tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post5453099922478546324..comments2023-10-16T13:06:42.360+01:00Comments on Happiness of Being: The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: Self-enquiry, personal experiences and daily routineMichael Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460943269122289281noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-50416863928609021852016-12-16T11:03:57.342+00:002016-12-16T11:03:57.342+00:00This is a great help, thank you MichaelThis is a great help, thank you MichaelRob Pnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-89421901647623725912008-06-27T13:40:00.000+01:002008-06-27T13:40:00.000+01:00In reply to the above comment by Anonymous, I have...In reply to the above <A HREF="http://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com/2008/06/self-enquiry-personal-experiences-and.html?showComment=1213917060000#c1088768932516737717" REL="nofollow">comment</A> by Anonymous, I have written a separate article, <A HREF="http://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com/2008/06/cultivating-uninterrupted-self.html" REL="nofollow">Cultivating uninterrupted self-attentiveness</A>, which I have published today.Michael Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03460943269122289281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-10887689325167377172008-06-20T00:11:00.000+01:002008-06-20T00:11:00.000+01:00"...uninterrupted self-attentiveness..." This is n..."...uninterrupted self-attentiveness..." <BR/><BR/>This is not quite possible in my daily work life. I work as a software developer where I have to constantly think to write programs. I try to do be self-attentive while using elevators, walking the corridors... sometimes even while smoking, and also try to be self-attentive while driving. <BR/><BR/> So please tell me how to hold on to the "I" while working.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for all your wonderful blogs.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-3157786481290637602008-06-18T05:47:00.000+01:002008-06-18T05:47:00.000+01:00That makes things very clear. Thanks!That makes things very clear. Thanks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-52341367585443397732008-06-17T11:56:00.000+01:002008-06-17T11:56:00.000+01:00In reply to the above comment by Anonymous:Conscio...In reply to the above <A HREF="http://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com/2008/06/self-enquiry-personal-experiences-and.html?showComment=1213676280000#c2869117838112761637" REL="nofollow">comment</A> by Anonymous:<BR/><BR/>Consciousness of our physical body is just a thought, like anything else other than our essential self-consciousness, ‘I am’, but it is a very basic thought, because our mind can rise and be active only by imagining itself to be a body. Therefore body-consciousness will disappear entirely only when our mind itself disappears.<BR/><BR/>In the meanwhile we should treat our body-consciousness like any other thought — that is, we should simply ignore it and not bother about it, because if we vigilantly cling firm to keen and deep self-attentiveness, it will gradually dissolve and disappear, leaving only our pristine adjunctless self-conscious being, ‘I am’. If instead we were to worry about our body-consciousness, considering it to be “a hindrance that would never go away”, we would be paying attention to it, thereby nourishing it and giving it a seeming reality, which it truly does not have.<BR/><BR/>We cannot truly experience the durationless present moment — which is our own timeless self-conscious being, ‘I am’ — until our mind has been completely destroyed, but experiencing it is our aim when practising <I>atma-vichara</I> — keen and penetrating self-scrutiny or self-attentiveness.<BR/><BR/>So long as we are still practising self-attentiveness, and have not yet experienced it perfectly as our natural and immutable state of thought-free non-dual self-conscious being, whatever present moment we experience will still be only a relative present moment and not the durationless absolute present moment. However, by persistently practising self-attentiveness, we will gradually refine and narrow down the relative present moment that we are experiencing, until finally it will be perfectly refined and reduced to the one real eternal durationless present moment.<BR/><BR/>As you correctly say, “... the deeper I go, the more successful I’ll be”. The more firmly and vigilantly we cling to self-attentiveness, the deeper we will sink into our thought-free self-conscious being, ‘I am’, and the more clearly we will thereby experience ourself as we really are.<BR/><BR/>Only by devoted and persistent practice will we achieve the absolute clarity of non-dual self-consciousness, which is our sole aim, and which alone will destroy our mind completely, along with its body-consciousness — its deep-rooted habit of imagining itself to be a body.Michael Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03460943269122289281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7345918888953765241.post-28691178381127616372008-06-17T05:18:00.000+01:002008-06-17T05:18:00.000+01:00Michael,You've cleared a lot of my(anonymous) misc...Michael,<BR/>You've cleared a lot of my(anonymous) misconceptions. Thank you! I have been re-reading this post to better understand your explanations. Before reading this post, I had glossed over the value of this 'precise present moment'. Only now am I beginning to understand the true meaning of self-enquiry and by paying attention to this precise present moment, I'm beginning to understand why 'the subsidence of all mental activity is merely a by-product of true meditation'. As I begun to put this into practice, I could see that keeping my attention in the present moment automatically caused a drastic reduction in subtle thoughts. I guess the deeper I go, the more successful I'll be. However, consciousness of the gross body still remained in the background and seemed like a hindrance that would never go away. "Therefore all that we can know or experience in the durationless present moment is our own timeless being — our self-conscious being, ‘I am’". This leads me to think my attempts to be here and now were just attempts to be in the relative present moment. Is that assumption wrong? My hope is that eventually the body consciousness will also be transmuted to 'I am'. I'm deeply grateful for your detailed responses to my queries, however immature and repetitive they may be.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com