The death of the ego - Ramana Maharshi

The death of the ego 

in the words of Sri Ramana Maharshi 

Extract of the book GURU VACHAKA KOVAI

written by Sri Muruganar a great disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi

                                    63 The Loss of Individuality

351. When scrutinized, is there any existing thing such as ego, the troublemaker, except a mere name [‘I’]? Certainly not! If at all anything exists [for the name ‘I’], it  is truly Self, just as the thing which exists for the false [name] snake is truly a rope.

352. When the ego dies, its base, the supreme Self, shines in all Its fullness. No harm comes to You, Self, when the ego dies. Therefore don’t be afraid.

353. Those who have sacrificed their mind as an offering to Shiva in the blazing fire of the supreme Jnana-Tapas [i.e. Self-enquiry], are Shiva Himself. Knowing thus, we should also perform this Sacrifice and attain the State of formless Shiva.354. Do not doubt, with fear, what will happen when you completely lose your individuality [jiva-bodha]. The true State of Self will then Itself be yours, just as one will permanently remain firm on the ground when one loses one’s hold on the branch of a tree.

355. Since in sleep, where the world loses its reality, everyone truly knows his existence and the non-exis-tence of ‘I am this’ [i.e. his individuality], all must accept the Reality of the indestructible Self.

356. The State in which the thought ‘I’ [i.e. the ego] does not rise even a bit is the State ‘I am Brahman’. Does anyone become non-existent in sleep, where the thought ‘I’ does not rise?

357. If we scrutinize properly, the state of ‘I’-lessness is our Real State of Consciousness, in which the inertness of the fleshy body is fully removed. Does one not survive the loss of individuality [in sleep] without being affected? Know this truth by abiding in the State of Wakeful-Sleep [i.e. Turiya or Jnana].


358. To remain without ‘I’ is the State of Jnana – Self; truly, it is the blissful and peaceful State ‘I am Shiva’. Know that the same is the Kaivalya [i.e. Non-dual] State of Brahma-Nirvana, which is glorified as the State of transcending birth and death.

                                     64 The Pure ‘I’ (Suddhahankara)

359. When the ego, ‘I am the body’, is annihilated, the unlimited and unbroken ‘I’ [Self] shines forth. The shining forth of this ‘I’ is not fictitious like the ego, which takes birth in a filthy body on earth and suffers in bondage.

360. Know that the natural, unbroken and ever-existing Heart, ‘I’, which shines free of delusion, is the Suddhahankara [pure ‘I’] which is seen in Jivanmuktas, since it has no sense of doership in any activity.

361. Those who live a perfect life of Mei-Jnana, attained by the destruction of the impure ego – ‘I am this fleshy body’ – will be revelling in Self, unmindful of the body, with great Peace devoid of desire.

                                      65 The Shining Forth of Self 
362. Only when one’s own Source, the Heart, is known through enquiry, will the false first person, ‘I’, fall down; and only when that false first person falls abashed, will the true First Thing, Self, spring forth in all its Glory.

363. When the insubstantial ghost, the ego – which rises from the darkness of ignorance and whose dance is itself all this universe – is enquired into, it disappears like the bridegroom’s friend [in the story], and when it disappears, Self, the Sun, rises up tearing away the darkness of ignorance, Maya.

364. The ending of the ego (1), by its drowning into the Space of Silence, is our [true life of] living as the Space of Jnana. Therefore when the ego disappears, like a false dream, into its Source, the Real ‘I’ [Self] will shine forth spontaneously.

365. This body is the cross. The ego (2) – the identification ‘I am the body’ – is Jesus. The killing of the ego through Self-enquiry is the crucifixion of Jesus. The survival of Self from the death of the ego, and Its shining forth as the Supreme Thing is His Resurrection.

366. The death of the ego in the unlimited Silence – the non-dual Truth – and the shining forth of Self is the Kaivalya-Siddhi [i.e. the attainment of Oneness]. In that State of Jnana, pure Bliss will gloriously blaze forth as one’s own [true] Nature.

 Watch video:   RAMANA MAHARSHI - ARUNACHALA SHIVA

    Peace, Love, Harmony

Ego, beliefs and suffering - by Nityananda Atman

Ego, beliefs and suffering
by Nityananda Atman

A false belief or opinion cannot necessarily create suffering by itself.  The suffering is directly created by the ego in the form of anger, hatred, resistance, fear etc.

For example, you may have different opinion than me about the nature of ego. So you may not accept as true what I say here. This cannot create suffering neither to you, nor to me if we have eliminated in us the egoic qualities of superiority, inferiority, fear, anger, jealousy, hatred, etc. We can be happy even if we have different opinions.

Religion beliefs also cannot by themselves cause suffering. Only the ego can create problems and suffering using religious dogmas and principles for its own satisfaction. Ego is always insecure and beliefs give to it some kind of illusory safety

Ego likes also to use opinions, beliefs etc. to create separation and suffering because through this it can survive in us and continue its games for pleasure, power, fame, name, comforts and superiority.   

Judgments and criticism to others is also one of the favorite games of ego. These do not happen due to a false belief or opinion, but because of ego’s desires for comfort, pleasure, position, fame and money, insecurity, inferiority, low self-confidence, jealousy, etc. 
For example if we desire what our friend or neighbor has or what they have achieved, the ego because of jealousy or envy can criticize or make judgments to them. 

