Tuesday 27 December 2016
Friday 23 December 2016
Whatever experience may arise, we should investigate to whom it arises
Posted by Michael James at 12:05 31 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Undiyār
Wednesday 14 December 2016
Is it possible for us to see anything other than ourself as ‘the Self’?
I also think it is possible (and I don’t say this to be proud, it is just what I experience) that any adjunct of the ego can be seen as the Self, and as such it is still self-attendance. For example, I can see a thought (frustration, sadness, etc.) running through and I can immediately see that that thought-feeling is infused with, made up of, awareness/consciousness, and it subsides back into awareness/consciousness when it is looked at directly.What sees adjuncts or any other phenomena is only the ego, and since the ego is a mistaken awareness of ourself, how can it ever see ‘the Self’ (ourself as we actually are)? If it did see ‘the Self’ even for a moment, it would cease to be the ego and would therefore cease seeing any adjuncts or other phenomena. Therefore in this article I will try to explain to Zubin the fallacy in the beliefs that he has expressed in this comment.
I think looking at anger as anger gives the ego life, but looking at the Self in everything, including anger is, I hope, still self-enquiry.
Posted by Michael James at 09:27 131 comments
Labels: Bhagavad Gītā, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), philosophy of Sri Ramana, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Undiyār
Sunday 27 November 2016
When the ego seems to exist, other things seem to exist, and when it does not seem to exist, nothing else seems to exist
Posted by Michael James at 12:45 82 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, Guru Vācaka Kōvai, māyā, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), Śrī Aruṇācala Aṣṭakam, Sri Sadhu Om, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Undiyār
Wednesday 23 November 2016
Why does Bhagavan sometimes say that the ātma-jñāni is aware of the body and world?
During the course of this discussion, a friend called Bob wrote a comment on one of my recent articles, The difference between vivarta vāda and ajāta vāda is not just semantic but substantive, in which he cited a passage from The Path of Sri Ramana that had been referred to several times by other friends and remarked ‘Hopefully Michael can shed some light on the deep meaning of this passage for us’, because he conceded that it seems to support the belief that ‘the jnani still experiences the world / multiplicity but experiences everything as itself’, even though his own belief is that ‘the jnani / myself as I really am does not experience the world / body or duality of any kind’, in support of which he cited a translation by Sadhu Om and me of the kaliveṇbā version of verse 26 of Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu and a note regarding it from pages 58-9 of Sri Ramanopadesa Noonmalai. Therefore the following is my reply to this comment.
Posted by Michael James at 13:03 55 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, dream, ego, Guru Vācaka Kōvai, karma, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), philosophy of Sri Ramana, Sri Sadhu Om, The Path of Sri Ramana, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu Anubandham
Monday 21 November 2016
What is the correct meaning of ajāta vāda?
Michael I think that you might be incorrect in your understanding of the advaitic meaning of ajata vada. I cannot argue with you on what Bhagavan Ramana meant by it.In this article, therefore, I will try to explain more clearly why the correct meaning of ajāta vāda is the contention that no vivarta (illusion or false appearance) has ever been born or come into existence at all.
Gaudapada’s famous ajata verse occurs in the second chapter of his karika. If this verse is taken in context of the verses that precede and follow it, it is clear that Gaudapada does indeed mean that there is no real creation of the world or the jiva, and that both are illusions.
30: This Atman, though non-separate from all these, appears as it were separate. One who knows this truly interprets the meaning of the Vedas without hesitation
31: As are dreams and illusions or a castle in the air seen in the sky, so is the universe viewed by the wise in the Vedanta
32: There is no dissolution, no birth, none in bondage, none aspiring for wisdom, no seeker of liberation and none liberated. This is the absolute truth.
33: This (the Atman) is imagined both as unreal objects that are perceived as the non-duality. The objects are imagined in the non-duality itself. Therefore non-duality alone is the highest bliss.
Sankara’s commentary on v32 is also worth reading, though quite long. Relevant extracts:
“This verse sums up the meaning of the chapter. When duality is perceived to be illusory and Atman alone is known as the sole Reality, then it is clearly established that all our experiences, ordinary or religious, verily pertain to the domain of ignorance.”
“Thus duality being non-different from mental imagination cannot have a beginning or an end . . . Therefore it is established that duality is a mere illusion of the mind. Hence it is well-said that the Ultimate Reality is the absence of destruction, etc, on account of the non-existence of duality (which exists only in the imagination of the mind”.
