Facing Death and Overcoming Ego

"Whatever be the means adopted, you must at last return to the Self, so why not abide as the Self here and now?"

-- Ramana Maharshi --

Philosophers from all traditions have observed the irony that everyone has the knowledge that all things die, yet they manage to avoid an acceptance of their own mortality.

The ego does not want to face the inevitability of its death, and only in rare instances will an individual face the inevitability of death down by examining just what that means and what it will be like. The vast majority prefer to evade thinking about death's inevitability altogether, or to comfort themselves in their belief of an after-life described by their religious tradition. Yet facing death as an inevitable part of what life holds, in certain instances, may lead one to enlightenment in this lifetime.

If you ask, many people will tell you exactly where they were when they came to the realization that they too would die, and what their reaction was. In most instances, the reaction will be to avoid the fact, and to divert one's attention elsewhere. Yet, one of those rare individuals to face down the inevitability of their own death was the great Indian sage, Ramana Maharshi.

Ramana Maharshi
(1879-1950)

In the Introduction to the book, "Talks with Ramana Maharshi," we read how facing down the realization of his mortality propelled the then-teenaged "sage of Arunachala" (known, at that time, as Venkataraman) to a state of unitive consciousness which endured throughout the remainder of his life.

"After the death of his father," we read, "Venkataraman's family moved to the famous temple town of Madurai so that they could be under the watchful eye of a paternal uncle. It was here that the "Awakening" would take place, that waves of spiritual fervor would overtake him while reading the Periapuranam, the lives of sixty-three Tamil saints. From his childhood, there was a continual inner throbbing of "Arunachala, Arunachala," as if the Self - his real Being - was reminding him of his forgotten nature. Once, when a visiting relative recounted his recent pilgrimage to Tiruvannamalai (a temple town where the solitary, sacred hill Arunachala rises above the South Indian plains), young Venkataraman became astonished and overwhelmed that Arunachala was in fact a place on earth - a place one could actually go to."

"Shortly after this time, during a hot July day when Venkataraman was just sixteen," we read, "he faced his own mortality. One day, when everyone else was away from home, the young boy became completely overcome with the fear of death. Rather than panic or retreat into fear, Venkataraman had the remarkable presence of mind to face the situation, then and there. He dramatized the death occurrence to be able to help bring the experience to its ultimate conclusion, by holding his breath, stiffening his body, and allowing no sound to escape his lips."

"To die before death is to face the void; the emptiness in which the content of the mind has no ground on which to endure. It is rare for one to face the void without recoiling back into form. Venkataraman, like the Buddha, was determined to stay the course. Upon firm investigation into the nature of his "I-sense," his former self died, and the infinite Self, the Eternal "I," rose to take its place - the true resurrection."

Carl Jung
(1875-1961)

In an interview in his later life (embedded below), the great Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, himself a student of Ramana Maharshi's teachings, observed that: "I have treated many old people and it is quite interesting to watch what their unconscious is doing with the fact that it is apparently threatened with the complete end. It disregards it. It behaves as if it were going on."

"And, so," he suggests, "I think it is better for old people to live on, to look forward to the next day as if we had to spend centuries. Then we live properly. But when he is afraid, when he doesn't look forward, he looks back. It petrifies him. He gets stiff, and he dies before his time. But when he is living on, looking forward to the great adventure which is ahead, then he lives. And that is what the unconscious is intending to do."

"Of course," he notes, "it is quite obvious that we are all going to die and this is the sad finale of everything, but nevertheless there is something in us that doesn't believe it, apparently. But this is merely a fact. Does it mean to me that it proves something? It is simply so. . . . If you think along the lines of nature," he concludes, "then you live properly."

But what, in fact are "the lines of nature," that Jung speaks of?

"Ramana taught that we exist as Supreme Self at all times," we read in the Introduction to "Talks with Ramana Maharshi," and that, "(w)e need only awaken to this reality by seeking the source of the ego, or "I-thought," and abide in the Self that we always are."

"The path of Self liberates one from the never-ending fear and disorder resulting from taking the ego to be real. By becoming free of the ego-illusion, one experiences true freedom and supreme peace. It is a path that takes one from the apparent duality of the individual and the world to the bliss of one's true nature."

And, of course - as Ramana Maharshi, himself, demonstrated - it is in facing (and facing down) the fear of mortality that the ego projects that we are freed from the small "self" and emerge into the greater consciousness and reality of the eternal Self.

Sri Bhagavan on "What is Enlightenment?"

Sri Bhagavan, Co-founder (with
Sri Amma) of Oneness University

In the attached video, Sri Bhagavan, a modern teacher of non-dualistic enlightenment who follows in the living Vedantist tradition of Ramana Maharhi and Sri Nisagardatta, explores what enlightenment (or mukhti) is, and what the mental barriers to such enlightenment are. "The general definition which I give of mukhti (enlightenment)," says Sri Bhagavan, "is the liberation of the senses."

