Question: Is it enough if I spend some time in the mornings and some time in the evenings for this atma-vichara (Self-enquiry)? Or should I do it always, even when I am writing or walking?
Bhagwan Sri Ramana Maharshi: What is your real nature? Is it writing, walking or being? The one unalterable reality is being. Until you realize that state of pure being you should pursue the enquiry. If once you are established in it there will be no further worry. No one will enquire into the source of thoughts unless thoughts arise. So long as you think I am walking' orI am writing’, enquire who does it.
Question: If I go on rejecting thoughts can I call it vichara (Enquiry)?
Bhagwan Sri Ramana: It may be a stepping stone. But really vichara (Enquiry) begins when you cling to your Self and are already off the mental movement, the thought waves.
Question: Then vichara (Enquiry) is not intellectual?
Bhagwan Sri Ramana: No, it is antara vichara, inner quest. Holding the mind and investigating it is advised for a beginner. But what is mind after all? It is a projection of the Self. See for whom it appears and from where it rises. The I'-thought will be found to be the root-cause. Go deeper. TheI’-thought disappears and there is an infinitely expanded ‘I’-consciousness.
Question: I asked Mother in Sri Aurobindo Ashram the following question: I keep my mind blank without thoughts arising so that God might show himself in his true being. But I do not perceive anything.' The reply was to this effect:The attitude is right. The power will come down from above. It is a direct experience.’ Should I do anything further?
Bhagwan Sri Ramana: Be what you are. There is nothing to come down or become manifest. All that is necessary is to lose the ego. That which is is always there. Even now you are that. You are not apart from it. The blank is seen by you. You are there to see the blank. What do you wait for ? The thought, `I have not seen’, the expectation to see and the desire of getting something, are all the workings of the ego. You have fallen into snares of the ego. The ego says all these and not you. Be yourself and nothing more! Once born you reach something. If you reach it you return also. Therefore leave off all this verbiage. Be as you are. See who you are and remain as the Self, free from birth, going, coming and returning.
Source: Be As You Are
From Ramana Maharishi
A few points
Holding the mind and investigating it is advised for a beginner. – Thus meditation How ever there is a point where you focus. This state is a beginner state – even mother says that – asked Mother in Sri Aurobindo Ashram the following question: `I keep my mind blank without thoughts arising so that God might show himself in his true being. But I do not perceive anything.’ The reply was to this effect: eventually something will change
Second : Ramana Maharishi did not say anything negative about mother. So do not interiors it as a competition or one better than other.
We are so far below we can not truly understand what they mean – many times
You have fallen into snares of the ego
This is the crux. In the love of God – get immersed in it and there is no ego. When you reach there, truly reach there , the body falls down lifeless. Such great souls are rare
Bhavin