Self-enquiry

Spirituality
#1

While there are different paths to follow to self-realisation, there is general agreement that one should ‘witness everything’ - the body and senses, the breath and of course the mind. It is taught that in meditation, and if possible in daily life, we should let thoughts come and go and not get attached to them, thus uncolouring the thoughts. One should also meditate on the fact ‘I am not the body’, ‘I am not the mind’ etc.

While the above approach does make sense for general meditation and is probably beneficial in lots of ways, I have been reading the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj and am currently reading ‘The Path of Sri Ramana’. He taught that for self-realisation, instead of focusing on what one is not, ie. witnessing everything including all our thoughts, and then negating everything, the correct and direct and path is to fix our attention entirely on the Self as the first person, with no other thoughts. This way the ego is not strengthened by continuing to focus on second and third persons and gross objects and is no longer fed and will therefore die, and we can then rest as the pure Self.

I would welcome your views and discussions about these different teachings. Thank you very much.

#2

Speaking from my direct experience/path, ego never died but it no longer rules the roost, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (eight limbs) deprogramed minds conceptual nonsense, jnana of Vedanta mostly writings of Shankara, Paramahansa , Ramana, Vivekananda, Nisargadatta allowed staying with the origin of consciousness, exploring true self, recognizing the false as false, utilizing Tantric practices while deeply meditating/reflecting/examining the relationship of Atma/Brahman/Parabrahman, realizing I AM is the only constant, inquiring WHO AM I by determining what one is not, realize there is no doer, the seeker is the sought that knowledge and wisdom indicated I am nothing love’s intuition reveals I am everything, no one lives a life…life simply happens…there is not a notion inside human consciousness outside the realm of ignorance including this one, how can one describe the indescribable Truth. Dispositions vary; jnana, bhakti, karma, raja etc. if one feels compelled towards something by all means get out of the way and begin the examination towards confirmation, remember anybody can parrot follow the inner guru after all you are not in the world the world is in you, the paradox is endless.

#3

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience Ray. I’m happy for you that, as you say the ego “no longer rules the roost”.

You say for you the ego never died, but I was wondering have you times of being in pure awareness, whether very brief or longer, which has confirmed everything about consciousness, illusion etc to you and given you inspiration? Or is it that you have trained your mind so well through meditation and self-enquiry, together with a strong belief in Vedanta which has brought you to this stage? Or has it been all of these things?

Look forward to your reply Ray, thanks again, and replies from anyone else would be great, thanks.