Sri Ramana Teachings Q&A's
Sri Ramana Teachings Q&A's
Q&A's about the philosophy and practice of the teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, answered by Michael James, who is the translator of Tamil works by Sri Ramana and his disciples, Sri Muruganar and Sri Sadhu Om, author of 'Happiness and the Art of Being', and writer of hundreds of articles discussing and explaining the teachings of Bhagavan on the Happiness of Being blog.
*** This channel is not maintained by Michael personally, but by devotees with his approval. ***
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT + FREE SAMPLE: Michael and Sandra announced in the Q&A video on 5th August 2023 the book launch ‘Ramana Maharshi’s Forty Verses on What Is’: kzread.info/dash/bejne/Z4mhlrVvY9qpnMY.html
Download free book sample (includes ‘Introduction by Michael James’) through the first link hereunder.
The book is available through Amazon.
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Great clear answer. If you are embodied you will suffer. No one is living with suffering. Eveyone is suffering mentally or physically. So long as your ego, this will continue. It has nothing to due with pervious birth.
The self effulgent 'I AM ' is always present but a shadow cast over it by the ego obstructs it to script a Jeeva hood of subject-object duality. While the projections of ego through its identity with the insentient 5 sheath body in the canvas of time space causation, causes duality or imaginative body centeredness with the sway of likes or dislikes and five sense palpable worldly experiences,the I AM still exist as the hidden base reality from which the CHIT is drawn. The ego generates vasanas and acts as its carrier to generate multiple life forms and myriad experiences in samsara state of Avidya. Now when the first intelligent thought or Chit Jada Granthi called ego is introspected deeply enough to its origin,it simply vanishes without any trace or identity or merges in I AM or pristine SELF abidance.Then, only with conviction can the absence of ego be spoken of or declared after its very removal. Om Namo Bhagavathe Sri Arunachala Ramanaya! 🙏🙏🙏
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👋 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT & FREE SAMPLE: Michael and Sandra announced in the Q&A video on 5th August 2023 the book launch ‘Ramana Maharshi’s Forty Verses on What Is - The ultimate truth on being as you actually are’: kzread.info/dash/bejne/Z4mhlrVvY9qpnMY.html 🎁 A free book sample is available (includes ‘Introduction by Michael James’) on u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZbcyp0ZeohBWWHhHf8gs7k3TN2vMz02WIBy The book is available in print and e-book through Amazon. Namo Ramanaya 🙏🙏🙏
Arunachala Shiva ❤❤❤❤❤
Excellent explanation thanks
Self discipline is can't over rule create samting never know between teacher and student I min guru sis same one come and bring violent between guru sis because it is different why of direction of knowledge fristibul we need to understand what is give direction divine power of soul Holly spiritual or song of bhajan krishna conseuness then if know self those knowledge can give answer if not leave it learning extra ordinary out of knowledge so guru santi yogis it give direction originally one why of highest dimension quality principles of light
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Thank you!
With out knowing what atma is,how you are going to do vichara on atma? Unless you have seen the rope how you can get clarified it is not serpent? Rather you are saying to see the rope while seeing serpent. In sleep,there is no 'I am'.( it is 'தான்' not நான்').it is pure awareness. What you really need to do on vichara is about your sleeping awareness while being in awake.Arunachala Ramana 🙏
No, you are mistaken, in sleep there is "I am" only. "I am" is just another name for atma-swarupa. What is atma? Easy, it is our sense of existence, simple being (without a thought and a phantom mind). *One cannot see the rope while seeing the snake* , that is impossible. Who believes that has not understood the snake/rope analogy. As always, most people have no clue how to properly practice atma-vichara because they are confused to what to attend to since that is something beyond the mind.
@@bernhard1071 atma vichara and Jnana vichara are two things. Who is there doing inquiry on atma? Ego doing inquiry? Or atma doing inquiry into itself?.
@@bernhard1071 I sleep there only exists Bliss,it is nature of atma. It is not present state ' I am'.
@@bernhard1071 you can remember ' bliss ' existed in your sleep,but you can't say 'I am' existed in sleep. Because atma does not say 'I am',neither the physical body.
