tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post3036005509828987356..comments2023-10-16T13:06:42.360+01:00Comments on Happiness of Being: The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: Can our mind be too strong for our actual self to dissolve it completely?Michael Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460943269122289281noreply@blogger.comBlogger242125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-76475135591271691792019-06-26T11:49:49.963+01:002019-06-26T11:49:49.963+01:00Yes, Michael. It is not easy but it is the only wa...Yes, Michael. It is not easy but it is the only way: being constantly alert and vigilant, checking arising ego when it is required as going back the way we came since the “desire to be whatever finite entity we currently seem to be, because we cannot survive as such without being aware of other things”, will be there till the very end, despite of being our own experience that only when we give in and remain as self-awareness peace prevails which is by itself an indication that “we are doomed to defeat” and so “the sooner we reconcile ourself to this fact the better”.<br /><br />Yes, anadi-ananta :)<br /><br />Truth is that the whole article is a gem. It makes quite clear what we are doing, or what is going on. The goal as much as the path and its process in a beautiful way. There is not turning back so, we only have to accept it. <br /><br />Thank you so much indeed and may all have the strenght, because what is called our strenght as ego is only weakness, actually.<br />.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12379570382779918899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-2467908632683389222019-06-25T23:34:07.590+01:002019-06-25T23:34:07.590+01:00Asun,
so Michael finally gave the perfect explanat...Asun,<br />so Michael finally gave the perfect explanation to your question about 'dissolution of ego'.:-) anadi-anantahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08815024045988099944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-49919465035890649762019-06-25T22:43:47.428+01:002019-06-25T22:43:47.428+01:00Asun, in answer to your comment of 25 June 2019 at...Asun, in answer to your comment of <a href="https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com/2016/06/can-our-mind-be-too-strong-for-our.html?commentPage=2#c2354639922990160301" rel="nofollow">25 June 2019 at 14:11</a>, as ego we may find so many ways to avoid focusing our entire attention on ourself alone, but the only way to avoid this is to patiently persevere in trying to be self-attentive as much as we can. We rise as ego by attending to anything other than ourself, so we will subside to the extent that we attend to ourself. By far and away the most effective means to keep the rising ego in check to watch it (ourself) vigilantly.<br /><br />As ego we have countless defects and shortcomings, but we need not concern ourself about them, because the root of all of them is only ourself as ego, so if we tackle their root by being vigilantly self-attentive, we will thereby free ourself from all of them.<br /><br />Regarding your comment of <a href="https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com/2016/06/can-our-mind-be-too-strong-for-our.html?commentPage=2#c1666625199739067100" rel="nofollow">25 June 2019 at 18:12</a>, in which you ask what is meant by ‘dissolution of ego’, it depends on the context in which the term is used. In most cases it means the same as eradication or annihilation of ego, but if it is spoken of as a process it is the process by which ego is eradicated. That is, like ice melting in water or butter melting in the sun, we as ego are gradually dissolved by self-investigation in the sense that our desires, attachments and so on are weakened and diminished, leaving us increasingly willing to subside and surrender ourself entirely.Michael Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03460943269122289281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-59606311898765946462019-06-25T22:22:37.378+01:002019-06-25T22:22:37.378+01:00Thank you, anadi-ananta. Now a lot of things make ...Thank you, anadi-ananta. Now a lot of things make a lot of sense.<br /><br />And thank you, Michael :).https://www.blogger.com/profile/12379570382779918899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-16538755728087130902019-06-25T21:41:20.950+01:002019-06-25T21:41:20.950+01:00AsunAparicio,
as you correctly assume the dissolut...AsunAparicio,<br />as you correctly assume the dissolution of the seeming ego is mostly a process of becoming more and more subtle - till the moment that it would never arise again.anadi-anantahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08815024045988099944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-16666251997390671002019-06-25T18:12:48.317+01:002019-06-25T18:12:48.317+01:00Just one last question:
I´ve never understood wha...Just one last question:<br /><br />I´ve never understood what is meant by the dissolution of the ego as a process since I couldn´t see how it could be possible but now I´m wondering: does this process of dissolution refers to ego becoming more and more subtle?.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12379570382779918899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-41361914252379585272019-06-25T17:47:45.722+01:002019-06-25T17:47:45.722+01:00No, it can´t be avoided but can be seen.
