Mind & Happiness 07

Even more rare than those highly mature souls who are able to experience the Truth as soon as they hear it, there are some people who without ever hearing the Truth experience it spontaneously.  But such people are very rare indeed.  The sage known as Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi was one such extremely rare Existence who experienced the Truth spontaneously without ever having heard or read anything about it.  He spontaneously attained the experience of true Self-Knowledge one day in July 1896, when he was just a 16-year-old schoolboy.  That day he was sitting alone in a room in his uncle’s house in the south Indian town of Madurai, when suddenly & with no apparent cause an intense fear of death arose within him.  

Instead of trying to put this fear out of his Mind, as most of us would do, he decided to investigate & discover for himself the truth about death. "All right, death has come !  What is death ?  What is it that dies ?  This Body is going to die – let it die."  Deciding thus, he lay down like a corpse, rigid & without breathing, & turned his Mind inwards to discover what Death would actually do to him.  He later described the Truth that dawned upon him at that moment as follows:

"This Body is dead. It will now be taken to the cremation ground, burnt, & reduced to ashes. But with the destruction of this Body, am I also destroyed ?  Is this Body really “I” ?  Although this Body is lying Lifeless as a corpse, I know that I exist. Unaffected in the least by this death, my Existence is shining clearly. Therefore I am not this Body which dies. I am the 'I' which is indestructible. Of all things, I alone am the Reality. This Body is subject to Death, but I, who transcend the Body, am that which lives eternally. The Death that came to this Body cannot affect me."

Although he described his experience of Death in so many words, he explained that this Truth actually dawned upon him in an instant, not as reasoning or verbalized thoughts, but as a direct experience, without the least action of Mind.  So intense was his fear & consequent urge to know the truth of Death, that without actually thinking anything he turned his attention away from his rigid & Lifeless Body & towards the innermost core of his Existence – his essential, unadulterated & Non-Dual Self–Consciousness "I exist".  Because his attention was so keenly focused on his Consciousness of Existence, the True Nature of that Existence-Consciousness revealed itself as a flash of direct & certain Knowledge – Knowledge that was so direct & certain that it could never be doubted.

Thus Sri Ramana discovered himself to be the pure Trans–personal Consciousness "I exist", which is the one, un-limited, un-divided & Non-Dual whole, the only existing Reality, the Source & substance of all things, & the True Self of every living Existence.  This Knowledge of his Real Nature destroyed in him forever the sense of Identification with the physical Body – the feeling of Existence an individual person, a separate conscious entity confined within the limits of a particular Time & Place.

Along with this dawn of Non-Dual Self-Knowledge, the Truth of everything else became clear to him.  By knowing himself to be the Infinite Spirit, the fundamental Consciousness "I exist", in which & through which all other things are known, he knew as an immediate experience how those other things appear & disappear in this essential Consciousness.  Thus he knew without the least doubt that everything that appears & disappears depends for its seeming existence upon this fundamental Consciousness, which he knew to be his Real Self.

When reading some of the recorded accounts of his Death experience, people often get the impression that when he lay down like a corpse, that Sri Ramana merely simulated the signs of physical Death.  But he explained on several occasions that he did not merely simulate it, but actually underwent the experience of physical death at that Time. Because he fixed his whole attention so firmly & intensely upon his Non-Dual Consciousness of Existence, not only did his breathing cease, but his heart stopped beating.  All the other biological functions that indicate Life also came to a standstill.  Thus his Body literally lay Lifeless for about 20 minutes, until suddenly Life surged through it once again, & his heartbeat & breath started to function as normal.

However, though Life returned to his physical Body, the person who had previously identified that Body as "I" was dead, having been destroyed forever by the clear light of true Self-Knowledge.  But though he had died as an individual person, he had thereby been born again as the Infinite Spirit – the fundamental & unlimited Consciousness of Existence, the Non-Dual Self–Consciousness "I exist".

Though outwardly he appeared to behave as an individual person, his personality was in fact just an appearance that existed only in the view of other people, like the charred form of a rope that remains after the rope itself has been burnt.  Inwardly he knew himself to be the all-inclusive Consciousness that transcends all limitations, & not merely a separate individual Consciousness confined within the limits of a particular Body.

