There is no goal to be reached. There is nothing to be attained. You are the Self. You exist always. Nothing more can be predicated of the Self than that it exists.
Ramana Maharshi, from Be As You Are (David Godman, editor), Location 545
The ego self appears and disappears and is transitory, whereas the real Self is permanent. Though you are actually the true Self you wrongly identify the real Self with the ego -self. (Maharshi, location 551)
Not Difficult Just Because the Ego Says It Is
It seems that "waking up" to who we really are is difficult and problematic. We do not know how to reach that goal of Self.-realization. Maharshi reminds us that we are already Self-realized , we just don't know it. Our doubt and confusion, elements of the ego-Self , are in the way of us simply knowing that which we already know.
Avidya is only our ignorance and nothing more. It is ignorance of forgetfulness of the Self. Can there be darkness before the sun? Similarly, can there be ignorance before the self-evident and self-luminous Self? If you know the Self there will be no darkness, no ignorance and no misery. (Maharshi, location 574)
Summing up what I have read today from Ramana Maharshi or at least trying to.
We are already Self-realized; already free...yet a certain ignorance is in the way of our knowing that. This ignorance is brought on by our Samskaras which are brought on by our ego-self which is nothing more than a thought, an illusion in itself. If we remove the veil of ignorance by removing the samskaras , by removing the thought of an ego self ...we will be free. Hmmm!
We are trapped in an illusion of being trapped when really we are nothing but free because we are nothing but Self.
Nothing Unreal Exists
I am reminded of the famous passage from A Cours ein Miracles:
Nothing real can be threatened
Nothing unreal exists
Herein lies the peace of God.
Self cannot be threatened . Self-realization really cannot be threatened either. It is as it is Our difficulty realizing Self therefore doesn't exist, because it is unreal. Ego self doesn't exist because it too is unreal. There is just Self and in that Self is the peace of God we erroneously believe we are struggling to realize.
There is an analogy that Maharshi uses and it will relate to our most recent discussion on dream and deep sleep state. If a man ( or woman) is sleeping in a big room but is dreaming of travelling all over the world.and even if those dreams are so vivid the dreamer does not see or experience the room they are in, they are still in the room. Right? They may have traveled miles and miles in their dreams but when they wake up they realize they have not moved an inch. Why? Their dream travel was all illusion...mind stuff.
Well when we wake up from this "dream" of being a "little me", an ego-self, who is struggling to find Self we realize we were Self all along and any idea of struggling to find Self, of being anything else but Self was just an illusion. We are Self and were all along. All the travelling, struggling and seeking was for nothing. We are already the goal we struggled to reach.
Objectivity is in the way.
Knowing the Self is being the Self, and being means existence. No one denies one's existence anymore than one denies ones eyes, although one cannot see them. The trouble lies with your desire to objectify the Self, in the same way as you objectify your eyes when you place a mirror in front of them. You have become so accustomed to objectivity that you have lost the knowledge of yourself, simply because the Self cannot be objectified. .(Maharshi, location 587)
All is well.
A Couse in Miracles: Combined volume. ( 2007) Foundation for Inner PEace
Ramana Maharishi (David Godman, Ed) (n.d.) Be As You Are: The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi. Penguin: Kindle Edition
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