Self Realization – November 21 2018

We loosely talk of Self-realization, for lack of a better term. But how can one realize or make real that which alone is real? All we need to do is to give up our habit of regarding as real that which is unreal. All religious practices are meant solely to help us do this. When we stop regarding the unreal as real, then reality alone will remain, and we will be that.

 

Your own Self-Realization

is the greatest service you can

render the world.

Be As You Are:

The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi

Edited by David Godman

 

Shri Ramana Maharshi said that there are two ways to find the Truth of our being, to become Self-Realized. One is to ask, “What am I?” The other is to love.

 

What am I? Am I these thoughts? No. Thoughts come and go continually, with or without my permission. Am I these feelings? No. The feelings in me will change by the time I reach the end of this sentence. Am I this body? No. This body is changing all the time. Not one cell of this body was here even seven and a half years ago. Every seven and a half years, the body completely replaces itself, cell by cell. Including bones and teeth. Yet I remember being five years old. I remember being 26 years old. I remember being 40 years old. What is it that remembers? What is it that witnesses these thoughts, these feelings, the actions of this body? If I remain open to discovering what that is, I will be closer to finding what I am.

 

And then, love. Always. Not just when it’s convenient. Not just when it’s expected of me. Not just when it’s with people who have earned my love. But always. With everyone, all the time. Every time my head tells me not to, I have to set that aside and love anyway. Every time I fall into judgment of one over another, of me over you, of you over me. Love. Set aside the judgment and love. Not always easy. But always possible. Try it.

 

We meditate twice each day for about 20 minutes, and get in touch with what we really are. Have a feel-able experience of the truth of our being. Then we have another 16 to 18 waking hours in our day. These two suggestions, should we choose to take them, will give us something worth doing for those other hours.

 

Today I will challenge my ideas of what I am, and I will insist on loving someone I find it challenging to love.