A friend of mine just sent me an email that reminds me of a comment that somebody once made about Ramana Maharshi: I think our Bhagavan has attained Self-realisation. Such beings are walking Upanishads.* My friend wrote: I don’t say that my (there’s really no ‘my’ I just see hands typing and thoughts being expressed) […]
Enlightenment of head, heart, and belly
I plan to write about Julia’s state within the next few days because it seems wonderful and interesting to me. But before I do, as a sort of prequel, I’d like to give readers a chance to familiarize themselves with the following ideas. The first idea is that our sense of “me” or awareness is […]
After my kundalini woke up
Twenty years ago I wrote an article for Realization.org called ‘The Day My Kundalini Woke Up‘. The article says nothing about the long-term effects of that experience because when I wrote it, I didn’t yet know what the long-term effects would be. Today I’m going to tell the rest of the story. As I explained […]
The most surprising thing that ever happened to me
Instead of the title you see on this article I could have chosen, “The night I completely lost interest in my thoughts.” Both names are accurate. The experience that I’m about to describe occurred about 20 years ago, shortly after I became an earnest seeker, on a particular night when I made a much greater […]
How to pick a good spiritual teacher
Because of my limited experience in this area, you probably shouldn’t pay much attention to what I’m about to say. In fact that’s probably good advice in general. But for whatever it’s worth here’s what I think. Ideally, you should choose a spiritual teacher who is Self-realized. Unfortunately Self-realization is rare and you may not […]
What is it that says ‘my experience’?
Instructions for Ramana’s method of Self-enquiry usually suggest that people ask themselves “Who am I?” But some books recommend a different question, “Whence am I?”, which means in modern American English, “Where do I come from?” I would like to suggest a third possibility. Ask yourself, “What is it that says ‘my experience’?” What I […]
Biblical Self-enquiry?
Is this statement from the Bible a description of Self-enquiry? The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, Searching all the innermost parts of his being. Proverbs 20:27, New American Standard Bible The innermost part of our being is the lamp. The search ends only when it rests as itself. Related reading: Ouspensky’s […]
Love your enemies
One of Jesus’s best-known and most radical teachings is, “Love your enemies.” There is a feeling of exhilaration when we love somebody who dislikes us, a sense of liberation, because the ego becomes disabled. By loving people who dislike us we use our most potent emotion, love, as a solvent to dissolve the ego. Instantly […]
Find the Source, Nisargadatta-style
People who read Ramana and Nisargadatta are sometimes surprised by the extent of the differences. But are the differences really so great or are they mostly a matter of vocabulary? Ramana’s method is basically: Find the source of the I-thought and stay there until the I-thought dissolves. That source is your real identity. Doesn’t this […]
How to destroy a vasana (example 3): Julia’s father
Earlier posts in this series are here and here. Before I published this article, Julia checked it for accuracy and made a few changes. She told me, “I got goosebumps and felt tenderness in my heart while I read it because this was the night my heart chakra opened.” How the vasana got created Julia […]