A tricky and very interesting distinction is present in Maharshi's work between samadhi -- a profound state of concentrated absorption where the distinction between "I" and "not I" breaks down -- and laya, which is also absorption... but in which ignorance does not break down. Both are states or profound peace. Samadhi can easily turn into laya, Maharshi says, so seekers should be warned. Elsewhere, however, he says that states of peace need not be interrupted. So which is it? Well, the answer lies in where the seeker is along the path. The mind has to be turned inward and concentrated, and various methods that produce laya can result in this; but the ultimate samadhi is not one that turns into laya, but is that which is seen when even laya is questioned, self-inquired into, or surrendered.
Ramana Maharshi's concept of enlightenment as waking deep sleep (jagrat sushupti)
The bliss of the Self is nothing other than the bliss of deep sleep, which does not actually end when deep sleep ends. It is in fact continuous, and is hidden only by identificatory (egoic) thought. It is in truth not even hidden...
How do you make decisions the spiritual way?
How does one deal with difficult decisions? From the psychological perspective, it's important that one be clear and honest about what you want. Therapy and artistic expression can help with this. But from a purely spiritual perspective, you simply recognize that you are not the doer and that you have nothing to do with decisions. You let the mind fall absolutely quiet through surrender or inquiry. The funny thing is that these approaches are not actually opposed. They occur in different contexts.
The feeling of Knowledge on the way to enlightenment part 2
A little bit more on these insights that are markers of Knowledge: these insights have to be marked by freedom, peace, effortlessness, and the sense that it was always the case.
The feeling of Knowledge on the way to enlightenment
There is a difference between the feeling of the still mind, that is, bliss, and the sense or coming of Knowledge of the Self, whose nature is insight... Even insights are temporary and *not* the real Self, but they constitute the 'gate' part of the 'gateless gate', and there are certain distinguishing characteristics that can be helpful for the seeker: the inversion of in and out in what I've called in the past the spacious mind. You thought you were a body inside the world; now you see that you are a world within which a body is. Insights are revisited over and over again through self-inquiry and surrender until they burn away all residual ignorance and become steady, at which time it becomes clear that insights and ignorance were both illusions.
Allow yourself to be blown about like a feather
The whole universe, including the mind and body, is inevitable. Rest on that inevitability and allow it to move you as you utterly relax, letting the mind go utterly slack. That is bliss and truth.
The Great Spiritual Secret: Without Identification, Anxiety is Ecstasy
Anxiety, which stands for the all the difficult and negative emotions stemming from desire -- desire which basically comes from the sense of division created by a sense of individuality -- is only anxiety when one identifies with the entity that it burdens, that it inflicts with work and pain and wanting. If the mind is pure and no longer so identifies, all those anxieties transform into nothing other than the ecstasy and the bliss of Self.
Enlightenment is discernment driven all the way to the end
Spiritual awakening or liberation is essentially a matter of immense, intense discernment -- an act of focused distinguishing away of all the things one is not, which then reveals what one really is, though that revelation is not to the one who originally sought it. That's the paradox of seeking: you seek as you know that you are what you seek. The intense discernment required for the search is driven by equally intense desire for liberation, which generates, through practice, a relatively quiet mind, and focus... which must be then be channeled all the way through -- to discerning away ALL the things that you are not. There is an end to the process, but it is not what you think it is.
Self-inquiry and surrender are two sides of the same coin
Ramana Maharshi would often equate self-inquiry and surrender, and they are indeed the same process from two different angles, with slightly different emphases. Self-inquiry chases the "I am," seeks to localize it, and thus moves away from all other thought. Surrender backs away from all thought, and so walks backwards into the "I am." Both involve continuous vigilance and increasingly subtle discernment.
Chasing reflectivity: seek to notice the 'mirror' quality of each moment
Reflectivity is a central concept for the seeker... each moment has a kind of unchangeable quality which isn't about its content, but is a reflection of the experiencer, of the Self. The seeker needs to chase that reflectivity, which is nothing but being, awareness, bliss and, the I. The chase for reflectivity can never result in catching it, but it can result in a restructuring of the mind that destroys the ignorant belief that "I am an experiencing, doing person" that conceals the *true* reflectivity.