@@AjieshDNair It's a little complicated since atma-vichara is a non-dual practice. Initially the effort comes from ego since atma-swarupa is perfect and does not need to do anything, thus it is ego which moves its attention from phenomena (the "outside" world) to "I am" ("within"). Once the attention rests in "I am" ego vanishes and there is effortless being. That won't hold for long for the starting aspirant and attention is pulled away from "I am" and therefore ego needs to repeat to move attention back to "I am". With persistent practice one will stay longer with "I am" and we will sink "deeper" away from phenomena. That is proper atma-vichara.
Knowledge is always incomplete. Who am I? I realize that knowledge is always limited. Beliefs, ideologies, scientific knowledge and philosophy are all limited. I see that knowledge, although limited, has its importance in daily living. But I want to see if it is possible to be free from the state of ignorance. Through real understanding of the limits of knowledge, can there be a quieting of all mental representations - about the Timeless, about phenomena and about myself? Is there any separation, any division? I need a great deal of discontent and great passion to investigate this. Who am I? Will I still resort to what is limited to get the answer? Is not my true nature unknowable from the point of view of the intellect? Isn't my true nature infinite, immeasurable, timeless?
Yes, from the viewpoint of the intellect or mind our true nature is unknowable since mind and our true nature (in its 100% purity) is mutually exclusive. However we all experience our true nature always since the ego-awareness and pure awareness are mixed and both are experienced. With atma-vichara we simple attend to "I am", simple being, without paying attention to the ego- or objectified-awareness. The more we attend to "I am" the closer we come to pure awareness.
From the practice point of view we don't have to worry about ego or Self. We should just pay attention to I am that we are, that we exist.
Yes, and that is very easy. We all exist without effort and that sense of existing is atma-swarupa. The problem is our addiction to this person and personality and a "life" which moves away our attention from just simple being to the illusion of life. That addiction is so strong that it can be only weaned away slowly over many lifetimes with atma-vichara. It is comparable with an heroin addict trying to wean off his compulsion to shoot up. Our addiction to have a "life", to be concerned what is happening with this body, our likes and aversion and so on, all that prevents us from *just being* . That compulsion is as strong as being a drug addict and only atma-vichara can remedy that. 🙏
@@bernhard1071 indeed. The problem is this constantly endlessly yearning mind. I can see this very clearly in my own experience.
namaste, it cant be explained clearer
👋 BOOK FREE SAMPLE: Michael and Sandra announced in the Q&A video on 5th August 2023 the book launch ‘Ramana Maharshi’s Forty Verses on What Is - The ultimate truth on being as you actually are’: kzread.info/dash/bejne/Z4mhlrVvY9qpnMY.html 🎁 A free book sample is available (includes ‘Introduction by Michael James’) on u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZbcyp0ZeohBWWHhHf8gs7k3TN2vMz02WIBy The book is available in print and e-book through Amazon. Namo Ramanaya 🙏🙏🙏
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I am afraid that many have no clue what the term "silence" as used by Bhagavan truly means. That silence is not reached by *ANY* meditation techniques and only with the proper practice of atma-vichara for many lifetimes. That silence is *NOT* a temporary absence of thoughts or a subtle state of mind which most confuse as "silence". Alas most seekers who post here do not have the maturity to understand Bhagavan's subtle but deep teachings since i.e. "silence" is actually atma-swarupa when mind and any thought form or vritti is totally annihilated. When that happens the perception of phenomena and this world collapses since phenomena only exists simultaneously with ego/mind. Most seekers and most teachers like Tolle, Spira, Mooji, etc. have no clue about that since they believe to have awakened *while still perceiving a world* . That is due to ignorance and an utter disregard of Bhagavan's teaching. As always humility is on short supply with these confused ones since ego loves to imagine to have "awakened" or other nonsense.
TM or transcendental meditation as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is the simplest way to experience that silent deep pure awareness Ie the thoughtless state. It’s an effortless technique .you use a mantra which leaves the mind undirected so it settles into its source. Other thoughts may come and go but they aren’t distracting. One feels expansive silence and the benefits are innumerable. I learned this in 1970 and spent yrs in tiruvanbamalai I’m a great lover of Bhagwan. I’ve spent many yrs doing Srkf inquiry, vippassa.,the work of Byron Katie’s, many visits to Ramesh balsekar and yrs w my sat guru Am,avhi and many other practices but with out the initial TM instruction ,all other practices would be hard and a Strain or force of the mind. With Slow benefits I can’t recommend TM technique highly enough,
Did the impostor Balsakar try to have sex with you too as he did with many female fans? TM is fine but one can never realize self with that, just keep that in mind.
