tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post3618935250737119893..comments2023-10-16T13:06:42.360+01:00Comments on Happiness of Being: The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: Why do we not immediately experience ourself as we really are?Michael Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460943269122289281noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-16860452699064275302016-11-12T20:51:18.891+00:002016-11-12T20:51:18.891+00:00Michael,
admitting that my love to experience only...Michael,<br />admitting that my love to experience only 'I am' and nothing else whatsoever is not strong enough, breaks my heart. Even this sometimes broken heart produces not yet more perseverance in trying to experience myself as I really am. But I do not want start wailing.ahankaranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-2427260861601472972014-04-09T20:54:23.023+01:002014-04-09T20:54:23.023+01:00Chidambaram, it is certainly not silly or stupid t...Chidambaram, it is certainly not silly or stupid to ask what this ‘I am’ is, because this is precisely what Bhagavan advised us to investigate and find out.<br /><br />However, we should not expect to find an answer in words, nor should we expect any other person to be able to give us the answer, because we must each experience for ourself what this ‘I’ actually is.<br /><br />As you say, the ‘I am’ that we are trying to experience is not ‘something inside me’ (that is, it is not an object or anything other than ourself), but is only ourself (‘me’ myself) — what we actually are (and not just what we now seem to be).<br /><br />As Bhagavan often used to say, there are no two ‘I’s for one ‘I’ to become an object known by the other ‘I’. I am only one, so self-knowledge (<i>ātma-jñāna</i>) is just this one ‘I’ experiencing itself as it actually is, and it can experience itself thus only by trying to focus its entire attention upon itself alone.<br /><br />In <i>Talks</i> section 435 it is recorded that when someone once asked him how to concentrate on self, Bhagavan replied: ‘If that is solved everything else is solved’. That is, our sole aim while practising self-investigation (<i>ātma-vicāra</i>) should be to concentrate our entire attention on ourself (‘I am’) alone, and if we succeed in doing this for even a single moment, we will thereby experience ourself as we really are, and thus our mind will be completely annihilated.<br /><br />Because we are not yet able to concentrate our entire attention on ‘I am’ alone, we must continue trying until we succeed. This is all that the practice of <i>ātma-vicāra</i> entails: trying to concentrate our entire attention on ‘I am’ alone and thereby to find out what this ‘I am’ actually is.<br /><br />We all recognise <i>that I am</i>, but we do not yet recognise <i>what I am</i>, so the purpose of <i>ātma-vicāra</i> is just to recognise this: what or who am I. In other words, our aim is to experience ourself as we really are, and the only way to experience ourself thus is to try to concentrate our entire attention on ‘I am’ alone.<br /><br />There is no other way by which we can find out what this ‘I’ or ‘I am’ (ourself) actually is.Michael Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03460943269122289281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-63994974278085295582014-04-08T09:44:47.798+01:002014-04-08T09:44:47.798+01:00Thanks Michael James.
I have been trying to unde...Thanks Michael James. <br /><br />I have been trying to understand Bhagavan's teaching and trying to put into practice. The essence is to ignore all forms of thought world and turn one's attention to Iam. Come back to this Iam again and again not giving any attention to second and third person objects. <br /><br />And when I try to put this practice, I feel that I don't recognize what this Iam is. Initially it looked as paying attention to "Iam" was like looking into something called "Iam" inside me but further reading various blogs I understood it is not an entity to be looked upon or scrutinized but a subjective experience of my own self of what it is. But I keep having this doubt and confusion what this Iam is and how is it feels to be Iam and this doubt lingers in mind without allowing me to pay attention to what is Iam. Palanihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18034312448262280563noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-88992403498698843202014-04-08T09:38:59.887+01:002014-04-08T09:38:59.887+01:00Thank you Michael James. Have been reading and try...Thank you Michael James. Have been reading and trying to put into practice of Bhagavan's Self Enquiry where he puts it very simply, ignore the thought world and come back again and again to IAM, pay attention to Iam ness. <br /><br />I know it is silly and stupid to ask, what is this Iam? When it is said pay attention to "Iam", it looks it is an object to be paid attention to, but understanding from various writings, I get that it is subjective experience of one feels of oneself. Why is that I'm finding difficult to recognize the Iam?Palanihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18034312448262280563noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-90175783824419154492014-01-29T01:46:39.788+00:002014-01-29T01:46:39.788+00:00Thank you so much for letting us understand why we...Thank you so much for letting us understand why we do not immediately experience 'I am'. It is only in the immediately previous blog that there is a sentence whether or not one experiences 'I am': ‘I am’ is actually the one self-experiencing reality, and everything else that is experienced is experienced only because ‘I am’ is present to experience it. <br /><br />Therefore, I feel that if only we stop for a moment and shift our thought during any normal experience (whatever be its type, happiness or anger or frustration or depression) to remind us that what we just experienced is actually an experience of 'I am' but through that impression or residue that remains in our mind as vasana, it will represent a very beneficial practice of getting rid of vasanas or of trying to experience 'I am'. Furthermore, I also feel that such a practice with time could turn into an effortless effort. <br /><br />What I learnt from Nochur's discourses is that any normal experience is due to vasanas (impressions) and it is by the fire of jnana that these vasanas could be burnt or it is by the boat of love and devotion that this sea of vasanas could be travelled past. <br /><br />Bereft of vasanas, any experience will just be directly that of Self or 'I am' as one will only see the light of the lamp on a cinema-screen, if the film in the projector is blank. Let us therefore get determined to experience 'I am'. R Viswanathan https://www.blogger.com/profile/18066293987969833262noreply@blogger.com