NON-DUALITY
True lasting happiness can never be found outside ourselves. (Happiness is sought in external things, people, places events, etc., but such happiness never lasts).
How do we experience some happiness in external objects... It's not there is any happiness in those things per se, but when any desire or dissatisfaction arises in our mind, our mind becomes agitated. The more the mind is agitated, the more the happiness which is our real nature is clouded over. When a desire is satisfied, temporarily, that agitation subsides and a little bit of the happiness from within is manifest so we feel a little bit of pleasure. And then again dissatisfaction comes, and so we associate pleasure with external things, so we continue seeking happiness externally. You are never going to be satisfied in this way... Very finite and limited in time and it is limited in the quality or magnitude or degree.
Who Am I? - True Source of Happiness is Within
To experience true and lasting happiness which is our real nature, we need to know ourselves. And for that the principle means is self-investigation "Who Am I?" Not just verbally or mentally ask ourselves, who A I, simply denotes the investigation that has to take place to find out what this "I" really is. If someone hands you a book and says "what is in this book?" We don't just sit there saying "Whats in this book? Whats in this book? Whats in this book? We open the book read it, and investigate it experientially to find out what is in the book.
Peace No mental agitation) = Happiness
We associate peace with happiness. Nobody feels peace is suffering. Peace one clue we have. Mind is agitated, usually not happy. Mind is calm we feel more happiness. Every day we experience a state mind not active, deep sleep. Nobody reports being miserable in sleep. Reason is the activity of our mind which is obscuring the happiness which is our real nature. When the mind subsides in sleep, we experience that happiness.
We don't have to accept Inquiry with blind faith
Experiential clues... Cannot prove until we experience it ourselves. Buddha, Christ, Bhagavan - Infinite happiness is within, have to take that on faith as first as a hypothesis (don't have to believe blindly). But In any learning process, there is a certain amount of trust in those who have gone before us, so we don't automatically doubt everything our teachers tell us. We don't have to blindly believe it but we take it as part of the learning process.
Doubt everything, even the existence of the doubter
But with any external knowledge, there's always a chance that whatever we experience could be an illusion; we can never be sure of anything (QM). If you want to take doubt to the extreme, we cannot be sure there is an external world, we cannot be sure there is anything, except "I" and what "I" am experiencing this very moment (QM/phenomenology). Even our memory, that memory is just a thought or idea in mind. Even is open for doubt except I AM. The one thing we cannot reasonably doubt is the fact that we exist. We might not know what we are, but we know THAT we are, because if we didn't exist as something we couldn't be experiencing all this. I think therefore I am not entirely valid, because thinking has two sides. We both produce the thought and experience the thought. Or if thoughts just come, there is still something called "I" which is experiencing these thoughts.
Power of attention
The primary tool for knowing anything is our power of attention. If we want to know the world, we turn our attention outwards (using 5 senses and intellect), but if we want to know ourself, we need to turn our attention within. But we cannot use our senses to know ourselves, because our self is no object, it is the subject that is experiencing things through those senses. And there is no instrument by which we can investigate what we are. The only tool we have to know what we are is our power of attention.
What we are doing when we wake up until we go to sleep and from when one dream starts until it ends, is that we are constantly attending to things that seem to be other than ourself. Whether they really are other than ourself or not, we don't know, but at least they seem to be. All these objects in the world seem to be different from myself, even the thoughts that arise in my mind. Me and a thought (my thoughts).
As a background to all these things, whatever else we experience, we also experience 'I am', because it is always I am experiencing this, so there is always a background of self awareness underlying all our other experiences. But we tend to overlook that, not pay attention to it, and we attach more importance to other things.
Watch a movie, but we don't see the screen (self awareness always there, but we overlook).
**Why Self Inquiry can be/seem hard**
When the mind turns its attention towards itself (no such thing as mind), it dissolves, and all that remains is I AM.
So the existence of the thinking I is threatened by turning its attention selfwards/inwards
The more it attends to things externally (outward attention), the more the illusion of its own existence is strengthened.
The more it turns its attention towards itself, the more that illusion dissolves.
We experience ourselves as a mind inhabiting a body, and we have a natural instinct, a natural desire, for self preservation (we do everything we can to avoid danger to the body). Just as we try to sustain the body, we try to sustain this mind because we also experience the mind as "I".