My understanding is that srsti-drsti vada says first the world is created and then jivas evolve from it thereafter. Then, vivartha vada takes a step back to say that actually the jiva’s perceiving creates the world. And ajata vada then takes a further step back to point out that the jiva itself is an illusion, a superimposition on the atman.
Posted by Michael James at 14:08 61 comments
Labels: ajāta, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, māyā, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), philosophy of Sri Ramana, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), transitive awareness (suṭṭaṟivu), Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Taṉippākkaḷ, Upadēśa Undiyār
Tuesday 25 October 2016
The difference between vivarta vāda and ajāta vāda is not just semantic but substantive
Thank you for your thorough research on these topics, they are a significant aid in understanding Ramana’s teaching.Therefore in this article I will try to explain to Ken why these arguments of his do not adequately address the issue I was discussing in my previous article, namely the confusion that arises if we believe that our actual self veils itself and sees itself as numerous phenomena.
[…]
Beyond that, it seems to me that we are getting into an area ruled by semantics.
For example, Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character. As such, he “is unreal and never existed”. However, his lack of existence is a semantic one. From our viewpoint, we certainly find a difference between our current world (with at least two different Sherlock Holmes series in production) and an alternative universe where Conan Doyle never invented the character Sherlock Holmes.
In a similar way, we go to sleep and have a dream. When we wake up, we realize that the events in the dream were unreal. “Nothing ever happened”. But we cannot say that our night was the same as a night where we did not dream at all.
And, if we go into the dark garage and mistake the coiled rope for a snake, we can certainly say “the snake is unreal and never existed”. However, there is a difference between going into the garage and immediately recognizing the rope, or else going into the garage and mistakenly seeing the snake. If there were no difference, then Ramana would not have advised, in Ulladu Narpadu 35:
“The subsided mind having subsided, knowing and being the Reality, which is (always) attained, is the (true) attainment (siddhi). [...] (Therefore) know and be (as) you (the Reality) are.”
If there were no difference between seeing the snake and seeing the rope, then he would have said instead:
“The mind is unreal and does not exist, so do not practice self-attention, go home, watch cricket and stop bothering me.”
So, a universe where there was never any appearance of temporary phenomena, never any maya, never any mistaken identification, never any ego... just satchitananda.... is perhaps theologically, metaphysically, and/or philosophically identical to this universe.... but it is not entirely identical, otherwise Ramana would have never answered Pillai’s question of “Who Am I?”.
The Advaita Vedanta standard of “real” and “exists” is very meaningful — it tells us what is important. But if we use it in all contexts, we end up with “Neo-Advaita”, i.e. “Nothing ever happened, the ego never existed, so go home and watch T.V., that will be $50, thanks.”
In Path of Sri Ramana, Sadhu Om is careful to apply absolute metaphysical standards to theology and philosophy, but not otherwise. For example, he stated:
“The sole cause of all miseries is the mistake of veiling ourself by imagining these sheaths to be ourself, even though we are ever this existence-consciousness-bliss (sat-chit-ananda).”
This is similar to my statement quoted from 9 September 2016:
“Because there is nothing other than the Self, so there is nothing that can force the Self to do anything. The Self is alone, so it decides to “veil” itself and limit itself as a multitude of ‘individuals’. This is the Lila, the play.”
The Upanishads, Shankara and Ramana all agree that there is nothing other than the Self. So, there cannot be anything that forces the Self to do anything.
Sadhu Om characterizing veiling as a “mistake”, while I characterize it as a “decision”. Well, certainly those two things are compatible. Plenty of decisions are found to be mistakes (such as deciding to drive when you have drunk far too much alcohol).
Before the “veiling”, there was no ego, so Sadhu Om can only be referring to the Self as the one who veils.
Posted by Michael James at 12:32 184 comments
Labels: ajāta, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, dream, effort, ego, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), Sri Sadhu Om, The Path of Sri Ramana, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Taṉippākkaḷ, Upadēśa Undiyār
Wednesday 19 October 2016
As we actually are, we do nothing and are aware of nothing other than ourself
Note that the Self is what is watching the movie [...] (4 September 2016 at 17:45)Ken, in these remarks you have attributed properties of our ego (and also properties of God) to ‘the Self’, which is ourself as we actually are, so in this article I will try to clarify that our actual self does not do anything and is neither aware of nor in any other way affected by the illusory appearance of our ego and all its projections, which seem to exist only in the self-ignorant view of ourself as this ego.
