Ramana's beautiful essential teaching

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This is from book " No Mind, I Am The Self "

which is an autobiography of Swamy Lakshmana,

edited by David Godman. Swamy Lakshmana was a

direct disciple of Ramana Maharshi.

 

" It was Sri Ramana's basic thesis that the individual self is nothing more than

a thought or an idea. He said that this thought, which he called the

'I'-thought, originates from a place called the Heart-centre, which he located

on the right side of the chest in the human body, not to be confused with the

heart-chakra. From there the 'I'-thought rises up to the brain and identi¬fies

itself with the body: 'I am this body'. It then creates the illusion that there

is a mind or an individual self which inhabits the body and which controls all

its thoughts and actions. The 'I'-thought accomplishes this by identifying

itself with all the thoughts and percep¬tions that go on in the body: for

example, 'I' (that is the 'I'-thought) am doing this, 'I' am thinking this, 'I'

am feeling happy etc. Thus, the idea that one is an individual person is

generated and sustained by the 'I'-thought and by its habit of constantly

attaching itself to all the thoughts that arise. Sri Ramana maintained that one

could reverse this process by depriving the 'I'-thought of all the thoughts and

perceptions that it normally identifies with. Sri Ramana taught that this

'I'-thought is actually an unreal entity, and that it only appears to exist when

it identifies itself with other thoughts. He said that if one can break the

connection between the 'I'-thought and the thoughts it identifies with, then the

'I'-thought itself will subside and finally disappear. Sri Ramana suggested that

this could be done by mentally holding on to the 'I'-thought, that is, the inner

feeling of 'I' or 'I Am', and excluding all other thoughts. As an aid to keeping

one's attention on this inner feeling of 'I' he recommended that one should

constantly question oneself 'Who am I?' or 'Where does this " I " come from?' He

said that if one can keep one's attention firmly on this feeling of 'I', and if

one can exclude all other thoughts, then the 'I'-thought will start to subside

into the Heart-centre.

 

This, according to Ramana Maharshi, is as much as the devotee can do by himself.

When the devotee has freed his mind of all thoughts except for the 'I'-thought,

the power of the Self pulls the 'I'-thought back into the Heart-centre and

eventually destroys it so completely that it never rises again. This is the

moment of Self-Realisation. When this happens the mind and the individual self

(both of which Sri Ramana equated with the 'I'-thought) are destroyed forever.

Only the Atman or the Self then remains.

 

Lakshmana read about this method in a book he had purchased from the Sri

Ramanasramam bookstore, but at this stage of his spiritual career he didn't feel

attracted to it. He decided instead to continue doing Japa of Sri Ramana's

name. "

 

My comment: perhaps, the author should have commented that the practice of Japa

is another effective way of excluding all other thoughts and therefore leads to

the same goal of Self-Realization as Self-Inquiry; also there are other ways of

excluding thoughts such as devotion, selfless service, bhajans, chanting, etc.

 

This teaching, in many different expressions, is also found throughout

the nine Vols of Amma's " Awaken Children " as well as other books by Amma's

swamis and swaminis.