Ramana Maharshi speaking about Self-realization: Later in the morning, at Rishikesananda’s request, Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi] recounted his first experience of the Self in his upstairs room at Madura. “When I lay down with limbs outstretched and mentally enacted the death scene and realised that the body would be taken and cremated and yet I would […]
The lost-in-thought state: Summary Simulated scenarios stimulate strong emotions
Over the last couple of weeks I wrote a half dozen articles exploring new ideas about the lost-in-thought state (LITS). They’re on my Substack blog in case anyone is interested. I wrote them mainly for myself to clarify my thinking. My main conclusion is that LITS is the primary function of the mind. It’s not […]
Retraction The big idea that kicked off this website is wrong
The reason I created this website is because I noticed something in the early 2000s that shocked me. It was and is the most surprising thing that ever happened to me. I couldn’t find a clear, unequivocal mention of it in any published book (it was harder to do literature searches in those days because […]
Luckily it only seems that way
This picture popped up in my Facebook feed. A good illustration, I think, of the fundamental attitude of many spiritual seekers. “I want to be free — I have to escape from the prison of my mind — I need to crack this damn lock.” The room, the door, the lock — they are the […]
Something younger Freddie got wrong
Last week I reprinted something I wrote almost 20 years ago about Shiva Rudra Bala Yogi who I knew at that time. I noticed when I reread it last week that I got several things wrong. Here’s my most important misunderstanding. I was bothered at that time because SRBY calls himself a yogi and Ramana […]
Why people misunderstand Ramana: reason #2
Other articles in this series: Reason #1 Note: “enquiry” and “inquiry” are the same word. It can be spelled either way. The term “Self-enquiry” is the second reason why people misunderstand Ramana. This term is a misleading English translation of a Sanskrit phrase used by Ramana, atma-vichara. “Self-enquiry” is a bad translation because it seems […]
A guest post from a younger Freddie
Yesterday while searching Google for articles about Ramana I stumbled across something I wrote about Shiva Rudra Bala Yogi almost twenty years ago. I have no memory of it. I apparently posted it to the “Ramana Maharshi mail list” (whatever that was) and somebody at indiadivine.org preserved a copy. Here it is. July 7, 2005 […]
A reader’s response to Tether and Magnet
Some of you may remember Tether and Magnet, a post written five years ago by a friend of mine. Last week a reader posted an unusual comment on it. This happened on realization.org where “Tether and Magnet” has been reprinted, not on this blog, so I’m copying the comment here for blog readers. Before I […]
Why people misunderstand Ramana: reason #1
Other articles in this series: Reason #2 It’s hard to pick the number one reason why people misunderstand Ramana because the top two reasons are very similar and they reinforce each other. But a choice must be made, so here goes: The question “who am I?” is the number one reason. Ramana used this phrase […]