2023-03-18 Ramana Maharshi Foundation UK: Our aim is to attend to nothing other than our own being

In a Zoom meeting with the Ramana Maharshi Foundation UK on 18th March 2023 Michael answers various questions about Bhagavan’s teachings.
A clearer audio copy of this video can be listened to on Sri Ramana Teachings podcast (ramanahou.podb... ) or downloaded from ramanahou.podb... and a more compressed audio copy in Opus format (which can be listened to in the VLC media player and some other apps) can be downloaded from www.mediafire....
00:27 Am I practicing self-investigation correctly if I get a sensation behind my eyes?
11:38 Self-forgetfulness and self-investigation
25:10 What does Bhagavan mean by ‘mind’ that is absent in sleep?
28:33: Can I do self-investigation only after I am no longer bothered by strong emotions?
41:02 We are not fighting desires (viṣaya-vāsanās), instead we’re cultivating love to hold on to our being.
44:39 Is it a contradiction that Bhagavan instructed us to practice both uninterruptedly and gradually?
50:27 Self-attentiveness in the midst of daily activities (such as reading and focusing)
1:02:58 Why is following only one guru considered true guru-bhakti?

[@SriRamanaTeachings]

A clearer audio copy of this video can be listened to on Sri Ramana Teachings podcast (ramanahou.podbean.com ) or downloaded from ramanahou.podbean.com/e/our-aim-is-to-attend-to-nothing-other-than-our-own-being/ and a more compressed audio copy in Opus format (which can be listened on the VLC media player and some other apps) can be downloaded from www.mediafire.com/file_premium/foex3d95df8auej

[@visweshwaranr]

🙏🙏🙏 Om namo bhagaavathe arunachala sri ramanaaya. Wish you to get well soon Michael Ji. Your sessions are continuously taking us nearer. . What a punyam I did to be part of your Satsang. Thank you

[@raesowards3485]

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question about an old friend. I very much appreciate it ♥️

[@Masha77157]

Merci 🙏🙏🙏

[@sylvia16578]

très clair, magnifiquement expliqué. Merci à Michael James et Merci à Geor Ji 🙏🙏🙏

[@SriRamanaTeachings]

Shorter Q&A videos from this channel can be watched on youtube.com/@sriramanateachingsqa

[@barbararenshaw963]

Thank you Michael..❤❤

[@rviswanathan]

🙏

[@josefbruckner7154]

1:10:19 If we are truly dedicated to the spiritual path we will be satisfied with one guru and there's no guru to compare with Bhagavan because Bhagavan's teachings are so simple and it's the ultimate what Bhagavan is teaching. It is, other gurus are necessary, it's important that there are other gurus because not everyone is ready yet to follow Bhagavan's path. So there are so many gurus to teach people at different levels of spiritual development but we have now come to a final path. On this final path one guru is sufficient and that one guru for us is Bhagavan. No other guru is necessary. And some people say "oh living guru is necessary", as if Bhagavan is a dead guru. That is, because people mistake a person/the person to be a guru they think living guru is necessary. When Sadhu Om was asked whether living guru is necessary he said: "yes, absolutely, living guru is necessary, but if what you mean by living guru is a living body your living guru is one day going to become a dead guru. What will be the use of such a guru ? We want an eternally living guru. That eternally living guru is Bhagavan because his fundamental teaching is 'I am not this body' ". When his body was about to die and people were weeping, saying "oh Bhagavan don't leave us" he said "where can I go ? I am always here". What did he mean when he said "I am always here" ? Superficially we can take to mean he's always there in Ramanasramam in Tiruvannamalai. Yes, that's a very special place because that's a place where he lived and that's and that's a place where Arunachala is. But it has a deeper meaning than that. When he says "I am always here" he means in all times and in all places. He is ever present in our heart because he is that which is: "Arunachalaramana is 'paramatman', the supreme spirit, the ultimate self that is shining blissfully as awareness in the cave of the heart-lotus of all the different jivas from Hari", the highest god, down to the smallest insect. He's in the heart of all of us. And then in the second half of that verse he doesn't just ask us to believe it, he shows us how to experience it: "Heart melting with love, reaching the cave where that sublime supreme dwells, the eye of awareness opening, you will know this truth. It will reveal itself." So if you want to follow the path shown by guru, it means turning within. It's not going out looking for other gurus, other gurus, other gurus, that's missing the point. If we truly are following Bhagavan's teachings we shouldn't be looking outwards for anything, we should be looking within because all his teachings are directing us to look back within. And in order to turn back within and sink into the heart to be swallowed by him we need a heart melting with love. Heart must melt with love. Love is always one-pointed. So anyone who thinks going to multiple gurus is okay, it's fine for them but that is kindergarten bhakti. If we are following Bhagavan's path - this is the ultimate path of bhakti, 'para-bhakti tattva', this is the very supreme devotion, is to turn within and to be as we actually are. Multiplicity exists only in the view of the outward turned mind, but the truth is: one only without a second. And what is that one ? You are that, so we should be turning our attention within away from all multiplicity to find the one reality that is ever shining in our heart as our own being. That one reality 'I am', that is Bhagavan, that is guru, that is god, that is what we actually are.

