By Kosi

 Metanoia (me-tə-ˈnȯi-ə) is an ancient word that means a change of heart so deep, so total, you fall to the ground in an unending bow to the divine. This total change of heart is the transformation of repentance—a radical shift in consciousness—the moment of bitter remorse you feel when you suddenly realize the absolute futility of all your efforts to seek happiness in the world. It is the timeless moment when you turn away from this futile pursuit that naturally opens your heart to the divine logos—the purifying power of the vast intelligence of the entire universe. This is the beginning of the evolutionary process of metanoia—the ancient alchemy of a deep permanent transformation of every aspect of your life. The ancient words repentance, sin, and metanoia might seem irrelevant in the context of the eternal presence and teaching of Sri Sri Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, but what if the sublime nature of metanoia actually reveals the secret power of vichara—the ancient yoga of self-inquiry? What exactly is metanoia and why is this ancient alchemy essential for moksha—your eternal salvation?

The word repentance goes hand in hand with the word sin, which is often equated with ideas of bad, wrong, or even judged as evil or dastardly thoughts and actions you take, either knowingly or unknowingly, in the world. This common definition of sin tends to evoke a sense of guilt that serves to intensify the deep-seated feelings of self-hatred and shame that lurk at the root of every ego. As a result, the word sin can evoke an immediate reaction of disgust or an overwhelming sense of foreboding, guilt, and shame—or the total rejection of this word as meaningless and irrelevant to you and your life. But what if these common ideas of sin are not actually what the word means? What if the word sin is simply an archery term that means to miss the mark or miss the target? In other words, what if sin is the natural genetic tendency that drives your pursuit of pleasure and your complex strategies to survive in the world?

The mind naturally interprets what you perceive and instantly develops survival strategies based on this interpretation. This extremely potent genetic impulse of your mind grabs your attention and turns your awareness outward to the world. It is what drives the impulse to fight, seduce, run, cheat, lie, judge, hate, avoid, or seduce—the primal sins of survival. This genetic drive to survive constantly directs your attention outward to the events of your life. This movement of your egoic mind tricks you into thinking the constantly changing events unfolding in your life cause the wide array of emotions you experience every single day—but is this what is really going on inside of you? What does it mean to sin or miss the mark?

Sin is deeply rooted in the strong genetic human impulse to perceive, think, and act in the world from the ignorance, or limited perspective, of your ego and genetic mind. It is the conscious and unconscious biological urge to get, keep, and protect yourself in order to survive. This preoccupation with the constantly changing drama unfolding in your life is the nature of sin—missing the mark—meaning you are living your life in the fog of distraction, confusion, impulses, and reactions, and are asleep or unaware of the real purpose and nature of your life. This ignorance of what is actually going on inside of you is the real cause of the intense pain of suffering driven by the primal movements of your mind, which is the potent force of nature within you that drives the thousands of thoughts that appear and disappear again and again like clouds on the horizon that only serve to generate the waves of feelings and emotions that roll through your body like ripples in a still lake.

The deeply ingrained genetic tendency of ego in tandem with your senses naturally generates an unending stream of thoughts, images, and projections that appear and disappear in your mind as stories you instantly weave together, and deeply believe, as your perception of reality. It is the complexity of suffering that generates feelings, emotions, and reactions. This story-weaving capacity of your mind naturally captivates your attention, like a movie in a theater, and continues the ongoing, rather neurotic, conversation unfolding moment by moment in your mind. But have you ever stopped to wonder; exactly who are you talking to inside your head? Who or what exactly is this who? Hmmm…?

The story-weaving nature of your mind leads to the pursuit of pleasure and the complex strategies to get whatever you think will make you happy and avoid whatever you do not want or avoid the intense fear associated with death. The great haunting specter of death is always lurking in the recesses of your genetic mind, but this sense of terror can also appear in your consciousness as an intense fear of rebirth or the unending process of birth and death or the deep-seated fear of being trapped forever on the ancient and terrifying karmic wheel of samsara. But the fear of death and rebirth are actually the same fear—the loss of existence and everything you know, real or imagined, that triggers the genetically wired instinct of your body to survive.

This evokes the most important question you will ever face in life—what is the mark—what is the real aim or purpose of your life? If you follow the movements of sin, or the potent movements of your mind outward to the world, hoping to satisfy the mysterious longing deep inside that never seems to be satisfied, what are you actually accomplishing? Does your strategy of changing what is constantly changing produce any lasting results? Will you ever be genuinely happy following this genetic movement of your mind that can take you on a wild rollercoaster ride of emotional drama? Or drive the intense seeking for the ultimate solution of the perpetual happiness that enlightenment promises?

The natural preoccupation with the ever-changing story unfolding in your mind only leads to fleeting moments of happiness or states of bliss intermingled with chaos, fear, sadness, stress, anxiety, and the terror of death or rebirth—the grim reality of the misidentification with your body caused by the reflective nature of your ego. This evokes the question—how do you really break free of the mind twisting nature of this genetically strong perception of reality or the extremely limited perspective of your puny little ego mind and the arrogance of knowing it constantly generates?

The answer to this life-changing question is simple—metanoia—surrender—the great humbling of your mind. This lives in the realization that you simply cannot change the momentum of your life or potent genetic movements of your mind infused with the power of your intellect, senses, and limited egoic perspective. The harsh reality is; you, as an individual who perceives and lives in the great ocean of suffering, or the great wandering known as samsara, do not possess the power to break this genetically induced trance. In other words, it is impossible for ego to free itself from ego unless there is a radical shift in your consciousness to a deep total surrender to the unseen presence—the vast unseen intelligence of the entire universe.

The only power you actually possess is free will—the unalienable right to choose. The power to stop and choose is the true nature of the inherent freedom of your mind. Ultimately, you can continue to choose the complexity of suffering or choose the potent intelligence of the vast peace of the presence—metanoia. This total surrender is the sacred moment of letting go of everything—all your strategies, attachments, desires, knowledge, experiences (enlightened or mundane) and the endless story about you and your life that your mind is constantly weaving. This moment of letting go is a deep dive into yourself—the intimate merging with the great unseen presence within you—not as a mere thought—but as the visceral realization of you as a single drop of water ‘I’ falling into the vast expanse of the ocean ‘I-I’ the vast unmoving presence of the Self.

This unseen presence has the infinite power to burn the reflective veils of consciousness that hide the eternal happiness alive in your heart—Turiya—the stateless state of pure awareness. It is not enough to know or even understand this. The conscious courageous act of letting go entirely and diving into the unseen light of pure conscious awareness within you is the nature of metanoia--the deepest unwavering surrender to the divine—the point of no return. In other words, you cannot think your way to the steady bliss of Turiya alive in your heart.

The mind and the ego are a potent illusion of reflective consciousness infused with your senses. The mind itself is a force of nature that is genetically and continuously distracted by thoughts and states of consciousness, experience, impulses, reactions, and emotions that come and go. The power of vichara (self-inquiry) lives in the potent invisible energy of the divine—the unseen light—the power of presence that ignites the kundalini shakti in your body—the sacred fire within you that can transform you entirely as an evolutionary process.

