Self-Inquiry 6 - Self Enquiry Theory

Listen to Ektaji talk about Ramana Maharshi's self-inquiry teachings. These teachings are aimed at the experiential understanding of the true nature of the self and that consciousness is the only existing reality.

Transcript

So we'll start reading where we stopped yesterday.

On the online PDF it is page 69 and in the book it is 48 and 45 in different books.

Almost all of these identifications can be traced back to an initial assumption that the I is limited to the body either as an owner-occupant or co-extensive with its physical form.

Means basically you identify with the body.

You call this body as I.

Either I am the body which is owner-occupant or you say I am in the body,

Co-extensive.

This I am the body idea is the primary source of all subsequent wrong identifications and it's this solution is the principal aim of self-inquiry.

Very clear I don't have to explain this?

Yeah you have to get over this I am the body.

If the interest is so much in I am the body you will never get established in awareness.

Not possible.

The interest is too much in matter you will never ever be able to just be in awareness because the matter or the attraction or the rejection of that matter will pull you out again and again.

Sri Ramana maintained that this tendency towards self-limiting identifications could be checked by trying to separate the subject I from the objects of thought which it identified with.

Yeah so how do you attain this state?

Just separate that I from the object.

That's what I told you when you become quieter and quieter and quieter you can see that first a feeling arises and then the identification arises.

When I can start seeing this different level first a feeling arises then the identification arises I have already separated it out but right now I'm not able to see it in the as beginners probably you see it as oh I'm having this feeling or I'm having that feeling or I am this feeling or I am feeling like this.

Are you seeing this?

This is the different variations of how you feel it is a feel it's not in these words exactly and you're not able to separate the I from the feeling but in a very quiet mind state you can very easily distinguish the two the feeling and the identification with the feeling the thought and the identification with a thought the body and the identification with the body this becomes very clear.

