential self, at-
tending to it is not any form of objective attention, but is a purely subjective attention a perfectly
non-dual self attention, an attention to our own essential self or I.

Only by thus attending to our own essential consciousness, which we experience as I, will we be
able to distinguish between this consciousness and all the objects known by it, including the body
and mind that we now mistake to be I. By thus attending to our consciousness and thereby dis-
tinguishing it from its contents, we can experiment and know for certain whether or not we can
remain as mere consciousness, entirely separate from our body, our mind and all its thoughts, feel-
ings and perceptions. If we are able to do so, we will prove to ourself that in essence we are only
consciousness, and that we are neither the body nor the mind that we now mistake to be I.75

Self is pure consciousness

The Self is pure consciousness. Your true self is the purest of pure. It is the witness. Even if you
are not aware of the Self, it will not lose its identity. But when identification of the Self happens
with the body and mind then the self is in a state of delusion, and this false identification and
delusion makes you suffer.

Self is Sakshi, Pure Witness. However, you need to be aware of this. To be truly happy, you need
to experience the Self. Then you come to understand that you are pure consciousness, the witness.
It is only through Brahmngyan, pure knowledge that you come to know about your own true Self.

Your body is constantly changing; through pure knowledge you could understand how many dif-
ferent bodies you have had and yet you are the very same existence; how many births you took
and all those bodies died but you always remained untouched by death. You may not be able to
recall one single body out of those thousands of bodies that you took, but yet you are the same
unchangeable purity. Similarly, the mind too is in flux; it is always changing with plenty of good
and bad thoughts lurking in the mind, all the time. Who knows all this? It is you and you alone
who are witnessing these changes happening in body and mind continuously. The intellect too be-
haves differently: sometimes buddhi or intellect goes crazy and at other times it acts intelligently.

When I say that Self is Sakshi swaroop or Witness incarnate do you comprehend what I am say-
ing? Knowing it with your mind is not enough, the experience has to be there; is that not strange:
knowing and yet not knowing? Those who do not realise their Self, does their Self die with the
body? No. even the Self of ignorant people is immortal but they fear death due to their ignorance.
However, the one who has realised purity of Self simply when he encounters death.

You are consciousness, pure existence and this body is mortal. The Self is pure existence and a
witness. In Self-awareness there is immense joy and in not knowing the Self there is a lot of pain
and suffering.

The self is chetana, super consciousness, the one who knows, pure existence, truth, ever-conscious
satchitanand. That bliss will come to you only with experience. When would pain, suffering, jeal-
ousy and hatred take leave of your mind? This will happen only when you understand and realise
that the mind also is different from you. No doubt it is close to you but still it is not you.
Be a witness. Remain detached. You just be a watcher, a seer; be aloof from all this paraphernalia
of the world and the body. Then only can you really enjoy otherwise you will suffer as no scenario
is ever going to remain unchanged. Change is bound to happen as it is the very nature of the mind
and this whole world. An enlightened being would say: if it is birth that is fine even if it is death
that is also fine - as nothing can happen to the Self.

The realised ones would say: What can death take away from me -nothing!

What can life give to me - nothing!

All the dramas of this world is happening in front of me.

Let it happen whatever has to happen, Therefore why worry.

(Talk: Anandmurti Gurumaa)

Pointers from john wheeler

Heres some pointers I heard in a talk john gave on urbangurucafe.com

Absolute freedom is right now.
Who is here to practice something?
There is no special moment for you to get something as theres nothing to get!
Longing for freedom in the future implies you dont have it.
Im not a teacher and youre not gonna get anything from me.
That freedom is priceless, valuable and possible.
This approach starts with freedom.
You dont need to wait for an energetic shift.
Theres nobody out there thats defective.
I am not awakened yet is an I thought that causes suffering. All I thoughts cause suffering. I is
the source of problem.
Ask What is the nature of who I am?
Start from the fact that youre already That.
Your being is That.
Theres no experience that you need to get in the future.
Can you recognise the fact of your being right now?
Your own presence is beyond all doubt. You are That.
This is right here and right now. Let the interest be in that. Be clear about that. It perfectly whole
and complete and doesnt need awakening or enlightenment.
You already are what you are.
In this moment now there is not a thing wrong.
Your being doesnt need enlightenment. You already are that. You dont need that concept to be
free. No more seeking is needed.
Your being is right here. You cant get being from book guru etc. The menu is not the meal. Ask
what is undeniably here right now?
Seeking is conceptual as long as the I is believed. It ends when you see right now the fact of your
own being is That.
Its not about experiences.
Your being is not your body or any experience.
Be clear about the fact of your own being.

()

31 1972, ,

: :18

19

, ,
, 18

,
19
 ,
, , ,
,
,
, ,
, ;
, ;

, , ,
,
, : ,
, ,
,

,
, ,
,
,

,
, ,

, , :
, ,
,
,
, ,
, , , ,
,
, ,

,
, , ,
, ,
, ,
,
,

,
,
, ,
,
,
 ,

, ,

,
,

! ,
,
!

? , ,
, , ?
, , ,

? ,
, ,
, ,
,

,

, ,
,
, , ,

, , ,
, ,

, , , ,
 , , ,
,

, , , ,
, , , ,
, , ,
, ,

,
,
, ,
,

,
, ,
, , ,
,

, , , ,
, , ? ,

,
,
, ,
,

,
,
, ,
,
,
,
,
,

, ,
,
,

, , , ,
,


,

, ,

, ,
, , ,
, ,
?
, , ! ,
; ,
, !

, , ,

,

,

,

,
,
,
!
, ? ,

,

, , !
!
,
, ,
,

, , ,
! ? ? ?
? ,
,
 ,
,
, ,
, , ,

,
? ?

,
,
,


,

,

, ,
,
, , ,
,


,

?
? ?