By the way, all the benefits you have described like "expansive silence" and what not are all experiences and therefore ego. Any experienced "improvement" is only ego and not a sign of progress but a sign of a flourishing ego. That what is real and what we truly are is *not* experienced. The experiencer is *always* ego. Benefits are only from the viewpoint of ego and therefore an illusion. Proper atma-vichara is preventing delusions like that! I suppose that the years spend in Tamil Nadu were for naught since you did not grasp Bhagavan's teachings at all nor do you know how to properly practice atma-vichara since there is no "expansive silence" with atma-vichara and if that is really experienced one should ask, "who is experiencing expansive silence" to point out that this is clearly not self or atma-swarupa!
The path of gentleness is my take away and I thank you Bhagawan. I got several messages from my son concerning the political situation in the U. S this morning. My interest in this could have gone on for quite a while. However, this video popped up immediately, and it drew me in! It turned me around in such a gentle way😂 Thank you Michael❤
It's time that sleepy Joe gets the dementia care he needs and somebody more lucid takes charge. 🙂
@@bernhard1071you care more about politics than about the path. That fact you actually say "sleepy joe" is telling about how much you care about truth.
@@xhesitase9729How do you know what I care about and what not? Mind is ass-uming again as usual. Let’s go to sleep too from this dream with jagrat-sushupti! 😊
Would we go on board of a plane if sleepy Joe would be the pilot? Only if you are not afraid of dying. Who is really running the country? I'd say his wife who is lying about his mental state.
If you want to see all comments please sort by "Newest First".
Just because you love God more than anything doesn't mean that you're going to be purged of all your inferior interests. You'll still love the things you don't love as much as God.
However that love for "God" increases (with practice) so much that everything else falls away. That is the path and that takes of course many life times and is not for the casual seeker.
@bernhard1071 it's not supposed to take many life time's. If you truely cared, it would have happened. Salvation isn't going to happen in the future. In what way should an election deter your attention. In what way will that help a devotee. You thing you know a lot about Bhagavan's teachings. His teachings are simple. There is no complexity to them. It is simple; no one wants detatch themselves, to commit the ultimate suicide.
@@xhesitase9729Even Bhagavan said that it will take many lifetimes, but he also said that this is only an issue for ego. What does it truly matter how long it takes?
@@xhesitase9729It is nonsense to say, “if you truly cared it would have happened “. Why? Because of our many likes and dislikes, vishaya vasanas - they control ego according to Bhagavan and until they are gone total surrender is impossible. Again, it will take many lifetimes before these vasanas are gone. Don’t fall for neo-advaita nonsense from the likes like the impostor Poonja and others.
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Om Namo Bhagavate Shri Ramanay 🙏
It is not Self investigation. That sounds like you are a detective looking for something. This is misleading...... It is Self attention. You simply attend to yourself. And then there is silence. It can be done immediately. And then you just practice staying there. That is all!
It is not as simple as that. "And then there is silence." That's the standard phrase however there is really not silence since the chatter of thoughts is going on. There are many subtle thoughts and the most subtle thought is the phenomena one sees, the world around us. As long as one sees phenomena there is not truly silence. Most people only scratching the surface of Bhagavan's teaching also due to clinging to teachings by half-baked teachers like Spira and others. Also with "investigating" Bhagavan didn't mean that in the way that someone is looking for something since that is a subject-object relationship and with that duality and therefore not atma-vichara. "Investigating" here implies that with merely attending to "I am" one is only scratching the surface and therefore one has to sink deeper and deeper (so to speak) until all subtle thought forms have vanished. That takes many life times.
@bernhard1071 I can do it instantly. And than there is silence........
@@EvenStar303 Hogwash, did you read the last sentence of my first paragraph and really grasp that? Of course not. By the way, "experiencing" silence is *NOT* self but still ego!
