40 Verses on Reality

14. If the first person, I, exists, then the second and third persons, you and he,
will also exist. By enquiring into the nature of the I, the I perishes. With it
'you' and 'he' also perish. The resultant state, which shines as Absolute Being,
is one's own natural state, the Self.

17. To those who have not realized the Self, as well as to those who have, the
word 'I' refers to the body, but with this difference, that for those who have not
realized, the 'I' is confined to the body whereas for those who have realized the
Self within the body the 'I' shines as the limitless Self.

18. To those who have not realized (the Self) as well as to those who have the
world is real. But to those who have not realized, Truth is adapted to the measure
of the world, whereas to those that have, Truth shines as the Formless Perfection,
and as the Substratum of the world. This is all the difference between them.

20. He who sees God without seeing the Self sees only a mental image. They say
that he who sees the Self sees God. He who, having completely lost the ego, sees
the Self, has found God, because the Self does not exist apart from God.

26. If the ego is, everything else also is. If the ego is not, nothing else is.
Indeed, the ego is all. Therefore the enquiry as to what this ego is, is the only
way of giving up everything.

27. The State of non-emergence of 'I' is the state of being THAT. Without questing
for that State of the non-emergence of 'I' and attaining It, how can one
accomplish one's own extinction, from which the 'I' does not revive? Without that
attainment how is it possible to abide in one's true State, where one is THAT?

38. As long as a man is the doer, he also reaps the fruit of his deeds, but, as
soon as he realizes the Self through enquiry as to who is the doer his sense of
being the doer falls away and the triple karma2 is ended. This is the state of
eternal Liberation.

39. Only so long as one considers oneself bound, do thoughts of bondage and
Liberation continue. When one enquires who is bound the Self is realized,
eternally attained, and eternally free. When thought of bondage comes to an end,
can thought of Liberation survive?

http://www.satramana.org/html/forty_verses_on_reality.htm

Ramana Maharshi - Upadesa Saram

* When the enquiry, “What is the thinking mind?” occurs, the thinking mind

understands intuitively that it has no free will and stops thinking itself to be

the doer and gives way to the feeling of ‘I AM.’ This is the Direct path.

* In the ordinary man when a thought occurs the ego takes delivery of it as

‘my thought’ and gets involved. The thinking mind is nothing but the ego

identifying with a thought and getting involved. In the enlightened Sage, when a

thought arises, witnessing happens and involvement with the thought does not take

place. Ramana Maharshi says, “The Sage has no thinking mind and therefore there

are no ‘others’ for him.”

* When one enquires, “Where has the ‘me’ come from?” it will vanish into

Consciousness revealing the truth that the ‘me’ has really come from Totality as

part of the Divine Hypnosis. Consciousness has created the ego and Consciousness

will annihilate the ego by initiating the process of Self-enquiry.

* When we accept that Universal will prevails all the time and not the individual

will, the ‘me’ as the doer gets smaller and smaller till it gets completely merged

in Consciousness.

* When the sense of personal doership disappears with the total acceptance

that “All there is, is Consciousness,” the thinking mind ceases to exist during

the waking hours as in deep sleep. What remains is the light of pure

Consciousness, the indestructible ‘I AM.’

Sri Ramana Maharshi - Upadesa Saram

Typical `average' person
Thought: Restlessness (Nihilism to absolutism)
Action: Confused (Over-control to impulsiveness)
Emotion: Temperamental (Inhibition to emotionalism)
Attitude/perspective: Self-centred
Moods: Fluctuating, totally dependent on circumstances (external or internal)


Advanced seeker
Thought: Emptiness (effortful or contrived)
Action: Surrender (volitional)
Emotion: Detachment or non-clinging (contrived, rationalised)
Attitude/perspective: Un-self-centred (learnt, trained or habituated)
Moods: Steadily composed, not fluctuating, not dependent on circumstances (external or
internal). Result of training.


Final Liberation
Thought: Mindfulness (natural, effortless, spontaneous)
Action: Spontaneous (easy, appropriate, flowing)
which are natural, spontaneous – a result of dissolving of the me/other distinction.
Attitude/perspective: Completely un-self-centred. Natural, not result of training.
Moods: Easy, possibly fluctuating, dependent on circumstances (external or internal), but only on
the 'surface.' Deep mood firmly anchored in the "inner peace"
of all sensations and hence always present.
http://www.the-science-of-enlightenment.com/