Self Inquiry; Going Back the Way We Came

The practice of Self-Inquiry or Atma Vichara as it is known in the ancient Sanskrit texts of Advaita Vedanta stems from the time of the Rishis in India.

It was brought into the modern era principally by one of its greatest exponents; Sri Ramana Maharshi; the peerless Sage of Arunachala.

In answer to various people’s questions on Self-Inquiry, the Maharshi often would say; 'go back the way you came.' Some would take his words as being something of a brush off, but in actuality, he was giving a profound teaching and heart advice by way of these few simple words.

To go back the way we came means to turn the mind towards its 'source;' towards our true nature from which this world and everything in it has arisen. 

"I AM THAT I AM (Exodus) implies that the

proof of Existence is Existence itself."

Adapted from Ramana Maharshi's Truth Revealed

1. What is Self-Inquiry?

Self-Inquiry takes the energy of the mind, which is normally dispersed and attentive mostly to external happenings and drives it back towards the source from which it arises.


Continue reading in Return to Forever

Are You Bored or Distracted?

The Life you Lead, Leunig

“As it is, we are merely bolting our lives—gulping down undigested experiences as fast as we can stuff them in—because awareness of our own existence is so superficial and so narrow that nothing seems to us more boring than simple being.  

If I ask you what you did, saw, heard, smelled, touched and tasted yesterday, I am likely to get nothing more than the thin, sketchy outline of the few things that you noticed, and of those only what you thought worth remembering. 

Is it surprising that an existence so experienced seems so empty and bare that its hunger for an infinite future is insatiable? 

But suppose you could answer, “It would take me forever to tell you, and I am much too interested in what’s happening now.” 

How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such a fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself as anything less than a god? And, when you consider that this incalculably subtle organism is inseparable from the still more marvelous patterns of its environment—from the minutest electrical designs to the whole company of the galaxies—how is it conceivable that this incarnation of all eternity can be bored with being?”

~ Alan Watts, The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

It is quite likely that few who read these words really understand what they mean... It's not that this is hard to understand; its incredibly easy, but the mind has a way of circumventing simplicity. It has a way of bypassing the present moment to seek out and constantly engage in either a projected future or a remembered past.

It is amazing just how much of our lives are held to ransom bypassing emotional 'infatuations.'

'Life' slips by, unnoticed, because we are so continuously mentally and emotionally busy with the things that appear to be happening to us and around us; to say nothing of our private mental preoccupations.

Continue Reading in Return to Forever

The Sage of Arunachala

Among thousands of men scarce one strive'th for Perfection;

of the successful strivers,

scarce one Knowe'th ME in essence.

Bagavad Gita

Recognizing the truth of who and what we really are, is the key to finding meaning and joy in this life. It is the permanent solution to ending suffering.

When a Being radiates that truth, through their own living-ness, whether they are in the body or not, its effects are extraordinarily powerful and all pervasive.

Sri Ramana Maharshi is the archetypal Guru of our times. Why, you might ask? 

• Because in our age of technological advancement and complexity, his message is one of utter simplicity.
• Because the question; who am I? cuts through the divisions created by religion and race.
• Because, who am I? break down all the boundaries, placing before us, a truth that each and everyone of us can verify for ourselves, NOW.

Each of us is given the choice to recognize what is 'choice-less.'

To recognize the fact of our Awareness!

The Maharshi's life was a perfect manifestation of this living truth.

His 'after-life,' is a testament to that which crosses the boundaries of time and space.

Until the time when we are able to recognize the truth of our own nature, a 'Guru' is necessary. S/he, acts like a beacon of light in the darkness. When that 'truth' is realized and embodied, it can be understood that Guru and Self are one and the same...

Such have I known, Him of the lustrous eyes, Him whose sole look pierced to the heart, of wisdom deeper than the holy book, of Truth alone.

Arthur Osborne

Read more in Masters, Mice and Men

Volume Three in Shades of Awareness

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He Who Beats The Drum

Nisargadatta Maharaj.

"Use everything as an opportunity to go within!

  Ask Yourself - 'To whom does all this happen!'

  Light your way by burning up obstacles in the intensity of awareness."

To all appearances Nisargadatta Maharaj looked like a simple bidi seller,(these are small Indian leaf-rolled cigarettes). He was, by all appearances, an ordinary married man, plying his trade in order to support a wife and children.  His home was in a red light district of Mumbai, next to a public latrine.

He was a man who assumed no airs, but who also, bowed to none, but his Guru. A man whose eyes shone with an inner fire.  

One day a young Polish-man who had been living many years in India, namely Maurice Frydman, was strolling down a back lane in this particular area of Bombay when he noticed this bidi seller in the midst of an animated conversation with several other men.

He had learnt to speak Marathi, the main dialect spoken in Maharashtra, the state in which Bombay is situated.  So he was able to understand much of what was being spoken and it stopped him in his tracks.

Maurice Frydman had a knack of picking out 'jnanis' (liberated beings) even in the midst of an ordinary throng. While listening to the conversation taking place he was astounded at the wisdom and profound clarity of understanding of this 'simple bidi walla'...

Read more in Never Not Ever Here Now

Books by the Writer

So, Who Are You?

If you stop  and ask yourself, 'what is the most important question I can ever ask myself?'  you might come up with one of the following...

Who am I?   or  Why am I here?  or  What is Mind?

That is, if you really take the time to consider.  If you really stop everything for a moment, and just look... And if we press ourselves a little bit harder, we would probably find that the keystone of all questions can be condensed into 'who am i?'

Life is such an explosion of everything that can ever be imagined.

But what is it really?  Behind all of 'that' what is it that 'sees'...?

Read more in;  Never Not Ever Here Now

Do Not Be Distracted

Adi Annamalai

Even in the very midst of the myriad demands of day to day life it is possible to find moments of peace.

We live in times that are  saturated by the media, instant communications and electromagnetic 'noise'.
  
Often we can feel that we are hurled along in a kind of vacuum over which it seems we have very little control.  This gives us the sense of constant and almost endless 'busyness'.  A feeling that life is rushing by and we are merely trying to stay abreast of events...

Excerpt from the book Never Not Ever Here Now