Ramana and a Theosophist

Conversation between Ramana and a Theosophist:

Theosophist: Do you approve of the search for invisible masters by the theosophists?

Ramana: If they are invisible, how can you see them?

Theosophist: In Consciousness.

Ramana: In Consciousness, there are no others!

What is so delicious about this is the contrast between the first answer and the second answer. The first answer, to me, almost sounds as if it is coming from the mouth of a 5 year old child and the second speaks of the highest truth, and very sagely! What a combo!

Om

An anecdote about Ramana from the book "Ramana Maharishi and the path of Self-Knowledge" by Arthur Osborne:

A chinese visitor once wanted an autographed book about Ramana. Maharishi, as was his usual stand, refused to sign as he did not want to identify with a form and name. After being relentlessly and courteously pleaded with, he signed the book as OM!

A tingling sensation went up my spine as I was reading it!

Process

The process that pushes some people to look for careers / million rupee apartments is the same process that pushes some other people to seek religious experience. There is no difference. Identify the process and bring it to a grinding halt!

Scientific Progress

The world is abuzz with claims of artificial life by Craig Venter. People are marveling, rightly so, at the capabilities of the human mind that makes this possible. Many say that such research will go a long way in alleviating many forms of human suffering (poverty, feeding the starving millions etc). I beg to differ.

This idea of invoking the technology fairy to come and somehow deliver us out of our miserable lives is an idea thats been around for a long time now. It has had its share and its time we realize our mistake in believing in fairies. We humans, have pretty much no natural predators (except in the rare circumstance of we getting one on one with a wild beast) and have learnt to survive nay prosper in all forms of climatic conditions. So, ideally we should have the best possible scenario on planet earth for the prospering of human civilization. Sadly, the case is far from it, as is evidenced by all the violence around us. The reason for all this have always been blamed on external structures - religious, social, political or economic structures. Sadly, all of them have failed at different points. The only common factor to all of them is the individual and his sickness. So, simply the problem should be the individual and not any structures he has created. Instead of seeing this simple truth for ourselves, we constantly go with herd in trying to change communism to capitalism, this technology to that technology etc.

I believe, all technology that is needed for a healthy and happy human society was probably invented two thousand years ago. Not to say technology that was invented after that point do not have their uses. But, their use is necessitated by the psychological sickness of the human species and hence they do not have an existence of its own. Most human individuals, cannot be happy with 'what is'. Its always the future or the past that matters. Their memories so haunt them that even years later, they derive their sense of being from the past. Unless this psychological sickness is completely and totally cured, there is no way out for the human society. This means recognizing all the nonsense we do in our day to day lives and see the absolute absence of necessity of most of that.

When there is a mad man in town who goes around hurting people, it is not sufficient to simply try and produce measures to prevent the mad man from hurting others. Curing the insanity is of primal importance. So, the only way to progress towards curing the violence around us is to cure the human individuals of this psychological sickness, which means starting with us and with people around us and freeing ourselves of unnecessary psychological luggage. Until then, science will remain only a form of entertainment for some sections of the population (like how religion is a form of entertainment for some other sections). Nothing wrong in entertainment but claims of scientific progress alleviating human suffering falls short of the truth!

JK on intelligence

"Intelligence is not activity of the mind. Intelligence, really, is the inactivity or silence of the mind!" - JK

JK on Meditation

"Meditation is the silence of the mind, but in that silence, in that intensity, in that total alertness, the mind is no longer the seat of thought, because thought is time, thought is memory, thought is knowledge. And when it is completely quiet and highly sensitive, the mind can take a voyage which is timeless, limitless."

"Meditation is one of the greatest arts in life - perhaps the greatest, and one cannot possibly learn it from anybody, that is the beauty of it. It has no technique and therefore no authority."

-- JK

Asatoma Sadgamaya

The title, the first line in a sanskrit song, is generally interpreted as an invocation to some kinda external agent to lead oneself from falseness to the truth. I am not quite in agreement with that interpretation. How can anyone but myself clear up the falseness in me, especially when the falseness has its continued existence purely due to my fear, desire etc?

When an individual wakes up and sees the falseness in hirself, sees the nonsense he/she does in their day to day lives (in the form of holding grudges, in the form of subtle inferior / superior complexes, in the form of constant gloating, in the form of constantly hoping something in the future will somehow magically make them happy (career / relationships / achievements etc), in the form of constant comparison with others and in a million other ways), then, the individual will be shaken up into changing oneself. Then slowly the falseness in the individual might be eliminated and the truth will flower.

Similarly, with more watching, the individual will recognize that the falseness actually stems from the tamas (or fear) in the individual. Then, the individual may go deep into the causes of tamas and attempt to cleanse it. This personal cleansing will cause the tamas to mutate into something that will be source of sanity or light (jyothi) to one and all around the individual.