, ,


,

,
,

,
,
, , , ,
,


, , , ,
,

,
, ,
,
,
,

,
, ,
, ,

, ,
, , , , ,

,
, , ;
, ,

,
,

,
, , ,

, , , , ;
, ; ; , ,
, ,
, , , ,
, , ,
, ,
,
,
, ,

,
, ,

,

. , ,
,

, ,
, ! , ! , ,
,

, ,
, ,
, ,
,
, ,
, ,
,

,


,

,
, ,
, , , ,
; , ,
, , , , ,

, ,
, , ,
, , , ,
,
,

? , ?
, , !
, , , ,
!

, , , ;
,

 ,
,
,
, ,

, ? ? , ,
,

, ,

,
, ,

? ?

,
, ?
, ? ?
, ?
, ?

,
,
, , ,
,
, ,
,

, ?
, , !
,
, ?
? , ?

,
,



, ,

, ,
 ,

,

,
,

, ,
,
,
;

, ,
.. ! , , ,
,
, ,
, , ,
, , ,
, .

,
. , ,
,
; !
? ,

,
,

,
,
, ,

? ? ?
?

, ,
, , ?
, ! ,
 , , , ,
, ?
, , , , , ,
,

? , ,
? , ,
,
; , , ,
, ,
,
, , ,
, , , ,

, , , ,
, , ,
, ,

,
,
,
,
,

,

, ,
, ,
,

,
,

, , ,

,
, , , ,
,

, :
,

,


,

,

, , ,
,

? , ,
? ?
,
, , , ,
1
, , ,
, , ,

,
, ,
,
, !

,
,

,
, ,
,

http://oshoganga.blogspot.com

, , , , , ,


, , ,
, , ,

-
-

-

,
- - -
, , ,
,
, , ,
,

,

, ,
,

; , , ,
,
,
,

, ,
, -

, , , , , ,

, ? ,
, ? , ,
? , ,
, , ? ?

, ,

, , , , ,
, ,

,
, , , , ,
, , ,

, ,

,
,

, ,
,

4
-

-

, , ,

,

. .
,
,
, ,
-

, ,

,

:


, , ,
, , ,

,
,

 , -3 35 87 ()

, - , :

, :

:
-

: ,
-

: , -

: ,

;
; : ,

;
 ;
, ;

:

, ,

-
-
,

-
-

, ,



, ;

- -
,

? ?



,
; ,
; ,

- ,

- -

, -
: , ;
,

?
,

,

-
: ,

,
,

,
: , -

,
,

, ,
,

,
-


, ,

? ?

, ,

,
,

 :

,
,

?
?
,

,
,

, -

,

;
,

- :

, : -
;

,



? ,
,

? ?
,

,
,
,

, , ,

, ?
,

-
,
,

,
,
,

, ,

,
,

,
-

? ,
,
,
,

, ,

, ,


?

,
- -
;

,
, ,

- ,
, , ,

: , :

, - -59

;gh rkRi;Z gS esjk tc eSa ek=k mifLFkr gksus ds fy, dgrk gwarc gh mifukn vki ij dke dj ldrs gSaA vkSj og ,d
:ikarj.k gks ldrk gSA og vkids vfLrRo ds nwljs ryksa esa ys tk ldrk gSA blfy, igyh ckr tks ;kn j[kus ;ksX; gS og
gS dSls lquuk ek= vkidh mifLFkfr ls viuh iwjh Jk ls muesa Mwc tkukA rdZ ls u yM+sA Hkkouk dks eglwl u
djsacl] vius Lo:i ds lkFk ,d gks tk,A ;gh dqath gS;gh lcls igyh ckr gSA

nwljh ckr tks gS og gS fd mifukn Hkh kCnksa dk mi;ksx djrs gSaA mUgsa mi;ksx djuk iM+rk gS] ijUrq os Lo;a
ekSu ds fy, gSaA os ckr djrs gSa vkSj os yxkrkj ckr djrs gSa] ijUrq os ekSu ds fy, ckr djrs gSaA ,slk iz;Ru csdkj
gSfojks/h gS] foijhr gS] vlaxr gS ijUrq f Qj Hkh dsoy blh rjg ls ,dek=k laHkkouk gSA ;gh ,dek=k jkLrk gSA ;gka
rd fd eq>s Hkh ;fn vkidks ekSu ds fy, mRizsfjr djuk gks] rks eq>s Hkh kCn gh dke esa ysus iM+rs gSaA mifukn
kCn dke esa ysrs gSa] ijUrq os kCnksa ds iwjs f[kykiQ gSa os muds

fy, gSa gh ugha ;g ckr yxkrkj ;kn j[kuk gS vU;Fkk cgqr laHko gS fd ge kCnksa esa [kks tk,A

;ku mldk lrr Lej.k gSA ;g igyk lw=k gSA ge rhu vk;keksa ds txr esa jgrs gSaA igyk vk;ke gS eSa&;g] oLrqvksa
dk lalkjeSa vkSj esjk ?kj] eSa vkSj esjk iQuhZpj] eSa vkSj esjk /uA ;g ,d eSa ;g dk ?ksjk gSA ,d oLrqvksa dk txr
eq>s ?ksjs gSA

fiQj ,d nwljk vk;ke gS eSa rw] eSa vkSj esjh izs;lh] eSa vkSj esjk fe=k] eSa vkSj esjk dqVqac] ,d O;fDr;ksa dk txrA
;g nwljk ?ksjk gSA

mlds ckn ,d rhljk vk;ke gSeSa&og] eSa vkSj fooA mifukn dgrs gSa] ;ku mldk lrr Lej.k gSu rks oLrq dk]
u gh rsjk] og dksbZ O;fDr ugha gSA og rks og gS] ijUrq ge mls og D;ksa dgrs gSa\ tc dHkh ge og dgrs gSa] mldk
vFkZ gksrk gS og dqN tks fd vfre.k djrk gS] og tks fd ikj gS] og dqN tks fd ogka ugha gS tgka ge gSau rks gekjh
oLrqvksa ds laca/ esa gS vkSj u gekjs O;fDr;ksa ds lkFk laca/ksa esa gSog mldk dksbZ uke ugha gS] D;ksafd
;fn mls vki dksbZ Hkh uke nsrs gSa] tSls fd bZoj] rks

og eSa&rw dk laca/ cu tkrk gSA ;fn vki mls ekrk ;k firk dgrs gSa] rks vki mls nwljs vk;ke esa ys

