Everybody thinks they know Ramana Maharshi, but they don't. They need to read about his awakening experience alone instead of indulge in all the useless metaphysics he added later. Of his awakening experience he said even though his body was dead (really he meant insentient because he was not dead), he felt "the full force of my PERSONALITY" and all the processes of his body were centered in his Self, and from that day forward, the Self became the center of his attention. Not a moment passed where he was not aware of his Self.
(This is exactly my experience,but occurring in a different context. Iam always aware of the fire of Self.)
There is nothing contained in this that says the ego dies with Self-realization, nor do the Advaitists ever define "ego." Ego is undefinable because iof it not a thing, an entity, but a group of processes, such as thinking, feeling, tactile, smell, judging rates of motion, adapting to problems, functioning in everyday life, interpersonal relations, mathematics ability, writing ability, athletics, etc.
But buried within our inner experience is the sense of Self, the I Am Alive core which few people ever realize or experience as the core of their life, their sense of me, or I Am. It has to either be "teased out" of the entire matrix of self-experience, or it has to present itself to you in all its power and glory, much as Krishna displayed his true form to Arjuna..
Buddha never discovered the Self and therefore there is no room in the subsequent 2,500 years of Buddhist thought, except for Zen where they even speak of the inner man of no rank, which is probably not the same experience.
But Ramana experienced Self as an entity, as himself and also as the Father, for he left home and went to Arunachala to do his father's work, his Self's work, with Self experienced as the divine father, which is also his own Self.
So very few understand Ramana, because he himself later became covered by, enamored by Advaita philosophy and adopted it as his own understanding. Ramana lost his way in concepts, and almost everyone who followed Ramana became lost in those concepts on the world is unreal, body is unreal, and Self is the only real and that Self is divorced from the world and everyday experience.
Realizing the Manifest Self--the Life Force permeating our humanity--and the Unmanifest source from which it arises.
The Gadarenes saw the Lord’s wondrous miracle, when He cast out a legion of devils, and yet, the whole city came out and besought the Lord that He would depart out of their coasts. We do not observe them relating hostilely to the Lord, but neither to we observe any faith in them. They are seized with a sort of indeterminate fearfulness, making them to desire only that the Lord pass them by, wherever He wishes, “only do not touch us.” This is a true image of people who live in peace with their possessions. An order of things has formed around them which is not unfavourable; they are used to it, they have neither thoughts nor the need to change or reverse anything, and they fear to make a new step. They feel, however, that should a command come down from above, the fear of God and their conscience would force them to renounce the old and accept something new. Therefore, they strive to avoid any circumstance which might lead them to such convictions, that they might continue living quietly in their old habits, pleading ignorance. These are the sort of people who are afraid to read the Gospels and patristic books, or to discuss spiritual matters. They fear that if their conscience be thereby disturbed, it might wake up and start forcing them to abandon what they had, and take up something else.
ReplyDeleteMatt. 8:28-9:1 (St Theophan the Recluse)
Hahaha ... Edji, you created quite a tornado of reactive mind crap on FB with this short
ReplyDelete'Blasphemy against the World's chosen Spiritual Giants'. LOL ... How dare you, Sir !?!
Why aren't you on your knees licking the toes of Ramana and Gautama as you should be !
Syndria
Nice, brave Edji. Thank you,
ReplyDeleteEdji, I think Western Spirituallity has a long way to evolve before all the people who talk about Ramana come anywhere close to an experience like his. We're too driven to be right to ever come close to letting go. We're a bunch of parrots repeating what we learned in school or from some Facebook article in order to sound smart. Quit fighting with these people, you'll get nowhere
ReplyDeleteRich