Therefore, the conscious Existence that other people saw acting through his Body was not really an individual person at all, but was only the Supreme Spirit – the Infinite & Absolute Reality that we usually refer to as "God".  Soon after this true Self-Knowledge dawned upon him, Sri Ramana left his childhood home & traveled a few hundred miles north to Tiruvannamalai, a temple town nestled at the foot of the holy mountain Arunachala, where he lived as a sādhu or religious mendicant for the remaining 54 years of his bodily Life.  Since he had ceased to identify himself with the Body that other people mistook to be him, he also ceased to identify with the name that had previously been given to that Body. Therefore, from the Time he left home, he stopped using his childhood name Venkataraman, & he signed his parting note with just a line.

Thus when he first came to Tiruvannamalai, no one there knew his name, so they referred to him by various names of their choosing.  More than 10 years later, however, one of his devotees, who was a Sanskrit poet & Vedic scholar, announced that he should be called "Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi", & somehow this became the name by which he was generally known thereafter.

However, till the end of his bodily Life, Sri Ramana never claimed this or any other name as his own, & he always declined to sign any signature, even when asked to do so.  When he was once asked why he never signed his name, he replied, "By what name am I to be known ?  I myself do not know.  At various Times various people have called me by various different names".

Because he did not experience himself as an individual person, but knew himself to be the One Reality, which is the source & substance of all names & forms, but which has no name or form of its own, he responded to whatever name people called him, without ever identifying any of those

names as his own.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through  www.jpstiga.com 

short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58  link directly to free E-book PDF files

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

Duplicate blogs available on:

jstiga.wordpress.com/

"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/

Mind & Happiness 06

For the majority of spiritual aspirants, the process of attaining Self-Knowledge, like the process of learning any other Knowledge, is said to be a 3–fold process of repeated śravaṇa, manana & nididhyāsana, or learning, assimilation & practice.  The Sanskrit word śravaṇa literally means "hearing", but in this context it means learning the Truth by hearing, reading or studying.

The word manana means thinking, pondering, musing, reflection or meditation, that is, dwelling frequently upon the Truth that we have learned through śravaṇa in order to imbibe it & understand it more & more clearly, & to impress it upon our Mind more & more firmly.

And the word nididhyāsana means keen observation, scrutiny, attentiveness or profound contemplation, that is, in our context, putting what we have learned & understood by śravaṇa & manana into practice by keenly scrutinizing, attending to or contemplating upon our essential Self-Conscious Existence, "I exist".  In the Life of a serious spiritual aspirant, this 3–fold process of śravaṇa, manana & nididhyāsana should continue repeatedly until the experience of true Self-Knowledge is attained.  In our day-to-day lives our Mind encounters innumerable different impressions through our 5 Senses, & thinks innumerable thoughts about those impressions.  So the impression made by 1 thing is quickly replaced by the impression made by other things.

Therefore even though we have once learned about the spiritual Truth – the Truth that we are not the limited Body but are only the unlimited spirit or Consciousness – the impression made by that truth will quickly fade if we do not repeatedly study books that remind us of it, & frequently reflect upon it in our Mind.

However mere reading & thinking about the Truth will be of little benefit to us if we do not also repeatedly attempt to put it into practice by turning our attention back to our mere Consciousness of Existence, "I exist", whenever we notice that it has slipped away to think of other things.

To stress the paramount importance of such practice, Sri Adi Sankara declared in verse 364 of Vivēkacūḍāmaṇi that the benefit of manana is a 100x greater than that of śravaṇa, & the benefit of nididhyāsana is a 100,000x greater than that of manana.

For some very rare souls, repeated śravaṇa, manana & nididhyāsana is not necessary, because as soon as they first hear the Truth, they at once grasp its meaning & importance, turn their attention  Self– wards, & thereby immediately experience true Self-Knowledge.  But the majority of us do not have the spiritual maturity to be able to experience the Truth as soon as we hear it, because we are too strongly attached to our existence as an individual person, & to all that is associated with our Life as a person.