OSHO Disidentify From Your Thoughts

Close your eyes, then focus both of them just in the middle of the two eyebrows, as if you are
looking there with your two eyes. Give total attention to it.At the right point, suddenly your eyes
will become fixed. And if your attention is there, you will experience a strange phenomenon: for
the first time you will see thoughts running before you; you will become the witness. It is just like
a film screen: thoughts are running and you are a witness.Ordinarily you are not the witness, you
are identified with thoughts. If anger is there, you become anger. If a thought moves you are not
the witness; you become one with the thought, identified, and you move with it. You become the
thought; you take the form of the thought. When sex is there you become sex, when anger is there
you become anger, when greed is there you become greed. Any thought moving becomes identi-
fied with you; you do not have any gap between you and the thought.But focused at the third eye,
suddenly you become a witness. Through the third eye you can see thoughts running like clouds in
the sky, or people moving on the street.

Osho, The Book of Secrets, Talk #5

My spiritual practice is neither.

When I remember to, I bring attention to the sense of I AM, or very simply, the ordinary sense of
me (as suggested by Nisargadutt and Ramana, and very cleanly clarified byJohnSherman). This is
effortless now. I see that what it feels like to be me is constant and has always been the same. I
see that the sense of me is really awareness, presence, stillness.

I try to be aware whenever I remember. I try to fall back out of conditioned thoughts and emo-
tions to a quieter place inside, and allow and observe.

I use the release technique whenever I feel harsh emotions.

I am patient.
7. Self-Remembering: A key, a door, a missing link

Self-remembering is the key to self-study and the ideal method to study consciousness within one-
self. Ouspensky states that, when Gurdjieff introduced him to the fourth way teaching, he immedi-
ately recognized that this practice is of profound importance. Thus, he argues that:

... psychology begins at this point. ... man does not remember himself but could remember him-
self if he made sufficient efforts. Without self-remembering there can be no study, no psychology.
But if a man realizes and bears in mind that he does not remember himself, and that nobody re-
members, and yet there is a possibility of self-remembering, then study begins. (1950, p. 120)

Ouspensky adamantly stresses that without self-remembering there is no self-study, no psychology.

Self-remembering involves an effort to awaken by being more present within life situations and un-
der all different kinds of circumstances. Once an individual attempts to do this, they soon realize
how quickly and easily they forget. There is no central or indivisible I, that has will and the con-
trol of attention, and which could do this. Instead, there are one thousand and one little is which
parade out, absorb the attention and engage in the habitual dynamics of the wrong workings of
the centers and the concerns of false personality. It is most difficult to maintain awareness of I
am here for more than a few moments before being distracted and engaged by associative think-
ing and imagination, by negative emotions and personal concerns, and then slipping back into the
unconsciousness of the usual waking sleep. Humans live in a state of forgetfulness, continually ab-
sorbed and engaged by everything happening around and within them. Self-remembering requires
a conscious effort to wake up and be more fully present amidst the mechanical flow of happenings
that condition and enslave us.

Gurdjieff explains how self-remembering is a method for the study of consciousnessits appearance
and disappearance:

... you can know consciousness only in yourself. Observe that I say you can know, for you can
know it only when you have it. And when you have not got it, you can know that you have not
got it, not at that very moment, but afterwards. I mean that when it comes again you can see that
it has been absent a long time, and you can find or remember the moment when it disappeared
and when it reappeared. ... by observing in yourself the appearance and the disappearance of con-
sciousness you will inevitably see one fact which you neither see nor acknowledge now, and that
is that moments of consciousness are very short and are separated by long intervals of completely
unconscious, mechanical working of the machine. You will then see that you can think, feel, act,
speak, work, without being conscious of it. And if you learn to see in yourselves the moments of
consciousness and the long periods of mechanicalness, you will as infallibly see in other people
when they are conscious of what they are doing and when they are not.

Your principal mistake consists in thinking that you always have consciousness, and in general,
either that consciousness is always present or that it is never present. In reality consciousness is a
property which is continually changing. Now it is present, now it is not present. And there are dif-
ferent degrees and different levels of consciousness. Both consciousness and the different degrees
of consciousness must be understood in oneself by sensation, by taste. (1949, pp. 116-117)

Through self-remembering, we study the degrees and qualities of consciousness. Usually, we are
not conscious of ourselves and our attention is continually absorbed by the turning of the mind,
negative emotional states and personal concerns, and everything happening around us. When we
remember to be more fully conscious, then we can realize how unconscious we are in the periods
before self remembering. Through self-remembering, we begin to realize how unconscious we nor-
mally are, not at the time but afterwards, when we remember ourselves again. Self-remembering
begins to make consciousness more visible to us, by demonstrating the inability to remember self.
As a method for the study and enhancement of consciousness, self-remembering reveals the na-
ture of the waking sleep state, while at the same time, it begins to de-automatize the usual pro-
cesses which go on in the state of automated consciousness.