It´s th...No, it can´t be avoided but can be seen. <br /><br />It´s the same old ego only that becoming more subtle with the practice, isn´t it?<br /><br /><br /><br />.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12379570382779918899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-23546399229901603012019-06-25T14:11:08.622+01:002019-06-25T14:11:08.622+01:00Michael,
How to deal with it when this desire of ...Michael,<br /><br />How to deal with it when this desire of being aware of other things goes as far as to turn what is found out as practicing self-investigation into another “thing” to be aware of?<br /><br />I think this is the most “deceitful trick our mind may play on itself” because what had to be an advantage , so to speak, it is turned into one more obstacle to be overcome and what could be a “progress” or a step forward becomes its opposite and one gets stuck, or so it seems.<br /> <br />Is there a way to avoid this to happen?<br />.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12379570382779918899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-58109983321214887062016-07-07T00:03:46.872+01:002016-07-07T00:03:46.872+01:00Michael,
regarding your comment of 5 July 2016 at ...Michael,<br />regarding your comment of 5 July 2016 at 11:18 in reply to Sanjay:<br />1. "Whether we are doing anything (as in waking and dream) or not doing anything (as in sleep), we always exist, so being or existing is our natural state, and doing is a transient adjunct or superimposition."<br />2. "When we rise as this ego, we seemingly leave our natural state of just being and assume the illusory state of doing, so in order to subside back into our source we must cease doing anything and thereby just be."<br />How can it be said that in order to subside back into our source we must cease doing anything and thereby just be when in the above former statement is clearly stated that we always exist whether we are doing anything or not doing anything ? Does that not entail/imply that our uninterrupted existence is never restricted by any doing or not doing ? Is the later statement not in contradiction to the former ?<br /><br />Could you please give short/further explanation about <br />3. "doing is not real but just an illusory appearance" <br />4. "doing is therefore a distorted reflection of being" and<br />5. " 'I am' is our ever-actionless being (sat)" ?peanut-breedernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-71403778873955956372016-07-05T18:03:04.640+01:002016-07-05T18:03:04.640+01:00Sir, I thank you for your comment addressed to me....Sir, I thank you for your comment addressed to me. Yes, as you say, we should exist in order to act, or rather we should seemingly exist as the ego in order to seemingly act. Therefore, our being <i>sat</i> is reflected as doing <i>kriya</i> in our ego.<br /><br />With regardsSanjay Lohiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02384912997886218824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-50044413223361327662016-07-05T11:18:58.443+01:002016-07-05T11:18:58.443+01:00Sanjay, regarding your question ‘but in what way i...Sanjay, regarding <a href="http://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com/2016/06/can-our-mind-be-too-strong-for-our.html#c8670237739375690109" rel="nofollow">your question</a> ‘but in what way is our being (<i>sat</i>) reflected as doing (<i>kriya</i>)?’, in order to do anything we must be, but in order to be we do not need to do anything. Whether we are doing anything (as in waking and dream) or not doing anything (as in sleep), we always exist, so being or existing is our natural state, and doing is a transient adjunct or superimposition.<br /><br />Doing occurs only when we rise and stand as this ego, and since it is temporary, it is not real. Rising as this ego is the first action (doing or <i>kriyā</i>) and the root of all other actions. When we rise as this ego, we seemingly leave our natural state of just being and assume the illusory state of doing, so in order to subside back into our source we must cease doing anything and thereby just be.<br /><br />Since doing is not real but just an illusory appearance, we should consider what it is that appears as doing. In other words, what is it that we mistake to be doing? What is real is just being, so being is what we mistake to be doing. Doing is therefore a distorted reflection of being.<br /><br />What is real is only ‘I am’, but we now experience this ‘I am’ as ‘I am doing this or that’, so if we remove ‘doing this or that’ to see what underlies it, what we will see is only ‘I am’, which is our ever-actionless being (<i>sat</i>).Michael Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03460943269122289281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-13665796812729616762016-06-28T19:49:07.975+01:002016-06-28T19:49:07.975+01:00Roger Isaacs,
you should name our 'Bliss Perme...Roger Isaacs,<br />you should name our 'Bliss Permeated Mother' correctly Anandamayi Ma, not Anadamayi.<br />Take care.careful observernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-6620619623992001372016-06-28T18:34:23.652+01:002016-06-28T18:34:23.652+01:00Yippee,