Turning inward to "I" alone we find the mind is beginning to dissolve and so we instinctively we struggle for survival, the mind continually turns its attention outward feeding on external experiences (food for the mind).
To whom does this experience, Who Am I...
Don't have to constantly ask questions, what Bhagavan Is trying to draw our attention to is every experience we have, every thought that rises in our mind, every feeling we have, every sight we see, there are there because I AM.
So we are ALWAYS THERE! We can use this.
If we train our mind properly nothing becomes a distraction because everything reminds us of our own existence.
So if we cultivate this habit of turning the attention self-wards, inwards or I-wards, we will find it keeps on coming back again and again, whatever experience is there.
Ideal, because in practice we have strong vasanas and our mind is constantly dragged away towards other things.
But by practicing this more and more, we can weaken those vasanas , we can weaken the vasanas to think other things and we can increase what is sometimes called the sat-vasana (the liking just to be).
The more we abide in just that state of self-awareness or self attentiveness (not an activity) not moving anywhere. Self attention is not an activity it is a state of being.
It is a practice of Being, not a practice of doing.
But because we have a strong liking "to do" ie. to think, to see, to hear, to all these things, withdrawing our attention from everything else seems to require effort.
But not an effort to do, its an effort to be.
Its not an effort to be, because we are always there, but it IS an effort to JUST BE, without anything else.
Gita: no effort is lost and no obstacle exists.
Cow in stall, nice green grass, not a stick.
Tempt the mind to come back to the self.
We all find different ways that work well for us. Only you know your own house.
Devotional - God (or Ishtadeva) is I... Love for God draws attention back to I.
External form is temporary manifestation, but it is in the heart
Gita Krishna Says: I am the Self in the heart of every being.
Bible: Lo (means to look), do not seek it here or there, for the kingdom of heaven is within.
Luke 17:21
nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
OM technique - NADA for me lately. But even for us personally , other clues appeal to us more at one time, other clues another time... We keep investigating in a way that keeps the 'green grass' enticing to go back into the stall.
The most fundamental thing is we are all seeking happiness/peace. If we are convinced happiness lies within (green grass for ALL).
Bhagavan, this is my experience, if you want to find out if it is true or not, you have to experience it yourself. Must see truth with your own eye!
Simply knowing the philosophy is NOT ENOUGH! It will not solve our problems. Our problems will be solved only by a direct experience of what we are.
One moment of absolutely clear self awareness and the illusion is dissolved forever.
There is never a time we are not experiencing the Self, but the problem is the Self is mixed up with all these other things, body, mind, sense objects, etc.
Peeling layers of onion, until center, and at the centerpoint there is no onion, no mind at all just Being the Self.
The more we make effort to be self attentive, the more we familiarize ourselves with that. It does with time continue in the background. Sometimes stronger than other times... Heart glow, Nada, peace.
Whatever we are given to experience in our outer life is what is most favorable for us at that particular stage of our life. So anyone can practice. God omnipresent and merciful. Everything is perfect as it is!
How do we experience some happiness in external objects... It's not there is any happiness in those things per se, but when any desire or dissatisfaction arises in our mind, our mind becomes agitated. The more the mind is agitated, the more the happiness which is our real nature is clouded over. When a desire is satisfied, temporarily, that agitation subsides and a little bit of the happiness from within is manifest so we feel a little bit of pleasure. And then again dissatisfaction comes, and so we associate pleasure with external things, so we continue seeking happiness externally. You are never going to be satisfied in this way... Very finite and limited in time and it is limited in the quality or magnitude or degree.
Who Am I? - True Source of Happiness is Within
To experience true and lasting happiness which is our real nature, we need to know ourselves. And for that the principle means is self-investigation "Who Am I?" Not just verbally or mentally ask ourselves, who A I, simply denotes the investigation that has to take place to find out what this "I" really is. If someone hands you a book and says "what is in this book?" We don't just sit there saying "Whats in this book? Whats in this book? Whats in this book? We open the book read it, and investigate it experientially to find out what is in the book.
Peace No mental agitation) = Happiness
We associate peace with happiness. Nobody feels peace is suffering. Peace one clue we have. Mind is agitated, usually not happy. Mind is calm we feel more happiness. Every day we experience a state mind not active, deep sleep. Nobody reports being miserable in sleep. Reason is the activity of our mind which is obscuring the happiness which is our real nature. When the mind subsides in sleep, we experience that happiness.
