Answer to reader question

A reader wrote me with a question, but unfortunately left an email address with a typo, so I couldn’t respond. And neither was there a full name. So I’m going to publish the question with any identifying information removed, and my reply as well:

Self-inquiry impasse

Question:

Thanks for this great blog. I stumbled upon your article on Ramana Maharshi's self-enquiry technique that I have been practicing now for about 6 years.

I have read quite a lot on the topic. My journey was triggered by my layman interest in quantum physics which led me to the fascinating question about the very notion of I. Intellectually I understood what the I is not and that is when I stumbled upon the famous “Naan Yaar” / “Who Am I” by Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.

At the beginning I was surprised by how easily, at an intellectual level, I thought I could grasp Maharshi’s teachings. But now, after many years, I feel like I’m hitting a wall. For almost a year or so I’ve been feeling stuck. The enquiry brings me to this kind of empty space from where for example mental images sprout from. I can “feel” the space in which the mental image of another person appears, for example. But if I follow the rule you shared then as I’m aware of this emptiness, this could not be the source of the I.

Can you help me find out how to continue the enquiry and go beyond this emptiness of which I’m aware?

Answer: Nice to hear from you. Sure -- you are indeed aware of the emptiness. So what is the light by which you know the emptiness? Focus your attention on that light. Don't worry about 'going beyond' it.

At every moment, at every second, you are aware. So the "I" which is aware... of that 'empty space' or of anything else, right? Direct your attention there. What is that? You know the obvious, clear fact that "I am aware of..." What is that fact? Pay attention, and keep looking with great curiosity and intensity inward. Because the fact of your awareness is clear, but when you look for it it is a puzzle what it is. But look anyway.

Do this continuously -- that is the key. At every thought or feeling or anything that comes up -- every waking moment -- redirect your attention to the fact that "I am aware of it." Whatever that fact is, you know it intuitively. Direct your inward gaze there curiously, openly, seeking it.

And any time you think you have it, look at what you've got in your hands. Is it not a thought, feeling, etc.? That can't be it. You are aware of that. So re-direct your attention again.

So put all your focus there, searching, looking inward to that direct knowledge of your own awareness... discarding anything that you think it is. Do this continuously, relentlessly… until your eyes are opened.

Enlightenment is the destruction of an unconscious misconception

What is liberation or enlightenment about, fundamentally? It is not about an experience, no matter how sublime. It is about the questioning and destruction of an unconscious and unexamined assumption.

Our mental life is full of unconscious ideas. It is not a mute, mechanical, flesh biology.

It is a structure made out of ideas.

The root of these ideas is the idea of the “I.”

Normally, for most people, this root idea goes unexamined. The tools aren’t even there to think about why one would examine it, what it would mean to examine it.

The great mystical philosophies of the world have provided those tools. The assumption of the I is brought up, out of the unconscious, and articulated, and investigated.

Expressing the concept, thinking it, and then seeing to what it relates in one’s experience — this is the process that goes on in the intellect, but goes beyond it. It employs logic, but goes beyond it. It uses words, but ends in silence.

The investigation of the unconscious web of beliefs that make up the mind… this is the work of liberation, and it is the crowning glory of that very same work that also has operated throughout the arts and sciences, throughout more academic philosophy, throughout psychoanalysis, and throughout human thought as a whole.

it is also why no experience, no matter how mind-blowing, can complete its work. Ultimately thinking alone can unravel thinking and reveal the splendor within which thinking lies.

Recommended books for seekers of enlightenment

This will be a running, updated list of books (other than my own, of course) I recommend for spiritual seekers. It’s broken into categories. Please feel free to contact me with comments or suggestions, or put them in the comment area below. (updated March 12, 2020)

 

Advaita

Advaita refers to the “nondual” school of spirituality in Hinduism — that is, the seeming separation between yourself and the world, yourself and others, and so on — is illusory, and this illusion can be burned through. My approach is fundamentally based on advaita.

My first book provides a nice overall framework for thinking about enlightenment as a whole, I think. It’s both an introduction and a practice manual. Read an excerpt.

My second book is for somewhat more advanced seekers looking for answers in a question and answer format. Read an excerpt.

The Gita, as the discourse that the incarnation of God, Krishna, makes to the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield, is the most influential text for spiritual seekers in the advaita tradition (and Hinduism as a whole), and for good reason. It is both the beginning and the end, containing the entire range of teachings for both beginners and masters. It is the site of the greatest amount of commentary, and it contains endless counterintuitive riches.

I like the Sargeant translation for being more exact and providing extensive word-by-word translations, and I like the Tapasyananda translations for giving the classic advaita understandings of the meaning.

