Commentary on Ramana's Forty Verses: Verse Sixteen

Continued from Verse Fifteen

16. Apart from us, where is time and where is space? If we are bodies, we are involved in time and space, but are we? We are one and identical now, then, and forever, here, and everywhere. Therefore we, timeless, and spaceless Being, alone are.

Commentary: Time and space are only seem to exist through the lens of the mind. The essence of that lens is a sense of individuality that splits things into a me and a not-me. Without these boundaries, the mind could not make its distinctions, including the distinctions of time and space.

Time is a product of memory. Space is a way of organizing physical objects. Both are products of thought, which depends upon the notion of the thinker, the doer — the egoic I.

If the egoic sense is right, then we are bodies and minds, and caught up in time and space. But if the ego is examined carefully, the mind is reduced to silence. It then becomes clear that there is no one to say that we are thinking, that we are in space, or that there is a past, a present, or a future.

This is in fact the eternal truth, that seems merely to be obscured at various times by the thoughts of individuality. We are not really bodies caught up in space and time. Those are merely categories dependent on the illusory ego. That ego penetrated — or more accurately, revealed never to have existed in the way that it seemed to exist — what remains is beyond time and space — and always has been. That we are.

At any time, see all the forty verses posts that I have published so far here.

Commentary on Ramana's Forty Verses: Verse Fifteen

Continued from Verse Fourteen

15. Only with reference to the present can the past and the future exist. They too, while current, are the present. To try to determine the nature of the past and the future while ignoring the present is like trying to count without the unit.

Commentary: It’s only the now that gives meaning to the past and the future, and when we think of the past and future, it’s always in the present that we seem to do it. Our minds are often absorbed in what has been and what is yet to come while we fail to examine the mystery of which they are made: the right now.

At any time, see all the forty verses posts that I have published so far here.

Commentary on Ramana's Forty Verses: Verse Fourteen

Continued from Verse Thirteen

14. If the first person, I, exists, then the second and third persons, you and he, will also exist. By enquiring into the nature of the I, the I perishes. With it 'you' and 'he' also perish. The resultant state, which shines as Absolute Being, is one's own natural state, the Self.

Commentary: If I believe that I exist as an independent entity, then I can draw a boundary between I and the not-I. That not-I will include you, and will include he, she, and it. It’s all founded on the idea that I am a separate, doing, experiencing person. Otherwise none of these boundaries, none of these names and forms, could be created.

But if we look into the nature of this seeming I, which is nothing other than the ego, it vanishes. When all the ‘not-I’ is cut away, what remains has no boundary. But the not-me was created by being contrasted by a bounded I. Other things can only exist against a background of a “me” that is solid, against which they can be contrasted. If that I with boundaries is actually something infinite, meaning non-bounded, everything else that is drawn with reference to it cannot be sustained. Without a solid, bounded I, the not-I cannot be sustained.

That creates a kind of cascading black hole. All the objects, feelings, ideas, people, memories — in short, all experience, only makes sense if they occur to an I. If that I is not what it seems to be, then experience is not what it seems to be.

What remains beyond boundaries is the natural state, the Self. This is the natural state because every other state is merely a thought, and so comes and goes. This natural state is unchanging. It is beyond concepts, indescribable. It is natural because it cannot be the product of any process and so cannot be altered by any process.

At any time, see all the forty verses posts that I have published so far here.

Commentary on Ramana's Forty Verses: Verse Thirteen

Continued from Verse Twelve

13. The Self, which is Knowledge, is the only Reality. Knowledge of multiplicity is false knowledge. This false knowledge, which is really ignorance, cannot exist apart from the Self, which is Knowledge-Reality. The variety of gold ornaments is unreal, since none of them can exist without the gold of which they are all made.

Commentary: Reality is what is unchanging. Objects of experience — thoughts, feelings, exceptions, the world — have boundaries that are subject to change. They seem to be independent, but they are all merely manifestations of the medium of which they are made, just as a golden ring is not independent of the gold of which it is made.

Even that may be going too far, since even to say that they are manifestations of a medium requires the egoic perspective. The Self alone is true Knowledge, and the knowledge of objects, which assumes the reality of the ego, is therefore false. It’s false, not quite in the sense of being incorrect, but more in the sense of being meaningless. It appears to be meaningful, but it is only so if we assume the ego is true. But if the ego is investigated, it is seen to be untrue — or, to be precise, it is not what it seems to be. That means all the objects which are seen through it are also not what they seem to be. The meaning that comes from those objects is also not what it seems to be.