By criticizing others the ego has an illusory sense that it is superior to them. This way the ego tries to overcome the insecurity and the inferiority that feels. Judgment gives to ego an illusory pleasure and a sense of superiority and importance. Ego likes very much to experience these feelings. 

The ego is our true enemy

There is no enemy outside of us. Our real enemy is within us, it is the lust-made ego which creates confusion and chaos within and without.

Kill this enemy by the sword of discernment, non-attachment, prayer, self-control, vigilance, japa-nama, self-enquiry, meditation, and love for the divine.

May be free in this very life and enjoy the freedom, the peace and bliss of your own Self or Atman which nature is Satchitananda (Eternal Existence-Knowledge-Bliss).


More about ego see:

• What ego really is
•  Enquiry into the nature of ego 
• Vital, emotions and compulsive thinking 
• FREEDOM from DESIRE the origin of ego
• The pairs of opposites 
• Conscious freedom from Pleasure & Pain 

Peace love harmony

Parmenides - On Reality

 

 A nondual text by Parmenides one of the great Greek philosophers

- On Reality (fragments of a poem)

             Born around 515 BC., Parmenides, was a citizen of Elea, a small town in the south of Italy.  His poem "On Reality" was probably comprised of three parts of which we have only the first two largely intact.

            The first part takes the form of an allegorical poem in which we see the poet, impelled by a strong desire, travel toward the domain of the Goddess, in a chariot pulled by powerful runners.  After unveiling their faces for him, the Maidens of light guide him to the "threshold where the roads of Night and of Day converge", and he is allowed to cross it as a result of their intercession.  He is then welcomed with benevolence by the Goddess who takes his right hand in hers and commences her teaching.

            The second part, translated here, is the metaphysical section and contains the teaching of the truth.

            The third, which is fragmentary, is the physical part. It represents ignorant public opinion according to which reality is the physical universe which came into existence in the past, exists today, and is destined to disappear one day.

---

Now then, I will instruct you; hear what I say:

Two paths are open to investigation.

The first says: being is and non-being is not.

It is the path of certainty, because it follows the truth.

The other says: being is not, therefore non-being is.

This misdirected path, I tell you, cannot lead to a sound conviction

For, if this statement were true, it would not be possible for you to conceive of non-being, nor to name it.

Speaking and thinking necessarily arise from being, because being is.

And non-being is not. I invite you to reflect deeply on this point,

And to move away, in your search, from that other path

As from the one traveled by those ignorant mortals

Who are the men of two minds: the uncertainty which resides in their hearts

Misleads their wavering reason. They are swept along,

Deaf and blind, benighted, the masses without discernment

Who pretend that being and non-being are simultaneously identical

And different, they for whom, for any statement, the opposite is equally true.

No power will ever bring non-being into existence.

So direct your thinking away from this path of exploration.

May habit, so often resumed, not force you to return to it,

With eyes blinded, ears filled with noise

And mouth with words, and may your intelligence alone resolve  this contentious issue.

Only one path remains for us to pursue:

Being is.  And countless signs prove

That being is free from birth and death

Because it is complete, immutable and eternal.

It never was, it never will be, because it is completely whole in the now,

One, endless.  What beginning, indeed, should we attribute to it?

Whence would it evolve? Whither?

I will not allow you to say or to think that it comes from nothingness,

Nor that being is not.  What exigency would have brought it forth

Later or earlier, from non-being?

Thus, it can only be, absolutely, or not at all.

Our firm innermost conviction will never admit

That something can spring forth from nothingness. 

In this way the goddess of Justice, forbidding birth and death,

Preserves without respite the existence of being. Whereas the question was to resolve

Whether being is or is not. We must therefore decide to abandon as false

The second hypothesis, the path which can neither be thought nor formulated,

And to hold to the first, which is the path of the truth.

How could what is, one day cease to be? How could it have, one day, come to be?

What is born, is not, neither what is to be born.

Thus dies birth and thus dies death.

Within being there remain no differences because it is completely identical to itself.

There is not, here, something more that comes to break continuity

Neither, there, something less: but everything is filled with being.

Thus it is all continuous:  being adjoined to being.

On the other hand, maintained motionless by powerful links,

It is without beginning and without end, since birth and death

Have been rejected as contrary to our intuition of truth.

Remaining itself, existing within itself, supported by itself,

Thus, immutable, it remains in the same place because the powerful necessity,

Hemming it in from all sides, keeps it firmly unified.                                                                                           

That is why it is not permitted that being be unfinished,

Because there is nothing missing in it; unfinished, it would be missing  everything!

Thought is identical to being, and so it is for the object to which thought refers;

Thus there is nothing, and there will never be anything, outside of being

Which Destiny compels to an eternal bliss. Thus,

To be born and to die, to be or not to be,

To change place or appearance,

All of these events are but names superimposed by man’s ignorance.

Being the ultimate, it is everywhere complete.

Just as an harmoniously round sphere

Departs equally at all points from its center.

Nothing can be added to it here nor taken away from it there.   

What is not,  cannot interrupt it’s homogeneous existence.

What is, cannot possess it more or less.  Out of all  reach,

Everywhere identical to itself, beyond all limits, it is.

Translated from ancient Greek by Francis Lucille, edited by David Jennings

 Peace  love  harmony