[The daily Blogs presented here have been available as duplicates at another site listed below. For a time, at that other site, the Science aspect of “Non-Duality & Science”, the title of this Blog, will be satisfied in a presentation of pages from a PDF also cited below. These fanciful & playful mixtures of Science & Philosophy, from half a decade ago, will serve to fulfill the Science “requirement” that has been absent of late from this “Non-Duality & Science” blog, though available in the Word – Press Archives.]
Mind & Happinesd 26
Even more rare than those highly mature souls who are able to experience the Truth as soon as they hear it, there are some people who without ever hearing the Truth experience it spontaneously. But such people are very rare indeed. The sage known as Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi was one such extremely rare Existence who experienced the Truth spontaneously
without ever having heard or read anything about it. He spontaneously attained the experience of true Self-Knowledge one day in July 1896, when he was just a 16-year-old schoolboy. That day he was sitting alone in a room in his uncle’s house in the south Indian town of Madurai, when suddenly & with no apparent cause an intense fear of death arose within him.
Instead of trying to put this fear out of his Mind, as most of us would do, he decided to investigate & discover for himself the truth about death. “All right, death has come ! What is death ? What is it that dies ? This Body is going to die – let it die.” Deciding thus, he lay down like a corpse, rigid & without breathing, & turned his Mind inwards to discover what Death would actually do to him. He later described the Truth that dawned upon him at that moment as follows:
“This Body is dead. It will now be taken to the cremation ground, burnt, & reduced to ashes. But with the destruction of this Body, am I also destroyed ? Is this Body really “I” ? Although this Body is lying Lifeless as a corpse, I know that I exist. Unaffected in the least by this death, my Existence is shining clearly. Therefore I am not this Body which dies. I am the ‘I’ which is indestructible. Of all things, I alone am the Reality. This Body is subject to Death, but I, who transcend the Body, am that which lives eternally. The Death that came to this Body cannot affect me.”
Although he described his experience of Death in so many words, he explained that this Truth actually dawned upon him in an instant, not as reasoning or verbalized thoughts, but as a direct experience, without the least action of Mind. So intense was his fear & consequent urge to know
the truth of Death, that without actually thinking anything he turned his attention away from his rigid & Lifeless Body & towards the innermost core of his Existence – his essential, unadulterated & Non-Dual Self–Consciousness “I exist”. Because his attention was so keenly focused on his Consciousness of Existence, the True Nature of that Existence-Consciousness revealed itself as a flash of direct & certain Knowledge – Knowledge that was so direct & certain that it could never be doubted.
The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through www.jpstiga.com
short-cut: http://sdrv.ms/YPOgkX or http://tinyurl.com/nnyyr58 link directly to free E-book PDF files
http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/
Different blogs, with graphics available on:
http://www.blogger.com as “Being-as-Consciousness, Non-Duality – new & final version” with link:
http://Being-as-Consciousness.blogspot.com/
“There is no Creation, no Destruction, no Bondage, no longing to be freed from Bondage, no striving for Liberation, nor anyone who has attained Liberation. Know that this to be Ultimate Truth.”
– the “no creation” school of Gaudapada, Shankara, Ramana, Nome – Ajata Vada
for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see: www.ajatavada.com/
Nonduality and Science 