If you want to be genuinely, permanently, happy, total surrender is essential and more importantly if you want to be free of the endless wheel of karma—eons of suffering—the ancient alchemy of surrender to the unseen divine presence within you is absolutely critical for your eternal salvation. This evolution is not something that can be forced or accelerated by various methods or intellectual understanding—it is an organic process free of time and space—Sanatana Dharma—the eternal natural way. Surrender to the unseen presence is simply is not optional for moksha—total liberation. True surrender is the essential death of the limited perspective of ego and all of its attempts to control, seduce, run, fight, and protect.

Metanoia is basically the unwavering surrender and prostration to the divine. This bowing down to the unseen presence is the essential humbling of the arrogance and ignorance of your ego that invites the power of the universal consciousness to transform you from within. This is the nature of vichara—the living magnetic power of ‘Who am I?’ It is simply not a mental question that leads to an answer. It naturally shifts your attention with an unseen power that pulls you through the reflective illusion of your ego feeling ‘I’ into what is known as hrityam—the energetic vortex of the invisible light in your heart.

If you consciously place this question in your heart and repeat it again and again the mind collapses in on itself and falls through the feeling of ‘me’ or ‘I am me’ that is the reflective consciousness of ego in your heart. Once you fall through this gateway of reflective consciousness—the vast invisible consciousness of the logos pulls you in to the depths of pure conscious awareness. This energy literally grabs the feeling ‘me’ inside your heart igniting the purifying power of an invisible presence that burns away all conscious and unconscious tendencies—the veils of consciousness that hide the pure indescribable happiness of your eternal nature.

This pull inward is like being caught in tractor beam of light—there is no escape—unless this sensation freaks you out and you give your attention back to the stream of thoughts rolling through your mind. If you surrender to this pulling sensation, it is the point of no return, an immense power pulls your consciousness awareness deep inside melting the ‘me’ you feel into the divine presence of pure consciousness awareness within your heart. This is the invisible, unknowable, power of vichara—the eternal burning fire of the heart. It is the holy sacred blaze of indescribable love that destroys the me you think you are revealing the light you are, have been, and will always be—not as a thought—but as the direct realization of eternal presence.

Once you understand the real nature of vichara, it requires supreme courage to meet the death of your ego. Vichara literally torches everything about you that is false until you merge with the vast unseen presence—like you are a sugar doll falling into the ocean. Ultimately, with perseverance this fire of love sets you free—this unconditional love has the power to evaporate the mortal bond of ego that has imprisoned you on the karmic wheel of suffering for eons. This is the fi­­re of grace that cuts the primal knot of the ego and sets you eternally free—moksha!

This bonfire of love physically removes the many veils of ignorance that hide the eternal light of pure unalloyed happiness—divine love without end. This divine unconditional love is the sacred purifying fire that removes all of your sins—the karma accumulated through countless incarnations of birth and death—the hell realm of unending existence as form and the dissolution of form.

Vichara is the ancient alchemy of the logos—the power of unseen energy that sets you free from the angel of death and opens the door of eternal life alive in your heart. The heart is the gateway of your salvation—moksha—this is the eternal mark—the real purpose of your life—liberation from eons of suffering.­­­

If you are truly ready for moksha you will not hesitate to jump into the fire of love on the wings of the question ‘Who am I?’ This is the ultimate purpose of your life.

This timeless choice is living freedom—metanoia—the deepest most humble surrender to the divine fire.

 Why not bow down and burn in this holy eternal fire of love?

 This is the ancient alchemy of moksha—metanoia.

 Tat Sat

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By Kosi

In the womb of your mother, the very first sense organ to evolve in your body was your inner ear. The very first language you heard, understood, and felt was the sound of your mother’s voice as you floated in the amniotic fluid of life held by an unseen presence—the purest love. In this wordless union with the divine, you evolved from a few cells to an entire human being and sound was, and is, the eternal imprint that connects you to a presence that surpasses all understanding. Sound is the very nature of creation—an electromagnetic vibration of light infinitely connected to the great symphony of the universe—silence, sound, light, and vibration. The primordial sound of OM is the unending tone of this universal symphony—the unseen living vibration of life itself. This primal sound has the innate power to open your consciousness to an unseen dimension of time and space—the power to end lifetimes of suffering. But what exactly is this sound? And why is sound essential for your eternal salvation?

The energy field of your conscious awareness contains the karma of many previous incarnations. This energy field is a frequency of light that is eternal, uniquely you, and traditionally referred to as your immortal soul. This energy field gives life to your body as well as life to the genetic codes contained within the cells of your body, which are subject to the universal law of cause and effect—the ancient law of karma. Liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering is simply not possible until all of your karma is resolved, which means it is either resolved through the fulfillment of karmic action and reaction in the world or burned in the sacred fire of the continuous practices of the mantra, self-inquiry, and meditation. The challenge is most of your karma is completely unknown to you—so the question naturally arises; how do you resolve something you know absolutely nothing about?

Obviously, you cannot free yourself from unknown karma—this is the fundamental reason the mantra is essential for liberation. It is simply impossible to remove karma with the power of your intellectual understanding or knowing. The ancient alchemy of sadhana, or the ancient practice of letting go, is essential for your spiritual evolution, which means there is simply no shortcut for removing your karma—it naturally evaporates in the sacred fire of sadhana generated by the electromagnetic energy contained within every mantra otherwise it must be acted out in the great play of consciousness known as maya.

Sound is the key that unlocks the secret code of liberation from all forms of suffering—whether it is the suffering of fear, anxiety, sadness, rage, stress, or jealousy—the endless patterns of suffering you are experiencing in this life or have experienced in other incarnations. It is the invisible frequencies of light contained within the potent seed letters of all mantras that has the power to remove even the most stubborn karmic knots of suffering. In other words, you don’t need to know what your karma is or what you did in previous incarnations—the potent sound vibrations of all mantras are a purifying force of nature that removes the impurities of karma contained within the electromagnetic field of your conscious awareness most of which is completely unknown to you.

The secret of the mantra lives in its unseen power. It is not just an ancient song or hymn. The mantra is a prayer to the divine asking for help, it is proven science with the power to re-wire your brain and supports the natural surrender of devotion—loving the divine—the pure union of jnana and bhakti yoga. The power of the mantra lives in the deep recognition that you actually need the help of an unseen presence—the divine intelligence of the entire universe. This surrender is essential in order to address unknown mountains of karma stored in the genetics of your body and the electromagnetic frequency that animates your body. Removing veils of karma is not something you can do as a self-help exercise nor is it something you can address with mere intellectual understanding.

The potent energy of every mantra is actually an intimate prayer to the divine presence of the entire universe—a vast love and intelligence beyond human comprehension. This divine presence is contained within every mantra as a potent electromagnetic energy field with the power to set you free from eons of suffering. Liberation is simply not possible without the ancient power of the mantra—the unending prayer of electromagnetic light. This invisible power naturally surrenders the powerful movements of your mind into the vast stillness of the infinite realm of your heart. This is the intrinsic nature of every mantra—it naturally pulls you through the invisible gateway of your heart into the living realm of pure joy.

