The True Self
I recently had a discussion with a friend on the nature of the True Self and was reminded of Sri Ramana Maharishi who diligently employed his version of the Socratic Method to unpack and get to the essence of our nature by asking questions as simple as - "Who are you?"
These excerpts come from his writings:
Identifying the Self with the body in order to seek happiness is like trying to cross a river on the back of a crocodile. When the ego rises, the mind is separated from its Source, the Self, and is restless, like a stone thrown up into the air, or like the waters of a river.
When the stone or the river reaches its place of origin, the ground or the ocean, it comes to rest. So too the mind comes to rest and is happy when it returns to and rests in its Source. As the stone and the river are sure to return to their starting place, so too the mind will inevitably - at some time - return to its Source.
Happiness is your own nature. Hence it is not wrong to desire it. What it wrong is seeking it outside, because it is inside.
All including the world seen by you and yourself, the seer or the world, is one only.
He who considers "I am separate," "you are separate," "he is separate" and so on, acts one way towards himself and another way towards others...
Who are you? Are you this body? No, certainly not. You must be other than this body...
If you ask what true nature is, it is called Turiya, the fourth state...The fourth state is that Knowing which is not conscious of any other as object, but also not unconscious of itself...
There is nothing beyond this state. The words "inward" and "outward" have no meaning...All is one...
Who is God? He is grace. What is grace? Awareness without the fragmentary ego...For him who knows, there is one state only.
You are That.
These excerpts come from his writings:
Identifying the Self with the body in order to seek happiness is like trying to cross a river on the back of a crocodile. When the ego rises, the mind is separated from its Source, the Self, and is restless, like a stone thrown up into the air, or like the waters of a river.
When the stone or the river reaches its place of origin, the ground or the ocean, it comes to rest. So too the mind comes to rest and is happy when it returns to and rests in its Source. As the stone and the river are sure to return to their starting place, so too the mind will inevitably - at some time - return to its Source.
Happiness is your own nature. Hence it is not wrong to desire it. What it wrong is seeking it outside, because it is inside.
All including the world seen by you and yourself, the seer or the world, is one only.
He who considers "I am separate," "you are separate," "he is separate" and so on, acts one way towards himself and another way towards others...
Who are you? Are you this body? No, certainly not. You must be other than this body...
If you ask what true nature is, it is called Turiya, the fourth state...The fourth state is that Knowing which is not conscious of any other as object, but also not unconscious of itself...
There is nothing beyond this state. The words "inward" and "outward" have no meaning...All is one...
Who is God? He is grace. What is grace? Awareness without the fragmentary ego...For him who knows, there is one state only.
You are That.
Comments