At any time, see all the forty verses posts that I have published so far here.

Nirvikalpa, savikalpa, and sahaja samadhi

Ramana Maharshi describes enlightenment as sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi.

What do these terms mean?

Nirvikalpa samadhi is just an intense concentration state. Ever been intensely focused on something, and everything except that thing blurs into the background? And in fact, that thing kind of disappears too... because your mind is so absorbed in it that it doesn't even notice it's something separate?

That's an intense concentration state. If there is still some effort involved in keeping up the concentration, that means the mind is still flickering... and so it's not exactly samadhi yet. It would be called dhyana -- effortful concentration on something.

When the concentration becomes so intense that you skate onto smooth ice and things become effortless, that's a samadhi state. Samadhi states can sometimes occur accidentally or involuntarily, like when you are shocked, or when you wake up in the morning and exist for a second or two without remembering who or where you are.

When the eyes are closed and the concentration is on something internal, the senses get blocked out... and you get nirvikalpa samadhi.

When the eyes are open and you're involved in something, that same concentration state is called savikalpa samadhi -- or what is also called a state of "flow."

When it's no longer a matter of concentrating on one thing or another, but there is a continuous recognition that underlying any particular thing you can concentrate on, there is something permanent... then that is called sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi (sahaja means natural) That happens eyes open, eyes closed, regardless of activity.

When performing inquiry or surrender, the idea is to create a profound focus on the I (either by inquiring into it, or by ignoring thought, forcing attention away from it and therefore towards the I, which is the only other place it can go). But the I is not an actual object, and if it the focus becomes strong enough, the imagined I, an illusion, gives way to the reality of the Self. In that moment the normal illusory functioning of the I is suppressed. This is sahaja samadhi, but if the attachments draw the mind away from it, that naturalness is not fully established, and the exercise has to be repeated. Slowly the experience of the sweetness of even these glimpses of sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi will draw the power away from the attachments and collapse them, and the true sahaja state will remain unobscured (and in fact one will realize that it has never really been obscured).

Commentary on Ramana's Forty Verses: Verse Twelve

Continued from Verse Eleven

12. That alone is true Knowledge which is neither knowledge nor ignorance. What is known is not true Knowledge. Since the Self shines with nothing else to know or to make known, It alone is Knowledge. It is not a void.

Commentary: True Knowledge is not knowledge of anything. Knowledge of anything, or knowledge that anything is or is not the case, is relative knowledge of objects, knowledge of things that come and go, things that have boundaries. It is about these things that ignorance is possible. It is only when one looks through the lens of the ego, that separating belief that “I am in here, as opposed to the things I experience, which are out there,” that there are objects to know or to be ignorant of.

True Knowledge is that which illuminates even the ego. It isn’t object-based knowledge. It has no opposite. It shines by itself, and is self-illuminating. In the blinding light of the sun, there cannot be said to be any visible objects. The same is true of what is seen in the blinding light of the Self. If one sees the Self, one cannot see the ego. Seeing through the ego is premised on forgetting the Self, on its being obscured — or at least its seeming to be obscured.

The knowledge that is the Self is not knowledge of any objects, but that does not mean it is simple nothingness. It’s not a thing, but nor is it a void. It is what it is — pure illumination. What that is like is indescribable, since to describe it, one would need to think about it, and that would require the ego. And yet, though it is indescribable, we experience it at all times.

At any time, see all the forty verses posts that I have published so far here.

Commentary on Ramana's Forty Verses: Verse Eleven

Continued from Verse Ten

11. Is it not, rather, ignorance to know all else without knowing oneself, the knower? As soon as one knows the Self, which is the substratum of knowledge and ignorance, knowledge and ignorance perish.

Commentary: When you look into the knower of the relative world, that is, the egoic I, which thinks it is the body and the mind, that ego shows itself to be not the knower but merely an object that is known — known in the light of the Self. Knowing that Self, one can no longer take seriously the claims of the ego to be separate. If those claims fall, then the knowledge of the world, and equally the ignorance of the world, also cannot be taken seriously.

All our knowledge of the world is based on taking the ego seriously. All our projects and desires, which make use of that knowledge, are based on taking the ego seriously. We live our lives thinking that we are the body and the mind when that is not the case. That is the harshest ignorance.

When the ego is looked into and seen to be a mere puppet, and not our actual self, then this deep ignorance disappears — indeed, reveals itself never to have existed in the first place, for to believe that we were affected by that ignorance is itself ignorance.

At any time, see all the forty verses posts that I have published so far here.