I am the pain-suffering mind. But why shou...Yippee,<br />I am the pain-suffering mind. But why should I dig my own grave ?<br />I will never yield to temptation to give right of way to the self.spurious offshootnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-30225719550444792682016-06-24T21:44:46.536+01:002016-06-24T21:44:46.536+01:00There is some truth in your question, you boy of ...There is some truth in your question, you boy of sixteen in 1896 :<br />Although giving up the false self is true renunciation,<br />which ego will give up actually itself ? Perhaps one of 8 billion.atisaya saktinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-12317617206495018662016-06-24T21:20:17.203+01:002016-06-24T21:20:17.203+01:00Disciples,
if only the mind is kept under control....Disciples,<br />if only the mind is kept under control...<br />But can we (as the mind) expect that the mind will control itself ?boy of sixteen in1896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-47114532638991534792016-06-21T04:14:22.824+01:002016-06-21T04:14:22.824+01:00From the wikipedia article on Anadamayi Ma:
She d...From the wikipedia article on Anadamayi Ma:<br /><i><br /><b>She did not advocate the same method for all. </b><br />"How can one impose limitations on the infinite by declaring this is the only path—and, why should there be so many different religions and sects? Because through every one of them He gives Himself to Himself, so that each person may advance according to his inborn nature."<br /><br /></i>Rogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12886674544129003153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-2635993288787509942016-06-21T04:08:37.956+01:002016-06-21T04:08:37.956+01:00Do not confuse understanding with a larger vocabul...<i>Do not confuse understanding with a larger vocabulary. Sacred writings are beneficial in stimulating desire for inward realisation, if one stanza at a time is slowly assimilated. Otherwise, continual intellectual study may result in vanity, false satisfaction, and undigested knowledge. Sri Yukteswar Giri<br /><br />All the following from Anandamayi Ma:<br /><br />When by the flood of your tears, the inner and the outer have fused into One, you will find Her whom you sought with such anguish, nearer than the nearest, the very breath of life, the very core of every heart.<br /><br />Enquire: 'Who am I?' and you will find the answer. Look at a tree: from one seed arises a huge tree; from it comes numerous seeds, each one of which in its turn grows into a tree. No two fruits are alike. Yet it is one life that throbs in every particle of the tree. So, it is the same Atman everywhere.<br /><br />Reality is beyond speech and thought. Only that which can be expressed in words is being said. But what cannot be put into language is indeed That which IS.<br /><br />Who is it that loves and who that suffers? He alone stages a play with Himself; who exists save Him? The individual suffers because he perceives duality. It is duality which causes all sorrow and grief. Find the One everywhere and in everything and there will be an end to pain and suffering.<br /></i><br />http://www.azquotes.com/author/27988-Anandamayi_Ma<br />Rogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12886674544129003153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-63396669515832082262016-06-21T02:46:40.735+01:002016-06-21T02:46:40.735+01:00Hi Sivanarul,
Yes, that quote is from Autobiograph...Hi Sivanarul,<br />Yes, that quote is from Autobiography of a Yogi. <br />I found it online here: http://www.yogananda.com.au/gurus/mahasaya01.html<br />Lahiri Mahasaya: born 30 sept 1828, died 26 sept 1895. A powerful inspiriational voice!!!<br />There is a photo and article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahiri_Mahasaya<br /><br />quoted from http://oaks.nvg.org/uow.html<br /><i><br />He turned out to be such a great unionist (yogi) that his mind would remain in peace all the time even while engaged in common household duties. Or he could rove other places as a mystic light: <br /><br />A nebulous light was rapidly floating over the Ganges; the strange luminescence was reflected in the opaque waters. It approached nearer and nearer till, with a blinding flash, it appeared . . . and condensed itself instantly into the human form of Lahiri Mahasaya. <br /><br />I am ever with those who practice Kriya," he said . . . "I will guide you to the Cosmic Home through your enlarging perceptions. <br /><br />"Even when Lahiri Mahasaya was silent, . . . I discovered that nonetheless he had transmitted to me ineffable knowledge." [Sri Yukteswar in Autobiography of a Yogi, chap 12]<br /><br /></i>Rogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12886674544129003153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-59615446827282212942016-06-21T02:07:19.557+01:002016-06-21T02:07:19.557+01:00It looks like you took the quote from Wikipedia.