We don't have to accept Inquiry with blind faith
Experiential clues... Cannot prove until we experience it ourselves. Buddha, Christ, Bhagavan - Infinite happiness is within, have to take that on faith as first as a hypothesis (don't have to believe blindly). But In any learning process, there is a certain amount of trust in those who have gone before us, so we don't automatically doubt everything our teachers tell us. We don't have to blindly believe it but we take it as part of the learning process.
Doubt everything, even the existence of the doubter
But with any external knowledge, there's always a chance that whatever we experience could be an illusion; we can never be sure of anything (QM). If you want to take doubt to the extreme, we cannot be sure there is an external world, we cannot be sure there is anything, except "I" and what "I" am experiencing this very moment (QM/phenomenology). Even our memory, that memory is just a thought or idea in mind. Even is open for doubt except I AM. The one thing we cannot reasonably doubt is the fact that we exist. We might not know what we are, but we know THAT we are, because if we didn't exist as something we couldn't be experiencing all this. I think therefore I am not entirely valid, because thinking has two sides. We both produce the thought and experience the thought. Or if thoughts just come, there is still something called "I" which is experiencing these thoughts.
Power of attention
The primary tool for knowing anything is our power of attention. If we want to know the world, we turn our attention outwards (using 5 senses and intellect), but if we want to know ourself, we need to turn our attention within. But we cannot use our senses to know ourselves, because our self is no object, it is the subject that is experiencing things through those senses. And there is no instrument by which we can investigate what we are. The only tool we have to know what we are is our power of attention.
What we are doing when we wake up until we go to sleep and from when one dream starts until it ends, is that we are constantly attending to things that seem to be other than ourself. Whether they really are other than ourself or not, we don't know, but at least they seem to be. All these objects in the world seem to be different from myself, even the thoughts that arise in my mind. Me and a thought (my thoughts).
As a background to all these things, whatever else we experience, we also experience 'I am', because it is always I am experiencing this, so there is always a background of self awareness underlying all our other experiences. But we tend to overlook that, not pay attention to it, and we attach more importance to other things.
Watch a movie, but we don't see the screen (self awareness always there, but we overlook).
**Why Self Inquiry can be/seem hard**
When the mind turns its attention towards itself (no such thing as mind), it dissolves, and all that remains is I AM.
So the existence of the thinking I is threatened by turning its attention selfwards/inwards
The more it attends to things externally (outward attention), the more the illusion of its own existence is strengthened.
The more it turns its attention towards itself, the more that illusion dissolves.
We experience ourselves as a mind inhabiting a body, and we have a natural instinct, a natural desire, for self preservation (we do everything we can to avoid danger to the body). Just as we try to sustain the body, we try to sustain this mind because we also experience the mind as "I".
Turning inward to "I" alone we find the mind is beginning to dissolve and so we instinctively we struggle for survival, the mind continually turns its attention outward feeding on external experiences (food for the mind).
To whom does this experience, Who Am I...
Don't have to constantly ask questions, what Bhagavan Is trying to draw our attention to is every experience we have, every thought that rises in our mind, every feeling we have, every sight we see, there are there because I AM.
So we are ALWAYS THERE! We can use this.
If we train our mind properly nothing becomes a distraction because everything reminds us of our own existence.
So if we cultivate this habit of turning the attention self-wards, inwards or I-wards, we will find it keeps on coming back again and again, whatever experience is there.
Ideal, because in practice we have strong vasanas and our mind is constantly dragged away towards other things.
But by practicing this more and more, we can weaken those vasanas , we can weaken the vasanas to think other things and we can increase what is sometimes called the sat-vasana (the liking just to be).
The more we abide in just that state of self-awareness or self attentiveness (not an activity) not moving anywhere. Self attention is not an activity it is a state of being.
It is a practice of Being, not a practice of doing.
But because we have a strong liking "to do" ie. to think, to see, to hear, to all these things, withdrawing our attention from everything else seems to require effort.
But not an effort to do, its an effort to be.
Its not an effort to be, because we are always there, but it IS an effort to JUST BE, without anything else.
Gita: no effort is lost and no obstacle exists.
Cow in stall, nice green grass, not a stick.
Tempt the mind to come back to the self.
We all find different ways that work well for us. Only you know your own house.