@@bernhard1071 No, it is YOU ego, that is un willing to be silent and can't allow anyone else to have that either. LOL
Until you attained, you don't know if your doing it correctly. Grace push us forward.
Thank you for this Dhara talk. I want to investigate a detial in what you have said in order to better undertand how I am to apply ātma-vichār in my practise. At arround [5:55] you said, "we are turning our attention back towards ourself we are thereby depriving thoughts of our attention that they need." My understanding here is that we do not turn our attention back to ourselves, we turn to that from which the thoughts arrise from." This then is the "I" that Bagwan refers to that is the mind or ego, and ourself or thru nature. As Bagwan called it, the true nature that is ultimamtly oursleves where he sued the term "I - I". For me, if I already had my attention on the "I - I", I would already be awaken. It thus appears to me that you have either missed a step or maybe poorly descibed ātma-vichār, the process of oberving the source of the thoughts. Furthur, that final relaising true nature will be a result only of the death of this "I" or source of though, ego-delussion. Please kindly explain as I am very interested in ātma-vichār as I have misunderstood this first step for a long, long time. I must ackowledge of course the limitations of our langauge now and of the language that Bagwan used. Your attention to this matter will be greatly appreciated.
"I-I" is a bad translations from Tamil since what Bhagavan really meant is "I am I". The non-dual reality of existence. Attending to "I am" is a long process since as long as there are thoughts coming up one is not really attending to "I am" or self 100%. Turning attention back to ourselves and turning attention to where thoughts [seemingly] are coming from *are one and the same* - they are just pointers for the same thing and that is attending to "I am". Atma-vichara can only be learnt by trial and error and a good introduction is Bhagavan's text 'Nan Yar?' or "Who am I?'.
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Thank you so much.💗🙏
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👋 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT & FREE SAMPLE: Michael and Sandra announced in the Q&A video on 5th August 2023 the book launch ‘Ramana Maharshi’s Forty Verses on What Is - The ultimate truth on being as you actually are’: kzread.info/dash/bejne/Z4mhlrVvY9qpnMY.html 🎁 A free book sample is available (includes ‘Introduction by Michael James’) on u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZbcyp0ZeohBWWHhHf8gs7k3TN2vMz02WIBy The book is available in print and e-book through Amazon. Namo Ramanaya 🙏🙏🙏
YOU try to deny all your interests? There's your problem. Some dumb motivational speaker told you to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and own yourself. Give your discipline and self control back into the hands of God and the issue will be solved. Or be too proud to listen to me and keep hurting lol. It's up to you.
@@cheddarfiend-acrylicpourin9570 My friend, you are quick to judge and completely misunderstand Michael. You are way out of your league here.
If someone is feeling lonely, they are not ready for truth. They are not ready for this path.
they try to understand or describe something which beyond understanding n beyond description. You cannot understand infinity with your tiny mind.
When you think you are alive now as a person, there are past lives, but also future life.! Since you are in Maya, it continues to make bodies. You are not even alive now, as person or body or mind. Only Emptiness exists eternally. ❤
Yawn. There is no such thing as emptiness, only as an imagination of mind. Stop pretending and spreading nonsense contradicting the teachings of Bhagavan. Nobody will watch your confused videos and those who do are as confused as you. 😁
There are deffinitely past lives. Because we do not come into this life empty. I have so much knowledge and skills that I didnt learn in this life. And I also have past life memories. And future life memories. And deja vu 1000s of times. Because I am everyone.
"I am everyone" is a ridiculous BS concept with no standing at all, it is just plain nonsense!!!
The Ego is arguing against the Ego. Nice!
How profound - not! If Bhagavan's teaching would have been really grasped then one would know that everything we perceive, including this blog of comments, *ARE* ego! This all seems only to happen because ego has risen. Thus what ever transpires, like the notion of past lives, are mere unreal ideas by ego. It's a mere fantasy. This is all an ego-created movie where @EvenStar303 believes to be a participant of. Nothing could be further from the truth. Thus does it go into your skull that "memories" and "skills" and what not are all just a fantasy conjured up by ego? There are no skills, that what believes to have skills does not exist. *That is the power Maya/illusion!*
It's like parallel lives.
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Ramana teaches still.
