ENLIGHTENMENT BY SELF-INQUIRY–pt216
[The Teaching of Non-Duality has been adapted from Master Nome, disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi. Sections appended below derive from Sri Ramana's Teaching.]
Before embarking on a
description of the technique of Self-Inquiry itself it will be necessary to
explain Sri Ramana's views on the nature of the Mind since the aim of
Self-Inquiry is to discover, by direct experience, that the mind is
non-existent. According to Sri Ramana, every conscious activity of the mind or
body revolves around the tacit assumption that there is an "I" who is
doing something. The common factor in "I think, I remember, 'I am acting"
is the "I" who assumes that it is responsible for all these activities.
Sri Ramana called this common factor the
'I'-thought (aham-vritti). Literally
aham-vritti means "mental modification of I". The Self or real "I" never imagines
that it is doing or thinking anything; the "I" that imagines all this
is a mental fiction & so it is called a mental modification of the Self. Since this is a rather cumbersome translation
of aham-vritti it is usually translated as "I"–thought.
[Sri Ramana]
Does God come and tell you that He has placed you in difficulties ? It is you who say so. It is again the wrong "I". If that disappears there will be no one to say that God created this or that.
The jnani is not
really aware of the Body. Or if he is,
he feels it like akasha,
Space itself.
After one of the operations to remove the tumor on
Bhagavan's arm had been completed, I was worried enough to send a girl who
worked for me to the Ashram to ask how Bhagavan was. could
not go myself because Bhagavan had asked me not to visit him. When this girl told Bhagavan why she had come,
he started laughing very loudly. I interpreted this to mean that nothing had
really happened. His laughter was a message to me that Bhagavan was not his Body
& that I should therefore not be upset or worried by anything that happened
to it.
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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