[...] the ego is actually the Self in another form. (4 September 2016 at 23:27)
The Self is God [...] The Lila (play) of the Self (Brahman/Atman) is that it “veils” itself so it itself thinks it is limited. As “veiled”, it is watching the movie. When it decides to stop watching the movie, and the lights go on, it then sees it is actually the Self. Hence “Self-” “realisation”, i.e. realizing that it is the Self. (5 September 2016 at 04:16)
The ego stops giving attention to “2nd person and 3rd person”, i.e. sense perceptions and thoughts. The Self sees this and if it is convinced of complete sincerity, then it terminates the ego (this is the “action of Grace performed by the Self” according to Ramana — paraphrased). [...] since the Self IS your own basic awareness, then it is entirely aware of everything you have ever thought, said or done. (5 September 2016 at 04:26)
The Self (atman) is: The present moment [and] That which is looking. (7 September 2016 at 03:26)
This is what is called “The Play of Consciousness” (lila in Sanskrit). [...] The Self makes the “mistake” of identifying with a character in the world. (8 September 2016 at 02:09)
The Self definitely wants to see the movie, otherwise the movie would not even exist. (8 September 2016 at 17:49)
Because there is nothing other than the Self, so there is nothing that can force the Self to do anything. The Self is alone, so it decides to “veil” itself and limit itself as a multitude of “individuals”. This is the Lila, the play. (9 September 2016 at 00:04)
Posted by Michael James at 12:26 75 comments
Labels: ajāta, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, bhakti (devotion), dream, ego, Guru Vācaka Kōvai, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), Śrī Aruṇācala Aṣṭakam, Sri Muruganar, transitive awareness (suṭṭaṟivu), Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Taṉippākkaḷ, Upadēśa Undiyār
Wednesday 12 October 2016
An explanation of the first ten verses of Upadēśa Undiyār
Recently while preparing the next instalment for the January 2017 issue I came across the notes I had made on 19th August 1978 of an explanation that Sadhu Om had given about the first ten verses of Upadēśa Undiyār, but as usual my notes were not very detailed and I could see that in some respects I had not accurately recorded what he used to explain about each of those verses, so I had to edit and elaborate them in order to convey what I remember him explaining about them on various occasions. Since in its final edited form this portion of my notes conveys quite clearly what he often used to explain about these verses, I decided to reproduce it here:
Posted by Michael James at 15:51 158 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, bhakti (devotion), God, just being (summa iruppadu), self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), self-surrender, Sri Sadhu Om, Upadēśa Undiyār
Thursday 6 October 2016
God is not actually the witness of anything but the real substance underlying and supporting the illusory appearance of the witness and of everything witnessed by it
In accordance with this important teaching of Sri Ramana in verse 8 of Upadēśa Undiyār, in this song Sri Sadhu Om gently weans the minds of those who may consider God to be other than what they experience as ‘I’ away from that idea, firstly by emphasising that his real form is suddha-mauna-cit or ‘pure silent consciousness’ (verse 3); secondly by implying that he is the ‘one blissful substance’ that exists within our heart and that we can experience by seeking it with love (verse 4); thirdly by saying that only after we experience him within ourself will we be able to experience that everything that exists is him (verse 5); and fourthly by saying that he exists within us as the witness of all our thoughts, and that he will appear clearly within us only where and when all our thoughts subside (verse 6).The following is what I wrote in reply to her question:
Posted by Michael James at 19:55 27 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, God, Sri Sadhu Om, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Undiyār
Tuesday 4 October 2016
Why does the term ‘I am’ refer not just to our ego but to what we actually are?
Posted by Michael James at 16:45 18 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, philosophy of Sri Ramana, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Undiyār
Sunday 2 October 2016
‘I am’ is the reality, ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’ is the ego
Posted by Michael James at 09:27 224 comments
Labels: Āṉma-Viddai, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, God, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai, Śrī Aruṇācala Pañcaratnam, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu Anubandham, Upadēśa Sāram, Upadēśa Undiyār
Wednesday 31 August 2016
What is the ‘self’ we are investigating when we try to be attentively self-aware?