The sound waves of every mantra are electromagnetic frequencies of light that naturally purify the unknown karma known as vasanas from the invisible energy field of your conscious awareness. Every mantra contains potent electromagnetic frequencies of light in the form of seed letters. The seed letters of every mantra are an electromagnetic wave of light that vibrates the gross, subtle, and causal aspects of your physical existence. It naturally purifies or burns through, karma, vasanas, gunas, and samskaras—the unconscious tendencies that keep patterns of suffering recurring again and again in your life experience.

The mind naturally follows the inner and outer sounds that you perceive. Focusing your mind on the source within your heart through the potent prayer of the mantra ignites a sacred fire that burns through your known and unknown karma. Ultimately, the sound of the mantra is the sacred fire that sets you free from eons of suffering.

The invisible power of the mantra is a natural surrender of the immense power of your mind into the infinite realm of your heart—the purest divine love. This is the intrinsic nature of every mantra—it naturally pulls you through the invisible gateway of your heart into the living realm of pure joy.

The silent sound of every mantra is the electromagnetics of liberation—unending happiness.

Tat Sat

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The ancient word mārga means path or way of salvation. The three primary mārgas described in the ancient Vedic scripture of the Bhagavad Gita (Song of God) are karma mārga (path of dharma or selfless right-action), jnana mārga (path of wisdom), and bhakti mārga (path of devotion). The three primary paths are so intimately intertwined there is no separation—all three primary mārgas are actually a single mārga. It simply does not matter which mārga you begin with, the evolutionary process of moksha eventually includes all three mārgas. This is the nature of the clear way mārga of the mountain path. It is yogic discipline and science infused with potent electromagnetic energy—an extremely intelligent invisible presence. The yogic practices of this path generate a potent energy field within you that purifies the electromagnetic field of your conscious awareness—removing the known and unknown aspects of your suffering. It is the sacred alchemy essential for your salvation. But what exactly are the yogic practices of this mārga? And what is its ancient secret? Perhaps more importantly, how do you follow a mārga that is completely totally clear—a path that is invisible?

 The evolutionary teaching of Ramana Maharshi is known to be comprised of bhakti and jnana yoga as the two sides of the mountain path of liberation, but karma yoga is rarely if ever mentioned as part of his extremely advanced yogic teaching.  What is truly significant about this pervasive omission is the fact that everything Ramana said and did is an example of the profound power of karma yoga—the self-less nature of true dharma—right action. Perhaps more importantly the actions of Ramana Maharshi reveal one of the great secrets of every single mārga. The path of dharma does not adhere to the laws and rules of this world—it transcends the linear thinking of the human mind. It is based solely in total surrender and trust in the invisible presence of God, Siva, Sunyata, Logos, Quantum Field, or whatever name or word you choose to assign to this infinite presence—a silent intelligence that simply defies description.

 Karma Mārga lives in total trust and obedience to the silent guidance of this intelligence without question, no matter how strange or odd, it might seem from a worldly perspective. It is complete unwavering service to God without any regard to what might be lost or gained through the fulfillment of this dharmic action. It has absolutely nothing to do with the egoic construct of gain or loss. For example, when Ramana heard the silent command of his father, Arunachala Siva, he immediately traveled to this sacred mountain never once questioning this otherworldly call leaving only an obscure note for his relatives asking them not to search for ‘This’ referring to his bodily existence. This total surrender and obedience to the unseen presence is the nature of true surrender. How is this even possible, you might wonder? How can you follow the guidance of an unseen silent voice?

 The short answer to this question is the average person is far too busy neurotically conversing with the mysterious voice inside their own head, or allowing their attention to be consumed by the almost incessant conversation with other people, to even notice the invisible intelligence of the entire universe let alone hear its silent guidance. But the great secret of every mārga is total trust in the unseen silent realm of the vast unconditional love of the universe, which is the essence of this eternal presence. The great secret of every mārga is the yogic discipline of sadhana aligns your limited conscious awareness with the unseen invisible intelligence of the entire universe—an intelligent presence that simply transcends human understanding.

 The unlimited power of this unseen presence is a purifying force of nature. The more you align with the presence the more your conscious awareness—the unseen electromagnetic light frequency that animates your body—is purified. This unseen energy field of light within you gives life to the reflective consciousness of your ego—the deep visceral feeling that you are the ‘me’ of your body that keeps you enslaved to your body-mind experience infused with the power of your five senses as you move through life—a virtual prison of emotions, reactions, circumstances, vasanas, gunas, and associated karma. The yogic power of the clear way mārga helps you break free of this potent invisible jail of suffering.

 The ancient yogic practices align your conscious awareness with this vast intelligent energy field, which is infused with the quantum power of the entire universe—the power of the cosmos—the light far greater than a trillion suns. The more you consciously align your awareness with this unseen presence the more and more this invisible intelligence burns away both conscious and unconscious impurities and the karmic genetic imprints infused in the electromagnetic field of light within you. This purification process is essential for removing the layers of unconscious karmic codes (vasanas) and conditioning that keep patterns of suffering recurring again and again.

 The shallow and exceedingly reckless perspective of Ramana’s teaching as instant and effortless is annihilated completely once you fully understand the complex energy field, karma, and genetic biology of your suffering. The clear way is an advanced yogic science that is infinitely deep. The yogic practices of this mārga have the power to re-wire your brain—an ancient alchemy that transforms you from the inside out. This is not a casual path. It requires a deep desire for moksha, commitment, study, contemplation, understanding, perseverance, and most importantly the actual application of the yogic practices of this ancient mārga.

Naturally this evokes the question; what are the yogic practices? How do you make real noticeable progress? The three primary yogic practices of this path are bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, and karma yoga—all of which require the absolute surrender of your mind to the vast invisible presence through the universal power of silence, sound [mantra], and prayer, as the ultimate yoga of self-inquiry [vichara]. This inquiry and energetic surrender through the power of the mantra naturally confronts the specialness of the ‘me’ you think you are, which transforms the reflective consciousness of your ego into the gateway of liberation.

The most important aspect of all yogic practice is surrender through the potent power of self-inquiry as the deepest bhakti (love and worship) of the divine presence. It is simply impossible to remove the impurities that cloud your mind, plug your ears, and blind your eyes through mental understanding alone—it is essential for you to physically engage with the unseen power of pure presence to ignite the sacred yogic fire that burns away the impurities that veil your true nature.

 It is impossible to make any noticeable progress without the power of silence, sound, and surrender on the invisible wings of the electromagnetic frequencies of light that every mantra represents. No words can ever describe the power of the mantra to release you from the prison of your mind, ego, and unknown karmic codes contained in the field of invisible electromagnetic light that animates your body.

The clear way is a deep unswerving bow (namaskar) to the eternal spring of the pure presence alive in your heart—the more you drink of this ancient elixir the more and more you will realize directly the peace, happiness, clarity, and love of your eternal nature.

 The secret of the way is the yoga of light. It is this unseen light of presence that is the path, guidance, energy, and power that frees you from the slavery of your mind, ego, and genetic karma.

 This is the great and ancient secret of the way.