Commentary on Ramana's Forty Verses: Verse Ten

Continued from Verse Nine

10. Ordinary knowledge is always accompanied by ignorance, and ignorance by knowledge; the only true Knowledge is that by which one knows the Self through enquiring whose is the knowledge and ignorance.

Commentary: Ordinary knowledge is knowledge of things. Knowledge of anything rests on innumerable assumptions about logic, about the reliability of the instruments of perception, about the interpretation of what is perceived, about how the laws of nature work, and so on. The more you know of the world, the more questions there are, as each fresh new piece of knowledge brings questions about how it relates to the rest. And these doubts and problems multiply, so that our current state of knowledge of the world, while quite sophisticated, also admits an enormous amount of ignorance. Ordinary knowledge requires making assumptions and simplifying the world, and continuously raises doubts. This is because the instruments of that knowledge are imperfect.

The only knowledge beyond doubt, therefore, cannot be that ordinary knowledge of objects. This ordinary knowledge and the ordinary world of objects is sustained by the assumption that there is an I “in here” which observes the world “out there.” It is this I which supposedly possesses this ordinary knowledge.

But if we look into who this I is, it suddenly becomes elusive, and if this elusiveness is pursued, it turns out to be an artifact of the movement of thought. The I that we think we are, we are not. And if we chase that I with sufficient intention, attention, and concentration, we will eventually slow the illusion-promoting dance of desire and thought long enough to see through it. And in seeing through it, the Self we actually are will shine. That shining will destroy the illusion that there is an I “in here” as opposed to the world “out there.” That shining, then, will be beyond boundaries, and being beyond boundaries, is beyond time, space, and change — and therefore beyond doubt.

This is not a knowledge “of” something. This is not a knowledge “that” something is the case. This is simply Knowledge per se, the pure light of knowing itself. That Knowledge alone is true, pure, absolute, and beyond doubt, because it is that medium within which the very instrument of doubt, which is the mind, operates.

At any time, see all the forty verses posts that I have published so far here.

Commentary on Ramana's Forty Verses: Verse Nine

Continued from Verse Eight

9. The duality of subject and object and trinity of seer, sight, and seen can exist only if supported by the One. If one turns inward in search of that One Reality they fall away. Those who see this are those who see Wisdom. They are never in doubt.

Commentary: Experiencing the outside world, thoughts, feelings, or anything at all always happens by a division between the seer, the seen, and the actual act of seeing. This trio, which comes and goes, and which has no life of its own, can only exist if supported by something which does not come and go, and which is fundamentally aware and alive, though in a profoundly different way in which we might normally understand those terms.

The One seems to cover itself up with thought and then it becomes these three instruments. But in fact these instruments are changing, transient, and therefore impermanent. They depend on not noticing the One that supports them. If that One is seen, it’s like a magician whose trick is seen through, or the cartoon coyote who, having walked over a cliff and gone 100 steps, suddenly looks down and falls. Instantly the suspension of disbelief is gone.

Again, this is because the seeing and the seen depend on there being a boundary between the me (the seer) and not-me. If there was no boundary, or distance, between me and something else, I could never say I saw it. But the me that this depends on is itself an ‘in here,’ me, small, atomic, indivisible — the ego. It assumes to itself the glory of the light of the One which it merely reflects. Like a candle next to the Sun, as soon as we see the Sun, the candle becomes invisible. Once the me cannot stand, the not-me (the seen and the act of seeing) cannot stand either. They exist only if the seer exists.

So if we turn attention inward away from the changing objects looking for the One, the usual trio of division falls away. Those who see and understand this are the ones who are truly realized. They are never in doubt, because the mind is the instrument of doubt, and that instrument is only credited if the One is not seen.

At any time, see all the forty verses posts that I have published so far here.

Commentary on Ramana's Forty Verses: Verse Eight

Continued from Verse Seven

8. Under whatever name and form one may worship the Absolute Reality, it is only a means for realizing It without name and form. That alone is true realization wherein one knows oneself in relation to that Reality, attains peace and realizes one's identity with it.

Commentary: Reality or Perfection can be known under many names and forms, but these are only tools for getting beyond those names and forms. We’re looking for a perfection beyond limits, and names and forms are inevitably limits and boundaries. The only spiritual realization worth having is to pass beyond the prison of name and form and recognize your identity with the formless, into which your identity dissolves like a drop of water into the ocean. Or, to be more precise, where you recognize that you never were that drop of water in the first place. This alone brings real, lasting peace.

At any time, see all the forty verses posts that I have published so far here.