[@christianandersson2217]

🙏 Thank You!

[@joroco19851]

Hello Michael, I just wanted to congratulate you on the effort you do. It is invaluable to anyone that takes "their time" to truly listen. You have clarified many confusions I have experienced on the way, the misuse of words actual meanings seems to create spiritual confusion. I wanted to give my love to you and what you are doing, keep going ❤ Do you travel and speak? Have you ever been to Sweden? Do you have any plans to come to Sweden?

[@josefbruckner7154]

21:49 …forgetting and remembering things other than ourselves is quite different, that is, though we use the same words: forgetting ourselves it's forgetting our identity, it's not forgetting our existence. So we are always aware of ourselves, so it's not like remembering something that we can no longer remember. Our existence is ever available for us to remember. So to describe the practice of self-enquiry like trying to remember an old friend seems to me to be not a very good analogy because it's not like trying to remember anything other than ourselves, it's remembering ourselves, remembering our own being, remembering that which is ever shining but which we generally overlook because of our interest in other things. I hope that clarification helps a little, so having talked a little bit about what self-investigation is not, I hope this has to some extent helped to clarify what self-investigation is. Self-investigation is nothing but being self-attentive. In the 16 th paragraph of Nan Ar? Bhagavan gives a very clear simple and unambiguous definition of what is atma-vichara. He says '…(Tamil)… what that means is: the name 'atma-vichara' refers only to always keeping the mind on oneself,… in other words always fixing our attention. When we talk about keeping our mind on something we are keeping our attention on it. So what Bhagavan implies there is that self-investigation is nothing but always keeping our attention on ourselves. It's as simple as that. That is, of course we have to understand: when it is said to fix our minds on ourselves we need to understand what we are. If I take myself to be this body then looking at myself, this body, the reflection of this body in the mirror, may seem to me to be self-attention. No, obviously it's not that. We are not this body, we are not this mind, we are not anything that appears or disappears, we are the underlying reality 'I am', that is what we need to fix our attention on. So I hope this maybe to some extent helps to clarify what the practice of self-investigation is.

[@nabilaoukhiat7247]

💚🙏

[@josefbruckner7154]

25:05 Shalini Sinha: there are some questions Michael. The first one is: Bhagavan teaches us that because mind and body don't exist in sleep we cannot be the mind or body. What does Bhagavan mean by 'mind' here ? Does it mean ego or does it mean the collection of thoughts? Would you mind clarifying this? Michael: Bhagavan clearly said that ego is absent in sleep. Since ego is absent everything else is absent. Take Verse 18 of Upadesa Undiyar for example : what Bhagavan says there is: he begins by saying … (Tamil)...that means 'thoughts alone are the mind' and then he says… (Tamil)…'of all the thoughts the thought called 'I' is the root and then he concludes by saying: 'therefore mind is 'I', in other words, what the mind essentially is is only this ego, the first (root) thought called 'I'. Why is ego the root of all other thoughts ? Because ego is the subject - all other thoughts are objects, no other thought can exist except in the view of ego. So without ego there cannot be any other thought. This is why he says in the fifth paragraph of Nan Ar? 'Of all the thoughts that arise in the mind the thought called 'I' alone is the first. Only after this rises do other thoughts rise. Only after the first person appears do second and third persons appear. Without the first person second and third persons do not exist.' Second and third persons in that context means all other thoughts/things. In other words, anything other than ourself, all objects and phenomena exist only in the view of ego, the subject. So none of them can exist without ego. Because ego is absent in sleep therefore body mind world, everything is absent. So when he said 'mind is absent in sleep', mind is never absent so long as ego is present. Because so long as there's ego it'll always be catching hold of some projecting and catching hold of some other thought. So when he talks about the absence of mind he means the absence of ego. The absence of ego includes the absence of all other thoughts… But the important thing is: ego is absent in sleep. Why ? Because what is ego ? Ego is the false identification 'I am this person'. In sleep what are we aware of ? We're not even aware of anything, that is, we are just aware 'I am'. We're aware nothing other than 'I am'. So in ego (*) we're aware of our existence, we're not aware of any identity - and our existence that is our true identity. I hope that adequately answered that question. (*) My remark: instead of 'ego' here Michael obviously means 'sleep'.