...It looks like you took the quote from Wikipedia.<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahiri_Mahasaya<br /><br />Found this one also which is a good thing to remember frequently.<br /><br />"Always remember that you belong to no one, and no one belongs to you. Reflect that some day you will suddenly have to leave everything in this world–so make the acquaintanceship of God now. Prepare yourself for the coming astral journey of death by daily riding in the balloon of God-perception. Through delusion you are perceiving yourself as a bundle of flesh and bones, which at best is a nest of troubles. Meditate unceasingly, that you may quickly behold yourself as the Infinite Essence, free from every form of misery. Cease being a prisoner of the body; using the secret key of Kriya, learn to escape into Spirit.[2]"Sivanarulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-60686121074643157192016-06-21T01:56:29.538+01:002016-06-21T01:56:29.538+01:00Roger,
"Attune yourself to the active inner ...Roger,<br /><br />"Attune yourself to the active inner Guidance; the Divine Voice has the answer to every dilemma of life. Though man's ingenuity for getting himself into trouble appears to be endless, the Infinite Succor is no less resourceful."<br /><br />Your above quote of Lahiri Mahasaya is wonderful. It is a beautiful saying. Is this from Autobiography of a Yogi?Sivanarulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-49710931662192031352016-06-21T01:06:24.049+01:002016-06-21T01:06:24.049+01:00More than liberation, for some of us on the Spirit...More than liberation, for some of us on the Spiritual path, the key focus is on minimizing/ending suffering to the maximum extent possible. At the least, we do not want to add to the suffering. One of the ways we add to the suffering is by placing our liking and disliking on things over which we have no control over.<br /><br />Our Anonymous friend's recent posting has some good lessons that we can learn from (I certainly learned from it). He writes:<br /><br />"Another thing I don’t like is someone throwing a temper tantrum and announcing he would leave and others pacifying him. He is in tears and later decides to come back. This is childish, to put it mildly. If one does not like, why not leave once for all?"<br /><br />In the above, our friend has placed his dislike on an action of mine (what he perceives as temper tantrum) and the action of others (what he perceives as pacification). Then he states he does not like someone else being in tears. Then he suggests, why not I leave? Then he expresses his dislike on how I express my disagreement: "What is the point in saying ‘I agree to disagree’ just through the lips?". Because of all these dislikes, his posting reveals a level of frustration over something he has no control over.<br /><br />This is a good example of how we can add unnecessary frustration to our lives. Since he is not the blog owner, he has no control on how I or others act on this forum. He has no control over whether tears come in my eyes or not. He has no control over whether I leave or stay. He also has no control on whether I express my disagreement as 'I disagree' or 'Let's agree to disagree'. What is even more interesting is, that he is trying to change the behavior (not content, but behavior) of a complete stranger and he placed his liking/disliking dependent on my change of behavior and my leaving the blog. Do you see the irony of that?<br /><br />Now coming to the point of this comment which is, many of us do the same thing as our Anonymous friend. I spent sometime reflecting on the projections I do, over which I have no control over and came up with several things. We cannot see our own faces. But a mirror helps us to see it. Our Anonymous friend was the mirror. To give an example, one of my projections, is to have concern over not suffering too much during the last years of my life and passing away without getting bed ridden or in pain. This concern obviously adds to the suffering experienced now. The problem with this concern of mine is that, I have no control over how my last years of life will be.