Short, essential, and amazing, though the dialogues below are even more important. I’d read the translation in here of “Vivekachudamani” (Sankara’s “the Crest Jewel of Knowledge”) if you want to get a wonderful traditional introduction to advaita vedanta through the perspective of one of its greatest sages.

Talks With Sri Ramana Maharshi
By Munagala Venkataramana

The greatest set of dialogues from the supreme Hindu sage of the 20th century. I re-read three and perhaps four times during my last year of inquiry. Reading them is itself a reprogramming of the dualistic mind.

The Yoga Vasistha - I recommend the Concise version by Venkatesananda as a start. A very long, unabridged version is available on the web, and is not translated nearly as well, but if you can’t get enough of this fabulous book, turn to it, especially the last volumes (part VI 2A and beyond), which go beyond the sections in the Concise Yoga Vasistha.

The Ashtavakra Gita is a short and very powerful dialogue on the deep nature of the Self. It takes place between a wise man, Ashtavakra, and a king, Janaka, both of whom are enlightened.

I like the translation by Bart Marshall, which can be found in his The Perennial Way, but it isn’t perfect, and I’d supplement with this free version by Ananda Wood.

A long gorgeous nondual text that will reprogram your mind. It is the teaching of the sage Ribhu of the heart of Vedanta to his disciple.

The Avadhut is a kind of wandering spiritual spiritual master, free from the need for all material pleasures, able to be happy with almost nothing. This book, is a short, poetic work where the Avadhut reflects on the Self and its meaning.

Unchanging? Changing? Neither is the truth.

Purposeless? Purposeful? Neither is the truth.

If only the Self is perceived: that is the truth.

Why lament, then, O mind? I’m the same Self in all.

The Brhadaranyaka Upanisad With the commentary of Sankaracarya
By Sankaracarya - Translated by Swami Madhavananda

A dense, mysterious, difficult to comprehend, and academic text in many ways — it is nevertheless the greatest of the Upanishads — the ancient Hindu texts that are the origin of Vedanta — with a commentary by the greatest Vedantic systematizer, Adi Sankara. Only for students with a serious interest in the history and philosophy of Vedanta.

Other spirituality

A gorgeous, subtle direct pointing at the nondual truth. Reminds me of a Buddhist version of the Ashtavakra Gita. Short and mind-blowing, but not easy.

The most beautiful Taoist text. Profound, witty, brilliant. The first seven chapters are key; the writing after that is by disciples rather than the master, and is not as good.

The other great Taoist text. Short, deep. I’m a fan.

Psychoanalysis and psychology

I’m a huge fan of psychoanalysis (which is not the same as therapy generally) for purifying the mind and dealing with mental obstacles to the search.

The best way to learn about psychoanalysis is enter into psychoanalysis! Google a local psychoanalytic institute and contact them for a referral. There are low-fee options available. If you have trouble, contact me.

That said, if you really want to learn about psychoanalysis from books, here are a couple of places to start. It’s a whole universe, and the books can be quite difficult to digest.

Freud and Beyond: A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought
By Stephen A. Mitchell, Margaret J. Black

Probably the best single-volume introduction to psychoanalysis. You can led it lead you to further resources.

The Fifty-Minute Hour
By Robert Lindner

A ton of fun, these short stories give you a very entertaining taste (but just a taste!) of what analysis may be like through a series of little case studies.

Focusing
By Eugene T. Gendlin

This is the closest work I’ve seen in psychology to the idea I have of metaphorization: that is, the translation of “what it is like” to experience something into artistic, verbal, or symbolic expression. Focusing is not exactly the same, but it’s similar enough to be helpful.

It’s a self-help book, and a good one.

Studies on Hysteria (Basic Books Classics)
By Joseph Breuer, Sigmund Freud

The Freudian universe is large, and this, one of his earliest works, almost a set of little detective stories investigating various patients’ strange symptoms, is a delightful beginning.

If you’re hooked, keep reading Freud. It’s the adventure of a lifetime.

Literature

Swann's Way
By Marcel Proust

This is the first of six volumes of In Search of Lost Time, one of the longest and certainly one of the greatest novels ever written. ISolT is not spiritual in the usual non-dual sense in which we use it on this website, but it is spiritual in a broader sense. It is a profound meditation on human nature and romantic love, on the power of art, on the aesthetic beauty and bliss that runs throughout all of existence. It helped me understand the power of unearthing my own perspective as a way of understanding myself and making meaning by expressing that perspective.

It requires concentration and time, but it is extraordinarily beautiful and wise.