Despite the importance of self-remembering, defining it is a tricky business. There are many an-
gles from which this practice can be approached and definitions are usefulalthough only to a
point. One must practice self-remembering, learning to define it, as G. says, by sensation, by
taste, in order to gain a true sense of its profound significance. Nevertheless, Ouspensky defines
self-remembering quite simply and distinguishes it from the related practice of self-observation:

Self-remembering is an attempt to be aware of yourself. Self-observation is always directed at

some definite function: either you observe your thoughts, or movements, or emotions, or sensa-
tions. It must have a definite object which you observe in yourself. Self-remembering does not di-
vide you, you must remember the whole, it is simply the feeling of I, of your own person. (1957,
p. 107)

Self-observation is directed towards particular contents of experience and the activities of the cen-
ters. In contrast, self-remembering is experiencing or feeling/sensing the whole of self. Remem-
bering self means being more fully present as a three-centered being, in such a way that ones ex-
perience consists of a deeper sense and feeling that I am here.

On one occasion, Gurdjieff asked a group of his pupils, What is the most important thing that we
notice during self observation? Dissatisfied with their answers, Gurdjieff explained that:

Not one of you has noticed the most important thing that I have pointed out to you .... That is
to say, not one of you has noticed that you do not remember yourselves. ... You do not feel your-
selves; you are not conscious of yourselves. With you, it observes just as it speaks,it thinks, it
laughs. You do not feel: I observe, I notice, I see. Everything still is noticed, is seen. ... In order
really to observe oneself one must first of all remember oneself. ... Try to remember yourselves
when you observe yourselves and later on tell me the results. Only those results will have any
value that are accompanied by self-remembering. Otherwise you yourselves do not exist in your
observations. In which case what are all your observations worth? (1949, pp, 117-8)

At moments of self-observation, we need to remember ourselves and experience being fully

present. In this case, there is an enhanced experience of I, in addition to the observation of the
psychic functions. Ouspensky ascribes major importance to this deceptively simple idea:
So, at the same time as self-observing, we try to be aware of ourselves by holding the sensation
of I am herenothing more, And this is the fact that all Western psychology, without the small-
est exception, has missed. Although many people came very near to it, they did not recognize the
importance of this fact and did not realize that the state of man as he is can be changed-that man
can remember himself, if he tries for a long time. (1957, p. 5)

Again, it is impossible to appreciate the significance of this apparently simple practice of self-
remembering until one undertakes the study of oneself on that basis. Only then can one begin
to understand Ouspenskys claim that the study of psychology has to begin with attempts to re-
member oneself. Modern psychology has erred in failing to understand the normal waking sleep
state. Humans do not remember themselves and are not properly conscious, and have no con-
scious self as such. However, they can study self in the inner world and make intentional efforts
to enhance consciousness.

Gurdjieff and Ouspensky refer to the ordinary waking state, the state of forgetfulness, as a state
of relative consciousness or waking sleep. Self-observation and self-remembering serve in the
development of self-consciousness (and objective consciousness). Ouspensky explains some of the
difficulties in understanding consciousness, particularly self-consciousness:

The third state of consciousness is very strange. If people explain to us what the third state of
consciousness is, we begin to think that we have it. The third state can be called self conscious-
ness, and most people, if asked, say, Certainly we are conscious! A sufficient time or repeated
and frequent efforts of self observation is necessary before we really recognize the fact that we are
not conscious; that we are conscious only potentially. If we are asked, we say, Yes, I am, and for
that moment we are, but the next moment we cease to remember and are not conscious. So in the
process of self-observation we realize that we are not in the third state of consciousness, that we
live only in two. We live either in sleep or in a waking sleep which, in the system, is called rela-
tive consciousness. The fourth state, which is called objective consciousness, is inaccessible to us
because it can only be reached through self-consciousness, that is, by becoming aware of oneself
first, so that much later we may manage to reach the objective state of consciousness. (1957, pp.4-
5)

Over a period of time, the effects of self-study and self-remembering remove various obstacles to
consciousness and allow the emergence of self-consciousness. The basic framework is quite coher-
ent and logical, although it is difficult to realize what lies behind all of these fine words.

To realize what self-remembering is, and is not, is a long and subtle process, and various problems
arise as people attempt to study and remember themselves. Each person will tend to interpret the
term according to their own associations and beliefs. For the time being, it is most useful simply
to approach the elusive practice of self-remembering by attempting to do it, anywhere and any-
time.

Misunderstandings and misconceptions about self-remembering generate errors and illusions re-
garding its practice. First and foremost, people are apt to confuse being conscious of self or re-
membering self with thinking about ourselves, or thinking about self-remembering. Nothing could
be further from the truth. In fact, the continual turning of the mind, as it is referred to in eastern
esoteric teachings, is a major obstacle to self-remembering. The associative thinking happens me-
chanically and is not something that I do, or could even not do. Associative thinking and emo-
tional concerns continually engage the attention, and prevent people from experiencing the deeper
coherence, feeling and sensation that I am here.

Negative emotions, self love and vanity, imagination and internal considering, and the turning
of the mind, are all obstacles to self-remembering because each of these processes are based on
identification and attachment. When a person is in a state of identification, he or she are attached
emotionally to anything and everything that captures the attention. In this way, the many little is
are nourished and kept alive by emotional attachments, sexual desires and instinctual appetites.
Gurdjieff depicts the dis-identification process involved in the struggle towards the state of self-
consciousness:

... a man must die, that is, he must free himself from a thousand petty attachments and identifi-
cations which hold him in the position in which he is. He is attached to everything in his life, at-
tached to his imagination, attached to his stupidity, attached even to his suffering, possibly to his
sufferings more than to anything else. He must free himself from this attachment. Attachment to
things, identification with things, keep alive a thousand useless Is in a man. These Is must die in
order that the big I may be born. (1949, p. 218)

It is not possible to self-remember at the same time as being identified. Ones awareness is nor-
mally identified with or engaged by the thoughts, feelings and concerns of little is. In contrast, the
achieving of self-consciousness involves a change of being, and the emergence of real I.