By repeated nididhyāsana or Self-Contemplation, supported by the aid of repeated śravaṇa & manana, our Consciousness of our own essential Existence & our corresponding understanding of the Truth will become increasingly clear, & by that increasing clarity we will steadily gain more love to know our self as we really are, along with more Detachment from our Individuality & all that is associated with it.  Therefore, until we gain such true spiritual maturity – the willingness & love to lose our individual self in the experience of true Non-Dual Self-Knowledge – we have to continue the process of repeated śravaṇa, manana & nididhyāsana.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through  www.jpstiga.com 

short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58  link directly to free E-book PDF files

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

Duplicate blogs available on:

jstiga.wordpress.com/

"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/

Mind & Happiness 05

If we truly understand that we are not a Body, nor the Mind which imagines itself to be a Body, & that every form of un–happiness that we experience is caused only by our mistaken Identification with a Body, we will endeavor to destroy that false Identification by undertaking practical research to discover who or what we really are. To know what we really are, we must cease attending to any other things, & must attend instead to our self, the Consciousness that knows those other things.

When we attend to things other than "I", our attention is a "thought" or activity of the Mind. But when we attend to our essential Consciousness "I", our attention ceases to be an activity or "thought", & instead becomes mere Existence.  We know other things by an act of knowing, but we know our self not by an act of knowing but by merely Existence our self.  Therefore, when we attend to the innermost core of our Existence – that is, to our essential & real Self, which is simple thought-free Non-Dual, Self-Conscious Existence – we cease to rise as the incessantly active Mind & instead remain merely as our naturally action-less Consciousness of Existence.

Therefore Self-Attention is Self–Abidance, the state of mere Existence as what we really are.

So long as we attend to things other than our self, our Mind is active, & its activity clouds & obscures our natural clarity of Self-Consciousness.  But when we try to attend to our self, the activity of our Mind begins to subside, & thus the veil that obscures our natural Self-Consciousness begins to dissolve. The more keenly & intensely we focus our attention upon our basic Consciousness "I", the more our Mind will subside, until finally it disappears in the clear light of true Self-Knowledge.

The theory of this Knowledge of Self-Knowledge is necessary & helpful to us insofar as it

enables us to understand not only the imperative need for us to know the Reality, but also the practical means by which we can achieve such Knowledge.

All the un–happiness, discontent & Suffering that we experience in our Life is caused only by our Ignorance or confused knowledge of who or what we really are.  So long as we limit our self by identifying a Body as "I", we will feel desire for whatever we think is necessary for our survival in that Body, & for whatever we think will make our Life in that Body more comfortable & pleasant.  Likewise we will feel fear & dislike of whatever we think threatens our survival in that Body, & of whatever we think will make our Life in it less comfortable or pleasant.  When we do not get whatever we desire or like, & when we cannot avoid whatever we fear or dislike, we feel unhappy, discontented or miserable.

Thus un–happiness or Suffering is the inevitable result of desire & fear, or likes & dislikes. Desire & fear, & likes & dislikes, are the inevitable result of identifying a Body as "I".  And identifying a Body as "I" results from our lack of clear knowledge of our Real Nature – our essential Self-Conscious Existence. Therefore if we want to be free of all forms of Suffering & un–happiness, we must free our self from our Ignorance or confused knowledge of what we really are.

In order to free our self from this confused knowledge, which makes us feel that we are a Body, we must attain a clear Knowledge of our Real Self.  The only means by which we can attain such clear Self-Knowledge is to turn our attention away from our Body, our Mind & all other things, & to focus it keenly upon our own essential Self-Consciousness – our fundamental Consciousness of our own Existence, "I exist".

Thus the theory that underlies the Knowledge of Self-Knowledge enables us to understand that all we need do in order to experience perfect & unlimited Happiness is to attain true Self-Knowledge, & that the only means to attain true Self-Knowledge is to practice keen scrutinizing Self–Attention.  Unless we know our self as we really are, we can never experience true & perfect Happiness, untainted by even the least un–happiness or dis–satisfaction.  And unless we keenly attend to our essential Consciousness of our own mere Existence – our simple Non-Dual Self-Consciousness, "I exist" – we can never know our self as we really are.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through  www.jpstiga.com 

short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58  link directly to free E-book PDF files

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

Duplicate blogs available on:

jstiga.wordpress.com/

"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/

Mind & Happiness 04

When we say, "I slept peacefully, I had no Dreams, I was unaware of anything," we are confidently affirming that "I" was in Deep Dreamless Sleep – that is, that we existed & knew that we existed at that time.  Because we associate Consciousness with Existence, conscious of all the thoughts & perceptions that make up our Life in Waking & in Dream, we consider Deep Dreamless Sleep to be a state of un–consciousness..  

