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Review: Be As You Are, The Teachings Of Sri Ramana MaharshiNovember 18, 2010 by Akemi This book has deepened my spirituality so significantly that I want to do a review. Ramana Maharshi is an Indian sage (1879 1950). At age sixteen, he ran away from school and home, and went to the sacred mountain of Arunachala, staying there for the rest of his life.He wrote very little. This book is a compilation of this dialogues, with the editor David Godmans introduction at the beginning of each chapter.NondualismThe main point of his teaching is that the only thing that ever exists is the one Consciousness. Individuality is only an illusion. Identification with the illusionary self is the cause of suffering.He uses several words to mean this one Consciousness: Self, sat-chit-ananda (Sanskrit for being-consciousness-bliss), Heart (not the physical heart but the center), and God. So we need to be careful when he says Self. Its not the Higher Self it includes all Higher Selves. In his view, there is no difference between the Source (Brahman) and the Higher Self/soul (Atman).For Ramana Maharshi, there is no creator and the creatures. This is the purest form of nondualism. Only one Consciousness being aware of itself.Although on the surface his theory is different from my idea of how the Higher Selves and souls came to be from the Source, I actually agree with him. That story of creation is a layer of illusion, or what I call virtual reality simulation game.AdvaitaEven though Ramana Maharshi is often categorized as an Advaita (Sanskrit of nondualism and indicates a branch of Hindu teaching) teacher, this book explains the difference:Advaita teaches I am Brahman whereas Ramana Maharshi maintains I am. The idea of I am Brahman (or the Source or God) is nice, its only a notion that is thought or believed. It implies there is I and Brahman. I am is a knowing. For Sri Ramana, there is no subject and object, the seer and the seen.The I cannot become aware of the Self I can only be the Self.Self-enquirySelf-enquiry is essentially a process of removing the illusions so you find what you already know. You are already the Self. There is nothing that is not the Self. But we all have so much gunk caused by the five senses and our conventional thinking that the truth may not be obvious.When you release thoughts and be silent, you realize the truth, he says. And by silent, he doesnt mean just shutting up your mouth. Its a complete silence of the mind. Its the stillness or non-doing.I guess this is a tough idea for many. We are taught to think. We are taught not-thinking is ignorant and lazy. And here Sri Ramana says ignorance is holding onto the illusions and we are wiser when we release thoughts.Self-realizationSo what good do we achieve when we realize the truth of I am?Well, none. Achievement is an illusion. We just realize all our problems are illusions and therefore be free from them. Ramana Maharshi says self-realization is bliss the Self is bliss.Quantum mechanicsNow here
is how I interpret his teaching with what I know about modern science. We are all made of atoms. The atom is like 99% space with tiny subatomic particles flying around as possibilities. In our everyday life, we recognize there is a distinct difference between my body and the space around me, and my body and your body. But really, the difference is only relative. My body is relatively denser than the space around me, but no significant difference.Energy continues beyond what we recognize as individual objects and life forms. Individuality is only supported by our five senses, which only registers energetic information in a gross, inaccurate way.We are all one. One taking localized forms temporarily.Accepting a layer of illusionFor those of you who think his teaching is too far off and impractical, Ramana Maharshi also modifies his teaching and says it is okay to assume some individuality.So its okay to pray. When you know there is only one Consciousness in other words, when you know you are God there is no point of praying. I agree with him, but at the same time, I find comfort in praying. So at least for now, accepting this layer of illusion that there is God and me works for me.Needless to say, when we realize our individuality is an illusion, then reincarnation is an illusion as well. So those of you who really grasp his teaching of nonduality (not just understanding it on the intellectual level, but really know it and live in bliss) dont need my Akashic Record Reading. You are free already and you know it.RenunciationAlso, I personally find it interesting that he discourages renunciation even though he himself abandoned his worldly life and led a very austere life. It is said his only personal possession was his loincloth. To his visitors, however, he explained self-enquiry alone is sufficient for self-realization.So I guess I dont need to move to India This is the best book on spirituality I know. I dont think you need to know anything else about spirituality. Read it, be silent, and realize. Share9Related posts:Who Am I? The Self Inquiry Process Filed Under: Soul, Spiritual Practices & GuidanceTagged: Advaita, Ramana Maharshi, nondualism, nonduality, self-enquiry, self-realization Do you find this blog inspiring?Please check About page to learn more about this blog and the author, Akemi Gaines.Comments2 Responses to Review: Be As You Are, The Teachings Of Sri Ramana MaharshiHumility Is Seeing Divinity In Everyone | Real Life Spirituality on November 23rd, 2010 8:58 am [...] that, when you are humble, you attract true respect. One thing I really like about teachers such as Ramana Maharshi and Adyashanti is their lack of [...]Who Am I? The Self Inquiry Process | Real Life Spirituality on November 24th, 2010 3:34 pm [...] credit) Since I read Ramana Maharshi, Ive been meditating more on the question of Who am I? in his style. His answer is The [...]
