tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post2672907149594911773..comments2023-10-16T13:06:42.360+01:00Comments on Happiness of Being: The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: Could what exists ever not exist?Michael Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460943269122289281noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-79604711186672174332021-05-12T13:18:51.655+01:002021-05-12T13:18:51.655+01:00A friend wrote to me: “My Question concerns the ex...A friend wrote to me: “My Question concerns the existence of Things other than I AM. For example, a lamp, a table, a tree, a mountain, are said to not really exist. That they depend on I AM (I) for their existence. Is this because the lamp, the table are made by man, thus depending on man for its existence? Where a tree and a mountain are of the earth, and depend upon the earth for their existence? I understand that it’s all Consciousness, even the earth and universe are so. I also understand These Things Need my Consciousness to be known. But to say they don’t exist puzzles me”, in reply to which I referred him to this article and added:<br /><br />According to Bhagavan our present state (and any other state in which we experience phenomena) is just a dream. Whatever we perceive in a dream does not actually exist, even though it seems to exist so long as we are dreaming. To whom does it seem to exist? Only to the dreamer, namely ourself as ego.<br /><br />Only when we rise as ego do other things seem to exist. Since they seem to exist only in the view of ego, their seeming existence depends upon ego’s perception of them, so they seem to exist only when we seem to be ego, the perceiver of them.<br /><br />Looking back on your experience in a dream, do you suppose that anything you perceived there existed independent of your perception of it? I assume you do not. Why then should you suppose that anything you now perceive exists independent of your perception of it? Whatever does not exist independent of your perception of it does not actually exist, even though to you it seems to exist.<br /><br />Therefore this entire universe that you perceive and believe to exist depends entirely upon you for its seeming existence, and you perceive it only when you have risen as ego and are consequently aware of yourself as ‘I am this body’, so it does not seem to exist whenever you do not rise as ego, as in sleep or any other state of <i>manōlaya</i> (temporary dissolution of mind).Michael Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03460943269122289281noreply@blogger.com