Thus, only due to a strong personal commitment to cleanse oneself, the mortal within us will give away for the immortal in us to shine forth. Repeating the same old words like a malfunctioning gramaphone player is not gonna lead anyone anywhere.

Asatoma Sadgamaya

Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya

Mrityoma Amirthangamaya

From falsehood to truth

From fear to light

From being mortal to being immortal

Spoon / Mind

Do not try to [(bend the spoon) | (still the mind)]. Instead, only try to realize the truth. There is no [spoon | (you in the mind)].

Whole Mind

Can we present our whole mind to every situation we face? Can we communicate with the entirety of our being involved in the communication? Typically we are not able to. May be once in a while like when we are consoling someone who has lost a near and dear one. But, otherwise, almost never. This is not merely a question of attention / concentration, which is also lacking many times.

In most situations, a huge part of our mind is lost in the sense of "me". Every situation we are in is evaluated based on what is in it for me - sometimes consciously and many times very subtly. Otherwise, neither would we react with lightning speed to a perceived insult nor would we constantly tell stuff about us that would portray us in good light. The sense of "me" in us is like the proverbial dragon that sleeps with one eye open. It is seemingly absent, but scratch the surface a little and you can come face to face with it in all its beastliness. Maintaining this sense of "me" takes up most of our mental resources. Most people cannot involve themselves in a simple debate with purely the perspective of truth. The sense of "me" jumps in and the individual is then all out at defending their position instead of enquiring into the truth. In some people, the sense of "me" gets them to wear different masks at different times and consequently others find it very hard to talk to this person. Children and saints are praised in this regard as they generally dont have this sense of "me" and hence dont have a mask. They are then able to express what they feel at any point without fear or desire. Valluvar expresses this beautifully in the following verse:

உள்ளத்தால் பொய்யாது ஒழுகின் உலகத்தார்

உள்ளத்து ளெல்லாம் உளன்

One who expresses hirself without any falseness from within

always resides in the hearts of people

With a big percentage of our mind devoted to the sense of "me", how can we present the entirety of our being to the situation at hand?

Then, comes the part of us that is constantly looking for past patterns in order to provide quick responses based on memory - a remnant of our evolutionary path. Brains of most species use this capability to quickly sense danger and to a lesser extent to quickly sense an opportunity. The remnant of this is still active in us and plays a big part in our psychological affairs also. We rarely pause to treat the situation afresh each time. This requires tremendous awareness to constantly watch the patterns we fall into and pull us out of such stimulus-response mode. This is not to deny the use of past knowledge but to point out how we become slaves to past knowledge. Observe how we constantly look at others through the images we have of them. If we have a fight with someone today, we do not have the freedom to give them a warm hug tomorrow morning. While there is only the memory of fight the next day, our minds cannot let go of it. While we brand someone whose behavior today is affected by his encounter with a tiger last week as insane, we happily let our day to day interactions be colored by our memory. There really is no difference between fearing the tiger we saw last week and not being warm with someone whom we had a fight sometime in the past. Patanjali expresses this beautifully in this sutra

smṛti-pariśuddhau svarūpa-śūnyevārtha-mātra-nirbhāsā nirvitarkā

When memory is cleansed, objects (living / non-living) cease to be colored by memory and only their essential nature shines forth

Jiddu Krishnamurthi speaks constantly about the primacy of cleaning memory, of dropping the past, of psychologically cleansing oneself of accumulated memory in order to truly taste freedom. This stimulus-response behavior that makes us slaves of memory takes away another huge chunk of our mind.

Finally, comes the inability to pay attention. Attention spans for most people is hopelessly small that within a small time, multiple thought threads are spawned in our head while we are talking. We start thinking about random things instead of paying attention to the job at hand. If the conversation is really stimulating, which does happen rarely, the arbitrary thoughts are postponed for sometime. Even such conversations are colored by the previously mentioned issues. Inability to pay attention and the consequential auto-thinking takes away another chunk from our mind.

These three issues could also be viewed as one single issue but looking at it as three different problems provides a good perspective on the problem of the constantly moving mind. When all such disturbances in the mind are resolved, we are able to present our whole mind to the task at hand. Until then, only a tiny bit of our being is actually involved in the job at hand. Different philosophies point to this in different ways - whole mind says Zen, stilled mind says Yoga. The labels do not matter, but the truth being pointed to by the label matters.

Back

"You are angry that someone stabbed you in your back? Come on. Be happy. They are demonstrating to you that you have a back. Get rid of it." - Prof Menon

Man

Man is the function F, where

F (dog) = god

Finger in Eyes

My finger in my eyes

No anger, only pain!

Your finger in my eyes

No pain, only anger!

How crazy can it get?

