Meditation Confusion.
When your mind and heart are truly open abundance will flow to you effortlessly and easily.
Question:
Dear Deepak sir ,
Ramana Maharishi says that 'meditation (dhyana) is very useful for spiritual ripening ,however, it has a limitation of object – subject duality (when i am meditating on my breath and body sensations , then breath and body sensations are the object , observer is subject). Self enquiry (vichara) transcends this duality by focusing directly on subject – focusing on 'I am' , consciousness and hence self-enquiry is the only way to reach unity consciousness/enlightenment. After one has ripened sufficiently through meditation, one should start 'I am' meditation as soon as one is ready for it'. While , you talk about meditation in almost every book that i have read of yours , i have not read about self enquiry – focusing on 'I am' – in any of your books. do you disagree with Ramana Maharishi? or if you agree with Ramana maharishi , have you talked about self enquiry in any of your books?
thank you very much, sir.
Response:
Self-enquiry is a great path for enlightenment, but for it to work at that, it requires a permanent experience of the transcendental self. Even among the most advanced spiritual aspirants, that is the rarest of the rare. As a path to enlightenment, it effectively requires that one be 99.99% enlightened already. Ramana Maharishi taught this path, since he was born already so close to spiritual awakening and it worked for him. The problem is that if most people tried to reach enlightenment by focusing on “I am” they would not be transcending anything.
Regarding meditation, the only clarification I would add is that the whole point of meditation (dyana) is to go beyond the subject –object duality and experience samadhi. The breath or the mantra are merely vehicles for the mind to transcend that objective experience and duality and know its own true self. As the self or atman becomes a more permanent and stronger presence through meditation, a natural and realistic path of self-enquiry evolves on its own.
Love,
Deepak
Good question and enlightening.
If Deepak was in The presence of Ramana Masharishi would he hold this same answer? No No No. So why should it satisfy him to give it as his answer to his crowd?