Over the years I’ve often written about Ramana but I don’t think I ever summarized his basic instructions in plain modern English. A recent conversation in comments made me realize I should do this. Here goes. 1. When you notice you are thinking… 2. Notice the part of your mind that knows the thought and […]
Author: Freddie
You can’t get here from there
An email just rolled in from a reader/friend that included the sentence: I look forward to reading your more impersonal posts when they come. I tried to think of something impersonal to write about but nothing came to mind that I haven’t said many times. A few minutes later another email rolled in from a […]
What’s new with me
I feel an impulse to start writing here again. I want to write about several impersonal topics but before I do that, I think I should describe recent events in my life. This is probably the first time I’ve written here about my life without intending to illustrate some point or other that applies to […]
Ramana’s definition of “atma-vichara” from Nan Ar, paragraph 16
I’m going to kill two birds with one stone with this post. Oops — what an ugly metaphor. I’ve been hanging out with my cats too much. They’re so adorable I keep forgetting they’re sociopathic murderers. First thing I’m going to do is analyze and translate Ramana’s definition of “atma-vichara” from Nan Ar. This is […]
On translating Ramana with the word “attention”
If I correctly remember all the Ramana books I’ve read, and of course I don’t, it was Sadhu Om who invented the idea of describing Ramana’s method in English as “self-attention”. Regardless of who invented it, Michael James, Sadhu Om’s friend, student, collaborator, and literary executor, has done a great deal to popularize the term. […]
An interesting coincidence Can your own efforts be God's grace?
An interesting coincidence occurred the other day as a result of my writing a comment on this blog. At the time I pointed it out in the comments but I keep remembering that it happened so I’m going to elevate the matter to a full post. I was replying to a comment by Rico Rico. […]
The essence of Ramana’s method Transfer your attention completely from mental activity to yourself
The essence of Ramana Maharshi’s method is to transfer your attention from mental activity to yourself. Stop paying attention to thoughts, emotions, images, sensations, memories, wishes, awareness of awareness, etc. Instead pay attention to yourself. By “yourself” I mean you who experience all those mental activities. You who know them. To make this work you […]
The atomic bomb of jnana Not your social media guru's version of awakening
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 […]