Ramesh Balsekar - The Ultimate Understanding

Ramesh S. Balsekar

the
Ultimate
Understanding

OTHER RAMESH BALSEKAR TITLES
PUBLISHED BY YOGI IMPRESSIONS

The Ramesh Balsekar Collectors Set (2010)

The End of Duality (2009)

Advaita on Zen and Tao (2008)

90 Steps to Oneness Wisdom Deck (2007)

The Only Way to Live (2006)

Let Life Flow (2005)

The One in the Mirror (2004)

The Seeking (2004)

The Happening of a Guru: A Biography (2003)

Peace and Harmony in Daily Living (2003)

The Ultimate Understanding (Hardbound) (2001)

Ramesh S. Balsekar

the
Ultimate
Understanding

Edited by
Susan Waterman

THE ULTIMATE UNDERSTANDING
First published in India in 2001 by
Yogi Impressions Books Pvt. Ltd.
1711, Centre 1, World Trade Centre,
Cuffe Parade, Mumbai 400 005, India.
Website: www.yogiimpressions.com

First Edition, May 2001
Revised Edition, October 2012

Copyright 2001 by Ramesh Balsekar

All handwriting in this book by Ramesh S. Balsekar
Handwriting copyright 2001 by Ramesh S. Balsekar

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, or transmitted in any form, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-81-88479-93-1

Printed at: Repro India Ltd., Mumbai

W EI W U W EI ...

The implied Unicity, the totality of undivided mind, is itself a concept of its own division or duality, for relatively relativity being relative to what itself is it cannot be conceived or known at all.

All that could ever be known about it is simply that, being Absolute, it must necessarily be devoid of any kind of objective existence whatever, other than that of the totality of all possible phenomena which constitute its relative appearance.

C ONTENTS

1.1-1.16
Space-time Phenomenality

2.1-2.20
Intemporality

3.1-3.12
Enlightenment

4.1-4.14
Realm of Noumenality

5.1-5.30
Wu Wei: Non-volitional Living

6.1-6.22
Unbroken Wholeness

7.1-7.23
Fusion in Unicity

8.1-8.21
The Ultimate Illusion

9.1-9.20
The Dreamer

10.1-10.6
Advaita (Non-duality):
The Hindu View

P UBLISHERS N OTE

Before seeing Rameshs dedication of this unique and special book, and being fairly new to the world of Advaita, the name Wei Wu Wei was completely unknown to me. So, I did what most of my generation would do. I took recourse to the internet. And, the search resulted in 1,410 references on Wei Wu Wei. The first site I visited narrated one of Wei Wu Weis stories, The Tenth Man. I was truly spellbound, and immediately began to appreciate the impact of this mans teachings.

Rameshs markings in his copies of Wei Wu Weis books revealed the tremendous impact the teachings had on him. I was totally surprised by what I saw when leafing through the books: Rameshs notes and underlinings, all kinds of underlines, on nearly every page. Some sentences had red underlines, while others had blue. Some were double red, others were double blue. The rare ones were green. And the very rare ones were double green. I felt an urgent intensity in those underlines, each and every one precisely underlined. It was as if Ramesh were devouring every word that he read. In addition to the underlines were Rameshs profuse notes, meticulously penciled on almost every page, filling margins and empty spaces. They seemed to be a kind of written confirmation of his deep respect for Wei Wu Wei, and more importantly, for the teaching.

My first reading of the manuscript of this book brought to mind an anecdote that was an account by Salvador Dali, the great Spanish painter, of his first encounter with Pablo Picasso. It took place in Picassos house in Paris, where Dali had gone to pay Picasso a visit and present him with one of his paintings. In return, Picasso showed Dali a multitude of canvases, stacked row by row, for over two hours. With each canvas he cast a glance at Dali filled with a vivacity and intelligence so violent it made Dali tremble. Dali left without making the slightest comment, but on the landing of the stairs they exchanged a glance which meant exactly, You get the idea? I get it, Dali replied. This is exactly what I heard Ramesh asking me, and every reader, throughout the text, which has been presented with vivacity, with total conviction and clarity, for the benefit of our understanding. You, like me, may find your own most dearly-held beliefs the Himalayas of your ideas in Dalis words, being turned into little paper boats.

This book is a powerful mirror of Rameshs love for the teaching, love for Wei Wu Wei, and for you, dear reader. If you have had the opportunity of sitting in satsang with Ramesh, as you read you may recognize the experience of Ramesh speaking directly to you. The beauty of the teaching lies in its timeless quality: eternal, immutable, and boundless. Emanating from the very Source, the teaching is for all generations, for every generation here and now. For, as Ramesh says, its about the most important thing in your life: peace and harmony in your life.

Gautam Sachdeva
Mumbai, India
April, 2001

I NTRODUCTION

Rameshs comments and handwritings in Wei Wu Weis books

Perhaps you, the reader, have already noticed that Ramesh has dedicated this book to Wei Wu Wei, a contemporary scholar of Tao philosophy. Some of the writings in this book were originally comments Ramesh had written in the margins of Wei Wu Weis books as he was reading around thirty years ago. From the inception of this book, Rameshs wish was that it be a special tribute to a man whose words had a profound impact during the process he has described as dis-identification as a separate doer-entity the process going on to culminate eventually in what is called enlightenment. This total dis-identification as a separate doer is the happening of the Ultimate Understanding.

The following is an excerpt concerning Wei Wu Wei, taken from a letter written by Ramesh to a disciple in January, 1989 (published in Consciousness Writes):

When I wrote the preface for my first book, Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj, I had included the following paragraph in it:

As I was translating Shri Maharajs talks into English, I began noticing in my translations the distinct influence of Wei Wu Weis use of the English language in his books. I have no doubt that traces of this influence would be clearly noticed by the discerning reader in these articles. Apart from the language, it seemed to me a wondrous demonstration of the universality of the subject itself that the writings of a scholar and practitioner of the Tao philosophy like Wei Wu Wei, thousands of miles away, (and hardly a popular writer), would find corroboration in the words of a Self-realized Jnani like Shri Maharaj, whose education as he says himself, takes him just beyond the limit of illiteracy!

Against my better judgement, under pressure from several well-wishers, this paragraph was dropped: the argument was that what I was in effect doing was to place a mere writer on the same level with Maharaj, a Self-realized Jnani.