Author: Andrew Taggart
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Self-inquiry And This Divine Comedy
Let’s really try to understand Ramana Maharshi’s teaching on self-inquiry. Why does he insist, second only to sacred silence (mauna), that it’s the next highest teaching? Consider the matter this way: In order for there to be a sense that I am experiencing such and such, there really has to be “an I” that’s playing…
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What Is Required To Undertake Self-inquiry?
What is required to undertake self-inquiry? Sri Sadhu Om answers the questions masterfully: one needs “unbreakable indifference” to mental and worldly objects as well as a “tremendous love to attend [only] to ourself” (The Path of Sri Ramana [2023], p. 90). The first is vairagya–dispassion or detachment–and yet this “unbreakable indifference” needs to be better…
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Who Is Disappointed?
Let’s suppose that you feel disappointed with someone. Who hasn’t? If you’re generally reflective, then the first question you’ll ask will likely be: “Why do I feel disappointed in this person?” For a while, your considerations will have to do with what he or she did or did not do and with what sorts of…
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Is Self-inquiry Really The Preeminent Practice?
In The Path of Sri Ramana (rev. ed. 2023), Sri Sadhu Om offers might seem to be “fighting words” but actually comes out of sense and compassion: All spiritual practices, other than self-investigation, consider the existence of the individual being or ego rising in the form of ‘I am this body, I am so-and-so’ as…
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Do I Exist In The Absence Of This Particular Thing?
A preparatory exercise, one I borrow from Sri Sadhu Om, that can lead to self-inquiry (atma vichara) involves asking: “Do I exist in the absence of this particular thing?” If I do exist in the absence of that particular thing, then that particular thing cannot be essential to my nature. Then: Do I exist in…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 