"When you see," this modern sage explains, "you do not see without the interference of the mind. If you can see without the mind interfering that is enlightenment. If you can hear without the mind interfering that is enlightenment. The same applies to smell, touch and even thought." 

"Thought (can) also be observed without your getting involved with the thought," Sri Bhagavan notes. "What happens is when you are thinking, you think you are thinking. But it is actually possible to see thoughts flow as though they are independent of you"

"This is a physical reality," he explains. "Actually you can see thoughts. Any kind of thought can be coming into you and flowing out of you, and you can watch them. This is the state of (enlightenment); that is, the complete liberation of the senses from the control of the mind."

"If you experience reality as it is," he notes, "then you will just experience bliss. You will see that this whole creation is perfect, that it is the most beautiful thing, that you are in heaven, (and that) you have made it into a hell."

Furthering his explanation of non-duality, liberation and enlightenment, Sri Bhagavan takes his audience through a practical explanation of how we attach to and identify with the contents of our mind - i.e., our thoughts. He then explains how we too often fall into the trap of seeking external relief from the angst or misery that our thoughts create, and what can happen when we let go of our unexamined attachment to our egoic, self-centered thinking.

"It is possible to liberate the senses from the clutches of thought," he notes. "Thought is necessary when required, otherwise why should thought interfere? There is no need for thought to come in and interfere with actual experience."

"Now when the senses become free of the thoughts of the mind," he explains, "we say that you have discovered unconditional joy, unconditional love. Such is this joy, that you will feel you are connected with everybody. You discover true love. . . . And this is an actual occurrence. That is what you are designed to be, that is what a human being is supposed to experience all of the time."

"Since you do not experience that," he continues, "your lives have become miserable. And, to escape that misery, you have created various escape routes, through which all the time you are escaping from your misery; which misery is, itself, because you are not experiencing reality. That is why people take to alcohol or to drugs, or sex or to whatever it is," he notes. "Because otherwise what is there in your life? It becomes meaningless."

"So the whole attempt of (life) is to help you experience reality as it is," he observes. "When that happens you discover unconditional love, and unconditional joy. You feel connected with everything and everybody. You do not feel you are a separate individual; you do not live for yourself alone anymore, because your 'self 'has become everybody. You live for the sake of humanity.

"This is not a concept or some imagined thing," he tells his audience. "This is a day-to-day reality when you become enlightened, or a mukhti."

Nisargadatta on Acceptance and Love

Sri Nisigardatta (1897-1981)

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, one in the long line of self-realized Indian sages, was perhaps the foremeost teacher and philosopher of the non-dualistic Advaita Vedanta since his predecessor, Ramana Maharshi. In 1973, the publication of his most famous and widely translated book, "I Am That," an English translation of his talks in Marathi by Maurice Frydman, brought him worldwide recognition and followers.

[Source: Wikipedia.com]

 In the attached video (below), it is explained that Nisargadatta Maharaj "refered to the illusory sense of being, traditionally called the ego, as the I-Am-ness. He says that to find the source of this I-Am-ness and fully understand it as nothing more than a conceptual idea of one's self is the way to self-realization and wholeness. Maharaj asks the seeker to be in the state which is prior to the experience of I-Am-ness."

"The concept 'I Am' comes spontaneously and goes spontaneously," says Nisargadatta. "Amazingly, when it appears it is accepted as real. All subsequent misconceptions arise from that feeling of reality in the 'I-Am-ness.' The moment the feeling 'I Am' appears, the world also appears. Any image you have of yourself is not true. True knowledge is to abide in your own Self."

"The teachings of Maharaj," it is observed, "move our awareness from the I-Am-ness, this sense of separate identity, to a non-dualistic sense of oneness with the Absolute, which is our real nature." In explaining this shift in his consciousness, Nisargadatta explained to his visitors that what he meant was that he was "free of all content."

"To myself," he explained, "I am neither perceivable nor conceivable. There is nothing I can point out and say, "This I am." You identify yourself with everything so easily. I find it impossible. The feeling I am not this or that, nor is anything mine, is so strong in me, that as soon as a thing or a thought appears, there comes the sense, 'This I am not.'"

"I find that somehow by shifting the focus of attention,  I become the very thing that I look at and experience the kind of consciousness it has. I become the inner witness of the thing. I call this capacity of entering other focal points of consciousness 'love.' You may give it any name you like. Since at any point of time and space I can be both the subject and the object of experience, I express it by saying that I am both and neither, and beyond both."