Sri Ramana Maharshi 225 Spiritual Truthsby Reena on August 25, 2010 4 comments A spiritual teacher very close to my heart is Sri Ramana Maharshi. This blog provides a little background about this great Sage, and a list of 225 spiritual truths in Ramana Maharshis own words. Sometimes it is hard to express how certain teachers have helped on the spiritual journey, so this post is in lieu of my inability to express my appreciation. I particularly like the video (click post title first).I hope you will be as changed as I have been, through his teaching.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Distracted as we are by various thoughts, if we would continually contemplate the Self, which is Itself God, this single thought would in due course replace all distraction and would itself ultimately vanish;. The pure Consciousness that alone finally remains is God. This is Liberation. To be constantly centered on ones own all-perfect pure Self is the acme of yoga, wisdom, and all other forms of spiritual practice. Even though the mind wanders restlessly, involved in external matters, and so is forgetful of its own Self, one should remain alert and remember: The body is not I.Who am I? Enquire in this way, turning the mind backward to its primal state. The enquiry Who am I? is the only method of putting an end to all misery and ushering in Supreme Beatitude. Whatever may be said and however phrased, this is the whole truth in a nutshell.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ramana Maharshi was known throughout India and further afield in the last century as a great sage and his presence graced the renowned sacred Arunachala hill. His mostly silent and peaceful presence and powerful gaze changed the lives of the many who came into his presence. He encouraged people to look within and decide whether they were actually the body or the changeless eternal self within. Many people were led to experience this inner self as the same self behind all awareness, above the transient mind, emotions, and body.He was born to an ordinary family. This is how his spontaneous self-realization is said to have occurred:In his seventeenth year, in full health and in normal waking state he was suddenly overwhelmed with the fear of death and fully convinced that death was imminent. The inexplicable feeling would not leave so the boy began to ponder on the meaning of death. He was alone in his upper story room at the time so he decided to act out death and inquire into the meaning of it. He laid down with his arms stiffly at his sides as if dead, held his breath and said to himself; Now death has come but what does it mean? What is it that is dying? The body dies and is carried off to the cremation ground and reduced to ashes. But with the death of the body, am I dead? Am I the body? This body is now silent and inert but I feel the full force of my personality and even the voice of the I within me, apart from the body. So I
am the Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death. That means that I am the deathless Spirit. The awareness of this knowledge took full possession of him, not at the level of mere mental awareness but at the deeper level of complete spiritual self-awareness. He suddenly became the Spirit and knew himself as That, no longer identifying himself as merely the body form that had been called Venkataraman. [His birth name] Self realization was instantaneous, complete, and irreversible. His ego was lost in a flood of pure Self awareness.(Thanks to: http://www.cosmicharmony.com/Sp/Ramana/Ramana.htm)Here are 225 truths from his own words. 1. The mind is nothing but the thought I2. Thoughts arise because of the thinker.3. The thinker is the ego, which if sought will automatically vanish.4. Without consciousness, time and space do not exist; they appear within Consciousness but have no reality of their own.5. It is like a screen on which all this is cast as pictures and move as in a cinema show.6. The Absolute Consciousness alone is our real nature.7. Grace is within you; Grace is the Self.8. Grace is not something to be acquired from others. If it is external, it is useless. All that is necessary is to know its existence in you.9. You are never out of its operation.10. The mind cannot seek the mind.11. You ignore what is real and hold on to that which is unreal, then try to find what it is. You think you are the mind and, therefore, ask how it is to be controlled.12. If the mind exists, it can be controlled, but it does not. Understand this by inquiry.13. Seek the real, the Self.14. The Eternal is not born nor does it die.15. We confound appearance with Reality. Appearance carries its end in itself.16. What is it that appears anew?17. If you cannot find it, surrender unreservedly to the substratum of appearances; then Reality will be what remains.18. Reality is simply loss of the ego.19. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity.20. Because the ego has no real existence, it will automatically vanish, and Reality will shine forth by itself in all its glory. This is the direct method.21. All other methods retain the ego. In those paths so many doubts arise, and the eternal question remains to be tackled. But in this method the final question is the only one and is raised from the very beginning.22. No practices (sadhanas) are even necessary for this quest.23. Your duty is to Be, and not to be this or that.24. I am That I Am sums up the whole truth; the method is summarized in Be Still.25. The state we call Realization is simply being ones self, not knowing anything or becoming anything.26. If one has realized, one is that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state, but only be That. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realization for want of a better term.27. There is no help in changing your environment.28. The obstacle