 Tat Sat

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Neo-Advaita is synonymous with instant enlightenment or the idea that you liberate yourself from eons of suffering in a fraction of a second simply by diving deep inside your heart on the wings of the ancient question; Who am I? This question supports the immediate direct discovery that your real nature is the eternal aware presence of sat-chit-ananda—bliss that defies description. This dramatic shift in consciousness feels euphoric in the moment until this feel-good trance evaporates like a mirage in the desert the instant your genetic mind infused with egoic identity re-asserts its power over you. Naturally, this causes you to dive back into your heart once again looking for the bliss you somehow lost hoping this time you will discover the permanent bliss of enlightenment. This vicious cycle is the neo-advaita trap—an insidious poison for your mind—a very potent illusion. This so-called spiritual bypass of neo-advaita is perhaps the greatest lie ever told—a corrupt teaching that will never result in liberation. Sadly, however, it is a bit like a curry stain on a white shirt—it penetrates into the very fibers of your brain making it almost impossible to remove the allure of the very potent and often blissful trance states—the grand illusion neo-advaita teachings generate. Once you realize that neo-advaita is actually a poison it naturally evokes the question; what exactly is the antidote for this poison? Does one exist? How exactly do free yourself from the curry stain poison of neo-advaita?

Neo Advaita is based on the idea that there is no teaching, no practice, no context, and no effort—the absolute truth of who you are is the vast presence of the Self—bliss without end. Satsang teachers who embrace this philosophy emphasize self-inquiry or the question ‘Who am I?’ or bypass this question altogether by inviting you to dive deep into your heart—claiming this deep dive is the fastest route to enlightenment. This false narrative has entrapped millions of seekers worldwide in a corrupt and fruitless teaching that will never result in liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering. In many cases, several so-called neo-advaita satsang teachers have even abused their power by financially, psychologically, physically, and sexually exploiting their students, which is a clear indication they are still very much at the effect of their ego. Let’s face it, their behavior reveals their so-called teaching is a complete and total farce—only a person who is still very much at the effect of their ego would engage in the well-documented egregious abuse of power demonstrated by many neo-advaita satsang teachers.

Neo Advaita is often associated with the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, but nothing could further from the truth—neo-advaita has absolutely nothing to do with Ramana or his teaching. Satsang teachers consistently argue their perspective is an aspect of Ramana’s teaching based on how they perceived the teaching of their guru HWL Poonja (Papaji) who was a direct disciple of Ramana whose teaching is credited as the source of the pervasive philosophy of what has been coined neo-advaita. But their perspective of the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi is so narrow it is like trying to look at the entire universe through a straw. It is, however, a paradox of sorts deeply rooted in the absolute or the direct realization of the vast consciousness known as the Self—in the absolute sense, you are That vastness. But in the relative sense, this extremely narrow perspective of the process of liberation only serves to inflate your ego and generates trance states or self-reflective loops of consciousness that might be intensely blissful but contains none of the yogic power essential to burn through the underlying causes of suffering.

If anything, neo-advaita is a profound catalyst for spiritual suffering and disillusionment, the heartbreak of which, can be so intense it has actually resulted in the suicide of several students of these self-proclaimed satsang teachers. Ultimately, the hard truth is neo-advaita is an exceedingly superficial philosophy that keeps you trapped on the treadmill of your ego creating the illusion that you are making progress toward the ultimate goal of liberation, but in reality, you are popping in and out of various bliss states that only serve to inflate your ego. The sad reality of neo-advaita is it is a trap that keeps you caught in a cycle of thought generated states that appear and disappear over and over again, which does absolutely nothing to address the underlying nature suffering. The bliss states this philosophy generates can be intensely euphoric and often serves to create the collective delusion that the key to your salvation lives in a relationship with one or more of the satsang teachers who are perceived to be enlightened or are believed to be an embodiment of the sadguru who litter the internet nauseatingly spouting their firmly held dogma that you are already liberated—all that is needed is to realize this truth for yourself and presto—you are liberated.

The sad truth is the majority of these teachers simply do not have the necessary depth, training, or understanding of the Vedic science essential for liberation. In fact, their dogmatic perspective has thrown out all of the essential yogic practices. If you have no real understanding, teaching, or practice how will you make any progress? Due to this very limited perspective and dogmatic belief most satsang teachers are unable to assist you in any real tangible way due to their delusional thinking that they have somehow magically liberated themselves from eons of suffering with no effort, understanding, practice, or wisdom. Many are completely deluded by their enlightened egos and demonstrate a narcissistic sense of self-importance or their deep-seated belief they are infallible and superior to their students and in some cases even superior to the teacher that introduced them to this corrupt teaching. The mantra of these teachers is no practice, no effort, no excuses, you already are what you are seeking—a lie intertwined with absolute truth with the power to trap you in a vicious cycle that will never produce any sustainable results.

The inherent nihilism of the neo-advaita perspective is the catalyst for this trap. Nihilism, or the abject rejection of moral principles and deep-seated belief that nothing in this world matters, is in effect the glue that holds the neo-advaita dogma firmly in place. It lives in the question; Do you exist? Does anything really matter? It is a question within a question, which in and of itself it is a self-reflective loop of consciousness that generates concepts of truth steeped in constantly changing states of consciousness that only serve to prevent any real tangible progress. This nihilistic thinking completely negates the very real experience of the seeker or person who is seeking enlightenment or the ultimate liberation known as moksha. Ultimately, in spite of the very loud protests of people caught in the cult of neo-advaitism, it is a philosophy that does absolutely nothing to address the underlying root causes of suffering nor does it offer any real instruction on how to address these underlying tendencies—most of which are completely and totally unconscious to you. Exactly how are you going to address something you know absolutely nothing about?!

The reason neo-advaita is such an insidious poison is simply due to the bliss experienced by the naïve seeker, which naturally creates the feeling the teaching is true—after all the euphoria of bliss feels absolutely incredible. But in reality, the high generated by bliss it is no different than the euphoria generated by a street drug—eventually the high evaporates, which ignites the somewhat desperate search for the next bliss high. Neo-advaita has been extremely successful in creating many bliss addicts and junkies who roam the earth thinking they are enlightened, but strangely are still seeking this seemingly illusive bliss even though they wholeheartedly believe the effortless enlightenment hogwash they are fed by neo-advaita teachers—whoa! It is true the deep look into the depths of your heart is often experienced as a potent shift in consciousness, but the trick is this shift, or glimpse into the infinite, will never free you from reflective consciousness of your ego. The powerful illusion of mind, ego, and the pervasive underlying unconscious tendencies infused with your genetics and fueled with the visceral power of your five senses is a potent force of nature—one that is not overcome by a transitory glimpse of the infinite.

It is essential to recognize the self-reflective loops of consciousness are generated by your conscious awareness bouncing off the reflective surface of your ego—it is a trance. This trance is an insidious poison infused with ever changing states of consciousness as a kind of visceral dream of enlightenment that ensures the ego remains very much in charge. It appeals to the western consciousness as the instant solution to life’s problems and sets a false expectation of instant, effortless, and ultimately easy moksha—as if moksha is synonymous with instant coffee. This very shallow perspective generates a vicious cycle that literally robs you of years of your life and only serves to inflate your ego—the extreme arrogance of the enlightened ego drunk on concepts that have little to do with what is known as moksha, enlightenment, or liberation. It is grand trick of your mind, genetics, ego, and physical senses with the innate power to keep you trapped in various bliss states that come and go. It is a potent and extremely dangerous liaison of genetics, mind, and ego that can lead to violent and/or unethical behavior that is systematically discounted by the nihilistic idea that nothing matters—the person or victim simply does not exist—there is never any culpability. The teaching is used by satsang teachers to wriggle away from any responsibility.