A human being, in waking sleep (or relative consciousness), is always identified and lost in at-
tachments. When self-remembering, consciousness is centered more in the essence of our being,
rather than in imagination and the concerns of false personality, or the itching and wanderings of
the organs and nerves. Self-remembering takes considerable time to understand, because we do
not know what self is, or that I AM. People know only what Gurdjieff calls the little is, but not
big I or real I.

It is useful to remember the central idea that humans are not properly conscious, and it is neces-
sary to remember to be more conscious and aware of self throughout the day, whenever you can
remember to do so. Ouspensky (1957) explained:

When we try to keep all these things in mind and to observe ourselves, we come to the very def-
inite conclusion that in the state of consciousness in which we are, with all this identification, con-
sidering, negative emotions and absence of self-remembering, we are really asleep. We only imag-
ine that we are awake. So when we try to remember ourselves it means only one thingwe try to
awake. And we do awake for a second but then we fall asleep again. This is our state of being,
so actually we are asleep. We can awake only if we correct many things in the machine and if we
work very persistently on this idea of awaking, and for a long time. (p. 13)

Self-remembering is both simple and complex, as a practice and as a state. As a practice, it is a

missing link in known psychological theories, and a key to self-study and the study of psychology.
It is a method of awakening which begins demonstrates how we are asleep, lived out in an uncon-
scious and mechanical state. When we initially begin to self remember, we cannot do so, because
we are always so lost and absorbed by life and everything that happens. However, in time, one be-
gins to understand why the mystical traditions, and the fourth way teaching in particular, portray
humans as living in a state of illusion and forgetfulness. Self-remembering provides a method to
overcome this condition.

To illustrate the importance of self-remembering, Gurdjieff compares our state of sleep and me-
chanicalness with being imprisoned. Ouspensky wrote:

G.s favorite statement was that, if a man in prison was at any time to have a chance of escape,
then he must first of all realize that he is in prison. So long as he fails to realize this, so long as he
thinks he is free, he has no chance whatever. (1949, p. 30)

Self-remembering, combined with self-observation and self-study, provides the means by which a
human can realize how he or she is imprisoned. At the same time, it provides the key to escaping
this horror and waste. For Ouspensky and Gurdjieff, self-remembering is a necessary method for
any meaningful psychology, a form of conscious effort to study consciousness within self.

To awaken, to die, to be rebornthese are three steps in the process of transformation which Gurd-
jieff describes. A person has first to wake uprealizing the normal condition of their personal wak-
ing sleep and lack of consciousness. Secondly, one has to die to the old, realizing ones nothing-
ness and the lie of the ego or false personality. Thirdly, the individual must be reborn within the
essence, to realize the higher centers and states of enlightened self knowledge and objective con-
sciousness. Psychology begins with self-rememberinga key to the process of changing ones being
and to the studying consciousness within the inner world.

what is swadhya..?

This is a very important sutra: Union with the divine happens through self study. One has to study
oneself that is the only way to reach the divine. Patanjali does not say, Go to the temple. He
does not say, Go to the church. He does not say, Do the rituals. No, that is not the way to be
one with the divine. Go into yourself swadhyaya, self study because he is hidden behind you,
within you. He is your within-most core. You are the temple; go within. Study yourself. You are a
tremendous phenomenon study yourself. Study all that you are. And the day you have studied
yourself completely, he will be revealed. He is hidden behind you, within you. He is you in your
deepest being. So study yourself.

This study means actually what Gurdjieff means by self-remembering. Patanjalis swadhyaya is
exactly what Gurdjieff means by self-remembering. Remember yourself and just go on watching.
How you relate with people watch. Relationship is a mirror. How you relate with strangers, how
you relate with people who are known to you, how you relate with your servant, how you relate
with your boss just go on watching. Let every relationship be a mirror, a reflection, and watch
how you change your mask. Look at your greed, look at your jealousies, look at your fear, look at
your anxieties, possessiveness go on looking and watching.
There is no need to do anything! Thats the beauty of the sutra. Patanjali does not say, Do some-
thing! He says, Study yourself. The very study, the very awareness will do. A transformation
will happen when you come face to face to know your whole being.

In different moods: when you are sad watch; when you are happy watch; when you are indif-
ferent watch; when you are feeling hopeless watch; when you are filled with hope so much
watch; in desire, in frustration. There are millions of moods around you go on watching. Let
every mood be a window to look within yourself. From all colors of the rainbow, watch yourself.
When you are alone watch. When you are not alone watch. Move to the mountains, isolated
watch. Go to the factory, to the office watch how you change, where you change.

If you go on watching. Never relax this watching for a single moment. Buddha has said, Then
when you go to your bed go on watching. When you go on, falling into sleep go on watching
how you fall asleep. Go on watching. Dont allow anything to pass without watching. Just this self
remembering, this self-study, will do all. You need not ask, What do I do after I have watched
Nothing is needed. Once you watch your hatred totally, it disappears.

And this is the criterion: that which disappears by watching is sin, and that which grows by watch-
ing is virtue. Thats the only definition I can give to you. I dont say that this is sin and that is
virtue. No, sin and virtue cannot be objectified. That which grows by watching is virtue; that
which disappears by watching is sin. Anger will disappear by watching; love will grow. Hatred will
disappear; compassion will grow...............!

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO KNOW YOURSELF BY A.R.NATARAJAN.

Vichara, investigation, is the process and the goal also.I am is the goal and the final Reality. To
hold on to it

with effort is Vichara. When spontaneous and natural I tis Realization.(Talks, 390).

You see, the one eliminates all the not I cannot eliminate the I. To say I am not this or I am
that there must be the I. This I is only the ego or the I-thought. After the rising up of this I-
thought, all other thoughts arise. The I-thought is therefore the root-thought. If the root is pulled
out, all others are at the same time uprooted. Therefore seek the root-I, question yourself Who
am I?, find out its source. Then all

these will vanish and the pure Self will remain over. (Talks,197).