is the mind, which must be overcome, whether at home or in the forest. If you can do it in the forest, why not in the home? Therefore, why change the environment?29. The cause of misery is not in life without; it is within you as the ego.30. You impose limitations upon yourself and then make a vain struggle to transcend them.31. Why attribute to the happenings in life the cause of misery, which really lies within you? What happiness can you get from anything extraneous to yourself? When you get it, how long will it last?32. The body itself is a thought.33. Be as you really are.34. There are no stages in Realization or degrees in Liberation.35. There are no levels of Reality; there are only levels of experience for the individual.36. If anything can be gained that was not present before, it can also be lost, whereas the Absolute is eternal, here and now.37. It is not a matter of becoming but of Being.38. Remain aware of yourself and all else will be known.39. One comes into existence for a certain purpose.40. That purpose will be accomplished whether one considers oneself the actor or not.41. Everything is predetermined.42. But one is always free not to identify oneself with the body and not to be affected by the pleasure and pain associated with its activities.43. Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself.44. Find out who is subject to free will or predestination and abide in that state.45. Then both are transcended. That is the only purpose in discussing these questions. To whom do such questions present themselves?46. Discover that and be at peace.47. Your true nature is that of infinite spirit.48. The feeling of limitation is the work of the mind.49. When the mind unceasingly investigates its own nature, it transpires that there is no such thing as mind.50. This is the direct path for all.51. If one inquires as to where in the body the thought I first rises, one would discover that it rises in the heart; that is the place of the minds origin.52. Grace is always present.53. You imagine it is something somewhere high in the sky, far away, and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart, and the moment you effect subsidence or merger of the mind into its Source, grace rushes forth, sprouting as from a spring within you.54. You speak as if you are here, and the Self is somewhere else and you had to go and reach it...55. ...But in fact the Self is here and now, and you are always It.56. It is like being here and asking people the way to the ashram, then complaining that each one shows a different path and asking which to follow.57. The realized person weeps with the weeping, laughs with the laughing, plays with the playful, sings with those who sing, keeping time to the song.58. What does he lose?59. His presence is like a pure, transparent mirror. It reflects our image exactly as we
are. It is we who play the several parts in life and reap the fruits of our actions. How is the mirror or the stand on which it is mounted affected? Nothing affects them, as they are mere supports.60. The Consciousness of I is the subject of all of our actions.61. Inquiring into the true nature of that Consciousness and remaining as oneself is the way to understand ones true nature.62. All that is required to realize the Self is to Be Still.63. What can be easier than that?64. If one gains the Peace of the Self, it will spread without any effort on the part of the individual.65. When one is not peaceful, oneself, how can one spread peace in the world?66. Unless one is happy, one cannot bestow happiness on others.67. Happiness is born of Peace and can reign only when there is no disturbance. Disturbance is due to thoughts, which arise in the mind. When the mind is absent there will be perfect Peace.68. Reality lies beyond the mind.69. So long as the mind functions, there is duality. Once it is transcended, Reality shines forth.70. Self-effulgence is the Self.71. Satsang means association (sanga) with Being (Sat), which is the Self.72. For whom is association?73. The ultimate truth is so simple; it is nothing more than being in ones natural, original state.74. It is a great wonder that to teach such a simple truth a number of religions should be necessary, and so many disputes should go on between them as to which is the God-ordained teaching. What a pity!75. Just be the Self, that is all.76. Because people want something elaborate and mysterious, so many religions have come into existence. Only those who are mature can understand the matter in its naked simplicity.77. There is neither past nor future; there is only the present.78. Yesterday was the present when you experienced it; tomorrow will also be the present when you experience it.79. Therefore, experience takes place only in the present, and beyond and apart from experience nothing exists.80. Even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is purely mental.81. Because people love mystery and not the truth, religions cater to them, eventually bringing them around to the Self.82. Whatever be the means adopted, you must at last return to the Self; so why not abide in the Self here and now?83. There is no greater mystery than this: Being Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality.84. We think that there is something hiding Reality and that it must be destroyed before the truth is gained. This is clearly ridiculous.85. A day will dawn when you will laugh at your past efforts. What you realize on the day you laugh is also here and now.86. If we look upon the Self as the ego, we become the ego, if as the mind we become the mind, if as the body we become the body.87. It is thought that builds up layers in so many ways.88. Take no notice of the ego and its activities but see only
