An email just rolled in from a reader\/friend that included the sentence:<\/p>\n
I look forward to reading your more impersonal posts when they come.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I tried to think of something impersonal to write about but nothing came to mind that I haven’t said many times. A few minutes later another email rolled in from a different reader\/friend quoting the following paragraph I sent him last year:<\/p>\n
\nThere’s a hard way to do Ramana’s method and an easy way. Actually the first way is almost impossible and the second is effortless. The hard way is by dragging the attention from objects to yourself. In other words you start by being aware of objects and then try to move the focus of attention. This is incredibly hard for at least two reasons: (1) the attention-that-looks-at-objects involves machinery that cannot focus on yourself, and (2) without realizing it, you will automatically drag the focus “through” the mind which takes a lot of energy. The easy (effortless) way is to cease completely to pay attention to all mental activity, and then notice (without worrying about attention) what is knowing. Or more simply, notice knowing. That which is knowing is you. It is always knowing regardless of where attention is pointed. The second way is probably what Ramana did when he lay on his bedroom floor, imagined he was dead, and looked at himself to see if he (distinct from his mind and body) was still alive.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The second friend added:<\/p>\n
\nThis is something I haven\u2019t encountered on your blog, at least not explicitly. If it doesn\u2019t take too much of your time, I\u2019d be grateful if you could clarify it in more detail. Perhaps it would be best to publish your explanation on the blog, if you can summon the motivation.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Looks like the second friend provided not only the motivation but also the subject matter so I could answer the first. <\/p>\n
I wrote back to the second friend immediately, and I’ll reprint the email here for the first friend and anyone else who may be interested.<\/p>\n
Hi \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500,<\/p>\n
The first thing that occurs to me is to repeat the idea in less detail instead of more. But that’s the opposite of what you’re asking. \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n
There’s an English idiom, maybe you know it, “You can’t get there from here.” <\/p>\n
Let’s reverse it. You can’t get here from there. “Here” is you, self. “There” is mental phenomena.<\/p>\n
There’s no path to self from observing mental phenomena for the same reason you can’t find yourself in a TV show. You’re not in the TV show. You’re not a mental phenomenon. As long as we’re observing mental phenomena we’re looking away from self and we aren’t aware of self.<\/p>\n
I’m surprised I never said this on the blog. How strange. Maybe I postponed writing it because I wasn’t sure it was true, and then later when I was sure I realized that people often misunderstand all efforts to communicate this idea, so I thought the effort would be futile or might even backfire.<\/p>\n
Here’s a way, maybe, to give a little more detail. I just wrote, “As long as we’re observing mental phenomena we’re looking away from self and we aren’t aware of self.” The usual “nonduality” way of addressing that is, “Everything is one. There’s no separation. So when you look away from self, in actuality you’re seeing yourself, because you can’t really ever look away, because everything is you.” That’s true in a way but is it a helpful instruction for Self-realization?<\/p>\n
The helpful instruction for Self-realization is to recognize that regardless of whether mental phenomena and consciousness are one, two, zero, or a trillion, when you’re aware of mental phenomena you aren’t aware of yourself.<\/p>\n
Step two of this instruction is to remain aware of yourself. In other words, remain aware of knowing, of consciousness. (This is what Ramana means in his little textbook Who Am I?<\/i> when he defines atma-vichara as holding the mind continuously in the Self).<\/p>\n
In order to do that, attention-to-mental-phenomena must be abandoned. <\/p>\n
This act\/state of entirely looking away from mind, and instead being solely and exclusively conscious, is:<\/p>\n
1. Utterly simple, fundamental, non-decomposable. I don’t know what more to say about this act\/state because I don’t know how to analyze it.<\/p>\n
2. Obvious and unmistakable when you do it.<\/p>\n
Here’s another way, maybe, to say something about this in more detail: I’m recommending the opposite of Theravada mindfulness meditation.<\/p>\n
This probably isn’t what you wanted. Maybe you could suggest what sort of detail you want and I’ll try to provide it?<\/p>\n
\u2014Freddie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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