<br /><br />I have my work cut out on eliminating my projections (thanks to our anonymous friend, who helped identify it) over which I have no control over. May be it will help you to identify your own projections (if you have any) and eliminate them. Of course eliminating the ego is the only real way of eliminating them. But we can certainly eliminate a significant portion even with the ego.Sivanarulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-13973645541897833042016-06-20T18:34:11.304+01:002016-06-20T18:34:11.304+01:00Roger, what Bhagavan says is very true. We should ...Roger, what Bhagavan says is very true. We should take care of the present by attending tenaciously to the thought called 'I', and thereby, eventually, our ego will dissolve in the eternal presence - our essential intransitive awareness.<br /><br />In one of his recents videos, Michael said: All questions we ask are wrong questions, and the only correct question is - 'who am I?' or 'what am I'.Sanjay Lohiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02384912997886218824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-30797731717985308922016-06-20T15:00:58.990+01:002016-06-20T15:00:58.990+01:00Sanjay says:
As per Bhagavan's teachings if th...<i><br />Sanjay says:<br />As per Bhagavan's teachings if the ego leaves one form, it should immediately grasp another form, <br /></i><br /><br />Bhagavan also says "Why should you trouble yourself about the future? You do not even properly know about the present! Take care of the present; the future will then take care of itself." (A Search in Secret India, PB)Rogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12886674544129003153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-4083283692826739892016-06-20T12:05:00.363+01:002016-06-20T12:05:00.363+01:00Sir, I wrote in my above comment: 'after death...Sir, I wrote in my above comment: 'after death, this ego can rest for a while (in a sleep-like state), or immediately grasp another body and consider this body to be itself'. Paradoxically, I myself do not understand what exactly does 'after death, this ego can rest for a while (in a sleep-like state)', means. I had read Bhagavan say this somewhere (may be in <i>Talks</i> or <i>DBD</i>), and I merely repeated it here without fully understanding it.<br /><br />As per Bhagavan's teachings if the ego leaves one form, it should immediately grasp another form, because without grasping or taking a form to be itself it cannot survive. Therefore if after the body dies the ego rests in <i>laya</i>, how can it exist without clinging to a form? It is confusing therefore please clarify what Bhagavan was trying to say here, if he really said this.<br /><br />With regards. <br />Sanjay Lohiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02384912997886218824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-49594000888829580722016-06-19T18:42:33.273+01:002016-06-19T18:42:33.273+01:00Though we have had enough discussion on the subjec...Though we have had enough discussion on the subject of <i>shraddha</i>; however, a few thoughts have come to my mind which may be worth reflecting on. <br /><br />If we examine Bhagavan’s teachings, we can infer that after our physical death our body and the person we take to be ourself will be destroyed forever, never to appear again. Then what exists after death? Our ego continues its journey, until it is annihilated. After death, this ego can rest for a while (in a sleep-like state), or immediately grasp another body and consider this body to be itself. The tenant (my ego) leaves one house (my body and the person ‘Sanjay’) and becomes a tenant in some other house (a new body and a new person, say ‘John’).<br /><br />After death our ego does not stay in some <i>pitri-loka</i> or wherever. As it cannot exist without attaching itself to one form or another, soon it attaches itself to a new body (John), and, therefore, exists only as John now. It cannot exist as John and also simultaneously exist in some other <i>pitri-loka</i>, or wherever. <br /><br />Therefore, after our death if we offer oblations, will it be offered to ‘John’, because presently our ego exists only as John? It sounds absurd, and why should he bother to bless our descendants when he does not even know us! <br /><br />This reflection is not intended to hurt the sentiments of those who have faith in such ceremonies. I myself have been performing these ceremonies, because in our social context it is not easy to give up these things all of a sudden. May be a time will come when these can be phased out. Moreover, what ever I have written is my reflections, and I don't claim to be representing true facts. <br />Sanjay Lohiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02384912997886218824noreply@blogger.com