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👋 BOOK FREE SAMPLE: Michael and Sandra announced in the Q&A video on 5th August 2023 the book launch ‘Ramana Maharshi’s Forty Verses on What Is - The ultimate truth on being as you actually are’: kzread.info/dash/bejne/Z4mhlrVvY9qpnMY.html 🎁 A free book sample is available (includes ‘Introduction by Michael James’) on u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZbcyp0ZeohBWWHhHf8gs7k3TN2vMz02WIBy The book is available in print and e-book through Amazon. Namo Ramanaya 🙏🙏🙏
Dear Michael, If I'm the dreamer, and there's only one ego, what's the point of telling others about our path? When we're convinced deep down that atma-vicara is the most direct way, we'd like our loved ones to experience it too, without imposing it on them. Is there any point in answering or trying to explain anything? knowing that there is only one receiver and that everything is oneself? Thank you, pranam
Your question has been answered. The video with the answer will be published in a couple of days (video: 2024-07-03 Sandra and Michael part 2b)
I'm really like to understand the "love" part of Bhakti Yoga. Unless I am misunderstanding it seems like Bhakti Yoga has two parts - surrendering everything to God and loving all of God's creations. Also if I focus on my heart and relax it, it seems to open up and I can send love to myself and all beings, even people that aren't my biggest fan. It seems like there is something to that.
Your question has been answered. The video with the answer will be published in a couple of days (video: 2024-07-03 Sandra and Michael part 2b)
Firstly, thank you, Michael, for tirelessly sharing Baghavan's insights with such earnestness and clarity--the deep well of knowledge you offer has immensely benefited me and, I have no doubt, countless others. My question builds on your back-and-forth with Bernardo Kastrup re: solipsism. I understand that other egos exist only to the extent to which mine exists--they're all illusions and the "underlying" Awareness is all that truly exists. When addressing this, you often make the analogy to a dream. I can, of course, understand how the other apparent individuals in a dream are mere projections of my own mind with no first person point of view or experiential states of their own. PART 1 OF QUESTION: Are you saying this is exactly the same in waking life? In other words, are you making a truly solipsistic claim that all of the other apparent individuals I encounter--my friends, parents...even if you--are just illusory images with no first person points of view akin to that of this ego (“my” ego)? PART 2 OF QUESTION (similar to Part 1 but for added clarity): According to some non-dualists, such as Rupert Spira (as far as I understand), all of the people I encounter are aware and have experiences just like I do--they are different "windows" through which the same Awareness “simultaneously” looks into a consensus reality. Would you agree or disagree? Does Awareness appear to experience multiple individuated perspectives "concurrently"...or is the illusion of this world experienced solely through one first person perspective (namely, the perspective to which “I,” as ego, have access right now)?
Your question has been answered. The video with the answer will be published in a couple of days (video: 2024-07-03 Sandra and Michael part 2b)
Hello Micheal I've been reading Dennis Waite's Back to The Truth, 5000 years of Advaita: I don't have the quotes with me but from what I understood was that: In Advaita, it is only a relative truth that the world is an illusion. This is just said so that students would be willing to let go of the world and turn within. Once the Student has realized Atman/Brahman, they will see that as Brahman they are real and the external world that seemed like an illusion was also real cause it is brahman. The external world may have diffrent appearances as illusory but it is no longer seen as apart from Brahman so it is real. So when you say in your talks that the final reality there is no world and just ourself. What you actually mean is that, the world existing as a experience of a personal separate entity that doesn't exist cause it is borne of ignorance. However, the world as seen as part of Brahman, that actually is real and only ourself? This would make more sense since Ramana treats everyone as himself, if there was no world in his realization he would've just blanked out in a catatonic state. Thank you.
Your question has been answered. The video with the answer will be published in a couple of days (video: 2024-07-03 Sandra and Michael part 2b)
Many thanks for the book and the opportunity to ask Michael questions about what Bhagavan wrote in his fundamental teachings.
Namo Ramanaya 🙏🙏🙏
Namo Ramana, Michael could you please let us know what was your daily schedule 20 years back and what's your schedule now, I mean what do you do from morning to night and how many hours you meditate everyday?
Your question has been answered. The video with the answer will be published in a couple of days (video: 2024-07-03 Sandra and Michael part 2b)
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Thabk you for this angle