For a revised, expanded, improved version of this article, see How Ramana Maharshi realized the Self on my Substack blog. How did Ramana Maharshi get Self-realized? The standard description goes something like this: One day when Ramana was 16 years old, for no apparent reason, he suddenly thought he was about to die. Instead of […]
Only when there is absolutely no sense of the self
I’m putting this video here because of the section that starts at 8:05 when he says, “But there is a different form…” and continues until 9:43. This is Jiddu Krishnamurti at age 84.
How to destroy a vasana (example 1): I am a coward
This article was slightly revised on June 18, 2024. In this article, I’ll describe in detail how I destroyed a vasana that had tormented me for decades. This particular vasana was painful because it made me hate myself. Painful, self-hating vasanas are especially insidious. First I’ll tell you how the vasana got created. When I […]
This might be a powerful sadhana
The basic idea This technique is intended to make you more conscious of your vasanas in order to help them dissolve. Set your phone (mobile) or digital watch so it beeps or vibrates unexpectedly at random times. Each time it goes off, notice what you had just been thinking. Optionally, you can write the thoughts […]
Accept the Situation and There Is No Problem
I’m printing the following quotation from a book by Ma Dharm Jyoti called One Hundred Tales for Ten Thousand Buddhas because I plan to refer to it in a future post, but the quote is true and useful on its own. It is very hot in the afternoon and Osho is resting on His cot […]
Heraclitus on Pramada
About 18 years ago I noticed to my astonishment that all my life I had been unconscious in a certain sense while I was in the waking state. Another way of saying that same thing is that I began to see what it means to really be conscious. The first sentence is negative and the […]
Some thoughts prompted by fasting
I haven’t eaten anything in 11 days. This is the fourth time I’ve done a long fast. The longest one was 30 days. What does this have to do with Self-realization? Trust me, I’ll get to that. It’s surprisingly easy to fast. After the third day, there’s no hunger. Our bodies are designed to go […]
What helped the most?
A friend asked by email: What has really worked for you? Different things helped at different times. It’s hard to know what helped the most, but if I had to recommend a single practice, I’d say the most important thing was destroying vasanas, especially painful vasanas, by seeing them as fully as possible without any […]
Turn the lights on
A few days ago I quoted this statement by Annamalai Swami: You stumble around in the darkness of your mind, not knowing that you have a torch in your hand. That light is the light of the Self. Switch it on and leave it on and you will never stumble again. (From Annamalai Swami: Final […]
The desire for God is God
A couple of days ago I mentioned a conversation with the Goddess, and Focus asked me to say more about it. Before I describe the conversation, let me tell you the background. During the summer of 2015 I began to have many mystical experiences. They were very intense for a few months and then tapered […]