There is no other!

டல் to விசில்

டல் அடித்துக்கோண்டே ஷேர் ஆட்டோவில் ஏறிய என்னை,

விசில் அடித்துக்கோண்டே இறங்க வைத்தார் இளையராஜா!

தீதும் நன்றும் பிறர்தர வாரா

Imagine this situation where most people have crackers with really long fuses tied to their bodies. This means, others have the ability to light it up if for some reason they are pissed off with us. Imagine what might happen if someone does set flame to the fuse of cracker tied to us? We will either end up fighting with the flame desperately to prevent it from coming to the cracker or get mad at the person who lighted the flame and go and fight them. Most probably, they will also have crackers tied to their body and we might go and light a fuse emanating from some cracker tied to them. They then, would get angry and fight us or might run away. But, running away does not clear their anger. This person will then light the fuse of a cracker of someone in their home. This process might continue until a simple incident snowballs into a huge one where multiple people get injured. This set up sounds utterly bizzare, but something analogous happens with our minds.

We get angry when someone speaks to us patronizingly or condescendingly. We get angry when someone disrespects us. We worry when something untoward happens. We feel unhappy when we are not let out of a select group. We are mad at our boss when the coworker gets the promotion instead of us. The list is endless. What we fail to notice, in all these cases, while someone else might have lit the fuse, the primary reason is that we have been carrying around crackers in our minds. Sometimes, the crackers are so powerful, that they should actually be called bombs. Thus, we become human bombs. There is great potential for all round misery and suffering wherever we go. All our efforts are at preventing others from coming anywhere near the fuse. Most of our adult lives are wasted in this. But, seldom do we care about dealing with the cracker. Madness, isnt it?

When humanity saw the relative position of the sun and earth, it was obvious to everyone that the sun went around the earth. The perfectly possible alternative explanation of the earth rotating on its own axis with a fixed sun position never occurred to anyone. Perfect example of the default mode of thinking. The responsibility is not here, its always there.

Spirituality teaches us that getting rid of these crackers / bombs from our mind is a primary responsiblity of each individual. Getting rid of them is freedom. Getting rid of them is bliss as there is total absence of suffering. Keeping them is madness. Blaming others is even more madness. Can we all stand up and take responsiblity for the crackers / bombs we are hosting in our minds? Can we defuse the crackers? Then, and only then, we will be able to deal compassionately with someone who tries to set flame to a fuse attached to us. Gradually, they will also realize there is no point in that.

The same is applicable to happiness also. The following tamil saying, captures it beautifully and most pithily!

தீதும் நன்றும் பிறர்தர வாரா

Good and Bad do not originate outside.

Martin Luther King on poverty

Martin Luther King on poverty

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction….The chain reaction of evil–hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars–must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.

Courage

"Courage in the path is what makes the path manifest itself." - Paulo Coelho

Hope

When one or a few hopes recede, there is despair. But, when the entire system of hoping leaves the individual, there is freedom!

Experiencing time as NOW

Everyone would have been frustrated at some point in our lives at the unexpected need of having to wait for a train that has been delayed. Such a feeling of frustration is so common and ubiquitous that when we complain about the wait, we get sympathetic ears immediately. But, is being frustrated the only option available. Can something be done about it? Of course, there are many activities that are traditionally done to kill wait time. But, is there another option with a totally different perspective? To find out, we need to analyze and understand what the mind goes through during such an experience.

While time by itself is merely a series of successive moments, we normally experience time cumulatively. 'Two hours', is a cumulative experience of 7200 seconds. The connotations of such a view point is that, the mind has to work out something to do / accomplish in that duration. If nothing can be done, we immediately get bored / impatient. If we are forced to simply stand, like in the case of a long queue, the mind constantly wanders and indulges itself in various thoughts. If not, we need some glossy magazines to kill time. Our mind has to be compulsorily engaged for those two hours. We might call this as experiencing time as duration because there is no attention to be paid at each moment. The cumulative result at the end of the duration is what matters.

Now, is there an alternative to this? What about not experiencing time as something that is cumulative? Here, neither the previous second nor the next second are paid attention to. This way, our experience of time is always NOW - just the present moment. In this case, there is nothing to accomplish over the two hours; the mind is not allowed to wander. Even in this case, the mind might have to be tethered to something - breath or whatever is in the field of awareness at that moment. But, attention is paid to each and every second because everything that happens, happens within the field of awarenss of the moment. The mind is not permitted to wander at its own will, but is tethered to the moment at our own will. This could be hard at the outset but it helps to recognize that a tough learning curve is a mark of a skill worth learning. As always, with practice, it becomes easier and one is able to enjoy the skill. In addition, this mode of experiencing calms us down tremendously. Most of us are mentally tired most of the time because our minds are ceaselessly wandering. Forcibly giving it some rest calms us down and relaxes us tremendously. This is somewhat similar to what happens when we have a new experience that we like or when we are surrounded by tremendous natural beauty or when there is an emergency. In those situations, the mind comes to the NOW automatically. But such situations seldom happen automatically and hence its important for us to practice this.