You say self-enquiry is nothing but “attentive self-awareness”. I get the “attentive” and “awareness” parts. I don’t get the “self” part coz all I am aware of now is my body and thoughts, including the “I-thought”. So, do you mean I should be attending to the awareness of “I-thought”? That could make sense coz it is kinda attending to the snake (I-thought) and finding lo and behold that it is a rope (self). So, why then don’t you say self-enquiry is “attentive I-thought-awareness”? I hope my doubt makes sense.The following is my answer to this:
Posted by Michael James at 16:08 293 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, consciousness, ego, practice taught by Sri Ramana, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra)
Sunday 21 August 2016
Is it incorrect to say that ātma-vicāra is the only direct means by which we can eradicate our ego?
Posted by Michael James at 17:14 81 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), practice taught by Sri Ramana, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
Saturday 13 August 2016
Why is it so necessary for us to accept without reservation the fundamental principles of Bhagavan’s teachings?
Posted by Michael James at 13:03 157 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Undiyār
Monday 1 August 2016
The observer is the observed only when we observe ourself alone
I read a lot of Krishnamurti when younger, and I do agree that his approach may have been unnecessarily complicated.The following is my reply to him:
Krishnamurti focused on self-exploration of one’s mind. If you are angry, dissect it to find out what is deeper than it, etc. In effect, you would be looking at all the little adjuncts of the ego to see each one as false.
But ultimately, Krishnamurti’s main theme was “The Observer is the Observed”, which he repeated frequently.
So, in that sense, there is no difference in Krishnamurti’s ultimate teaching and Ramana’s. When you do self-enquiry you are Self looking at Self. When you are looking at the feeling of I AM, the looker is also that same I AM feeling, or, in other words, the observer is the observed.
Posted by Michael James at 09:47 202 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), philosophy of Sri Ramana, practice taught by Sri Ramana, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
Sunday 17 July 2016
If we are able to be steadily self-attentive, where do we go from here?
When you write, ‘I seem to be “witnessing” or aware of the I am thought all the time now’, what exactly do you mean by ‘the I am thought’? The reason I ask is that people tend to objectify everything, so some people assume that the I-thought is some sort of object that one can watch, but the term ‘I-thought’ is just another name for the ego, which is not an object but the subject, the one who is aware of all objects. Therefore what we need to watch or ‘witness’ is not any object but only ourself, the subject (the ego or thought called ‘I’).
Posted by Michael James at 10:31 226 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), practice taught by Sri Ramana, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra)
Wednesday 13 July 2016
Asparśa yōga is the practice of not ‘touching’ or attending to anything other than oneself
Posted by Michael James at 16:47 80 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, manōnāśa (annihilation of mind), māyā, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Undiyār
Saturday 2 July 2016
Names and forms are all just thoughts, so we can free ourself from them only by investigating their root, our ego
Posted by Michael James at 20:21 134 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, dream, ego, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), philosophy of Sri Ramana, practice taught by Sri Ramana, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), transitive awareness (suṭṭaṟivu), Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Undiyār
Wednesday 22 June 2016
When can there be total recognition that the world is unreal?
Posted by Michael James at 10:17 63 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, dream, ego, philosophy of Sri Ramana, practice taught by Sri Ramana, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), self-surrender, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
Sunday 19 June 2016
What is ‘the I-feeling’, and do we need to be ‘off the movement of thought’ to be aware of it?
Posted by Michael James at 13:17 35 comments
Labels: Āṉma-Viddai, Bhagavad Gītā, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), Śrī Aruṇācala Aṣṭakam, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Undiyār
Wednesday 8 June 2016
Can our mind be too strong for our actual self to dissolve it completely?
Posted by Michael James at 13:48 242 comments
Labels: Arunachala, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, bhakti (devotion), God, grace, guru, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), self-surrender, Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai, Śrī Aruṇācala Aṣṭakam
Monday 6 June 2016
Why should we rely on Bhagavan to carry all our burdens, both material and spiritual?
Posted by Michael James at 10:03 23 comments
Labels: 1898 note for his mother, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, God, karma, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), self-surrender, Śrī Aruṇācala Padikam, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
Tuesday 31 May 2016
What is the logic for believing that happiness is what we actually are?
Posted by Michael James at 13:55 187 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, dream, ego, Guru Vācaka Kōvai, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), sleep, Sri Sivaprakasam Pillai, transitive awareness (suṭṭaṟivu), Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
Wednesday 25 May 2016
How to attend to ourself?
