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

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 YourMind

Warning From Kali 2013

The Yoga ofSelf-Inquiry

The Essence of RamanaMaharshi's

Non-Dual AdvaitaMeditation

forEnlightenment

By

Ramaji

The Yoga ofSelf-Inquiry

The Essence of RamanaMaharshi's

Non-Dual Advaita Meditation

for Enlightenment

Copyright 2015 Ramaji

Ramaji.org

Ramaji Books

San Diego, California

Email:advaitaforidiots@gmail.com

Ramaji wishes to personallythank Prasant Radhakrishnan for his special contributions to thisbook. Prasant is an extremely gifted Indian classical and jazzsaxophonist. His website is PrasantMusic.com.

The cover photograph ofSri Ramana Maharshi was taken by G. G. Welling in 1948. It isbelieved to be in public domain. This information and thisparticular image was accessed January, 2015. It is providedcourtesy of h ttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sri_Ramana_Maharshi_-_Portrait_-_G._G_Welling_-_1948.jpg.

All rights reserved. Nopart of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form,either by electronic or mechanical means including informationstorage and retrieval systems without the prior written permissionof the publisher. The only exception is for a reviewer who mayquote brief passages in the review.

Table ofContents

You Are the Master Or You Are theSlave

The Two-Step Self-InquiryTechnique

Drop the Mind Into theHeart

The First Question: Who Is Having ThisExperience?

The Second Question: Where Do You ComeFrom?

The Self-Inquiry Road Map

From "Batting Practice" to Fallinginto the Heart

Resting in the Heart As You NoticeYour Thoughts

Noticing the Rising of Every SingleThought

You As the Heart Are the Source ofYour Thoughts

The I-Thought Is the Hidden Mastermindor Big Dog Thought

Aham Sphurana: Light, Sound, Pulsationand Truth from the Heart

Sahaja and the Dissolution of thePoint of Frozen Attention

Sahaja and the Disappearance of theWorld

The Joy of Self-Realization

The RASA Revolution

Journey to the Heart ofTruth

Meet the Author

You Are the Master Or YouAre the Slave

Self-inquiry is not a passive watchingapproach to meditation. It is dynamic and assertive. As yourSelf-inquiry practice builds strength, you will be able to noticeeach thought and deal with it. This is how you arrive at the trueno thought state, the real Peace and sublime Silence.

When you are not conscious and aware of eachrising thought, in just a few seconds you find yourself off on ajoyride to a nowhere land of suffering. That's why Self-inquiry isdifficult for many people. You are addicted to thinking. Youbelieve your thoughts and identify with them. You don't realizethat your constant torrent of thoughts is an out of controladdiction.

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

If you are like most people , the mind is the master. You are theslave. It is the nature of the mind to allow for only twopossibilities. It is the master or you are the master. Whoever isnot the master becomes the slave. It would be nice if we could allbe friends and just get along.

The mind will not allow that. The mindbrings 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 themaster or will you be the slave? The choice is yours.

The Two-Step Self-InquiryTechnique

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

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

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

Most people have heard of Self-inquiryas "Who am I?" This two-step method breaks that generic question upinto a logical sequence with two highly effective complementaryparts.

"Who is having thisexperience of depression ?" The answer is theI-thought.

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

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

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

Drop the Mind Into theHeart

The real goal of Self-inquiry is notto go on repeating "Who am I?" like a mantra. The goal is to fallinto the heart. You drop from the head into the heart. Self-inquiryis a journey where you fall down into your heart. You rediscoveryour heart and then you live from it.

You shift from living in your head andfollowing your thoughts to living in your intuitive feelings andfollowing your heart. In the West, you are taught to be frightenedof the idea of doing what your emotions tell you to do.

Negative emotions are produced bythoughts. There are always thoughts and stories to go with thenegative emotions. Emotions and thoughts are mixed up in yourhead.

In contrast, the feelings thatoriginate in your unpolluted pure heart are positive, true andbeautiful. The pure feelings of your heart come from pure Being,from true Peace. The very nature of your real Being is peace, love,happiness, compassion, contentment and fulfillment.

The FirstQuestion:

Who Is Having ThisExperience?

For example, a person is extremelyupset with someone. "I am very angry with John." Who is having thisexperience of being betry angry with John? "Oh, I am."

Well, who are you? You were not angryat John five minutes ago. Who or what is it exactly that can beokay with John five minutes ago and now be extremely angry withhim?

You are saying "I am angry with him."Anger has arisen. You are identified with it. Hidden in thisstatement are a couple of beliefs that may not be obvious to you.One of them is "This anger is mine." Another belief is "This angeris about me."

The "you" or "I" who is having thisexperience believes these two things. This anger is mine and it isabout me. But is that true? To be more precise, is that true of thespiritual real you?

Whoever is the "I" having thatexperience and believing that this anger is mine and it is about mehas to be a thought. It cannot be your real Self. Only the mind,only the separate self, only the thinker-I, can have thatexperience.

The experience of being angry withJohn is the object. The experiencer is the pseudo-self. Anger isthe experience. You as the I-thought are the experiencer. This isnot the real you.

Your true Self does not haveexperiences like that. Your true Self is the effortless witness tothose experiences. So whoever steps forth as the subject of theexperience is the I-thought.