And then there was one..

What is to be done? Reality is One only. How can It be realised? Realisation is thus an illusion. Practice seems to be necessary. Who is to practise? Looking for the doer, the act and the accessories disappear.

Moreover, if Realisation is not present here and now, how can It, newly got, be of any use? What is permanent must be eternally present. Can it be newly got and be permanent also?

Realise what is present here and now. The sages did so before and still do that only. Hence they say that it looks as if newly got. Once veiled by ignorance and later revealed, Reality looks as if newly realised.

But it is not new.

~Sri Ramana Maharshi (expounding what many have said but few can hear)

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Anyone interested in direct and pure teachings should also read the Hua Hu Ching.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Sri Ramana Maharshi is no more

I have read enough Maharshi for now. It will be more useful to allow the concepts to play out than keep reading reiterations of similar points, and I will possibly return to the books another time.

The core part of his inquiry is this question "who is I?" and to draw all other questions also to this fundamental issue.

The question "Can I be enlightened?" would be answered by him; "Who is this I to be enlightened?" - always drawing to the root issue.

Further to this central point is the reminder that this true I that is to be "achieved" is very much not something to be achieved at all.. As, again, Who is it to be achieved by? and further, if it were something that could be achieved then it could also be lost. The wisdom arising from this is that it is instead 'ever present' and it is then rather a matter of casting off that which keeps the person from it, uncovering that which is already present and always was.

Maharshi uses the word 'God' in a few ways. The Hindus have a fantastic language for this inquiry:

Brahman is the supreme, unknowable god

Ishwara is a personal god, very much like the Christian god but rather than just one and wars over who that is, they call any god that you relate to on a personal level Ishwara.

Atman is the god in us all, the true self, it is exactly the same as Brahman except that we can know Atman but never know Brahman.

And the list goes on..

Maharshi then will use the word God quite often and for my own benefit, as I feel the word god to be both tainted and vague, I use 'Tao' for the ultimate; and 'Real I' for Atman, Tao or Brahman (interchangeably). I will also use the term 'little I' or a similar phrase when referring to the I we most often think is us and refer to when talking English.

While Maharshi was a dedicated monk in these matters from a very early age and reached a point of recognized Enlightenment and sagehood he was able to remind interested people how this act of uncovering the true self is just as well carried out in the "real world" - That one can be married, have a job, operate in the world of objects, yet still work towards and meet the real I. Also in doing this the person could then continue in the world of objects as a sage.

This wisdom is echoed in other Hindu texts and very much so in Taoism. In fact very very much so in Taoism that seems more able to hold to the root of the world without getting lost in spiritual nonsense.

This is the path I recognize as most suitable to myself. I do not wish to lock myself away in a monastery as to be honest I would consider it a cop out. I am very taken by the idea, and I feel I see it in action, that we can alter the shape of the world we see to be real by working to uncover the true I.

Concepts such as "The Secret" are very much reaffirmations of the false little mini ego I and reach for transient goals. The result of genuine sagehood is instead to operate in the world as a human detached form the false I. Instead then, with recognition of the true I, the sage actually perceives a different world. Not one of strain but one of perfection.

The world seen is a reflection of the I who looks upon it. One seeking for the ego sees one kind of world, one seeking for the little I sees another, one living wholly from the true I is effectively, in the Kingdom of God, In Heaven, and to avoid such tainted language - A real person of Tao.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

ADDITION 1

Thanks Eric The Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi are very nice at times. I will keep adding to this post rather than make numerous posts on it. I also have 2 more of his books to follow this one.

On Life being illusion and killing animals...

"To whom is illusion? Find that out! In fact everyone is a “killer of the Self” (atmahan) every moment of his life."


That is so brilliant!, the concept being that all the time you operate as "I" you have the true self chained up in a dungeon beneath your house. Acting as "I" you smother the true self.

"For a realised being the Self alone is the Reality, and actions are only phenomenal, not affecting the Self. Even when he acts he has no sense of being an agent. His actions are only involuntary and he remains a witness to them without any attachment."

Powerful and brilliant stuff!

I'll add to this post in drabs..




ADDITION 2

Inferred not directly quoted: (meaning I'm reading a whole load of his words and creating a paragraph)

The I can only be that beyond sleep and wake, life and death, beginning and end. The I must be before consciousness or unconsciousness, before universe, before all that can be consigned and before consignee, before before, after after, beyond so far as to be eternally present, etc etc.. you get the point.



ADDITION 3

Inferred not directly quoted:

The world seems like this when you are awake, it seems another way when you are asleep, both are correct in that level of awareness, this world where we are awake is no more real than the world seen when asleep. The same information through different levels of awareness is rendered differently.

So too the drug states. None are more or less. None are reality. Reality transcends them all.



ADDITION 4

Paraphrasing a lot to save posting huge chunks of text:

The world and all manifestations are changing so have no reality. Illusion if you will. Moving beyond what you deem to be I, what you deem to be world, what you deem to be infinite, you reach truth, the ever present, unchanging -- Then seeing all that you had previously discounted (as unreal) you see it now as part of this one true self, and so real.

Then nowhere you look can be not Tao.

Also told by the Mountains, not mountains, mountains story of Buddhism.



ADDITION 5

Paraphrasing again:

Truth must be ever present so can not be obtained. That which can be obtained is of no use as it can also be lost.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao