Mind & Happiness 21

Since the testimony of Sages challenges us to question & doubt all the beliefs that we have cherished for so long about what we are & about the reality of our Life in this World, we may initially find it difficult to trust their words. That is why, rather than asking us to believe anything that we do not already know, Sri Ramana based his teachings upon an analysis of our own everyday experience.

When we critically analyze our experience of the 3 States of Consciousness (Waking, Dream, & Deep Dreamless Sleep) that we undergo each day, we cannot reasonably avoid doubting most of what we normally take for granted about who we are & about the reality of all that we experience in these 3 States.  In order to acquire knowledge that we cannot reasonably doubt, we must first disentangle our self from all the confused & uncertain knowledge we now have about our self.  Such disentanglement can be achieved only by turning our attention away from all objects of knowledge & towards our self, the Consciousness by which everything is known. This process of disentanglement is the journey of Self-Discovery that all Sages urge us to undertake.

The purpose of this philosophical analysis of our everyday experience of our self is only to enable us to obtain a clear theoretical understanding of who we really are, & thereby to ascertain the practical means by which we can attain direct experience of our own Real Nature. Though in this journey of self-discovery we will be guided by the revelations of Sri Ramana & other Sages, we will nevertheless be relying primarily upon our own personal experience of our Existence or Consciousness, & thus we will as far as possible avoid the need to rely upon belief in what we our self do not actually know.

If we take this journey depending always upon our own experience of our self as our guide, we will be able to verify for our self the Truth of all that has been revealed through the words of Sages, who have taken this journey before us.  However, while we are proceeding on this journey of Self-Discovery, & before we complete it, we are likely to discover that our rational analysis of our already existing experience of our own Existence & Consciousness, together with our experience of practicing the art of Self-Conscious Existence, will inspire in our Mind a steadily increasing trust in the words of Sages.
Such trust should not be mistaken to be mere "blind belief", because it is a trust born not of intellectual blindness but of a deep inner clarity of Mind gained by dwelling repeatedly upon the true light of Self-Consciousness, which ever shines in the core of our Existence, as the core of our Existence, but which till now we have always habitually ignored due to our infatuation with the external World of Sense Perceptions.

Though it is possible for us to turn our attention away from the external World & towards our own essential Consciousness "I exist" in order to discover our true nature even without our placing our trust in the words of anyone, in practice while pursuing the journey of Self-Discovery, & while confronting all the obstacles that inevitably arise on the way, we can derive much benefit by trusting & learning from the testimony of those who have taken & completed this journey before us.

We attempt to turn our attention away from the external World & towards our essential Self-Consciousness "I exist" in order to remain merely as this fundamental Consciousness of our own Existence.  However, even if we are unwilling to trust anything that we do not already know for certain, we can still pursue this journey of self-discovery by taking all our doubts to their logical conclusion – by doubting the reality of our doubting Mind, & therefore turning our attention towards the Consciousness that underlies it in order to know the ultimate source from which it has arisen along with all its doubts.
We are to question critically our habitual view of our self, the World & God, & to embark upon the journey of Self-Discovery by investigating our Consciousness "I exist", which is the centered & fundamental basis of all our experience & knowledge, to verify for our self the Truth revealed in the words of Sri Ramana & other Sages.

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"There is no Creation, no Destruction, no Bondage, no longing to be freed from Bondage, no striving for Liberation, nor anyone who has attained Liberation. Know that this to be Ultimate Truth."

 –  the "no creation" school of Gaudapada, Shankara, Ramana, Nome – Ajata Vada

 for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see:  www.ajatavada.com/