#self-remembrance

[shinymoonbird]

The Paramount Importance of Self Attention, by Sri Sadhu Om, As recorded by Michael James

Part One - Mountain Path: April-June 2012 - Excerpt

[...] Practising Self attention is of paramount importance, and [...] directing our attention towards Self is the sole aim of all that Bhagavan taught us. In order to experience what we really are we must attend to ourself keenly and vigilantly, to the exclusion of everything else.

Bhagavan used various Tamil and Sanskrit terms to mean 'self-attention', 'self-scrutiny' or 'self-investigation', but one that he often used is the Tamil term tannāttam, which is a compound of tan (the inflexional base and oblique case form of tan, which means 'self') and nāttam (which in this context means investigation, examination, scrutiny, observation or attention), so whenever Sadhu Om uses the term 'self-attention'; it should be understood to be a translation of tannāttam or any of the other terms that Bhagavan used in this sense, such as

tat-gavanam (self-attention), ātma-vicāra (self-investigation), svarūpa-dhyāna (self-contemplation), svarūpa-smarana (self-remembrance), atma-cintana (self-meditation), ātmānusamdhāna (self-contemplation), ahamukham (facing inwards, towards I) or ahanόkku (looking inwards, at I).

— Michael James

[shinymoonbird]

2017 Arunachala Karthigai Festival. Day Ten—Evening 3.December: Arunachala Deepam, lighting hill deepam. (Arunachala Grace.Blog)

ॐ

It is totaly fallacious to assume that the State of Deliverance can be won by practices like meditation by the mind, disregarding the direct path of plunging into the Heart.

Having discarded the body like a corpse and without uttering ‘I’ by mouth, scrutinizing with an inward-diving mind, “Where does this feeling ‘I’ rise?”, is alone the path of knowledge (jnana-marga). Instead of inwardly scrutinizing the feeling ‘I’ in this manner, merely thinking (or meditating), “I am not this (body composed of five sheaths), I am That (the absolute reality or Brahman)”, is (at first in a roundabout way) an aid (to the above said path of knowledge or enquiry) but is it enquiry (that is, is it the correct practice of Self-enquiry or Atma-vichara, which is the direct path of Knowledge)?  

— Ulladu Narpadu     Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s Reality in Forty Verses - V.29

Note:

If we have been told some particulars about a certain place to which we wish to go, repeating and thereby memorising those particulars may at first be an indirect aid for us to reach that place. But merely repeating and memorising those particulars cannot be the actual journey there. Having learnt those particulars, we must set out and travel to that place.

Similar is the case with the truth which the scriptures tell us about our real and natural state, namely that we are not this body, prana, mind and so on, but are only Brahman, the absolute reality. Meditating upon this truth by repeatedly thinking, “I am not this body, I am Brahman”, may in the beginning be an indirect aid to the practice of Self-enquiry, because it will encourage one to try to know one’s own true nature. But merely repeatedly thinking thus, cannot be the actual practice of Self-enquiry.

Having understood and become convinced of the truth that we are not the body but Brahman, we must take to the practice of Self-enquiry – that is, we must scrutinize and know the true nature of the feeling ‘I’ -, for then only can we attain the state in which we experience ourself to be Brahman. Compare here verses 32 and 36 of this work.

[shinymoonbird]

Arunachala Siva - Sri Ramana Maharshi

ॐ

*  As long as viṣaya-vāsanās  [inclinations or desires to be aware of things other than oneself, which are the seeds that give rise to all thoughts or phenomena]  exist in the mind, so long the investigation who am I is necessary.

*  As and when thoughts arise, then and there it is necessary to annihilate them all by vicāraṇā  [vichara: investigation or vigilant self-attentiveness]  in the very place from which they arise.

*  Being without attending to [anything] other [than oneself] is vairāgya [dispassion] or nirāśā  [desirelessness];  being without leaving [separating from or letting go of] self is jñāna  [true knowledge].  In truth [these] two [desirelessness and true knowledge] are only one.

Just as a pearl-diver, tying a stone to his waist and submerging, picks up a pearl which lies in the bottom of the ocean, so each person, submerging [beneath the surface activity of their mind] and sinking [deep] within themself with vairāgya [freedom from desire to experience anything other than self], can attain the pearl of self. 

If one clings fast to uninterrupted svarūpa-smaraṇa [self-remembrance] until one attains svarūpa [one’s own actual self], that alone [will be] sufficient.

So long as enemies are within the fort, they will continue coming out from it. If [one] continues cutting down [or destroying] all of them as and when they come, the fort will [eventually] come into [one’s] possession.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi - WHO AM I?, Paragraph Eleven

Original Tamil prose by Bhagavan Sri Ramana with English translation by Michael James

Refer to: #other posts about “Nan Yar?” §11 ;  #analogy of besieged fort ; #plunge the pure mind into the Heart

[shinymoonbird]

Even though viṣaya-vāsanās [inclinations or desires to experience things other than oneself], which come from time immemorial, rise [as thoughts] in countless numbers like ocean-waves, they will all be destroyed when svarūpa-dhyāna [self-attentiveness] increases and increases. 

