The yoga of self inquiry the essence of ramana maharshis non dual advaita meditation for enlightenment

62 Pages·2016·0.36 MB·English

by  Ramaji

The Yoga

of

Self-Inquiry
Books By Ramaji

1000

Who Am I? Meditation

No Mind No Problem

The Spiritual Heart

You Are Everything

Waking Up As Awareness

The Tao of Non-Doing

Heal Your Body, Free Your Mind

Warning From Kali 2013
The Yoga of Self-Inquiry

The Essence of Ramana Maharshi's

Non-Dual Advaita Meditation

for Enlightenment

By

Ramaji
The Yoga of Self-Inquiry

The Essence of Ramana Maharshi's
Non-Dual Advaita Meditation for Enlightenment

Copyright © 2015 Ramaji

Ramaji.org
Ramaji Books
San Diego, California Email: [email protected]

Ramaji wishes to personally thank Prasant Radhakrishnan for his special contributions to this book. Prasant
is an extremely gifted Indian classical and jazz saxophonist. His website is PrasantMusic.com.

The cover photograph of Sri Ramana Maharshi was taken by G. G. Welling in 1948. It is believed to be in
public domain. This information and this particular image was accessed January, 2015. It is provided
courtesy of http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sri_Ramana_Maharshi_-_Portrait_-_G._G_Welling_-
_1948.jpg.

All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, either by
electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without the prior
written permission of the publisher. The only exception is for a reviewer who may quote brief passages in
the review.
Table of Contents

You Are the Master Or You Are the Slave

The Two-Step Self-Inquiry Technique

Drop the Mind Into the Heart

The First Question: Who Is Having This Experience?

The Second Question: Where Do You Come From?

The Self-Inquiry Road Map

From "Batting Practice" to Falling into the Heart

Resting in the Heart As You Notice Your Thoughts

Noticing the Rising of Every Single Thought

You As the Heart Are the Source of Your Thoughts

The I-Thought Is the Hidden Mastermind or Big Dog Thought

Aham Sphurana: Light, Sound, Pulsation and Truth from the Heart

Sahaja and the Dissolution of the Point of Frozen Attention

Sahaja and the Disappearance of the World

The Joy of Self-Realization
The RASA Revolution

Journey to the Heart of Truth

Meet the Author
You Are the Master Or You Are the
Slave

Self-inquiry is not a passive watching approach to meditation. It is dynamic and
assertive. As your Self-inquiry practice builds strength, you will be able to notice
each thought and deal with it. This is how you arrive at the true no thought state,
the real Peace and sublime Silence.

When you are not conscious and aware of each rising thought, in just a few
seconds you find yourself off on a joyride to a nowhere land of suffering. That's
why Self-inquiry is difficult for many people. You are addicted to thinking. You
believe your thoughts and identify with them. You don't realize that your
constant torrent of thoughts is an out of control addiction.

If you want to be free from suffering, you must become the master of your
thoughts. The only way to be a master of your thoughts when every thought is a
potential thief of your happiness is to be aware of every single one of them and
show each one of them who is the real boss.

If you are like most people, the mind is the master. You are the slave. It is the
nature of the mind to allow for only two possibilities. It is the master or you are
the master. Whoever is not the master becomes the slave. It would be nice if we
could all be friends and just get along.

The mind will not allow that. The mind brings a sword. The mind brings
division, confusion and suffering. The mind must be put down or made into a
slave.

It is your life. Will you be the master or will you be the slave? The choice is
yours.
The Two-Step Self-Inquiry Technique

The basic Self-inquiry technique I teach is a two-step method. You use it to
confront thoughts and knock them back down into the Silence of the Heart.
When a thought or experience arises, you ask "Who is having this experience?"
followed by "Where do you come from?"

If you are familiar with the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, then, at least
intellectually, you already know the answer to the second question. The I-
thought comes from the heart. That's where all of the thoughts come from. They
start in the heart and go up to the head.

Some people are able to experience the Heart on the right (Hridayam). This is
the precise place where thoughts arise from according to Ramana. It corresponds
to the causal chakra, a real location that can be felt in the body. Many of my
students have experiences of Hridayam.

Most people have heard of Self-inquiry as "Who am I?" This two-step method
breaks that generic question up into a logical sequence with two highly effective
complementary parts.

"Who is having this experience of depression?" The answer is the I-thought.

"Where do you, the one having this experience, come from?" The answer is the
heart.

The two questions are not a rigid formula. The first question can be in the form
of "Who is having this thought?" or "Who is having this emotion?" or something
else that works for you.

The second question does not have to be a certain place in the body. It is
designed to break your identification with your thoughts. This identification
includes the widespread illusion that your thoughts originate in your head. True,
they are showing up in your head, but they were not born in your head. Sooner
or later, you will see that your thoughts rise up.