How to Overcome Obstacles to the Practice of Self-inquiry? A Dialogue with Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi

Disciple: The mind is not steady in meditation. 


Maharshi: Whenever it wanders, turn it inward again and again.


D: When duhka (misery) overpowers me, inquiry is impossible.


M: Because the mind is weak. Make it strong.


D: By what means?


M: Satsanga, Ishwara Aradhana, Pranayama (association with the wise, worship of God, breathing exercises).


D: What happens then?


M: Misery is removed; that is our aim. You do not acquire happiness: your very nature is happiness. Bliss is not newly earned. All that is done is to remove unhappiness. These methods suffice.


D: Association with the wise may strengthen the mind. There must also be practice. What practice should be done?


M: Yes. Practice is necessary, too. Practice means removal of predispositions (vasanas, the impulses of past conditioning, associations and memories which condition and limit consciousness- ed.) Practice is not for fresh gain; it is to kill the predispositions (vasanas).


D: What is such practice?


M: Inquiring into the self. That is all. Atmanyeva vasam nayet....fix the mind on the Self.


D: What is the aim to be kept in view? Practice requires an aim.


M: Atman is the aim. What else can there be? All other aims are for those incapable of atmalakshya (fixing the mind on the Self). They lead you ultimately to atma-vichara (self-inquiry). One-pointedness is the fruit of all kinds of practice. One person may get it quickly, another, after a long time. Everything depends on one's practice.


- Talks with Ramana Maharshi, Nov 30 1936.

Bird In A Tree: Robert Adams

The following is taken from a Satsang with Robert Adams:

You subsequently have to ask yourself, "What am I doing with my life? In what direction am I going?" And look at your life, analyze it. From the moment you get out of bed until you go back to bed again at night. What are you doing with the hours that you're awake? Do you waste your time. What do you do? You have to remember you have only so many years to live in this world, and then you'll just vanish if you don't know who you are. You will repeat the lessons over and over again and you'll have many opportunities to understand and discover your true nature.


But the wise person begins the discovery immediately. It's like digging for gold. You can talk about the gold. You can just make a couple of holes with a shovel and say, "I'll come back next month" or you can really get into it. And get a pick axe and start chopping away. Until you discover the gold and dig it up, the same day. The choice is always yours.


There's a story about a beautiful tree, a large beautiful tree. And on the lower branch, there lived a little bird and the bird used to hop from branch to branch, tremendous tree. It would eat sweet berries and it would sing and whistle and was very happy. Then it would hop on another branch and there were sour berries and it would get upset, stop singing till it found sweet berries again. And this went on for years, sweet berries, sour berries. It was happy when it found the sweet berries, unhappy when it found the sour berries. Isn't this like us? When we think we found something we like, we become very happy. But then when it changes like all things change, we become miserable.

And so the bird started to think about this and flew around the tree. It happened to gaze way up to the top of the large tree and it saw a majestic big bird sitting there, a translucent shining bird. It looked so happy and so radiant. Doing nothing just sitting at the top of that tree, in bliss. And the little bird said, "Oh how I wish I could be like that big bird. Look how happy it is. It doesn't have to hunt for sweet berries or look for anything. It just sits there by itself, so radiant. I think I will fly up to it and discover its secret." So it started to fly up toward the big bird, but a quarter up the tree it saw some beautiful red berries and it stopped and started to eat the berries and they were delicious. So it forgot all about the big bird. It started to sing again, it was happy. Isn't this like us? We find something we like and we forget about spiritual life. And we say, "This is what I want, a new Jaguar, a new house, a new companion. A new something, but then after a while we become disgusted, disillusioned.


So after a while the sweet berries ran out and there were only sour berries left on the tree and the bird again became disillusioned. So it started to fly around the tree again and looked way up on top and saw the translucent radiant bird sitting there once again, so majestic, so happy and blissful. And again it said to itself, "This time, I'm going right to the top." But on the way up it went half way up the tree again, it saw some beautiful purple berries. It had not seen purple berries in years. It loved purple berries. So it stopped and started to eat up the purple berries and became very happy again, started to sing, eating berries. And again it's like us. We find a new companion. We get a new toy. We move to a new state, whatever we do. We think that's it, now I'm going to be real happy.


But soon the berries were gone and again it was left with sour berries. So it flew around the tree and saw the big bird again. And it said, "This time I'm going straight to it and nothing is going to stop me, nothing." And it made up its mind. So it started to fly up, but again three quarters up the tree it saw some orange berries and it loved orange berries. So it stopped and started to partake of the orange berries and agin forgot about the big bird. And went on for months and months eating the berries until they were gone and only the sour berries were left. And again that's like us. We say we're going to go after spiritual life and that's where we're going, that's where we're headed. But then something happens. We discover some good humanhood. Something we like and we say, "To heck with the spiritual life, and we go after this instead." So we do that until we become disillusioned and we get tired of it.

Again the bird saw sour berries and it got sad and upset. It flew around the tree again and this time it said, "Nothing is going to stop me. I'm going right to that big bird and find out who he really is. Nothing will stop me" And he flew right toward the big bird. It skipped all the berries, all kinds of berries along the way, it didn't care anymore, but went right to the big bird. As it got closer and closer, the big bird shone brighter and brighter and brighter until the light was unbearable. And the little bird landed right where the big bird was and you know what it discovered? It was the big bird all the time.


And that's like us isn't it? We talk about God as far away. But we have no time because we've got to do our work. We've got to do our material work, that is. And we talk about God being too far. But we're going towards God, until we resolutely make up our mind to be on the spiritual path. And then we discover something interesting. We discover that we've been God all the time. That we are the only God there is. That we are the absolute reality. That we are pure intelligence, infinite wisdom. We discover that there's only one life and that life is absolute reality, sat-­ chit-­ananda, parabrahman and we're at peace.


Therefore the choice is always yours. In what direction do you want to go and I know sometimes it's hard. Some people have been on the spiritual path for many many years, twenty years, thirty years, forty years and they believe they have not gotten anywhere. But that isn't true, it appears that way. But remember, if you don't make it in this life, you'll make it after. But if you have been on a spiritual path you're gaining credits, you're accruing good merit to yourself. You can't help it. 

Beyond Words: Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)

The point of a fish trap is the fish; once you've got the fish you can forget the trap. The point of a rabbit snare is the rabbit; once you've got the rabbit you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning; once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find someone who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?

Zhuangzi, chapter 26
(based on translations of David Hinton and Burton Watson)