A new website and e-book about Bhagavan Sri Ramana's teachings
I have recently set up a new website, http://www.happinessofbeing.com/, which is dedicated to exploring in depth the philosophy and practice of the spiritual teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana.
At present the main content of this site is a PDF version of my new book, Happiness and the Art of Being, which is intended to serve both as a layman's introduction to the philosophy and practice of Sri Ramana's teachings and as a very detailed and in-depth exploration of the core elements of his teachings.
If it is the will of Sri Ramana, I hope to continue adding more content to this site in the form of more e-books, articles, and translations and explanations of all his original writings.
If you know anyone whom you think might interested to know about this new website, please inform them about it.
Michael James
www.HappinessOfBeing.com
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6 comments:
Hi, Michael. Nice to see your site and peruse. I've moved your comment and info to a post on my blog so that more folks will be aware of it.
Thanks from all of us!
LOVE!
Thanks, Dan.
I have seen the post at Check it out: Michael James - www.happinessofbeing.com, and appreciate your having posted it.
Does what Bhaghvan teaches constitute essentially what is known as dristi-shristi vada, that is that everything exists only by virtue of the knowledge of the seer, and is not there outside as a pre-determined
permanent entity, which can be easily confused with the concept of solipsism? What Bhaghvan teaches seems, to my understanding, to be a case of eka-jiva vada, the world and the other jivas, Iswara included, being the projection of this jiva. This jiva, in actuality, is none other than Brahman, and the creation process taught in the scriptures is only a tentative truth to be overcome, giving place to self-enquiry. This self-enquiry ruthlessly abandons all objective prop, the individual having to pay attention only to the thinker, the object of thinker being not in the field of attention. In the initial stage even paying attention to this subjective thinker cannot but be an objective process in view of our mind unconsciously being implicated in the reality of the objective knowledge. This seems to be a tormenting and tantalizing phenomenon that one lands up only in a thought process even in self-enquiry except that the words used are different. Actually, in the state of self-attention there can be no thought process involving a subject and object. Is it that in the intensity of subjective search that this duality is transcended, leading to a state of pure perception of the self in the act of self-enquiry instead of the thought process we are familiar with?
David Godman in his book, "Be As You Are", says that the I seems to be
real only by virtue of the incessant flow of modifications,this being
by virtue of the sense of identification with the thoughts, the
objects. David, while giving out his personal interpretation of
Bhaghavan's teachings, seems to suggest that the I thought is a
modification. I am not sure whether Bhaghavn has said this. Of course,
Bhaghavan, as I understand his teachings, calls the tendency to
identify oneself with the objects as the I thought; but he does not
say that the I itself is a modification. Bhaghavan, to my knowledge,
seems to say that when once the thoughts are reverted back to their
source, there transpires a state of unattached I. This Bhaghavan has
termed as, "Aham Sphurana", which is still not the final consummation.
This vibration also spontaneously comes to a stop like the stick,
spreading the flames on a dead body, itself being consumed to flames. would you kindly expatiate on this subject and clarify my understanding?
Hence, as David says the I by itself is not a modification, but an
unattached awareness, itself coming to and end ultimately.
Can we understand the consummation of self-enquiry, that is tracing all thoughts, arising by virtue of the attention paid to the second and third persons, to the I thought like this: In the intensity of the subjective approach of paying no attention to the external things, the I thought, which in the initial stages also appears as yet another thought traceable to the externals, is no longer a thought to be seen, perceived, by a perceiver, a knower. Is this synonymous with the aham sphurana, but not the final stage, which is one of the sphurana also dying, what is beyond incapable of being conceptualized?
In one place Bhaghavan says, "Even repeating, 'I..I' leads to understanding. Is this a concession for the beginners? or is it that this is another way of putting it, since self-enquiry is not a repetition of a mantra?
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