Only the annihilation of I is Liberation. But it can be gained only by keeping the I-I always in
view. So the need for the investigation of the I-thought. (Talks, 139).There is only one I all along;
but what rises up from
time to time is the mistaken I-thought; whereas the intuitive I always remains Self-shining, i.e.,
even before it becomes manifest. (Talks, 139).

The I-thought is only limited I. The real I is unlimited, universal, beyond time and space. They
are absent in sleep, and before seeing the objective world, there is a state of awareness which is
your pure Self. That must be known (Talks, 311).

Soul, mind and ego are words. There are no real entities of the kind. Consciousness is the only
truth. (Talks, 245).

Just on waking from sleep and before becoming aware of the world there is that pure II. Hold
it without sleeping or without allowing thoughts to possess you. If that is held firm it does not mat-
ter even though the world is seen. The seer remains unaffected by the phenomena. (Talks, 196).

How is the ego to be destroyed? Hold the ego first and then ask how it is to be destroyed. Who
asks this question? It is the ego. Can the ego ever agree to kill itself? This question is a sure way
to cherish the ego and not to kill it. If you seek the ego you will find it does not exist. That is the
way to destroy it. (Talks, 615).

Your duty is to be; and not to be this or that. I AM THAT I AM sums up the whole truth. The
method is, summed up in BE STILL. What does stillness mean? It means destroy yourself . Be-
cause any form or shape is the cause of trouble. Give up the notion I am so and so. (Talks, 363).
The ego is like ones shadow thrown on the ground. If one attempts to bury it, it will be foolish.
The Self is only one. If

limited, it is the ego; if unlimited it is the Infinite and is the Reality. (Talks, 146).

I am that I am, I am is God... not thinking, I am God. Realise I am and do not think I am.
Know I am God... it is said, and not Think I am God. (Talks, 354).

The mind is by nature restless. Begin liberating it from its restlessness; give it peace; make it free
from distractedness; train it to look inward; make this a habit. This is done by ignoring

the external world and removing the obstacles to peace of mind. (Talks, 26).

Is it the mind that wants to kill itself? The mind cannot kill itself. So your business is to find the
real nature of the mind. Then you will know that there is no mind. When the Self is sought, the
mind is nowhere. Abiding in the Self, one need not worry about the mind. (Talks, 146).

Mere book-learning is not of any great use. After realization all intellectual loads are useless bur-
dens and are thrown overboard as jetsam. Jettisoning the ego is necessary and natural. (Talks, 28).

It is in the mind that birth and death, pleasure and pain, in short, the world and ego, exist. If the
mind is destroyed all else are destroyed too. Note that it should be annihilated, not just made la-
tent. For the mind is dormant in sleep. It does not know anything. Still, on waking up you are
as you were before. There is no end of grief. But if the mind be destroyed the grief will have no
background and will disappear along with the mind. (Talks, 195).

The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts arise because there is the thinker. The
thinker is the ego. The ego, if sought, will vanish automatically. The ego and the mind are the
same. The ego is the root-thought from which all other thoughts arise. (Talks, 195).

To imagine Muladhara at the bottom, the Heart at the centre or the head at the top or over all
these is all wrong. In one word, to think is not your real nature. (Talks, 184).

Is not I am also a thought?... The egoless I AM is not a thought. It is Realisation. The meaning
or significance of I is God. The experience of I am is to BE STILL. (Talks, 226).

Inward seeking is the path to be gained by mans intellect. The intellect itself realises after con-
tinuous practice that it is enabled by some Higher Power to function. It cannot itself reach this
Power. So it ceases to function after a certain stage. Then the Supreme Power is still left there all
alone. That is Realisation; that is finality; that is the goal. (Talks, 502).

It is thus plain that the purpose of the intellect is to realize its own dependence upon the Higher
Power and its inability to reach the same. So it must annihilate itself before the goal is reached.
(Talks, 502).

Why is intellect developed? It has a purpose. The purpose is that it should show the way to realise
the Self. It must be put to that use. (Talks, 644).

The mind becomes peaceful for a short while and again emerges forth. What is to be done?... The
peace often gained must be remembered at other times. That peace is your natural and permanent
state. By continuous practice it will become natural. That is called the current. That is your true
nature. (Talks, 303).

People think that freedom (moksha) is somewhere yonder and should be sought out. They are
wrong. Freedom is only knowing the Self within yourself. Concentrate and you will get it. (Talks,
31).

Be still and know that I am God. To be still is not to think. Know, and not think, is the word!
(Talks, 131).

Solitude is in the mind of man. One might be in the thick of the world and maintain serenity of
mind; such a one is in solitude. Another may stay in the forest but still be unable to control his
mind. He cannot be said to be in solitude. Solitude is a function of the mind. A man attached to de-
sire cannot get solitude wherever he may be; a detached man is always in solitude. (Talks, 20).

You can never find the mind through mind. Pass beyond it in order to find it non-existent. (Talks,
473).

All thoughts are inconsistent with realisation. The correct state is to exclude thoughts of ourselves
and all other thoughts. Thought is one thing and realisation is quite another. (Talks, 30).

It must be clearly understood that meditation is not prohibited in the absence of asanas or pre-
scribed times or any

accessories of the kind. (Talks, 17).

There is no jnana as it is commonly understood. The ordinary ideas of jnana and ajnana are only
relative and false. They are not real and therefore not abiding. The true state is the non-dual Self.
It is eternal and abides whether one is aware or not. (Talks, 499).

Jnana, once revealed, takes time to steady itself. The Self is certainly within the direct experience
of everyone, but not as one imagines it to be. It is only as It is. (Talks, 141).

Experience is said to be temporary or permanent. The first experience is temporary and by concentra-
tion it can become permanent. In the former the bondage is not completely destroyed; it remains
subtle and reasserts itself in due course. But in the latter it is destroyed root and branch, never to
appear again. (Talks, 95).