Posted by Michael James at 13:14 53 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), practice taught by Sri Ramana, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra)
Tuesday 17 May 2016
We can separate ourself permanently from whatever is not ourself only by attending to ourself alone
Posted by Michael James at 10:18 294 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), practice taught by Sri Ramana, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), Sri Sivaprakasam Pillai, transitive awareness (suṭṭaṟivu), Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
Sunday 8 May 2016
The ego is the thinker, not the act of thinking
If the ego were the act of thinking, we could investigate it simply by observing our thinking, which is obviously not the case. To investigate this ego we must ignore all thinking and observe only the thinker, the one who is aware of thinking and of the thoughts produced by thinking. Therefore it is necessary for us to clearly distinguish the thinker from its thinking, and also from whatever it thinks.
Posted by Michael James at 21:07 78 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, philosophy of Sri Ramana, practice taught by Sri Ramana, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), transitive awareness (suṭṭaṟivu), Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Undiyār
Thursday 5 May 2016
The person we seem to be is a form composed of five sheaths
What is a person? It is a set of phenomena centred around a particular body, and it has both physical and mental features. Though its physical and mental features change over time, however extreme those changes may be we identify it as the same person because it is the same body that displays those changing features. It starts its life as a baby, and it may end it as an old man or woman, but throughout its life and in spite of all its changes it is the same person. As we all know, there seem to be many people in this world, and each of them seem to be sentient, but what makes them seem to be so?
Posted by Michael James at 15:58 29 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, dream, ego, philosophy of Sri Ramana, practice taught by Sri Ramana, self-forgetfulness, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), sleep, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Undiyār
Friday 8 April 2016
Self-investigation (ātma-vicāra) entails nothing more than just being persistently and tenaciously self-attentive
May I give a short description what happens in my poor experience of practising self-investigation in the following passage: The attentiveness with which one investigates what one is has to be accomplished by the ego. The ego is a bundle of thoughts. So attentiveness is also a thought. The attentive thought ‘who am I’ is entrusted to try to extinguish/erase other rising thoughts and simultaneously or after that to investigate to whom they have occurred. It is clear that it is to me. By further investigation ‘who am I’, I do not clearly recognize if the mind subsided or returned to its birthplace, that is myself. Because the same (my) attentiveness has to manage to refuse the spreading/developing of other thoughts (without giving room [place/field] to other thoughts) and rather eliminate them, other thoughts are on my mind well waiting for refusal of their completion. Thus I am far away from grabbing the opportunity that the thought ‘who am I’ itself is destroyed in the end (like the fire-stir-stick). What is wrong in my strategy or where I am on the wrong track?The following is my reply to this:
Thursday 24 March 2016
Why is it necessary to make effort to practise self-investigation (ātma-vicāra)?
Posted by Michael James at 15:46 178 comments
Labels: ajāta, Āṉma-Viddai, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, effort, ego, Guru Vācaka Kōvai, just being (summa iruppadu), Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), śravaṇa-manana-nididhyāsana, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Mañjari
Wednesday 16 March 2016
We are aware of ourself while asleep, so pure self-awareness alone is what we actually are
Posted by Michael James at 10:34 221 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Ēkāṉma Pañcakam, transitive awareness (suṭṭaṟivu), Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu Anubandham, Upadēśa Taṉippākkaḷ, Upadēśa Undiyār
Sunday 28 February 2016
The role of logic in developing a clear, coherent and uncomplicated understanding of Bhagavan’s teachings
Posted by Michael James at 17:09 148 comments
Labels: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), philosophy of Sri Ramana, practice taught by Sri Ramana, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), sleep, śravaṇa-manana-nididhyāsana, Śrī Aruṇācala Aṣṭakam, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu
Monday 8 February 2016
Why should we believe what Bhagavan taught us?
Posted by Michael James at 09:33 154 comments
Labels: 1898 note for his mother, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, bhakti (devotion), cit-śakti, God, karma, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), self-surrender, śravaṇa-manana-nididhyāsana, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Taṉippākkaḷ, Upadēśa Undiyār
Wednesday 6 January 2016
Why do I believe that ātma-vicāra is the only direct means by which we can eradicate the illusion that we are this ego?
Posted by Michael James at 11:21 260 comments
Labels: 1898 note for his mother, Arunachala, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, ego, Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I?), sat-sanga, self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), self-surrender, śravaṇa-manana-nididhyāsana, Sri Muruganar, Sri Sadhu Om, Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu, Upadēśa Undiyār