The very nature of self-reflective loops of consciousness, or your conscious awareness bouncing of the reflective surface of egoic identity, feels really good for a period of time, but ultimately it does nothing to address the underlying pervasive issues associated with suffering and does absolutely nothing to address the source of suffering. The antidote to the poison of neo-advaita dogma is very simple—it does not work—the spiritual bypass does not exist. It is a corrupt teaching that distorts the very real study, contemplation, application, and intense effort essential for liberation. If you don’t realize this fundamental truth about the lie of Neo Advaita, it will quite literally steal years of your life until one day, many years from now, you wake up from the neo delusion of enlightenment realizing you are still suffering with the same issues that ignited your search for the ultimate solution to life’s misery in the first place—no real progress happens on the so-called Neo Advaita path. It leaves you where you started stealing the one thing you can never get back—your time!

To break free of the neo-advaita trap begins with the understanding that your search for liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering is a deep-seated genetically programmed longing for the ultimate happiness—liberation. It is an evolutionary process that integrates the three known paths of liberation: jñāna mārga (path of knowledge), bhakti mārga (path of devotion), and karma mārga (path of action). The teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi assimilates these three primary yogic paths as a continuous unstructured sadhana (practice of letting go) into what is known as the middle way of Ramana Maharshi. This process of liberation is not instant. It is known as Santana Dharma—the eternal natural way transcendent of time and space—an ancient teaching comprised of the law, essence, and nature. This middle way requires intense study, contemplation, understanding, application, practice, and support from a realized master, which is embodied in the eternal master of Ramana—Sri Arunachala Siva.

The antidote to the poisonous teaching of neo-advaita begins with contemplating your motives for seeking moksha—what exactly do you think liberation from the karmic wheel will give you? What is the real reason for your hot pursuit of nirvana or the bliss of enlightenment? It is important to carefully contemplate your motivation as a deep serious examination of conscience. The mountain path of liberation is about freedom from the karmic wheel of suffering—the great ocean of suffering known as samsara. This is no small undertaking. It is imperative to understand this path is not about developing siddhis or spiritual powers, and it is not a self-help modality to make a newer better you nor is this path a new age teaching that will magically make you happy and fulfilled. The true student of the mountain path has an intense desire for the ultimate freedom of moksha and is unwavering in their commitment and dedication to this path, not just for their own enlightenment, but the enlightenment of others as well. If you have other motivations like the desire for fame or the pursuit of power, or you simply want to get rid of your negative emotions, or you have a deep desire to run away from your responsibilities, this ancient mārga will spit you out while whispering in your ear, ‘Maybe next life my friend.’

If you have a true motive—a deep burning desire for moksha—real progress begins with an intimate understanding of the nature of suffering, the nature of mind, and the nature of egoic identity—the known source of all suffering. What exactly is suffering? Or for that matter, if you are clear about the nature of suffering, how do you break free of its ironclad grip? The suffering you are aware of is a small fraction of suffering. What tends to captivate your attention is the problems of your life and the negative feelings of fear, anger, stress, and pain it seems to generate—but pleasure is also a form of suffering. The hidden unconscious tendencies associated with karma, vasanas, samskaras, conditioning, gunas, sheathes of consciousness, and genetic tendencies—the mental, egoic, genetic, and physical aspects of suffering—are not instantly addressed by simply peering into your heart nor are they addressed by the nihilistic dogma that they simply are illusory phenomenon.

Once you come to grips with the nature of suffering it is important to understand the teaching and contemplate the nature of your mind? What exactly is your mind?  What are thoughts? What is the nature of conscious awareness? What exactly is your ego and how does your ego and mind generate states of consciousness? What role do you play in generating fear, anger, sadness, stress, or anxiety? Do these negative emotions simply manifest beyond your control? What is awareness and how does your mind work? What actually causes the different reactions you have to your life circumstances? Once you begin to understand the nature of your mind and how it works you can open your mind to an intimate examination of the root cause of all suffering—ego. What exactly is your ego? And how is this small three-letter word the driving force behind all forms of suffering?

The mountain path of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi is a beautiful, alive, and ever-fresh path of self-discovery that lives in your own direct experience. The support for this discovery lives in the yogic practices of letting go—sadhana—the sacred fire with the power to purify your mind and body. This purification process is essential for real permanent realizations to take root in your consciousness—it removes the many hidden layers of consciousness that hide the vast indescribable living presence of the Self from your conscious awareness. This quite literally means that the yogic practices of self-inquiry, meditation, mantras, and prayer are the essential yogic practices—no progress is possible without the actual understanding of the context and the actual incorporation of these yogic practices into your daily life.

The various yogic practices recommended by Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi are an ancient science infused with the hidden power of the entire universe. This power is an indescribably vast invisible intelligence. Ultimately, it is this power that liberates you—you cannot liberate yourself from the karmic wheel due primarily to the fact that most of your suffering is completely unknown to you. It is in the total surrender to the unseen that this ancient alchemy begins to burn away everything known and unknown that serves as a barrier to your own direct realization of moksha.

The mountain path is a yogic science of liberation—a sacred burning ground. To plant your feet firmly on this path requires the intimate embrace of the Seven Yogic Laws of Moksha:

1. Law of Commitment: requires you to examine your motivation and make an unwavering commitment to this path and teaching.

2. Law of Knowledge: requires you to devote a significant amount of your time and attention to the study of the teaching.

3. Law of Contemplation: requires you devote a significant amount of your time and attention to the contemplation of the surface and hidden dimensions of this teaching.

4. Law of Integration: The integration of the recommended yogic practices into your daily routine while consciously cultivating the qualities of humility, compassion, and love.

5. Law of Actualization: The commitment to practice consistently until your practice becomes continuous while awake and even while sleeping.

6. Law of Devotion: Total surrender to the unseen formless presence of God.

7. Law of Wisdom: The complete and total letting go of all expectations.

It is very easy to jump on the mountain path of liberation and a challenge of a life-time to stay on this path for the remainder of your life. This path is the path of fire—the path that burns away all that is false—a path of the most profound joy and contentment in life and the total preparation necessary for facing the death of your body.

The death of the neo-advaita philosophy is the birth of real progress—a return to the true, time-tested, and infallible teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi—the sublime teaching of the eternal natural way—Sanatana Dharma.

If you have the courage to embrace the seven yogic laws of moksha—it is certain you will make real progress—the steady consistent burning away of eons of suffering.

 Tat Sat

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The word Gita means song or hymn. The ancient teachings of India are composed of ancient songs (mantras) that sing the song of God—the secret yogic wisdom that reveals the way of enlightenment or the path of moksha—the end of eons of suffering. The songs contained in ancient scripture are actually a secret language infused with a potent energy that unveils the gateway of eternal freedom within you. It is a potent power that opens your heart to the great mystery of eternal salvation. The Ramana Gita is the song of Arunachala Siva—the form and formlessness of the silent song of Ramana—that which resides in the heart of all beings. It is an ocean of wisdom—a vast indescribable purifying energy that reveals the essential yoga that removes conscious and unconscious tendencies that hide your true nature. Few would argue that the Ramana Gita represents the quintessential teaching, energy, and presence of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, but what secret wisdom does it contain? How can it help you make real progress?