But we should examine the so-called un–consciousness of Deep Dreamless Sleep more carefully. The Consciousness that knows thoughts & perceptions is our Mind, which rises & is active in Waking &  Dream, but which subsides in sleep. But this rising & subsiding Consciousness is not our real Consciousness. We are conscious not only of the 2 States of Waking & Dream, in which our Mind rises to experience thoughts & perceptions, but also of a 3^rd State, Deep Dreamless Sleep, in which our Mind has subsided in a State devoid of thoughts & perceptions.

This fact that we are conscious of Deep Dreamless Sleep as a State distinct from Waking

& Dream clearly indicates that we are the Consciousness that underlies the rising & subsiding of the transient Consciousness that we call "Mind".  The Consciousness that enables us to affirm confidently, "I did exist in Deep Dreamless Sleep, but I was unconscious of anything," is not our "rising Consciousness" but our "Existence Consciousness".

This "Existence Consciousness", which exists in all our 3 States, is our real Consciousness, & is what is truly denoted when we say "I exist".  Our Mind, the "rising Consciousness" that appears in Waking & Dream & disappears in Deep Dreamless Sleep, is only a spurious form of  Consciousness, which on rising mistakes itself to be both our basic Consciousness "I exist" & this material Body. 

Thus, by analyzing our experience in our 3 States of Waking, Dream, & Deep Dreamless Sleep, we can understand that though we now mistake our Self to be a Body limited by Time & Space, we are in fact the Consciousness that underlies the appearance of these 3 States, in only 2 of which the sense of being a Body & the consequent limitations of Time & Space are experienced.

However, a mere theoretical understanding of the Truth that we are only Consciousness will be of little use to us if we do not apply it in practice by endeavoring to gain real experiential Knowledge of that Truth. By itself, a theoretical understanding will not & cannot give us true & lasting Happiness, because it cannot destroy our deep-rooted sense of Identification with the Body, which is the root of all Ignorance, & the cause of all Suffering.

That which understands this Truth theoretically is only our Mind or Intellect, & our Mind cannot function without first identifying itself with a Body. Since our Mind or Intellect is thus a confused knowledge whose existence is rooted in Ignorance about who or what we really are, no intellectual understanding can ever by itself give us true Self-Knowledge.  Self-Knowledge can only be gained by direct experience of the pure unlimited Consciousness which is our Real Self, because only such experience can root out the Ignorance that we are anything other than that Consciousness.

Therefore a theoretical understanding of the Truth can be of real benefit to us only if it prompts us to investigate our essential Consciousness of Existence – our simple Self-Consciousness, "I exist" – & thereby attain, through direct experience, a clear Knowledge of our own True Nature. Only by attaining such a clear Knowledge of the Consciousness that is truly "I", can we destroy our primal Ignorance, the confused & mistaken knowledge that we are the Mind, the limited form of Consciousness that identifies a Body as "I".

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through  www.jpstiga.com 

short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58  link directly to free E-book PDF files

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

Duplicate blogs available on:

jstiga.wordpress.com/

"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/

Mind & Happiness 03

That which thus mistakes this Body to be "I" is our Mind. Our Mind comes into existence only by imagining itself to be a Body. In Deep Dreamless Sleep we are unaware of either our Mind or our Body. As soon as we wake up, our Mind rises feeling "I am the Body", "I am called so-&-so," &  only after thus identifying itself as a particular Body does it perceive the external World through the 5 Senses of that Body.

Exactly the same thing happens in Dream – our Mind identifies itself as a particular Body & through the 5 Senses of that Body it perceives a seemingly real & external World. When we wake up from a Dream, we understand that the Body we mistook to be "I" & the World we mistook to

be real & external were both in fact only figments of our imagination.

