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.

[Annamalai Swami]

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.

Years before, I was walking on the Hill with Bhagavan when he remarked, " don't feel the weight of the body at all.  I feel as if I am walking weightlessly through the sky."   I sometimes have the same feeling when I am walking around.

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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