Mind

Ramana says: "If the mind subsides, the whole world subsides. Mind is the cause of all this. If that subsides, the natural state presents itself. The Self proclaims itself at all times as `I, I'. It is self- luminous. It is here. All this is that. We are in that only."

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Ramana says: "Take no notice of the ego and its activities, but see only the light behind."
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Child and Jnani

Ramana says: "A child and a Jnani (Self-Realized Soul) are similar in a way. Incidents interest a child only so long as they last. It ceases to think of them after they have passed away. So then, it is apparent that they do not leave any impression on the child and it is not affected by them mentally. So it is with a jnani."

Jnani

Ramana says: "The Jnani's (Self-Realized Souls) mind is known only to the jnani. One must be a jnani oneself in order to understand another jnani. However the peace of mind which permeates the saint's atmosphere is the only means by which the seeker understands the greatness of the saint. His words or actions or appearance are no indication of his greatness, for they are ordinarily beyond the comprehension of common people." https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ramanadaily

Self

In deep sleep you are not a self-conscious person, yet you are alive. When you are alive and conscious, but no longer self-conscious, you are not a person anymore.

Nisargadatta Maharaj
I Am That
86. The Unknown is the Home of the Real

Grace

SRI MURUGANAR SINGS

123 The nature of His grace, conferred through the bliss of divine silence, was such that it established in me an unshakeable devotion that I experienced as a deep love for my Lord, a love in which my bondage was ended and my mind dissolved in the limitless expanse of the Supreme Self.

124 Setting me on the straight path of true knowledge He led me to the glorious goal of union with him in the one-pointed state of holy silence. My heart's gracious jewel, true wisdom's sun, He dissipated the dark clouds of the senses' illusory world.

126 When the Lord's gracious gaze fell upon me, my heart was filled with the Self’s divine radiance in which all distinctions are obliterated so that my evil and treacherous ego faded in the spreading glory of divine realization's dawn, and was no more.

127 Gladly He ruled me, true wisdom's flame, and now within my heart where in joy I made for Him a home I can perceive no other. Only He remains, the Supreme Self, manifesting as consciousness’ pure light, empty and yet replete.

Sri Muruganar in 'Sri Ramana Anubhuti', transl by Robert Butler

SELF-REMEMBRANCE

SELF-REMEMBRANCE

Remembering the Self, one’s real nature, without faltering even slightly,
is the eminent victory of true jnana.

With your consciousness hold fast to and never abandon the substratum, your real nature, the Supreme that can neither be held nor relinquished.

Is the Self something far away that you have to touch? The higher Self exists as one but it is only your thoughts that make you feel it is not.
You can neither think about it nor forget it.

Other than the thought of the Self, any other thought you may associate with, is a mere mental construct, foreign to that Self.

Thinking of the Self is to abide as that tranquil consciousness. Padam, the true swarupa, can neither be remembered nor forgotten.

The Self is self-luminous without darkness and light, and is the reality which is self-manifest. Therefore, one should not think of it as this or that.

All such thoughts would only end in bondage. The purport of meditation on the Self is to make the mind take the ‘form’ of the Self. In the middle of the heart-cave is the pure Brahman directly manifest as the Self in the form of ‘I-I’. Can there be greater ignorance than to think of It in manifold ways, without knowing it as aforementioned?

-Padamalai p 76, 77

Free your mind

LESSONS OF DIPA MA

Free your mind:
"Your mind is all stories.”

Dipa Ma did not say that the mind is mostly stories; she said that there is nothing in the mind but stories. These are the personal dramas that create and maintain the sense of individual identity: who we are, what we do, what we are and are not capable of. Without our being aware of it, the endless series of such thoughts drives and limits our lives. And yet those stories are without substance.

Dipa Ma challenged students' beliefs in their stories, their attachment to the stories. When someone said, "I can’t do that,'' she would ask, "Are you sure?" or "Who says?" or "Why not?

She encouraged students to observe the stories, to see their emptiness, and to go beyond the limitations they impose.
“Let go of thinking," she urged. "Meditation is not about thinking.”

At the same time, Dipa Ma taught that the mind is not an enemy to be gotten rid of. Rather, in the process of befriending the mind, in getting to know and accept it, it ceases to be a problem. Dipa Ma knew the freedom that follows that process; she lived in a state of thought-free awareness.

In a group interview, Jack Kornfield innocently asked, "What is it like in your mind?"

Dipa Ma smiled, closed her eyes, and quietly answered,

"In my mind there are three things: concentration, loving-kindess, and peace."

Jack, not sure if he had heard correctly, asked, "Is that all?"
“Yes, that is all,” Dipa Ma replied.

- Dipa Ma: The Life and Legacy of a Buddhist Master