Monday, February 16, 2009

Ramana Maharshi : How did the Ego arise?

Question : How did the ego arise?
Ramana Maharshi : Ego is not. Otherwise do you admit of two selves? How can there be avidya in the absence of the ego? If you begin to enquire, the avidya, which is already non-existent, will be found not to be, or you will say it has fled away.

Ignorance pertains to the ego. Why do you think of the ego and also suffer? What is ignorance again? It is that which is nonexistent. However the worldly life requires the hypothesis of avidya. Avidya is only our ignorance and nothing more. It is ignorance or forgetfulness of the Self.

Can there be darkness before the sun? Similarly, can there be ignorance before the self-evident and self- luminous Self ? If you know the Self there will be no darkness, no ignorance and no misery. It is the mind which feels the trouble and the misery. Darkness never comes nor goes. See the sun and there is no darkness. Similarly, see the Self and avidya will be found not to exist.
Posted by White Lotus at 10:19 AM
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1 comment:

  1. Rod Miller-BoyerDecember 1, 2009 at 8:03 PM

    Dear Ramana,

    I'm glad I found your post above tonight.

    If I do not know the Self, than I do not exist.

    Suffering is the experience of not knowing the Self.

    Is this another way of saying that suffering is the experience of not existing, an experience had by something that does not exist (the ego)?

    I have grown hungry for the healing and awakening of all sentient creatures; and I know I must completely accept my Being as the bottomless, shoreless, surfaceless, beginningless, endless sea of compassionate radiance that I am, in order to do my part in the great awakening; and I know the gentle infinite brightness that shines in the sacred instants between my ignorant moments are glimpses of eternal presence.

    But seeing what little I have of the sun between the picket-fence slats of my temporal experiences as I drive by them in this human life, has not caused me to forget the ignorant moments (the wooden planks in the fence), nor to wonder how they got there, and how I got into this car (the ego). Seeing the sun does indeed mean there is no darkness; but seeing the sun does not make me forget the darkness.

    I still suspect that knowing more clearly how ignorance seems to arise would help me to become a better healer. Are my suspicions erroneous?

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