The Ramana Gita is both a song and conversation that unfolded at the turn of the century between Ramana and Ganapati Muni as well as a few other advanced students that were burning with the deep unwavering desire for moksha. This intimate meeting reveals the yogic teachings and practices with the intrinsic power to unlock the great mystery of eternal life. You could say it is the most succinct and practical guide for those serious about liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering that unveils the secrets of Mantra Yoga, Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga, and Bhakti Yoga[1]—the yogic practices essential for removing the stubborn unconscious tendencies that hide your true nature.

The potent teaching contained within The Ramana Gita pulls the rug out from underneath the common western idea that moksha is instant and effortless—revealing the intense yoga essential for making any significant progress. In the very first chapter of the Ramana Gita Ramana Maharshi illuminates, “The seeker of knowledge does not achieve his end merely by a study of scripture. Without upāsanā there cannot be attainment; this is definite. Experiencing the natural state, during spiritual practice is called upāsanā and when that becomes firm and permanent that itself is call jnana” [2] This emphatic assertion by Ramana reveals the effort of sadhana is essential for real progress.

The purpose of all yogic practice is permanent realization based on not just what you have read and understood or your intellectual understanding, but rather your own direct experience of the stateless state of Turiya and beyond. This is the nature of the Sanatana Dharma of Ramana Maharshi known as the eternal natural way free of time and space. This ancient dharma is comprised of the law, essence, and nature. This unseen law of Ramana is deeply rooted your own direct experience, the essence is silence, and the nature is moksha—the ultimate state of total liberation—based solely on your own permanent realization beyond intellectual understanding.

Ramana describes the three distinct yogic paths that lead to moksha are in actuality one path: the first is margana, quest; the second majjana, diving in; and the third prana-rodha, control of your breath.[3] This is the primary reason why Ramana’s teaching is so potent—it requires that you dive deep into yourself, inquire, and develop the yogic power that breathes life into the lungs of the sacred fire that burns away the unconscious tendencies or vasanas as well as your mind and ego with the life-giving food of prana (breath). Now remember the Ramana Gita is a conversation, but it is also a song (Gita). It fundamentally is the song of God that unveils the yogic practices essential for moksha.

The potent power of any song is an energy that transcends the power of mind to encapsulate the words into a limited or simplistic or superficial understanding. The Ramana Gita is a song that transmits the secret power and wisdom of the entire Vedas. It is actually impossible to encapsulate the supernatural energy contained in the Ramana Gita with mere words. What is relayed to you here can best be described as a single note of this epic symphony of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi—the secret sound of this life-changing song—a road map to true and lasting realization left behind for all of us by Ganapati Muni.

Perhaps one of the most significant yogic practices this sacred text reveals is the meditation practice known as pranava. This practice uses the potent sounds of the seed letters of the primordial sound of om (a-u-m). The potent energy contained within these seed letters are electromagnetic laser beams of an invisible silent light vibration that correlates directly to the primary states of consciousness as well as the gross, subtle, causal bodies of your physical body that naturally direct your attention inward to the source of all sound—the living eternal presence alive in your heart.

This practice combines all three of the paths recommended by Ramana—the quest (inquiry), the deep dive into your heart, and breath control or prana. Even the name of this practice emphasizes the importance of breath during the yogic evolution that eventually purifies the mind leaving only the absolute truth or the direct and permanent realization of the Self—the Turiya state and beyond—Turiyatita.

All states of consciousness that move through your body and mind are the play of consciousness that distracts you from the indescribable peace alive in your heart. The purification process of yogic practice is essential to remove both conscious and unconscious layers of consciousness that hide your natural state from your conscious awareness.

The song of yoga is the silence of your heart. It is a vibration of light and invisible electromagnetic energy with the power to re-wire the synapses in your brain. This purification process outlined in the Ramana Gita is describes the yogic practices that support the evolutionary process of moksha.

Moksha is always here and now in the absolute sense, but in the relative sense your own direct and permanent realization is dependent on actual yogic practice—not as an intellectual exercise, but rather as the actual physical yogic practices of self-inquiry, meditation, and singing the mantra.

The teaching of Ramana is clear—you actually have to do the practices in order to see through the doer entirely. Moksha is not possible without the sacred fire the Gita represents—the supernatural yogic power of your commitment, surrender, and participation.

This is not instant—it is an evolutionary process.

Moksha is earned not given.

 Tat Sat

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[1] Sri Ramana Gita composed by Sri Vasishtha Ganapati Muni—contained within the translation of Sanskrit Preface.

[2] Sri Ramana Gita composed by Sri Vasishtha Ganapati Muni—quote of Ramana page 9.

[3] Sri Ramana Gita composed by Sri Vasishtha Ganapati Muni—quote of Ramana page 17.

Samādhi is total union with the divine—the direct realization of your natural state—continuous unbroken bliss. The sublime silent euphoria of bliss associated with samādhi states is often seen as the final release or the total liberation from egoic identification known as moksha. But is the bliss of various samādhi states really synonymous with moksha? Does it represent liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering known as samsara—the great wandering through lifetimes upon lifetimes for eons upon eons? The deep bliss of samādhi is often seen as the great indelible sign that you are close to achieving the ultimate state of liberation—Turiyatita—the stateless state beyond the experiencer. But is this really true? Or is bliss just another great illusion generated by your ego?

Bliss is naturally sought after, since at least on the surface it appears to be the great antidote to the misery of your fear, sadness, anxiety, and the endlessly changing emotions you experience as you move through your life. It is seen as the great golden key of enlightenment. But is it? What exactly is bliss? And does bliss really do anything to free you from deeply engrained patterns of suffering? The key to unlocking this conundrum lives in understanding the nature of consciousness itself. What exactly is consciousness and what does it take to free yourself from constantly changing states of consciousness or patterns of suffering you experience every day?

Consciousness is bliss—the natural euphoria of pure aware existence. You think, you know, therefore you exist as pure happiness, but does consciousness existence have anything to do with your real essence? Or is consciousness more accurately described as the invisible substance from which all thought emerges? The shocking truth is; no one really knows what consciousness actually is or where it originates. For years neuroscientists believed consciousness was contained within the brain of the human body until recent studies revealed that consciousness actually lives in the heart and is comprised of a living energy field that animates the entire human body. But does understanding this really free you from eons of suffering?

Consciousness is a powerful force of nature. Aligning your consciousness with the source of consciousness in your heart is the primary focus of all yogic practice. The more you align your conscious awareness with the pure conscious presence alive within your heart the more and more you directly realize that you are not your body, your past, your future, or your emotions—you begin to realize more and more deeply that who you really are is something so vast no words can adequately describe this silent invisible eternal presence alive in your heart. You are in fact one presence not separate from the living eternal unseen supremely intelligent presence of the entire universe—love beyond all ideas of love.

