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 […]
Tag: Self-enquiry
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 […]
Exit signs in the dream
People often say that the world is like a dream and that when we wake up from it, we become enlightened. The first half of this idea has probably occurred to people in all times and places. In the words of the children’s song, “Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.” The second […]
Three simple answers
Alec wrote: I know there are no simple answers to the most difficult questions of life. I’m not so sure about that. How about: Look at things from the other person’s point of view. Be conscious. Yearn to know yourself.
Ramana Maharshi 2
There are many books of Ramana’s dialogs; some report his words more faithfully than others. According to David Godman, the great scholar of Ramana’s life and works, Maharshi’s Gospel is among the more reliable ones. In Chapter III of that book we find the following dialog: Devotee: There are times when persons and things take […]
Bask in the Sun
One way to think about meditation is that it’s like a cat basking in the sun. Gradually our minds dissolve in the sunshine. The sun does the work. All we do is enjoy the warmth. The sunshine is consciousness or love. The cat is the mind. The mind basks in consciousness or love, soaks in it, […]
Ramana Maharshi 1
Update to this page (2024) I just happened to see this page for the first time in years. I no longer agree with it. I know now but didn’t know nine years ago when I wrote it that there are many mental states in which consciousness is evident. Only one of those states is what […]