There is no investigation into the Atman. The investigation can only be into the non-Self. Elimina-
tion of the non-Self is alone possible. The Self being always self-evident will shine forth of itself.
(Talks, 78).

Jnana-marga and bhakti-marga are one and the same. Self-surrender leads to realisation just as en-
quiry does. Complete self-surrender means that you have no further thought of I. Then all your
vasanas are washed off and you are free. You should not continue as a separate entity at the end of
either course. (Talks, 31).

Surrender unreservedly. One of the two things must be done: either surrender because you admit
your inability and also require a Higher Power to help you; or investigate into the cause of misery,
go to the source and merge into the Self. Either way you will be free from misery. God never for-
sakes one who has surrendered. (Talks, 363).

Surrender is to give oneself up to the original source of ones being. Do not delude yourself by
imagining such source to be some God outside you. Ones source is within oneself. Give yourself
up to it. That means that you should seek the source and merge in it. (Talks, 111).

If on the other hand you merge in the Self there will be no individuality left. You will become the
Source itself. In that case...what is surrender? Who is to surrender and to whom? This constitutes
devotion, wisdom and investigation. (Talks, 208).

The Gita starts saying that you are not the body, that you are not therefore the doer. So one
should act without thinking that oneself is the actor. The actions go on despite this egolessness.
The person has come into manifestation for a certain purpose. That purpose will be accomplished
whether he considers himself the actor or not. (Talks, 643). How do we know that actions are ours
or not?... If the fruits of actions do not affect the person, he is free from action. (Talks, 40).

The one infinite Unbroken Whole (plenum) becomes aware of Itself as I. This is the original
name. All other names, e.g., OM, are later growths. Liberation is only to remain aware of the Self.
The Mahavakya I am Brahman is its authority. Though the I is always experienced, yet ones attention
has to be

drawn to it. Then only knowledge dawns. Thus the need for the instruction of the Upanishads and
of wise sages. (Talks, 92).

The ultimate Truth is so simple. It is nothing more than being in the pristine state. This is all that
need be said. (Talks, 96).

Reality is one only. How can it be realised? Realisation is thus an illusion. Practice seems to be
necessary. Who is to practice? Looking for the doer, the act and the accessories disappear. More-
over, if Realisation is not present here and now, how can it, newly got, be of any use? Realise
what is present here and now. The sages did so before and still do that only. Hence they say that
it looks as if newly got. Once veiled by ignorance and later revealed, Reality looks as if newly re-
alised. But it is not new. (Talks, 439).

Dvaita and Advaita are relative terms. They are based on the sense of duality. The Self is as It is.
There is neither dvaita nor advaita, I AM THAT I AM. Simple Be-ing is the Self. (Talks, 433).

Ones efforts are directed only to remove ones ignorance. Afterwards they cease and the real Self
is found to be always there. No effort is needed to remain as the Self. (Talks, 66).

The Truth is that the Self is constant and unintermittent Awareness. The object of enquiry is to
find the true nature of the Self as Awareness. Let one practise enquiry so long as separateness is
perceived. Once realisation arises there is no further need for enquiry. The question will also not
arise. Can awareness ever think of questioning who is aware? Awareness remains pure and simple.
(Talks, 454).

The Self is known to everyone but not clearly. You always exist. The Be-ing is the Self. I am is
the name of God. Of all the definitions of God, none is indeed so well put as the Biblical state-
ment I am that I am in Exodus 3, Verse 14. None is so direct as the name JEHOVAH... I AM. The
Absolute Be-ing is what is... It is the Self. It is God. Knowing the Self, God is known. In fact God
is none other than the Self. (Talks, 106).

There is a state beyond our efforts or effortlessness. Until it is realised effort is necessary. After
tasting such Bliss, even once, one will repeatedly try to regain it. It is as difficult for a jnani to en-
gage in thoughts as it is for an ajnani to be free from thoughts. (Talks, 141).
Reality is simply the loss of the ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because ego is no
entity it will automatically vanish and Reality will shine forth by itself. This is the direct method
whereas all other methods are done only retaining the ego. In those paths there arise so many
doubts and the eternal question remains to be

tackled finally. But in this method the final question is the only one and it is raised from the very
beginning. No sadhanas are necessary for engaging in this quest. (Talks, 146).

Effortlessness while remaining aware is the state of Bliss, and that is Realisation. (Talks, 295).

In a sense, speaking of Self-realisation is a delusion. It is only because people have been under
the delusion that the non- Self is the Self and the unreal the Real that they have to be weaned out
of it by the other delusion called Self-realisation, because actually the Self always is the Self and
there is no such thing as realizing it. Who is to realize what, and how, when all that exists is the
Self and nothing but the Self? (Day by Day). Free-will and destiny are ever-existent. Destiny is the
result of past action; it concerns the body. Let the body act as may suit it. Why are you concerned
with it? Why do you pay attention to it? Free-will and destiny last as long as the body lasts. But
Wisdom (jnana) transcends both. The Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance. Should anything
happen it happens as the resultant of ones past actions, of divine will and other factors. (Talks,
193).

Free-will holds the field in association with individuality. As long as individuality lasts so long
there is Free-will. All the scriptures are based on this fact and they advise directing the Free-will
in the right channel. Find out to whom Free-will or destiny matters. Abide in it. Then these two
are transcended. That is the only purpose of discussing these questions. To who do they arise?
Find out and be at peace. (Talks, 426).

Yoga implies prior division and it means later union of one with the other. Who is to be united
with whom? You are the seeker, seeking union with something. That something is apart from you.
You are aware of the Self. Seek it and be it. That will expand as the Infinite. Then there will be no
question of yoga, etc. Whose is the separation (viyoga)? Find it. (Talks, 211).

