Why people misunderstand Ramana: reason #1

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 as a name for the method he […]

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Stars are visible only after sunset, and attention is a trap

I rewrote this article extensively on May 28, 2024, so some of the comments may no longer apply to it. People sometimes summarize Ramana’s method as, “Keep your attention incessantly on yourself.” This is a pretty good summary except for one big problem. Normally when we pay attention to something, we target or select it. […]

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An argument that supports the idea that consciousness existed before animal nervous systems

I’ve decided to publish a few articles on intellectual topics. I’m not changing the main focus of the blog; it will continue to emphasize experience and information that’s useful and interesting to spiritual seekers. I’m going to describe an idea that first occurred to me several decades ago. It’s a weak argument and a vague […]

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How I was brought to Ramana

A friend asked me recently to write about how I came to Ramana. I was brought to him by a chain of events that started with my father’s death and culminated in a visit to Meenakshi Amman Temple in southern India. I’ve written about some of those events on this blog in individual posts but […]

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What did Ramana mean when he quoted, “Be still and know that I am God”?

In Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, talk 338, we read: …the whole Vedanta is contained in the two Biblical statements: “I am that I AM” and “Be still and know that I am God.” I think people often misunderstand what Ramana meant when he quoted those statements. It’s natural to assume he intended these words […]

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Recordings of Ramana’s songs

The basic idea of this post is, “Please put links to recordings of Ramana’s songs in comments below.” I recently added Michael James’s translations of Ramana’s written works to realization.org. I like Michael’s translations very much because he emphasizes the meaning of Ramana’s words above everything else. I think his translations are probably the most […]

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Pathways Through to Space Two great books caught in a copyright horror show

Earlier today Louise quoted from a book that should be better known, Consciousness Without an Object by Franklin Merrell-Wolff. This is one of the greatest spiritual books of all time. Nothing like it has ever been written, as far as I know, except the same author’s other book, Pathways Through to Space. Unfortunately — multiply […]

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On the difficulty of discussing spiritual experiences

It’s notoriously difficult to make other people know what our spiritual experiences are like. People often say this is due to the fact that spiritual experiences are beyond the mind and therefore are ineffable. In my opinion, in most cases, this is not the real reason. The only experiences that are beyond the mind (unknown […]

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Francis Lucille comments on the observation that started this website

About twenty years ago I noticed something about my mind that seemed extraordinarily important to me for spiritual seekers, but to my surprise I couldn’t find more than partial mentions of it in spiritual literature. After reading and skimming many books over a period of about five years, I managed to find partial mentions in […]

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John Grimes

I seldom read spiritual books anymore but a few days ago I ran across a mention of John Grimes and for some reason, I can’t remember why, decided to read his book on Ramana. All I knew was that he is a retired professor of philosophy who specialized in Advaita Vedanta. The book turned out […]

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