River Ganga Foundation

Something has happened I’m compelled to share.

Dear John,

Something has happened I'm compelled to share.

My practice has shifted. Spontaneously. I no longer seek to focus on myself or existence or anything (likely because I have really seen that anything that is experiential or conceptual is totally unreliable and cannot be what is or what I am; nor can it obstruct or occlude what is/what I am.)

What is happening is: whenever it occurs to me (which it does often) and in my more concentrated morning practice, I find myself in totally unfocused attention. Or even deliberately I go to that. Then of course, various sensory or mental or emotional/energetic events do happen, often without the attention moving. Most don't stick. But if I do get caught up for a while, as soon as I am aware of that, the one who gets caught up and what I am caught up in simultaneously vanish. Unless what catches me is really something that I want to attend to because it concerns something I may want to do or not do. Then consciously I choose to do it, at once, or trust that I will, or won’t or whatever, and attention is again free and unfixed, open.

I am amazed. (I'm into words and now recall that "amazed" means not being in a maze!)

I realize too that what I am discovering is so simple and natural and has always been there or here, always here just now. It is, as you have said, always available.

I am so grateful.

Yours always, R.

 

PS. The Letter of the Month is very timely, synchronistic, for me. It's for me the best letter I have ever read on your website. Well, now anyway. But everything is always just now, isn't it. These open, unrestricted, free and spontaneous sharings on your website and especially in the World Meetings are such a wonderful evolution of the whole "spiritual" business. It's like humanity, or some significant part of it anyway, could really be growing up, getting real.

 

R.

Boulder, Colorado     July 26, 2008

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Worldwide Meeting - October 4, 2008

The only thing that is certain is you, but nothing can be said that is at all helpful in describing you or explaining you, or even pointing to you. You are here. The only certainty there is, is that of your presence. I am not speaking of the sense of self, although the focusing of attention on the sense of self, or the I am, or beingness, or by whatever name it may be called, will in fact result in the vanishing of the sensational experience that is the sense of self. In the moment of its vanishing, what remains is you. That's the incredible value and utility of Ramana's suggestion that we look at ego and grab it by the throat. In so doing, that experience vanishes and what remains is you. You, face to face with you.
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Our work is to teach the method of the vichara (self-inquiry) to all who will receive it.

The only problem anywhere to be found is the false belief that you are at the mercy of your life, and the only solution is the truth, which is everywhere and always present and self-evident. Ridding oneself of the false is as easy as repeatedly tasting the truth of being here, unmovingly, unchangingly here. This repeated looking directly at oneself is the infallible method of the vichara.

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