Dear A,

Ramana Maharshi’s Reply

Sri Bhagavan admitted the truth of the disciple’s statement and pointed out why the Self, though obvious, is yet [apparently–AT] hidden. It is the wrong identity of the Self with the body, etc. 

D.: How did the wrong identity arise? 

M.: Due to thoughts. If these thoughts are put an end to, the real Self should shine forth of itself.

–“Talk 379” of Talks With Sri Ramana Maharshi

To Be Experientially Understood

Take some of your common conceptual divisions:

• I make progress (or I regress). / The Self is the goal that is over there in space and in the future as far as time is concerned.
• I meditate and come to the Self. / The rest of the day the Self goes on holiday.
• I must get rid of or vanquish thoughts since the Self is, literally, thought-free.
• I am a jiva. The Self is something else entirely.
• I can get closer to the Self. I can be farther away from the Self.
• The Self dwells in the past and in the future, but not in the present moment.
• I have privileged access to the Self in some “sets and settings.” Otherwise, the Self hides somewhere–and who knows where?

Two Sticking Points In Particular: States & Confinements

1. Your mind thinks (“It’s due to thought”) that the Self is a state.

Then the mind gets attached to that very state that the mind has posited.

Then the mind has aversions toward whatever is not that state that it imagines.

But the Self is not a state. It’s not an object. It doesn’t come and go. It’s right here, right now.

2. Your mind often confines the Self to a particular mold: it resides, you say, during those 10 minutes at the end of a meditation. And then your mind posits that the rest of the day is precisely where the Self goes missing, goes on holiday. But all this is a mere concept–namely, the concept of confinement.

In truth, the Self is not confined.

In fact, the Self is not in space–so how can it be hemmed in by space? (Or by time?)

The Teaching Says…

• The Self is everywhere and everywhen. In fact, the Self is all there is.
• You are THAT.
• It only seems as if  you aren’t ALREADY THAT because of thoughts.

Shift Your Perspective

When Ramana Maharshi says that one seems to be ignorant “due to thoughts,” he’s not suggesting that his interlocutor bludgeon thoughts to death. Instead, he’s inviting him to “go upstream” to the Self since the Self–i.e., what one essentially is–is prior to all thought.

The Self cannot be thought. It is prior to thought. But It can be felt or experienced. 

A Question

At any time during the day, just ask, “Is the Self here? Is the Self now?” Pause. Open. Sink back into the silence.

You can’t see the Self because it’s not an object. You can only be the Self. The good news is that you are already THAT.

“Then why don’t I know it always?”

“It’s due to thought.”

Be the prior-to-thought silence that is also silence-as-manifestation (lila).

Warmly,

Andrew