Courtesy: http://advaitatoons.blogspot.com

This is not to say that experiencing time cumulatively is bad or undesirable. To accomplish any task, we need the ability to experience time as duration. But, do we have a choice to not experience it as duration, say when we have to wait for someone. Very few people have it? Experiencing time moment by moment is a wonderful skill to possess and can be cultivated only by practice. This, IMO, is one of the many important purposes of meditation, where we try to experience time moment by moment and not cumulatively. If we cultivate this skill to sufficient levels, then we will be able to seamlessly switch between the two modes of experiencing time. Whenever impatience / boredom threatens, we would have the skills to deal with it. We could stop boring others by our rants about how we had to wait. While the clock ticks continuously, our experience of it may or may not be continuous. In other words, while clock time is constantly flowing, we could develop the ability to arrest the flow of psychological time at will.

Traditionally, people refer to the ability to wait without ranting as patience. While this is not wrong, this might not be entirely accurate. Patience is wonderful, but the word does not emphasize the idea of staying with the moment. So, while the patient person might not rant about waiting, they might be happily indulging in arbitrary thoughts (whose ill effects are well documented). The good news is that, for a patient person, it might be easy to stop the flow of psychological time as the first worry of doing nothing for a certain duration does not scare them. Irrespective of whether one has the ability to be patient or not, if one clearly understands the problems associated with not having an alternative to experiencing time cumulatively, one would be motivated to cultivate the skill of experiencing time as NOW.

A more deeper understanding of the normal mode of life indicates that all planning like career, ambition, hope, greatness etc, are all a product of compulsorily experiencing time cumulatively. Without experiencing time cumulatively, it is not possible to plan for something 20 years hence. We are constantly having to face the prospect of living the rest of our life. The idea of the rest of life is indeed the idea coming out of experiencing time as duration or psychological time. Hence, we have to plan on what to do / accomplish in that duration. Our status, prestige success etc at the end of the duration matters so much that we cant simply go through it moment by moment. When this is seen clearly, ambition, goals for life etc drop instantly. Its very scary at the beginning as one might worry, 'what if' I realize I have lost out after 10 years. This is caused by the pressure of the society which is totally intent on living time as duration - all ads always talk about a happier future, parents want nothing but success in everything their kids do, society gives incentives to the 10% on top and fuels the race for the top etc... But, when the theory is thoroughly understood, then the worry is assuaged a bit. Many smart individuals over the centuries have been pointing at this time and again. A clear understanding of their words also helps. Finally, the thing that helps most is personal practice. With more personal practice, even on simple things, the truth of the NOW dawns more and more clearly. Then, we will have a choice to experience time the way we will, and then, we might not necessarily be indulging in all of the things that we consider the foundation of our lives - our careers, multi million rupee apartments etc... We might even free ourselves from the compulsory need to worry / plan for these things. Sadly, most people dont even know that such an alternative exists. An alternative that is readily available but that which needs a little practice. The NOW beckons. It beckons every moment. Now, now and now.

Strength

"You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have"

-- Stumbled upon it on someones facebook account

Sword of attention

Sword of attention

The first time around, we may be fully attentive, whether out of fear or wonder or concern. By the fourth, we may be indifferent or complacent. What once was fresh has become old hat. To restore our initial wonder is a central aim of Zen practice. What Shunryu Suzuki Roshi famously called beginner’s mind is no other than the capacity to experience the world freely and openly, without prior judgments or self-centered agendas.

...

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A zendo is not a place for bliss and relaxation, but a furnace room for the combustion of our egoistic delusions. What tools do we need to use? Only one. We’ve all heard of it, yet we use it seldom. It’s called attention.

Man to God

If Gita was gods advice to a lost man, this is what a realized man has to say to a lost god! :) - "You might be the god with three eyes. You might have shown me your third eye. You might burn me down by filling your body with eyes. Still, a mistake is a mistake"

நீரே முக்கண் முதல்வனும் ஆகுக. உமது நெற்றியில் ஓறு கண் காட்டிய போதிலும், உமது உடம்பெல்லாம் கண்ணாக்கிச்சுட்ட போதிலும் குற்றம் குற்றமே.

மண் வாசனை

பெண் வாசனை, பொன் வாசனை.

இரண்டும் தோற்றன.

மண் வாசனையிடம்.

Rain-Grace

With a tilted head and outstretched arms,

let rain sprinkle its love on your face!

Aaah, the descent of grace!