[@ajantaforeign]

Question : What kind of sadhna Bhagwan Ramana Maharishi must have done in His previous lives that he achieved such a high state, completely absorbed in the bliss of the Self in the Virupaksha Cave for many weeks? How we can make the mind purer?

[@davidstrevens9170]

Who wants to make the mind purer? God is already pure.

[@jazzsnare]

If I am a character in my ego's dream, why can't I access the ego and do whatever I want? In a waking dream, at night, sometimes I can enter the dream and perform acts, knowing I am dreaming. Why cannot I do the same in waking dream, so to speak? I can fly in dream at night, but in daytime waking dream I have no control. Also, if breathing is associated to ego, and ego stops in night dream, in deep sleep, then why do we not turn blue? I may have misunderstood that association but it troubles me. Did Sri Ramana stop breathing the whole time he was in samadhi in the temple at Tiru? Finally, with regard to the watermelon and neck issue, how does one ever convince the ego, the body-mind, whose nature is to survive, to surrender to its death, given its immense propensity to not want to die? It seems to me to be more a matter of courage than insight alone. Perhaps one is better off developing that, rather than depending on seated meditation?

[@xhesitase9729]

Does aphantasia hinder doing atma vichara? When I close my eyes, I see a blank, dark screen. I have no imagery. I feel like focusing on the darkness isn't proper practice. I have been struggling with the practice for years. I don't have clarity. That is the reason.

[@SriRamanaTeachings]

No, nothing hinders ātma-vicāra except our viṣaya-vāsanās (inclinations to attend to anything other than ourself). Attending to any imagery or to any darkness or blankness is attending to something other than ourself, so that is not ātma-vicāra (self-investigation). Attending to ourself alone is ātma-vicāra, as Bhagavan clearly says in the sixteenth paragraph of Nāṉ Ār? (Who am I?): www.happinessofbeing.com/nan_yar.html#para16 “சதாகாலமும் மனத்தை ஆத்மாவில் வைத்திருப்பதற்குத் தான் ‘ஆத்மவிசார’ மென்று பெயர்” (sadā-kālam-um maṉattai ātmāvil vaittiruppadaṟku-t tāṉ ‘ātma-vicāram’ eṉḏṟu peyar), “The name ‘ātma-vicāra’ [refers] only to always keeping the mind on ātmā [oneself]”. ‘Keeping the mind on ātmā’ means keeping our attention on ourself, and ‘ourself’ (ātmā) means our own being, ‘I am’, which is the one thing that we are always aware of. In waking we are aware ‘I am’, in dream we are aware ‘I am’, and in sleep we are aware ‘I am’, so this one fundamental awareness of our own existence, ‘I am’, which remains unchanged in all these three states, alone is what we actually are, so this alone is what we must try to attend to more and more. ‘I am’ is not an object but the reality of the subject, so it is not a mental image, and hence attending to ‘I am’ does not require any mental imagery. ​Namo Ramanaya 🙏🙏🙏

[@BackroadBender]

I think that it's not right to say "we will not experience what we are not destined to experience". We may not be destined not to experience that though? We experience ourself doing actions of our own free will which we were not destined to experience. There's a clear difference between something that is destined not to happen and something that is not destined to happen.

[@TheDeepening718]

but what is it? These people saying, "be yourself" as advice are foolishly talking about the ego, not realizing that you don't be the ego (that's undiscernment) you let go of controlling its behavior and the way to do that is to know that it is not truth.