Sahaja samādhi is simply the direct permanent realization that you are pure aware consciousness. It is the practice, realization, and infinitude of conscious awareness aligning with conscious awareness as conscious awareness. The sahaja state is the direct realization of the deep silent indescribably vast presence within you that has the power to remove the veil of the reflective consciousness of ego and associated vasanas (unconscious tendencies)—leaving only pure conscious awareness or the sublime state of consciousness known as sahaja samādhi and beyond—Turiyatita. Pure conscious awareness has the innate power to shatter the egoic mirror of reflective consciousness—leaving you aware of everything but existing as absolutely nothing—as the vast unmovable presence. It is a continuous unbroken realization.

Sahaja samādhi is simply not a state that comes and goes. It is the essence and nature of a Jnani—one who has not just realized the vast presence known as the Self, but actually is the Self. The ego of the Jnani and all of its complex tendencies known as vasanas have been entirely destroyed in the eternal fire of the presence due to the intense yoga of sadhana—the complete and total removal of layers of consciousness that hide this vast unseen presence from your conscious awareness.

Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi was and is a pure example of a Jnani—his radiant presence naturally has the power to unveil the gateway of moksha. Ramana is not just a man—he is the formless presence of God who has the power to end eons upon eons of suffering. This is due to the presence. He was not just a man who realized a certain state of consciousness. No. Ramana is Siva—if you see Ramana Maharshi then you see the formless presence of God—the eternal presence alive in your own heart.

Ramana is pure presence. He is not a goal or achievement or state of consciousness that changes. Sahaja samādhi is not a goal. It is not going somewhere to get something or achieve something. It is probably best described as the great burning and removal of the unseen vasanas that ultimately unveils the unseen indescribable presence alive in your heart—bliss beyond all ideas of bliss. The direct realization of this is only accomplished through intense yogic practice.

Bliss is also a state of consciousness that can be a great trick of the egoic mind. As Sri Ramana illuminates, “The immersion of the mind in the Self, but without its destruction, is kevala nirvikalpa samadhi. In this state one is not free from vasanas and so one does not therefore attain mukti. Only after the vasanas have been destroyed can one attain liberation.” Due to the intense bliss that nirvikalpa samadhi represents it can trick you into thinking you have achieved sahaja samādhi or moksha.

This is one of the fundamental reasons that Ramana warned against various samādhi states such as kevala nirvikalpa samadhi. It is a very intense impermanent state that generates a potent visceral illusion of bliss, but it is deeply rooted in your ego. The bliss of this samadhi state is so intense you can actually be completely unaware of your surroundings. But this state, like all states, has a beginning, middle, and end—it does not represent the steady unchanging state of sahaja samādhi.

Kevala nirvikalpa samadhi is actually a self-reflective loop of consciousness. Although it is intensely blissful it does nothing to address the unconscious tendencies, parabdha karma (destiny), or visceral power of your ego. It is very simply a mirage of bliss generated by the reflective consciousness of your ego and mind—a grand illusion.

Bliss is the nature of consciousness, but the ultimate release of moksha is very tricky due to the reflective nature of ego. This is the fundamental reason why it is so important to integrate yogic practice into your daily routine. No progress is possible without consistent sadhana—yogic practice.

Only through yogic practice can you discern between the illusion of bliss and the bliss of Self. The support of consistent sadhana—the yogic practice of letting go—is simply essential for moksha.

Yogic practice is the unseen fire of grace that ultimately removes all veils of consciousness.

It is simply impossible to be liberated without the power of sadhana.

Tat Sat

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Vichara is Self-inquiry—an intimate confrontation of the egoic mind of human consciousness. It is the practice of presence or the deep alignment of your consciousness with the vast invisible presence within you and all around you—the indescribable bliss of your eternal nature. This ancient practice lives in the repetition of the question; Who am I? Or the intimate questioning of the ‘me’ you feel deep inside that you naturally identify with as you. But vichara is no ordinary question. It has no mental or intellectual answer. The linguistic yoga of your mind is no match for the sacred fire this question represents—the vast indescribable power of presence that ultimately annihilates the questioner. But why is the feeling ‘me’ so stubborn? What is the reason that even after years of practicing vichara you can still feel the ‘me’ inside you? Is it even possible to overcome this deep-seated feeling of the ‘me’ or ego with the simple question—who?

To understand the immense power of your mind and ego, simply hold up a mirror to a mirror. The reflections go on and on—there is no end. Ego is reflective consciousness. Like a mirror pointing at a mirror there simply is no end to the reflections it generates—it is an endless loop. Ego is very much like a double-sided mirror. On one side of the mirror, your ego reflects everything you perceive through your five senses infused with the powers of your mind to think, remember, project, and imagine, while the other side of the mirror reflects the vast eternal presence of the Self—or the power of the invisible eternal presence alive in your own heart. This is the primary reason you feel invincible—the living presence in the core of your being is eternal.

The mind and ego are entangled on a quantum level, which simply means your agreement with whatever you are thinking moves faster than the speed of light. It is a loop of consciousness rooted in the eternal presence of your being that generates the strong visceral feeling of the ‘me’ that you think you are. The instant agreement between your ego and mind generates your emotional reactions to the events of your life. This is the fundamental reason that even after realizing there is actually is no substance to your ego—or the deep feeling of ‘me’—the ego reconstitutes itself instantly due to the nature of reflective consciousness and the strong sensation of you as an individual experiencing a wide array of emotions.

The practice of vichara continuously questions the reality of this ‘me’ feeling that you think you are until you see beyond this grand illusion—it can take many years of burning in the deep realization of the presence until the ultimate reality of pure presence takes permanent root. This evolutionary process lives in the ruthless examination of who or what this ‘me’ inside of you actually is. If you examine the substance of your ego very closely you can see through the reflective surface of ego into the vast unending pure presence hidden by this grand illusion of ‘me’ or the deep visceral feeling and identity of you as your body, which serves to continue generating the myriad of emotions you experience every single day.

The ego is the root of both conscious and unconscious tendencies, which is the primary reason ego has historically been recognized as the nemesis of moksha, but the reality is your ego is actually the gateway of moksha—or the ultimate liberation from the root cause of all suffering—ego. Due to its reflective nature, this is no small task. It takes intense effort and commitment to see through the potent illusion of your ego. Certainly, it can be quite a shock to realize that the ‘me,’ you intimately feel is who you are, really isn’t who you are. But this radical shift in consciousness from the limited perspective of your ego to the vast unlimited power of presence alive in your heart naturally opens your mind to the bliss of your being—the constant unmoving consciousness that never changes—it is simply always here and now.

Vichara is the practice of presence—awareness aware of the vast awareness—it is a sacred meeting of you as an individual consciousness and the indescribable intelligent consciousness of the entire universe. In other words, it is an intimate meeting of you as that vastness meeting the vastness of pure presence. The essence of this divine meeting is love meeting love. The intimate inquiry into this vast presence of your heart leads to the direct realization that who you really are is divine love—a frequency of light. The ancient practice of self-inquiry is in actuality a fire of love beyond all ideas of love. From a scientific perspective, this divine meeting is perfectly described by E=MC2—the famous equation of Albert Einstein.

This simple equation unveils the invisible power contained within all forms—(E)nergy equals (M)ass times the (C)onstant speed of light [Celeritas in Latin] squared. This equation reveals the entire universe and everything within it contains a vast invisible intelligent energy beyond human comprehension, which is the nature of consciousness. It is the unseen light force of life—the invisible electromagnetic frequency of light within you that enables you to live, think, and breathe. It is through the ancient practice of presence that you can develop the skill to see your life through the potent lens of your heart free of the limitations imposed by your mind and ego.