Without giving room even to the doubting thought "Is it possible to dissolve so many vāsanās and be [or remain] only as svarūpa [my own actual self]?" it is necessary to cling tenaciously to self-attentiveness. 

However great a sinner a person may be, if instead of lamenting and weeping "I am a sinner! How am I going to be saved?" he completely rejects the thought that he is a sinner and is zealous [or steadfast] in self-attentiveness, he will certainly be reformed [transformed into the true ‘form’ of thought-free self-conscious being]. 

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi - WHO AM I?, Paragraph Ten

Original Tamil prose by Bhagavan Sri Ramana with English translation by Michael James

[moozamohd]

Thoughts: The Liars Paradox

I would ask back, which ones? In another life or lifetimes, I was Draupadi – the one with five husbands. My names were different then, of course, and they didn’t come all at once like it was told in the Mahabharata epic myth. They came to me one by one each lifetime for their turn, or I came to them - just like Draupadi and her husbands took turns every year. And now, in this life I live now, we have all gathered in the Great Mystery of this Age. This revelation came to me in Noble Hotel, Penang. The noble truth. I was with the playful demon God. And we discussed about the Liars Paradox.

That day I remembered most of it. I wrote, “This is how it is in this lifetime. Five. All my five lovers. N. M. L. E. Z. In that order.” This was also the reason why my life path number is 5. I don’t recall all the details but this is what I know. It was also the same night I found renewed respect for the White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’. We were listening to them underneath the stars and full moon, feeling the sands of Batu Feringghi beach underneath us. I could hear the trumpets, the bass and all the vibrations pounding into our veins. It was only appropriate that I lay listening to this, next to the Goddess Nut and Lord Ganesha – Sampoerna cigarettes in front of our mouths.

The anthem sips into everything that was ‘I’ and damn right, I was going to fight against these generations of forgetfulness, at least for tonight. For tonight, I determined, will be the celebration of self-remembrance. The full moon turned red soon after, concurring this ultimate celebration. The stars above reminds me the countless stories they contain, each ones are like doorbells containing the potential overflow of countless lifetimes. We all know these stories – deep down ingrained in us like codes and really, all they’re waiting for is the trigger.

You must understand how difficult it is to describe that sublime feeling when y(our) primordial memories come stomping and marching towards you in unified timelessness, all at once. And once that happened, like Jack said, words bled out – and I no longer thought of things, only felt them. Balls to bones, the Oracle said about being in love. And for that moment, I was comforted. There was no other time than this timelessness, and I resolved to enjoy the night of Now and All, even if this world had its finishing line prepared in the after.

And that night, I gave my respects remembering all the beauty my five lovers have shared me. One by one, taking their turns patiently – I sent such sweet love to them underneath the canvas of stars. I remembered them all, and inevitably, I remembered all of us. We, after all come from the same. And thus, that night was really a celebration for the entire thing. You were there. Remember?

** * **

The White Stripes: Seven Nation Army I'm gonna fight 'em all A nation army couldn't hold me back They're gonna rip it off Taking their time right behind my back And I'm talking to myself at night Because I can't forget Back and forth through my mind Behind a cigarette And the message coming from my eyes Says leave it alone Don't want to hear about it Every single one's got a story to tell Everyone knows about it From the Queen of England to the hounds of hell And if I catch it coming back my way I'm gonna serve it to you And that aint what you want to hear But thats what I'll do And the feeling coming from my bones Says find a home I'm going to Wichita Far from this opera for evermore I'm gonna work the straw Make the sweat drip out of every pore And I'm bleeding, and I'm bleeding, and I'm bleeding Right before the lord All the words are gonna bleed from me And I will sing no more And the stains coming from my blood Tell me go back home

[moozamohd]

Thoughts: It's Been Awhile.

And so, I truly do not know where to begin. It feels like time is some kind of endless plasticine, expanding and shrinking whenever it wants to - and they're dancing. Or sometimes they're just irrelevant.

I'm shifting again to another place, at times words bleed continuously from my hands to papers, other times I can't describe what it is that's going on except with pictures and the images in my dreams. I could only mutter in breathes.

And more and more, I surprise myself... and then my heart nod knowingly to my brains. This had to do with self-remembrance, and I couldn't have ever dreamed to remember so far back. They flashed before me, racing towards me from all different directions. Even in waking life, symbols seem to jump out clearly now.

And this song took a whole different meaning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J2QdDbelmY&ob=av2e

[moozamohd]

Thoughts: The Red Moon That Night in Malaysia

I'm here now. I won't describe how it was when I landed but I will tell you about the night of the Red Moon.

It was all about self-remembrance, for anything, everything and for nothing. I sat in the passenger seat, smoking out the window - we saw it at the same time and together, we were in awe. This waning moon burns in red. Just like the ash that burns at the end of my cigarette. I suck it patiently, inhaling and exhaling clouds of smoke, basking the colours of the moon. 

That night I remembered my prayers. I remembered that everything is perfect. Love surrounds me in a matrix that divides nothing, borderless of time & space. Everything is a process of creation and each breathe is perfect. That night I was still, and everything was fine and alright. That moment of self-remembrance, I could see with my many eyes the journeys I've taken - by myself and with others - and they gave me insights to Now.

And that's my slice of experience being back home in Malaysia.