In actual fact, it matters not whether I am effective or ineffective in communicating to you, as this mind, as this thinking entity, the essence and the purpose of self-inquiry. This is the good news. It is perfectly possible for the mind to continue in its confusion and its misunderstanding of the purpose of self-inquiry. It has no effect if the mind continues to believe that there must be something done about the life; that there must be something done about the nature of the cravings and the aversions that come and go within it. That doesn't matter. It is not true, but it doesn't matter if the mind continue to believe it is true. Because the ultimate practicality resides in the fact that all that is required is that you look at yourself, as often as you can. No matter what you think you are doing; no matter what you think you should be doing.
All that is required is that you taste the actual presence of this presence as often as you can. And it is the looking, the tasting that does the work and not anything having to do with the understanding or the confusion of the mind about why it is working, or why it is not working, or why you are doing it, or what you should be doing, or how you should be fixing yourself, or anything else. It is the looking that does the job; nothing needs to be done about the mind.
Live recording of a Worldwide Meeting with John Sherman on September 15, 2007.
We receive many, many beautiful and useful letters. Every month we try to feature one here that seems especially valuable and instructive for one reason or another.
La nouvelle version du livre Meeting Ramana Maharshi, Conversations with John Sherman, révisée en 2008, vous est présentée maintenant en traduction française.
There is no point in making an effort to establish a connection between the spiritual terminology and the reality that you already see. Once you enter the vichara consciously, in time, you simply lose interest in all of that. No matter how true and inspiring the spiritual and religious discourse may have been, it has not done you much good. There are many things that can provide you with some passing comfort and clarity, but none of them works to put an end to the idea that life is suffering, and that you are in danger here. The only thing that works is to look at you -- ordinary, everyday you.
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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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