the light behind it.89. The ego is the I-thought.90. The true I is the Self.91. The world does not exist in sleep and forms a projection of your mind in the waking state. It is therefore an idea and nothing else.92. It is false to speak of Realization; what is there to realize?93. The real is ever as it is.94. All that is required is to cease regarding as real that which is unreal. That is all we need to attain wisdom (jnana).95. The universe is only an object created by the mind and has its being in the mind. It cannot be measured as an external entity.96. The world phenomena, within or without, are only fleeting and are not independent of our Self.97. Only the habit of looking at them as real and located outside ourselves is responsible for hiding our pure Being.98. When the ever-present sole Reality, the Self, is found, all other unreal things will disappear, leaving behind the knowledge that they are not other than the Self.99. Either surrender because you realize your inability and need a higher power to help you, or investigate the cause of misery.100. The Divine never forsakes one who has surrendered.101. To identify oneself with the body and yet seek happiness is like attempting to cross a river on the back of an alligator.102. In truth, you are Spirit.103. The body has been projected by the mind, which itself originates from Spirit. If the wrong identification ceases, there will be peace and permanent, indescribable bliss.104. Those who have realized the Self, which is the ground of fate and free will, are free from them.105. Ramanas reply to his mother, when she requested that he return home with her:106. The Ordainer controls the fate of souls in accordance with their destiny (prarabdha karma). Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain.107. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.108. The real state must be effortless. It is permanent.109. Efforts are spasmodic and so also are their results.110. When your real, effortless, joyful nature is realized, it will not be inconsistent with the ordinary activities of life.111. In the interior of the heart-cave, the one Reality shines alone as I-I the Self.112. The Heart is the only Reality.113. The mind is only a transient phase.114. To remain as ones Self is to enter the Heart.115. Apart from thought, there is no independent entity called world.116. In deep sleep, there are no thoughts and there is no world. In waking and dreaming, there are thoughts, and there is a world, also.117. Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and then withdraws it, likewise, the mind projects the world out of itself and then withdraws it back into itself.118. The Self is all-pervading.119. Therefore, no particular place can be allocated for leading a life of solitude.120. To abide in the tranquil state that is devoid of thought is to
lead a life of solitude and seclusion.121. When your standpoint becomes that of wisdom, you will find the world to be God.122. The question is one of outlook.123. The universe exists within the Self.124. Therefore, it is real, but only because it obtains its reality from the Self. We call it unreal, however, to indicate its changing appearance and transient form, whereas we call the Self real because it is changeless.125. We see only the script and not the paper on which the script is written.126. The paper is there, whether the script is on it or not. To those who look upon the script as real, you have to say that it is unreal an illusion since it rests upon the paper.127. The wise person looks upon both paper and script as one.128. Our real nature is Liberation, but we imagine that we are bound...129. ...we make strenuous efforts to become free, although all the while we are free.130. A person goes to sleep in this hall and dreams he has gone on a world tour, traveling over various continents. After many years of strenuous travel, he returns to this country, enters the ashram, and walks into the hall.131. Just at that moment, he wakes up and finds that he has not moved at all but has been sleeping. He has not returned after great efforts to this hall, but was here all the time.132. If it is asked, Why, being free, we imagine ourselves bound? I answer, Why, being in the hall, did you imagine you were on a world tour, crossing desert and sea?133. It is all mind.134. With a smile, Ramana placed his little finger over his eye and said:135. Look. This little finger covers the eye and prevents the whole world from being seen. In the same way this small mind covers the whole universe and prevents Reality from being seen.136. See how powerful it is!137. What is, is the Self. It is all-pervading.138. We fill the mind with all sorts of impressions and then say there is no room for the Self in it.139. If all the false ideas and impressions are swept away and thrown out, what remains is a feeling of fullness, which is the Self. Then there will be no such thing as a separate I.140. Meditation on the Self, which is oneself, is the greatest of all meditations.141. All other meditations are included in this.142. True silence is really endless speech.143. There is no attaining it because it is always present.144. All you have to do is remove the coverings that conceal it.145. Surrender is giving oneself up to the origin of ones Being.146. In due course, we will know that our glory lies where we cease to exist.147. The pet squirrel is waiting for an opportunity to run out of its cage.148. Ramana remarks:149. All want to rush out. There is no limit to going out. Happiness lies within and not without.150. All spiritual teachings are only meant to make us retrace our steps to our Original Source.151. We need not