Devotional - God (or Ishtadeva) is I... Love for God draws attention back to I.
External form is temporary manifestation, but it is in the heart
Gita Krishna Says: I am the Self in the heart of every being.
Bible: Lo (means to look), do not seek it here or there, for the kingdom of heaven is within.
Luke 17:21
nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
OM technique - NADA for me lately. But even for us personally , other clues appeal to us more at one time, other clues another time... We keep investigating in a way that keeps the 'green grass' enticing to go back into the stall.
The most fundamental thing is we are all seeking happiness/peace. If we are convinced happiness lies within (green grass for ALL).
Bhagavan, this is my experience, if you want to find out if it is true or not, you have to experience it yourself. Must see truth with your own eye!
Simply knowing the philosophy is NOT ENOUGH! It will not solve our problems. Our problems will be solved only by a direct experience of what we are.
One moment of absolutely clear self awareness and the illusion is dissolved forever.
There is never a time we are not experiencing the Self, but the problem is the Self is mixed up with all these other things, body, mind, sense objects, etc.
Peeling layers of onion, until center, and at the centerpoint there is no onion, no mind at all just Being the Self.
The more we make effort to be self attentive, the more we familiarize ourselves with that. It does with time continue in the background. Sometimes stronger than other times... Heart glow, Nada, peace.
Whatever we are given to experience in our outer life is what is most favorable for us at that particular stage of our life. So anyone can practice. God omnipresent and merciful. Everything is perfect as it is!
"The many different pleasures enjoyed through the mind are just superficial bubbles on the sea of brahmic bliss."
Ramana Maharshi explained how it is said in books that the highest possible happiness, which a human being can attain or which the ten grades of beings higher than man, ending with gods like Brahma can attain, is like foam in the deluging flood of the bliss of the Self.
Imagine a man in robust health; of vigorous adult age, endowed with unsurpassed wealth and power, with intellect and all other resources, and married to a fair and faithful wife, and conceive of his happiness.
Each higher grade of being above man is capable of a hundred-fold greater happiness than that of the grade below. But the highest happiness of all the eleven grades of being is only the foam in the flooding ocean of divine bliss.
====
10 Grades of Bliss/Happiness
Taittiriya Upanishad (2/8)
The following is the enquiry concerning bliss (Ananda Brahman).
Suppose there be a youth, a good youth, well-versed in the scriptures, well-disciplined, resolute and very strong. Suppose, his is all this earth, full of wealth. This is one human bliss. (This is the unit measure of human bliss).
A hundredfold of the human bliss is the unit measure of the bliss of human Gandharvas, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of human Gandharvas is the unit measure of the bliss of celestial Gandharvas, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of celestial Gandharvas is the unit measure of the bliss of the manes, who dwell in the long-enduring world, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of the manes who dwell in the long-enduring world, is the unit measure of the bliss of the Devas born in heaven, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of the Devas born in heaven is the unit measure of the bliss of gods known as Karma Devas, those who have become Devas by their sacrificial deeds, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of the gods, known as Karma Devas, is the unit measure of the bliss of lndra, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of lndra is the unit measure of the bliss of Brihaspati, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of Brihaspati is the unit measure of the bliss of Prajapati, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of Prajapati is the unit measure of the bliss of Brahma, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
The bliss of god which is beyond all these is said to be infinite.
Commentary:
The Upanishad gives here a gradation of joy experienced in the phenomenal world. The unknown should be approached through the known. Sense pleasure is familiar to everyone. It must, therefore, be possible for us to conceive the supreme bliss of Brahman by the intellect, as the farthest imaginable limit or the climax of human joy multiplied infinitely both quantitatively and qualitatively.
But, all this intellectual conception cannot even touch the border land of the real Bliss of Brahman which is to be experienced by oneself, nay, which is to be identified with one's own Self.
There is no higher or lower degree in the supreme Bliss of Brahman. It is only in the sensual pleasures, generated by meritorious karmas, that there are higher and lower degrees.
When knowledge is veiled by ignorance and when the veil of ignorance becomes thicker and thicker, the bliss of Brahman becomes more and more distorted, reflected and refracted through the intellect in the form of sense pleasure, admitting of various degrees as experienced by celestials and others according to their past karmas.
The joy of one who is physically and mentally healthy and abundantly rich among men, who is lord of others and possessed of all human enjoyments, has been taken as the unit of joy for measuring the higher degrees of joy, and finally for enabling us to have an intellectual conception of the infinite Bliss of Brahman.