He who instructs an ardent seeker to do this or that is not a true Master. The seeker is already
afflicted by his activities and wants Peace and Rest. In other words he wants cessation of his ac-
tivities. Instead of that he is told do so something in addition to or in place of his other activities.
Can that be a help to the seeker? (Talks, 601).

Love postulates duality. How can the Self be the object of Love? Love is not different from the
Self. Love of an object is an inferior order and cannot endure. Whereas the Self is Love, in other
words, God is Love. (Talks, 433).

Turn your vision inwards and the whole world will be full of the Supreme Spirit. The world is said
to be illusion. Illusion is really Truth. Even the material sciences trace the origin of the universe to
some primordial matter... subtle, exceedingly subtle. (Talks, 199).

God is the same both to those who say the world is real and to their opponents. Their outlook is
different. You need not entangle yourself in such disputations. The goal is one and the same for
all. Look to it. (Talks, 199).

The Bible says Be still and know that I am God. Stillness is the sole requisite for the realisation of
the Self as

God. (Talks, 338).

Brahmacharya is living in Brahman. It has no connection with celibacy as commonly understood.

A real Brahmachari finds Bliss in the Brahman which is the same as the Self. Why then should you
look for other sources of happiness? In fact the emergence from the Self has been the cause of all
the misery. (Talks, 17).

When there is contact of a desirable sort or memory thereof, and when there is freedom from un-
desirable contacts

or memory thereof, we say there is happiness. Such happiness is relative and is better called plea-
sure. (Talks, 28).

But men want absolute and permanent happiness. This does not reside in objects, but in the Abso-
lute. It is Peace, free from pain and pleasure... it is a neutral state. (Talks, 28).

This is the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven mentioned in the Bible and this world
are not two different regions. The Kingdom is within you says the Bible. So it is. The realised
being sees this as the Kingdom of Heaven whereas others see it as this world. The difference lies
only in the angle of vision. (Talks, 609).

Nirvana is Perfection. In the Perfect State there is neither subject nor object; there is nothing to
see, nothing to feel, nothing to know. Seeking and knowing are the functions of the mind. In Nir-
vana there is nothing but the blissful pure

consciousness I am. (Talks, 406).

Just being is enough. Not being this, not being that, just being, being at satsang. And whether I
talk about ice cream, or jelly beans, it makes no difference. The words themselves have value be-
cause the sound of the words are the grace that you feel. But the meaning of the words are only
interpreted in your mind. Thats why whatever I say is taken differently by each one of you, for it
filters through your mind, and your consciousness and your beingness mix with the words, and the
words come out according to your way of life. But if you listen with no mind, then you get the true
meaning. In other words, do not put too much value on everything I say, but open your heart so
the grace portion of it may enter, and you may pick it up, and lift yourself upward.

How do you do this? Just by becoming still, by stopping the mental activity. And you may stop
the mental activity by any method you know. If you like to do pranayama, do that. If you like to
practice vipassana meditation, do that. If you wish to observe your breath, do that. If you wish
to practice self-inquiry, do that. In other words, do whatever you have to do to stop your mind
from thinking. Vichara, self-inquiry, is only to keep your mind from thinking. Thats all it is. All
the practices of yoga lead to the place where you stop thinking. All of the higher religions are to
make your thoughts one-pointed. And when your mind stops, you become your self. Youre free.

There are no rituals you have to go through really. You dont have to chastise yourself and try to
get rid of your guilt feelings, samskaras, or anything else. By identifying with an empty mind, will
do the job for you. But the empty mind is not realization. It is the step before realization. Real-
ization is not an empty mind. Realization can not be explained. Suffice it to say, that realization is
beyond everything and anything you can ever imagine. But if you achieve empty mind, then youre
on the way to realization. At that stage the guru within yourself, will pull you inwardly, and you
will awaken to your self.

So, number 1, you have to develop humility. You have to open your heart to loving kindness. Num-
ber 2, you have to forget about yourself and your problems, as if they never existed, and help oth-
ers, give of yourself to others, because there is only one self, and I am is that. Number 3, you have
to stop quoting teachers and telling yourself that I am Brahman, I am no-mind, I am conscious-
ness, for that really inflates your ego.

You have to stop comparing yourself with anybody or anything. In other words, you have to be-
come nothing, and that hurts some of you, because you say, After all Ive gone to school for fifty
years, Ive got a profession, Im doing this and Im doing that. And now you tell me I have to be-
come nothing? Well, consciousness is nothing, it is no thing. What you call God is nothing. So
if nothing is good enough for God, it should be good enough for you too. Cant you see now that
when you say to yourself, Well, Ill never be nothing, Im somebody. Ive studied for years, Im
somebody important, cant you see now that this is what holds you back? Every sage has come to
the point where they have thrown away the scriptures, thrown away the books, thrown away their
body, thrown away their knowledge, and thrown away themselves with a small s. When you get rid
of all that stuff, then you become your self.

~ Robert Adams

Begin by mentally saying I, and then try to cling to the self-awareness evoked by this word. You
may be able to cling to it for only a few seconds at a time, but even that is beneficial. When you
notice that your attention has become extroverted, you should try again, and should continue try-
ing repeatedly until you find your interest in doing so is slackening, and then you should take a
rest for a while.

The important thing is to begin trying, even if only for a few minutesa day. The efficacy of trying
at least a little but persistently can be illustrated by the story of the camel and the tent.

In Arabia a man was sleeping in his tent, and his camel was sleeping outside, but it was very cold.
At first the camel put its nose in the tent, and the man allowed it, thinking Yes, poor creature, it is
cold outside.

Then slowly the camel pushed its whole head inside, and still the man allowed it. Gradually it
edged more of its body inside, until eventually it occupied the whole tent and the man found him-
self lying outside.

Likewise, if we attempt to be self-attentive for at least a few moments here and there during each
day, that will gradually push out our interest in everything else and thereby lead us eventually to
our goal.

Sadhu Om

Harsh K. LutharBottom of Form