This radical acceptance of what is - this love without subject, object or conditions - an enlightened and acceptive state of higher consciousness. What is, is. And we are part of that totality Nothing could be plainer. In the beginning chapters of his book, "I Am That," Nisargadatta addresses how the fundamental problem of the mind is overcome with an acceptive love:

"What is wrong with (the mind) seeking the pleasant and shrinking from the unpleasant? Between the banks of pleasure and pain the river of life flows. It is only when the mind refuses to flow with life, and gets stuck at the banks, that it becomes a problem. By flowing with life I mean acceptance - letting come what comes and go what goes. Desire not, fear not, observe the actual, as and when it happens, for you are not what happens, you are to whom it happens. Ultimately even the observer you are not. You are the ultimate potentiality of which the all-embracing consciousness is the manifestation and expression.

[Nisagardatta, "I Am That," page 6.]

"Meditation will help you to find your bonds, loosen them, untie them and cast your moorings, says Nisargadatta. "When you are no longer attached to anything, you have done your share. The rest will be done for you."

"Only in the dissolution of the problem in the universal solvents of enquiry and dispassion,' he notes, "can its right solution be found."

[Nisagardatta, "I Am That," pages 54-55.]

Ramana Maharshi: "Surrender, "Self-Enquiry" and One's "Source"

Questioner: "How are we to treat others?"

Ramana Maharshi: "There are no others."

R

Sri Ramana Maharhi (1879-1950)

Mother India - sometimes called "the birthplace of all religions" - has always had a succession of sages, a lineage of rishis and gurus stretching back to the mists of time.

It was the opening up of India at the turn of the 19th-century, and the exposure of the Western mind to the treasures of India's  spiritual literature that helped birth American Transcendentalism; and it was, perhaps, the appearance of Swami Vivekenanda at the Parliament of World Religions at the 1893 world's fair in Chicago that sparked the interest of yet another generation in the Advaita Vedanta - India's brand of essential 'non-dualism.'

Unlike in the West, where the great teachers and saints are, for the most part, essentially phenomena of the past - half mythic, and half historic - India has been blessed with great teachers in all ages, including in the Modern Age.

Perhaps the first great teacher to have his image captured by photograph was Sri Ramakrishna, Vivikenanda's teacher; and, perhaps the first great enlightened sage to be captured on film was the late Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, "the Saint of Arunachala."

Mount Arunachala
Located in Tamil Nadu, India.

To Advaitan Vedantists world-wide, Ramana Maharshi is renowned as an avatar of "direct non-dual experience," and as a reluctant enlightened teacher "who not only revived the ancient Indian teaching of 'self-enquiry,' but as one who made it simple and direct bringing it within the ken of one and all."

Maharshi maintained that "the purest form of his teachings was the powerful silence which radiated from his presence and quieted the minds of those attuned to it." Fortunately, however, he did give numerous oral teachings for the benefit of the many uninitiated visitors and bevy of Western spiritual seekers who flocked to his ashram on the slopes of his beloved Mount Arunachala, and many of these were recorded for posterity.

His verbal teachings were said to flow from his direct experience of Atman (the 'godhead' within each being and form) as the only existing reality. When pressed for advice on how to make progress on the spiritual path, he would almost invariably recommend radical 'self-enquiry' as the fastest path to moksha - i.e., permanent liberation from the ego, or enlightenment

"Self-surrender," said Ramani Maharshi, "is the same as self-knowledge, and either of them implies self-control. Surrender can take effect only when it is done with full knowledge as to what real surrender means. Such knowledge comes after inquiry and reflection, and ends invariably in self-surrender. Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one's being. Do not delude yourself by imagining such a source to be some God outside of you. One's source is within one's self. Give yourself up to it. That means you should seek the source and merge in it."

Radical self-inquiry - or, 'watching the thinker,' as the enlightened spiritual author and teacher, Eckhart Tolle, calls it - not only disrupts our conditioned pattern of continual and interminable thinking, it offers up a portal to true religious or spiritual experience, after which the spiritual seeker no longer needs to take on faith the existence of a higher state of consciousness (what I have called "acceptive consciousness," elsewhere) within his or her being

"Investigate what the mind is and it will disappear," says Ramana Maharshi. "There is no such thing as 'mind' apart from 'thought.' There is no use removing doubts. If we clear one doubt another arises, and there will be no end of doubts. All doubts will cease only when the doubter and his source have been found. Seek for the source of the doubter, and you will find that he is really non-existent. Doubter ceasing, doubts will cease."

The following film, "Abide as the Self: The Essential Teachings of Ramana Maharshi," produced by Inner Directions and narrated by Ram Dass, opens a wonderful window into Maharshi's timeless teachings of essential non-duality.