I don't know about you, but I like to cut to the chase - get to the point of the matter as quickly as I can. Often however, when it comes to conscious awakening, you must let time and reflection be your guide. I won't leave you high and dry however – following are some excerpts on conscious awakening given by whom I consider to be one of my spiritual teachers, Ramana Maharashi. In this excerpt you will find actual questions by spiritual seekers just like you and I who were seeking to find the somewhat illusive path to spiritual awakening. I have found these questions and answers particularly beneficial in my own spiritual understanding and practice. Enjoy . . .
Question: You say one can realize the Self by a search for it. What is the character of this search?
Ramana Maharshi: You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought, which is the `I', that is yourself. Let us call this `I' the first thought. Stick to this `I'-thought and Question it to find out what it is. When this Question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.
Question: When I do this and cling to myself, that is, the `I'-thought, other thoughts come and go, but I say to myself `Who am I ?' and there is no answer forthcoming. To be in this condition is the practice. Is it so?
Ramana Maharshi: This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest for the Self is that the `I'-thought disappears and something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the `I' which commenced the quest.
Question: What is this something else?
Ramana Maharshi: That is the real Self, the import of `I'. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme Being itself.
Question: But you have often said that one must reject other thoughts when one begins the quest but the thoughts are endless. If one thought is rejected, another comes and there seems to be no end at all.
Ramana Maharshi: I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the `I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish.
Question: And so rejection of thoughts is not necessary?
Ramana Maharshi: No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it rises. It is not true, there is an end. If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self. At that level it is not necessary to make an effort to reject thoughts.
Question: Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain.
Ramana Maharshi: Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.
Question: I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all?
Ramana Maharshi: Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort. If the mind becomes introverted through inquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct. The light of the Self falls on the vasanas and produces the phenomenon of reflection we call the mind. Thus, when the vasanas become extinct the mind also disappears, being absorbed into the light of the one reality, the Heart. This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and one pointed inquiry into the source of the aham-vritti.
Question: How should a beginner start this practice?
Ramana Maharshi: The mind will subside only by means of the inquiry `Who am I?' The thought 'Who am I?', destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre. If other thoughts rise one should, without attempting to complete them, inquire `To whom did they rise?' What does it matter however many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly inquires `To whom did this rise?', it will be known `To me'. If one then inquires `Who am I?', the mind will turn back to its source [the Self] and the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practicing thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.
Although tendencies towards sense-objects [vishaya vasanas], which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as meditation on one?s nature becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, `Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies [vasanas] and to remain as Self alone?', one should persistently cling fast to self-attention.
As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, the inquiry `Who am I ?' is necessary. As and when thoughts rise, one should annihilate all of them through inquiry then and there in their very place of origin. Not attending to what-is-other [anya] is non-attachment [vairagya] or desirelessness [nirasa]. Not leaving Self is knowledge [jnana]. In truth, these two [desirelessness and knowledge] are one and the same. Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist, dives into the sea and takes the pearl lying at the bottom, so everyone, diving deep within himself with non-attachment, can attain the pearl of Self. If one resorts uninterruptedly to remembrance of one?s real nature [swarupasmarana] until one attains Self, that alone will be sufficient.
Inquiring `Who am I that is in bondage?' and knowing ones real nature [swarupa] alone is liberation. Always keeping the mind fixed in Self alone is called 'self-inquiry', whereas meditation [dhyana] is thinking oneself to be the absolute [Brahman], which is existence-consciousness-bliss [sat-chit-ananda].
Source: From book "Be As You Are", compiled by David Goodman
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