If what exists were not, would existing awareness exist? Since the existing substance exists in the heart without thought, how to think of the existing substance, which is called ‘heart’? Being in the heart as it is alone is thinking. Know.

–Ramana Maharshi, “Maṅgalam (benedictory) verse 1,” Ulladu Narpadu, trans. Michael James and Sri Sadhu Om

We can examine this beautiful verse by employing what Atmananda termed “higher reason.” Here’s how:

Part 1: Is Consciousness Identical With Being?

Ask yourself, “Do I exist?” or “Am I?” Go to the direct experience of I amness or beingness.

Next, ask yourself, “Am I aware?” or “Am I conscious?” Go to the direct experience of being aware or conscious.

Next, compare these two direct experiences: one, beingness and, two, being aware. Confirm that the experiences are identical.

Check: “Is it true that being aware is identical with beingness?” You can probe further: “Could the experience of beingness be ‘registered’ unless there were the light of awareness shining already?” No. Keep probing: “Could the experience of being aware be unless it was already saturated by beingness?” No. Then quite clearly to be aware is to be.

Go further: “If I let go of any sensation of limitation seemingly associated with beingness, then what remains in direct experience?” See that what remains is pure being, which is pure consciousness.

Part 2: Is Any Thought Required To Be The Heart?

The name given to this nondual experience is “heart.” Question: “Is any thought required in order to know–that is, to be–the heart?” No. Experience this directly.

Part 3: Being The Heart Knowingly

We read: “Being in the heart as it is alone is thinking. Know.”

In this translation, the word “thinking” is used, but Michael James, in his explanatory paraphrase, offers substitutes like “meditating” and “contemplating.”

Another gloss, then: “Being in the heart as it is alone is the heart of meditation.”

When there is being in the heart, isn’t this just the essence (the heart) of meditation?

Abide quietly as the heart. Abide knowingly as the heart. Be the heart in and of silence.