Note from Freddie: The author of this guest post is the friend who I quoted in an earlier article a few days ago. Here’s his answer to the first question that readers asked. Welcome to all who read this. I should like firstly to thank Freddie for giving me the opportunity to speak to you […]
Tag: Self-enquiry
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Did Ramana practice Self-enquiry for four years or a few minutes?
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 shouting for help or running to a doctor, he lay on the floor and pretended he was already dead. He […]
What is suffering?
This thing we call suffering — what is it, really? We hate it so much that we take it for granted. Taken to extremes it’s a state in which we wish we didn’t exist. But even if that’s true it doesn’t answer the question. Can we use suffering as a gateway? As a target for […]
The Hole
You live your life on the edge of a hole incomprehensibly wide and deep. The funny thing is that you think you’re not aware of the hole when everything you do, see, know, and feel including you itself is merely your effort not to fall in. You don’t have to find the hole. It’s what […]
Ouspensky’s tragic mistake
Introduction added in 2019 During the two years since this article was published, a number of readers have posted comments below accusing me of misunderstanding Ouspensky. To those readers: this article is my reaction to a section of one of Ouspensky’s books which you can read for free at this link: Self Remembering by Ouspensky […]
Ramana’s crucial secret
The title of this post refers to an article by Michael James. According to Michael: This is the crucial and extremely valuable secret that Sri Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi] has revealed to us all about the nature of our ego or mind: If we attend to anything other than ourself, our mind will thereby rise and […]
A hint concerning Self-enquiry
The main tool we use for Self-enquiry, at least in the early stages, is attention. In this context the word ‘attention’ means the deliberate, volitional choice of what is evident. When attention succeeds, we become or remain aware of the object of attention. The reason I’m analyzing this common word in microscopic detail is that […]