Self Inquiry

Guided Self Inquiry

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Teacher: Please look at the flower in front of us.
Student: Okay.

Teacher: Where exactly do you experience it?
Student: In the garden.

Teacher: Not the physical location, but the place of experience. The light rays are converted into electrical signals in your body and then your mind sees it. So, you experience it within you. Do you follow?
Student: Yes, I understand the basic Physics and since mind is part of me who is looking at the image of the flower, so I am looking at the flower within me.

Teacher: Good, now how far is your awareness from the flower?
Student: Well, my awareness is right there where flower is. There is no gap between my awareness and the flower.

Teacher: Can you now close your eyes and imagine the same flower. Now, how far is awareness from the flower?
Student: Same as before. Whether eyes are open or close, there is no gap between my awareness and the flower.

Teacher: Great! awareness takes the shape of the flower. Now, how far are you from the awareness?
Student:  I am there where my awareness is. There is no gap between myself and the awareness.

Teacher: Excellent, since there is no gap between you and the awareness, is there anything else that you realise?
Student: Well, let me think for a moment……. This is amazing! I am the awareness.

The above dialogue is inspired from the writings of Sri James Swartz.

Music, Non-duality

Tu Hi Sagar Hai – Song on Non-duality

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The song, “Tu hi sagar hai” sung by Sulakshana Pandit written by Kaifi Azmi is one example of creative work based on non-duality in Indian cinema. The lines, “Tu hi sagar hai tu hi kinara dhoondhata hai tu kiska sahara” mean that you yourself are the ocean and you yourself are the shore, whose support do you seek.

Continue reading Tu Hi Sagar Hai – Song on Non-duality →

Dream

The Dream I

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Q: In dream, I do not see myself in mirror and I do not have the waking consciousness. Then how do I know after getting up that it was me in the dream?

A: In fact during the waking state also, without seeing yourself in the mirror, you know about your existence. Just like mind identifies with the physical body during waking state, it identifies with a character in the dream. Since, it is the same mind, this false dream character and the waking character appear to be associated with the same I. It is true that in dream state, you do not have waking consciousness. However, the unconscious mind is the same. So, actually it is the unconscious mind that holds the key to connecting the two. Going a step beyond, various roles are played by the consciousness. The real I is consciousness, pseudo Is can be associated with body, mind etc. Since, consciousness is the same, real I is the same. Life is like a Bollywood movie with one actor (consciousness) playing double roles (body & mind).

Ramana Maharshi

Ramana Maharshi’s Self Realisation – A Possible Explanation

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When Ramana Maharshi was a school boy, one day, suddenly fear of death occurred to him for no reason. Thoughts like dying means the legs become stiff; lips become taut; eyes get closed, breath stops etc. came to him and due to the intensity of the feeling, the legs became stiff, lips became taut, eyes got closed and breath stopped*. But, still he could sense the vigour of the I-thought. The strong presence of individual consciousness was clear. So, while the body was dead – insentient – I sense still had a strong presence. Therefore, I sense was independent of the body. So, he was separate from the body, he thought. At that time Ramana Maharshi thought that he was under the control of some spirit, but this experience probably gave rise to Akhandakara Vritti (unbroken thought wave) as mind became focused towards the source for prolonged period and the Self Inquiry continued. In due course of time he was able to see# that the I sense was originating from pure awareness. So, this meant that he was pure awareness from where I thought was arising. In other words, he realised that he was non-individual pure awareness from where individual consciousness was coming.

*There is no mention of heart-beat here. However, since it was a real experience, it happened spontaneously rather than forming a logical sequential chain. It comes close to NDE + Self Inquiry. It is just that the description looks like a logical sequential chain.

#I sense cannot be the absolute truth because I sense is not there in deep sleep but there is existence of the person in deep sleep. Here is a quote from Upadesha Saram:

It is this existence which is the permanent reality
For even in deep sleep
Where we have no present sense of I
We do not cease to be

The above reasoning helps, but one can know this by direct experience also (when mind is Sattvic, that is when it has very less thoughts) that I sense is originating from the field of awareness. In Arunachala Ashtakam verse two Ramana Maharshi writes, “Enquiring within ‘Who is the seer?’ I saw the seer disappear, leaving that alone which stands forever”. Thanks to Sri David Godman for mentioning the point about Arunachala Ashtakam.

Illusion

Is Perception Real?

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At atom has a very tiny nucleus and most of the atom (99.9999%) is empty space. Molecules are made up of atoms and objects are either networks of atoms/ions or clusters of molecules with gaps among them and sometimes having free electrons etc. moving from one point to another. It means that any matter is at least 99.9999% empty. So, how can one sit on a chair without falling if it is at least 99.9999% hollow? This is due to electromagnetic interaction between the surface of the chair and the person’s body. One sort of floats sitting on the chair though it may not feel that way. A flower looks like a flower to us even though it is at least 99.9999% hollow. A snake would perceive a flower in a different manner due to the different capabilities of the eyes, brain, nervous system etc. that it has. What appears depends upon perception, there is no absolute reality even from the perspective of classical physics known to any observer. There is of course no debate that there is no absolute reality from the perspective of quantum physics known to any observer due to the observer effect.

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