Mind & Happiness 86

The nature of Happiness is expressed succinctly by Sri Ramana in the opening sentence of his introduction to his Tamil translation of Sri Adi Sankara”s great philosophical poem, Vivēkacūḍāmaṇi:

“Since all living beings in the World desire that they should always be happy [&] devoid of misery, just as [they desire] that they should be happy as always [by] getting rid of those [experiences] such as illness which are not their own nature, since all [living Existences] have love completely only for their own self, since love does not arise except for Happiness, & since in Deep Dreamless Sleep [all living beings have] the experience of Existence happy without anything, when what is called Happiness is [therefore] only [their own real] self, only due to [their] ignorance of not knowing [their real] self do they rise & engage in pravṛtti [extroverted activity], whirling in boundless saṁsāra [the State of restless & incessant wandering of the Mind], forsaking the path [of self-discovery] which bestows [true] Happiness, [believing] as if attaining the pleasures of this World & the next were alone the path to Happiness.”

Sri Ramana expresses the same truth even more tersely in the opening paragraph of Nāṉ Yār? (Who am I ?), a brief 20-paragraph treatise that he wrote about the need for us to attain true self-knowledge, & the means by which we can do so:

“Since all living beings desire to be always happy [&] devoid of misery, since all [of them] have greatest love only for their own self, & since Happiness alone is the cause of love, [in order] to attain that Happiness, which is their own [True] Nature that they experience daily in [Dreamless] sleep, which is devoid of the Mind, knowing [their own real] self is necessary.  For that, jñāna-vicāra [scrutinizing our Consciousness to know] “Who am I ?” alone is the principal means.”

The crucial practical conclusion with which Sri Ramana ends this paragraph, “jñāna-vicāra “Who am I ?” alone is the principal means”, was highlighted by him in bold type in the original Tamil. The term jñāna-vicāra literally means “knowledge-investigation”, & is the process (or rather the state) of investigating our essential Self-Consciousness “I exist”, which is our primary Knowledge & the base of all our other knowledge, in order to attain true knowledge of our own Real Self.

What Sri Ramana means here by the term knowledge–investigation “Who am I ?” is therefore not a mere intellectual analysis of our Knowledge “I exist”, but is an actual examination or deep  scrutiny of our Fundamental Knowledge or Consciousness “I exist” in order to know through direct experience what it really is.  Such an investigation or scrutiny cannot be done by thinking, but only by turning our attention back on our self to know our own Essential Consciousness of Existence.

When our attention or power of knowing is turned outwards to know things other than our self, it becomes our thinking Mind, but when it turns back inwards to know our Essential Self, it remains in its Natural State as our Essential Self – that is, as our true Non-Dual Self-Conscious Existence.

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

www.jpstiga.com/

http://jstiga.wixsite.com/nonduality/

Different blogs (but with graphics) are 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/

[A brief note of explanation – this Blog is entitled “Non-Duality & Science”, & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a “comic book”) have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted in the other Blog noted below. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators.  Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways.  Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi.  Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta, such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential “New–Age” Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course  degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science.  I do not stand so much “with him”, as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, a goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & “saving the World.”]

also:  Most of this material will be long searchable via “John Stiga” etc, on the “Wayback Machine” Internet Archive.

Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on “Amazon.com”, reference-able by the author “John Stiga”, each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.