Even this lowest unit is not actually enjoyed by any one, and it is only a conceptual idea.
The scale of degrees of happiness runs like this:
Man,
Conqueror of the world of manes,
Gandharvas,
Karma-devas who gain divinity through actions,
Ajana-devas or gods by birth,
Prajapati or virat, and
Brahma or Hiranyagarbha.
The essential nature of the ultimate reality is happiness.
We are sat-chit-ananda - beginningless, endless, undivided, infinite.
We have gotten ourself into a situation where we seem to ourselves to be a finite being, a body and a mind, that takes that body to be "I". And this is what we take to be ourselves.
Ramana Maharshi explained how it is said in books that the highest possible happiness, which a human being can attain or which the ten grades of beings higher than man, ending with gods like Brahma can attain, is like foam in the deluging flood of the bliss of the Self.
Imagine a man in robust health; of vigorous adult age, endowed with unsurpassed wealth and power, with intellect and all other resources, and married to a fair and faithful wife, and conceive of his happiness.
Each higher grade of being above man is capable of a hundred-fold greater happiness than that of the grade below. But the highest happiness of all the eleven grades of being is only the foam in the flooding ocean of divine bliss.
====
10 Grades of Bliss/Happiness
Taittiriya Upanishad (2/8)
The following is the enquiry concerning bliss (Ananda Brahman).
Suppose there be a youth, a good youth, well-versed in the scriptures, well-disciplined, resolute and very strong. Suppose, his is all this earth, full of wealth. This is one human bliss. (This is the unit measure of human bliss).
A hundredfold of the human bliss is the unit measure of the bliss of human Gandharvas, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of human Gandharvas is the unit measure of the bliss of celestial Gandharvas, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of celestial Gandharvas is the unit measure of the bliss of the manes, who dwell in the long-enduring world, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of the manes who dwell in the long-enduring world, is the unit measure of the bliss of the Devas born in heaven, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of the Devas born in heaven is the unit measure of the bliss of gods known as Karma Devas, those who have become Devas by their sacrificial deeds, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of the gods, known as Karma Devas, is the unit measure of the bliss of lndra, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of lndra is the unit measure of the bliss of Brihaspati, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of Brihaspati is the unit measure of the bliss of Prajapati, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
A hundredfold of the bliss of Prajapati is the unit measure of the bliss of Brahma, and also is the bliss of one versed in the Vedas, who is free from desires.
The bliss of god which is beyond all these is said to be infinite.
Commentary:
The Upanishad gives here a gradation of joy experienced in the phenomenal world. The unknown should be approached through the known. Sense pleasure is familiar to everyone. It must, therefore, be possible for us to conceive the supreme bliss of Brahman by the intellect, as the farthest imaginable limit or the climax of human joy multiplied infinitely both quantitatively and qualitatively.
But, all this intellectual conception cannot even touch the border land of the real Bliss of Brahman which is to be experienced by oneself, nay, which is to be identified with one's own Self.
There is no higher or lower degree in the supreme Bliss of Brahman. It is only in the sensual pleasures, generated by meritorious karmas, that there are higher and lower degrees.
When knowledge is veiled by ignorance and when the veil of ignorance becomes thicker and thicker, the bliss of Brahman becomes more and more distorted, reflected and refracted through the intellect in the form of sense pleasure, admitting of various degrees as experienced by celestials and others according to their past karmas.
The joy of one who is physically and mentally healthy and abundantly rich among men, who is lord of others and possessed of all human enjoyments, has been taken as the unit of joy for measuring the higher degrees of joy, and finally for enabling us to have an intellectual conception of the infinite Bliss of Brahman.
Even this lowest unit is not actually enjoyed by any one, and it is only a conceptual idea.
The scale of degrees of happiness runs like this:
Man,
Conqueror of the world of manes,
Gandharvas,
Karma-devas who gain divinity through actions,
Ajana-devas or gods by birth,
Prajapati or virat, and
Brahma or Hiranyagarbha.
The essential nature of the ultimate reality is happiness.
We are sat-chit-ananda - beginningless, endless, undivided, infinite.
We have gotten ourself into a situation where we seem to ourselves to be a finite being, a body and a mind, that takes that body to be "I". And this is what we take to be ourselves.