Thus from our experience in Dream we all know that our Mind has a wonderful power of imagination by which it is able to create a Body, to mistake that imaginary Body to be "I" &  through that Body (via the Senses) to project a World which, at the Time we perceive it, appears to be every bit as real & external to us as the World that we now perceive in this Waking State.  Knowing that our Mind possesses this wonderful power of creation & self-deception, is it not reasonable for us to suspect that the Body we take to be "I" & the World we take to be real in our present Waking state may in fact be nothing more than a mere imagination or mental projection, just like the Body & World that we experience in Dream ?

What evidence do we have that the Body & World we experience in this Waking state are anything other than a creation of our own Mind ?  We may be able to point out certain differences between Waking & Dream, but on analysis we will discover that those differences are superficial, "existence" concerned with quality or quantity rather than with substance.

If we compare the World drama we see in Waking or Dream to a drama we see on a cinema screen, we may say that the drama seen in Waking is a better quality & more impressive production than that seen in Dream, but both are productions none the less – productions not of some external agency but of our Mind which sees them. 

In substance, there is no essential difference between our experience in Waking & that in Dream. In both states our Mind rises, attaching itself to a Body by taking it to be "I", &  through the Senses of that Body it sees a World bound within the limits of Time & Space, & filled with numerous people & other objects, both sentient & insentient, all of which it is convinced are real. How can we prove to our self that what we experience in the Waking state exists at all outside our own imagination, any more than a Dream exists outside our Imagination ?

When we carefully analyze our experience in our 3 States of Waking, Dream & Deep Dreamless Sleep, it is clear that we are able to confuse our Consciousness "I" to be different things at different Times. In the Waking State we mistake our present Body to be "I", in Dream we mistake some other imaginary Dream–Body to be "I", &  in Deep Dreamless Sleep we mistake un–consciousness to be "I" – or at least on Waking from Deep Dreamless Sleep what we remember is that "I was unconscious."

What we were in fact un–conscious of in Deep Dreamless Sleep was our Mind, our Body &

the World, but not our own Existence. Our experience in Deep Dreamless Sleep was not that we ceased to exist, but only that we ceased to be aware of all the thoughts & perceptions that we are accustomed to experiencing in the Waking & Dream States.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through  www.jpstiga.com 

short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58  link directly to free E-book PDF files

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

Duplicate blogs available on:

jstiga.wordpress.com/

"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/

Mind & Happiness 02

The Knowledge of Existence is fundamentally unlike all other Knowledge because it is not a Knowledge that involves doing anything. It is a Knowledge not of doing but of non-doing – a Knowledge of just Existence.

The state of just Existence is one in which our Mind does not rise to do, think or know anything, yet it is a state of full Consciousness – Consciousness not of anything else but only of Existence. The skill that is to be learnt in this Knowledge is not simply the skill to exist – because we always exist & therefore require no special skill or effort to exist – nor is it merely the skill to exist without doing or thinking anything – because we are able to exist so each day in Deep Dreamless Sleep. The skill to be cultivated is the skill to remain calmly & peacefully without doing or thinking anything, but nevertheless retaining a perfectly clear Consciousness of Existence – that is, Consciousness of our own Existence or essential "am"-ness. Only in this pristine state of clear Non-Dual Self–Conscious Existence, unclouded by the distracting agitation of thought & action, will the True Nature of Existence become perfectly clear, obvious, self–evident & free from even the least scope for doubt or confusion.

Our first &  most direct experience of Existence is that of our own Existence. First we know that we exist, & then only can we know of the existence of other things. But whereas our own Existence is Self-Conscious, the existence of each other thing depends on us to be known.

We know our own Existence because we are Consciousness. In other words, our Existence is itself the Consciousness that knows itself. It knows itself because it is essentially Self-Conscious. Thus it is reasonable to hypothesize that Consciousness is the primal &  essential form of Existence. Without Consciousness, Existence would be unknown, & without Existence, Consciousness would not exist.

Our Existence & our Consciousness of Existence are inseparable – in fact they are identical – &  both are expressed by the single phrase "I exist". This Existence-Consciousness, "I exist", is our most fundamental experience, & the most fundamental experience of every sentient Existence.

"I exist" is the one basic Consciousness – the essential Non-Dual Self-Consciousness – without which nothing would be known.  "I exist" is therefore the source & foundation of all

knowledge.