Yeah that's the purpose of absolute no sound meditation only a no sound meditation can take you to that level where you so this is your next exercise while listening to me while reading if something comes up in the thought you disassociate with the rest of the sentence sentence yeah I am finding this difficult to read what kind of English is this who is finding it difficult to read immediately you've turned in are you getting it you change the question for you cut out the nonsense and find the I immediately you have broken the identification with the object if this awareness of I is sustained now you've come here from you've disidentified with the object outside you have come in now you have to sustain it sustain means to remain there yeah to continue to remain there if you continue to remain there if this awareness of I is sustained the individual I that is the I thought will disappear and in its place there will be a direct experience of the absolute awareness correct you experience this yeah you were outside you asked yourself the question you looked in and the rest of that sentence disappeared and there was just that awareness for a bit that glimpse that quiet that nothingness that peace yeah and then it drops away again because you get lost again in thought yeah you just sustain this inquiry this part is the inquiry where you're still looking you sustain it sustain it sustain it and suddenly you will reach that silence is this sentence clear till here yeah we experienced it this constant attention to the inner awareness of I or I am was called self-inquiry or vichara by Sri Ramana and he constantly recommended it as the most efficient and direct way of discovering the unreality of the I thought now you understood how it is unreal because that which can just vanish by taking attention away from it how can that be real are you seeing this the I thought disappears the moment you turn towards awareness in Sri Ramana's terminology the I thought rises from the absolute awareness or the heart he also calls it the heart it has got nothing to do with your physical heart okay yeah he just calls it the heart yeah and subsides back into the absolute awareness did you understand this yes and awareness in activity is mind mind at rest is awareness got it it arises from the absolute awareness goes out there's activity and it comes back yeah so I'll read that again in Sri Ramana's terminology the I thought rises from the self or the heart which is the absolute awareness and subsides back into the absolute awareness when its tendency to identify itself with thought object seizes from the awareness there is this tendency to identify that itself becomes the mind is the I thought place for a while when the tendency to identify seizes it goes back to the awareness very very clear yeah he's made it very clear this now you have to see it in your experience now you're looking at me your your mind is out yeah it is there now because you're trying to understand you're trying to listen and figure out this is identification now we draw no need to understand got that it's so easy it's so easy it's just like going out and back in going back out going back in it's that simple yes drop this tendency of identification that's all you need to do again and again and again and again and again that's it just be in the awareness make that your practice don't think how will I do it at work how will this happen this is again I thought no need to get lost in story again ask yourself this question who needs to do it who's this I and turn in did you understand the process yeah did you understand how to investigate don't get lost in analysis and what is said in the vedas and what is said in the puranas and what is said in quantum theory it has no relevance to practice right now we are practicing yes right now we are practicing so it seems like you're in a theoretical class this is practice I keep making you practice after every two three sentences if you notice yeah so you're practicing right now there is no need for theory right now practice here now again and again you'll keep going out you'll recognize withdraw you'll keep going out withdraw and be there be there be there a zillion times if it is required be ready to do it because of this he often tailored his advice to conform to this image of a rising and subsiding eye he might say trace the I thought back to its source or find out where the I rises from but the implication was always the same very clear no find out the source from where the I thought comes it comes from that awareness only it goes back there you trace it back to that if any big long story starts in your mind say who wants to know turn it around turn it around turn the attention inwards yeah whatever the language used he was advising his devotees to maintain awareness of the I thought until it dissolved in the source from which it came he sometimes mentioned that thinking or repeating I mentally would also lead one in the right direction but but there is a very big but there but it is important to note that this is only a preliminary stage of the practice the repetition of I still involves a subject the I thought having a perception of an object the thoughts I I I I I while such duality exists the I thought will continue to thrive he's given it so clearly still people do who am I who am I who am I who am I never work you'll never get there it's not about talking it's not about thinking it's not about contemplating these are three wrong directions that people have taken yeah for a complete ignorant even am I aware is a very big question but you have been on the path you understand the meaning of awareness so it was very easy to start with that question for you am I aware for a complete ignorant we say okay say I and figure out who's I he's so lost in the world that ignorant person finds it very difficult to figure out who's I he thinks this body is I so for him we can just as a preliminary practice but you are not at that stage so this is not for me put a big cross over there I am beyond the preliminary stage repetition will not work for me I should not even try to repeat yeah yeah it's only for an absolute ignorant because again you tend to get lost in thought that is not the idea the idea is you turn in with your torchlight and you're investigating in your nothingness in your darkness to recognize the awareness yeah clear antara vichara means inner investigation that is the meaning of self-inquiry it's not the English self-inquiry it's a wrong translation I would say self-investigation is the right translation yeah you're investigating insight it only finally disappears when the perception of all objects both physical and mental seizes this is not brought about by being aware of an I but only by being the I so the I I disappears only when the perception of all objects both mental and physical seizes it's not brought about by being aware of an I but only by being the I do you get you understand you have to be the I not think the I not contemplate the I be the I yes till the time I'm thinking where am I I'm lost yeah I have to be the I then I am the awareness itself very clear this stage of experiencing the subject rather than being aware of an object is the culminating phase of self-inquiry and it will be explained in greater detail in the following chapter this important distinction is the key element which distinguishes self-inquiry from nearly all other spiritual practices and it explains why Sri Ramana consistently maintained that most other practices were ineffective he often pointed out that traditional meditation and yoga practices necessitate the existence of a subject who meditates on an object and he would usually add that such a relationship sustained the I thought instead of eliminating it do you agree yeah in your meditation you are the subject and you always have an object and because there is an object whether it is your breath whether it is a mantra whether it is a sound whatever it is even if it is an inner silent mantra it is still sound in the mind so there is always a subject object distinction till the time there is a subject object distinction you will always be caught up in the I thought so these methods will always be ineffective as a beginner yes you start here because you don't know better but finally where do you have to end the journey where the object drops the subject and the object are one when the awareness is aware of itself this is where the journey culminates being the I not thinking about the I in subject and object there is the I and then there is the thinking of the I this is what happens in traditional meditation in traditional yoga practices there is being the I which is with an object the thinking of the I I am that you're still thinking yeah you're still thinking I am that you're getting it he's saying this object needs to drop and you have to just be the I just be just be just be can only happen in silence the moment there is a sound there is duality are you getting it so what is this path the path of non-duality advaita yeah this is pure non-duality but this has come totally from Ramana's experience he didn't follow any advaita teachings he did not follow any practices he never ever meditated everything came from his own awakening and that early age when I told you he was still in school yeah people came and said oh this is total non-duality but you've removed all the other fluff he said okay maybe if you say that then the people from Buddha's path and came and said oh this is all Buddha's teaching he said okay if you say that but he never called it all this yeah this pure Ramana's teachings came from his experience and his main teaching is till the time there is a subject and object you will never reach home because the object is still alive it is thinking I am that the eye is there and the thinking of I am that will always keep it separate you will not reach home the moment the object is gone and there is just the subject then you have reached home yeah yeah but to begin you have to do that you have to do the subject and object so not to consider it as a waste it wasn't you needed to get here you can't come to university level without going through school you have to go to school to get it so subject and object is required as my schooling but now when I come to university I have to drop the object and just be the subject yeah that's why it's the highest teaching yeah and what did he say only for the ripe souls the right beings in his view such practices may effectively quieten the mind and they may even produce blissful experiences but they will never culminate in self-realization because the I thought is not being isolated and deprived of its identity is this very clear even if you're saying I am the soul what are you keeping alive I and big identification is still there in some or the other way ego is not wearing the garb of Voldemort now he's wearing the garb of an angel but he's still the ego are you getting it he's just hidden another angel fancy dress but it is the same ego hiding we have that story you know the wolf little red riding hood where the wolf wears the cape and whatever of the grandmother yeah it's just like that the ego is just wearing a cape that does not change that tendency to identify with do you get it he's saying that identification needs to drop I thought needs to drop the object I am that I am that keep saying I am that will you get there you will not get there because you're keeping identification alive alive and strong and you're feeding it I has become big fat healthy I it's not going to work yeah so all he's saying the object needs to drop and the subject needs to just get absorbed within itself super clear yes again repetition it is not a waste you needed to go through school to come to PhD you cannot come to PhD without going through school college correct so it was good but sometimes we have to take certain steps we have to learn something only to unlearn it at a particular point in school you learn 2 plus 2 is 4 when you go to higher mathematics class 2 plus 2 can be proved as 5 so you unlearn something that I learned in the lower mathematics class that does not say 2 plus 2 is equal to 4 is wrong it is at the lower level at the higher level there are many other possibilities and probabilities simple yeah so when you've been someone or I say I'm talking right so if I remove the talking part and I'm looking at myself now at this point of time who's talking again that's what the mind says the question who am I first you said okay I am talking this is happening this is happening okay who am I mind only said it after saying it turns in it doesn't turn in without the question being ended the question ends who am I then the investigation begins it goes around that subject for a while the mind stops for a while the answer comes there's this piece where you collapse and in that collapse you find the answer it's not in words it's an experience it's an experiential answer and then the mind comes up looks back out formulates the answer and gives the answer in words first there is an experience and then you put it in words to yourself as a beginner you put it in words as you practice you won't even put it in words anymore now you just identify with that piece and you're just there only as a beginner because we are learning to question you're still answering it in words

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Dissolving the object 💕

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