Self-Inquiry Is Not Spiritual

Adapted from a Meeting with John Sherman
Ojai, California - October 4, 2006

My purpose in being here is to discuss with you and bring to you the practice of self-inquiry as offered by Ramana Maharshi. I am not a very spiritual person. I see nothing that is essentially spiritual in the practice of self-inquiry. In fact, it is my experience and my clear sense that the idea that there is anything especially spiritual about anything is a delusion, and not worth paying much attention to.  I am not here to offer you the possibility of waking up because, so far as I can see, you already are awake and always have been.  So, I am not here to offer you enlightenment or awakening.  I am not here to offer you what you already are. I am here to offer you the very practical and down-to-earth practice of self-inquiry as it comes to us from Ramana Maharshi.

Ramana spoke of self-inquiry in a certain vocabulary, using a certain traditional set of concepts that was available to him.  When I speak of self-inquiry I don’t sound anything like Ramana Maharshi, just as Ramana doesn’t sound anything like the Buddha. The words with which Ramana Maharshi tried to offer us self-inquiry are really unimportant. The essence of it is absolutely practical, simple and it has nothing whatsoever to do with any spiritual tradition. It has to do with you and nothing else.  It has to do with the reality of what you are. And to know what you are requires no spiritual, psychological or philosophical understanding.

To know what you are is to know directly, without mediation, without the interference of understanding, the actuality of what it is to be, which is always available to all.  This knowing of the reality of being that is with you always is the ground of all that you know. It never changes, never moves. It is unaffected by anything and it is permanent. There are states that come and go in it -- states of dissatisfaction, misery, unhappiness, satisfaction, pleasure, bliss, clarity and peace. These states have one thing is common: they are impermanent. They don’t stay. They are not here, then they are here and then they are not here again.

In the examination of the question "What am I, really?" what we are looking for is what is permanent, what doesn’t come and go. We are looking for what is here now, and will be here tomorrow.  So what we speak of when we talk about self-inquiry has nothing to do with states, neither does it have anything to do with the thoughts  that come and go within our minds.  Thoughts are impermanent.  No one knows from whence they come. We may harbor the belief that we are the thinker of thoughts but the most superficial examination of things will reveal to us that that belief is unfounded. 

If we look at our thoughts as they arise and disappear, we will see that thoughts just appear.  Who knows where they come from?  Who knows where they go to?  When we speak of self-inquiry, we are not speaking about our thoughts or the nature and the quality of our thoughts, whether they are good or bad, intelligent or stupid. Neither are we speaking about body sensations such as excitement, pain, dullness, itchiness, bodily desires, etc. These things, like thoughts and states of all kinds, come and go. They appear and disappear and, like thoughts and states, they present opportunities for us to try to hold onto them, and judge them as good or bad, useful or not useful, frightening or not frightening, or things we should have or get rid of.  Body sensations, like thoughts and states of all kinds, come and go. They appear and disappear within us.  And no matter what body sensations, thoughts or states have come through or have departed, what remains is the unmoving, unchanging reality, which is the certainty of being that you are.  That doesn’t change; that is unaffected by thought, feeling or body sensation.

We are not here to talk about emotions.  Emotions are the same as everything else. They are here and then they are gone.  The same applies to neuroses, ineffective thought patterns and bad habits.  We are not here to deal with those things.  Those things are as they are.  God knows from whence they come, God knows where they go.  But they are impermanent and they are of no use to us in this investigation.  In all of our lives, we have never found a way to make any of these things (thoughts, sensations, emotions, states, neuroses, good habits, bad habits) come when we wanted them to come, stay when we wanted them to stay or go when we wanted them to depart.  If we pay attention and tell the truth, we see that we have absolutely no power over any of the things that come and go within us.

Self-inquiry doesn’t concern itself with anything having to do with what comes and goes within the mind.  None of those things can help us find ourselves nor can they hinder us from finding ourselves.  In the old days, by which I mean in the days of Shankara, approximately twenty five hundred years ago, at the time that the Upanishads were written, there was a practice called self-inquiry (atma vichara) that consisted in trying to uncover the true self. The practice was intended to clear away the neuroses, bad thoughts and habitual patterns of behavior that seemed to cover the true self and it involved meditation, and certain physical things that were intended to clear the fog in order that the true self could shine through.

The self-inquiry of Ramana is nothing like that. It has nothing to do with uncovering true self, or parting the clouds in order that the radiance of true reality can shine through. Nothing stands in the way of the light of reality. Nothing covers it, obscures it or prevents it from being seen.  The truth is that we see it at all times.  There is nothing else that we see except the light of reality.  All things whatsoever exist because they exist within this light, and this light is you.  This light that you are has never moved.  It has never dimmed, it has never been obscured; it has never been inaccessible to you for a second of your life. Never.

© 2006 John Sherman. All rights reserved.