What then is the use of knowing anything else if we do not know the Truth of our own Existence-Consciousness, our Self-Consciousness, "I exist", on the basis of which all else is known ?  All that we know about the World & all that we know about God – all our sciences &  all our religions – are of no real value to us if we do not know the Truth about our Self, that who desires to know the Truth about the World & God.

We are the Existence-Consciousness "I exist", yet our knowledge about this "I exist" is confused. We all believe "I am this Body", "I am a person", "I am called so-&-so, & was born on such-&-such a date at such-&-such a place." Thus we identify our Consciousness "I exist" with a particular Body.

This identification is the result of a confused & unclear knowledge of the True Nature of Consciousness.  Our Consciousness "I exist" is not something material, whereas our Body is

merely a bundle of physical matter, which is not inherently conscious. Yet somehow we are deluded into mistaking this material Body to be our Consciousness "I". As a result of our unclear knowledge of Consciousness, we mistake matter to be conscious, &  Consciousness to be something material.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through  www.jpstiga.com 

short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58  link directly to free E-book PDF files

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

Duplicate blogs available on:

jstiga.wordpress.com/

"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/

Mind & Happiness 01

[After an interval of ill health interruption this Blog continues with a new series called "Mind & Happiness".  After a time the previous series "Reality" will resume.]

Happiness lies deep within us, in the very core of our Existence. Happiness does not exist in any external object, but only in us, who are the Consciousness that experiences Happiness. Though we seem to derive Happiness from external objects or experiences, the Happiness that we thus enjoy in fact arises from within us.

Whatever turmoil our Mind may be in, in the centre of our Existence there always exists a state of perfect peace & joy, like the calm in the eye of a storm. Desire & fear agitate our Mind, & obscure from its view the Happiness that always exists within it. When a desire is satisfied, or the

cause of a fear is removed, the surface agitation of our Mind subsides, & in that temporary calm our Mind enjoys a taste of its own innate Happiness.

Happiness is thus a state of Existence – a state in which our Mind’s habitual agitation is calmed. The activity of our Mind disturbs it from its calm state of just Existence, & causes it to lose sight of its own innermost Happiness. To enjoy Happiness, therefore, all our Mind need do is to cease all activity, returning calmly to its natural state of inactive Existence, as it does daily in Deep Dreamless Sleep.

Therefore to master the Knowledge of being happy, we must master the Knowledge of just Existence. We must discover what the innermost core of our Existence is, & we must learn to abide consciously & constantly in that state of pure Existence, which underlies &  supports (but nevertheless remains unaffected by) all the superficial activities of our Mind: thinking, feeling & perceiving, remembering &  forgetting, & so on.

The Knowledge of just Existence, remaining fully conscious but without any activity of the Mind, is not only Knowledge – a practical skill that can be cultivated & applied to produce an experience of inexpressible beauty & joy – but also an attempt to acquire true Knowledge by keen observation & rigorous experiment. And this Knowledge of Existence is not only the Knowledge of Happiness, but also the Knowledge of Consciousness, & Self-Knowledge.

The Knowledge of Existence is incredibly simple & clear. To the human Mind, however, it may appear to be complex & abstruse, not because it is in any way complex in itself, but because the Mind which tries to comprehend it is such a complex bundle of thoughts & emotions – desires, fears, anxieties, attachments, long-cherished beliefs &  preconceived ideas – that it tends to cloud the pure simplicity & clarity of Existence, making what is obvious appear to be obscure.

Like any other knowledge, the Knowledge of Existence begins with observation & analysis of something that we already know but do not fully understand, & proceeds by reasoning to formulate a plausible hypothesis that can explain what is observed, & then rigorously tests that hypothesis by precise & critical experiment. However, unlike all other Knowledge, this Knowledge does not study any object of knowledge, but instead studies the very power of Knowing itself – the power of Consciousness that underlies the Mind, the power by which all objects are known.

Hence the Truth discovered by means of this Knowledge is not something that can be demonstrated or proved objectively by one person to another. It can, however, be directly experienced as a clear Knowledge in the innermost core of each person who scrupulously pursues the necessary process of experiment till the True Nature of Existence – which is the True Nature of Consciousness, & of Happiness – is revealed in the full clarity of pure unadulterated Self-Consciousness.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through  www.jpstiga.com 

short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58  link directly to free E-book PDF files

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

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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/