Virchara is E=MC2. This pure practice of presence represents profound energy with the power to unveil your real nature. It is this practice of presence that ignites the invisible energy within you. The power of your attention is the spark of consciousness that initiates this ancient evolutionary alchemy that burn and burns as a sacred fire inside of you until there is no one practicing or the deep recognition there is no doer.

This might seem horrifying to your mind, but the truth is, no words exist for the joy of discovering this vast invisible eternal presence alive in your own heart. Ultimately, you are the bliss of life as pure awareness living life—an intimate realization of your own divinity—the divine love that you were, are, and always will be.

This invisible power of presence is always here, always now, and always free of the emotional roller coaster generated by your mind and ego. Vichara simply opens the door of your heart to this presence—the vast intelligence of the entire universe—love beyond all ideas of love.

The greatest challenge of a lifetime is to continuously apply this ancient teaching to remove all conscious and unconscious barriers to a permanent realization of this love—free of all suffering.

Ultimately, this vast indescribable love is not just who you are—it is the only reality.

Tat Sat

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Mantras are the ancient song of God—the Sanskrit hymns contained in ancient Vedic scripture, which are composed of sounds heard by ancient sages and rishis in the most pristine silence. Every mantra contains potent seed letters—a frequency of sound, electromagnetic energy, and vibratory silence with the power to re-wire the synapses in your brain. The simplest and most basic mantra is the primordial sound OM. It contains the seed letters a-u-m, which precisely correlate to the primary states of consciousness—the waking, dream, and deep sleep states. The sound of a-u-m is potent vibratory silence that naturally directs your attention to the omniscience deep within your heart—bliss beyond all ideas of bliss—the stateless state of consciousness known as Turiya. This sound has been embraced for centuries as the gateway to the eternal, but what exactly is this ancient alchemy? Are mantras necessary for enlightenment—liberation from eons of suffering? Or is enlightenment instant and effortless? What is the process of enlightenment?

Enlightenment, also known as Moksha or Liberation, is often viewed in a modern context as instant and effortless, which has led to the notion that awakening and moksha, or the ultimate release from the ancient and terrifying wheel of karma, occurs in a finger snap. In other words, awakening and moksha have been mushed together as one and the same, which has led to the insidious idea of instant enlightenment. But is this the truth or just a fantasy of the arrogant western mind? What is the nature of moksha?

 In spite of the popular narrative to the contrary, moksha simply is not instant. In the context of the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi awakening can occur instantly as the sudden realization that you are the consciousness that looks, is looking, and will always look—the eternal witness. This radical shift in perspective is often accompanied by a euphoric feeling of bliss, but this delicious feeling does not last simply because this glimpse into the infinite generates a mental trance state that will change—it is not the stateless state of Turiya, but rather a mere reflection of that infinite stillness. The spark of insight that awakening represents begins the evolutionary process of moksha—but it is not the end.

In a moment of awakening, your heart breaks open to a new perspective of yourself. It is a radical shift from the slavery of your mind to the indescribable freedom of your heart. The moment of awakening to your eternal nature is like a seed that cracks open in the nourishing warmth of the earth. The seed dies and falls away, which begins the alchemy of transforming into a plant. The evolutionary process of moksha is very much the same. The ‘me’ you think you are is the seed that cracks open when your awareness is planted in the fertile ground of your heart. It opens your mind to a new consciousness, which begins the journey that leads to the ultimate release from eons of suffering—moksha.

The teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi represents a rebirth of the eternal natural way of Sanatana Dharma. Nature is an evolutionary process—a baby is not born the instant a little squiggly tadpole-looking sperm bites an egg. Of course not! The union of the sperm and egg is the spark of life that begins the evolution of the fetus in the womb, which continues to evolve once the baby born into the world. This natural evolution gives birth to the infamous transmigration of the soul—the slow process of the growth and dissolution that culminates in the death of the body and the rebirth of the light frequency that animated the body during life—and the karmic wheel keeps on spinning.

The process of moksha has three distinct phases: awakening, self-realization, and the ultimate release that moksha represents. In other words, awakening is merely the beginning of the evolution of your consciousness. The sudden shift in consciousness that awakening represents does not represent the end or moksha. It is however the spark of insight that initiates the evolutionary process of moksha. This ancient process requires the intense effort of sadhana, which are the yogic practices that burn through both conscious and unconscious tendencies or the deeply rooted patterns of suffering that have kept the karmic wheel spinning for eons.

To make any real progress you must apply the teaching—you can’t think your way to moksha. It is simply impossible to break free of the genetically strong karmic tendencies, most of which you are completely unaware of, without the laser beam power of the ancient mantras, meditation, and inquiry. The teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi does support instant awakening but awakening and moksha are simply not the same. Ramana was crystal clear that the process of moksha occurs over many years if not lifetimes. It requires the intense desire for the ultimate release that moksha represents as well as the willingness to apply the yogic practices of sadhana.

The yogic practices he emphasized were silence (meditation), self-inquiry, and sound (mantra) with the primary emphasis on silence and self-inquiry. He also emphasized the yogic practice of pranava—focusing on the source of the sound OM within the body. The essential aspect of this practice is to sing the seed letters of OM (a-u-m), which contain subtle unseen light frequencies and electromagnetic waves with the innate power to re-wire the synapses in your brain—shifting your awareness from the suffering of your mind to the indescribable freedom of your heart. The energy of the pranava practice evokes the sublime stillness of the stateless state of Turiya alive in your heart. This practice as well as singing various mantras either out loud or silently, as a form of self-inquiry, vibrates the invisible magnetic field of the subtle and causal bodies within you, which naturally opens your consciousness to the source in the heart.

The more you inquire using the pranava practice, meditation, and various mantras as vichara (self-inquiry)—the more shakti energy builds in the body removing all of the unconscious tendencies stored in your genetics. The false premise that many satsang teachers have propagated around the world lives in the deeply held belief that awakening and moksha are the same, which is based primarily on the teaching of HWL Poonja better known as Papaji. His teaching negates the essential yogic practices, including the mantra, with a strong emphasis on focusing your attention on the absolute, but this limited perspective Ramana’s teaching simply does not work. It definitely supports awakening, but it does not release or burn through any of the vasanas (unconscious karmic tendencies) or the hardwired suffering of your genetics nor does it help you see through the very powerful visceral illusion created by the reflective consciousness of ego.

Ultimately, the­­ teaching of Ramana Maharshi is radically different from the teaching of Papaji. Ramana realized that you simply are not in charge of the evolutionary process of moksha. As an ordinary human being, you have deeply ingrained unconscious tendencies that simply are not addressed by the awareness of awareness or the shift in consciousness that awakening represents. Ramana was also aware that in very very very rare cases a ripe soul moksha can happen instantly with a single internal glance, but he also recognized what appears to be instant was actually eons in the making. He emphasized over and over again the process of liberation takes many years if not lifetimes of practice. The majority of people are completely enslaved by the extremely potent unconscious tendencies he referred to as vasanas, which can only be fully eradicated through the long-term continuous application of yogic practices as well as the deepest surrender to the unseen omniscience known as the Self.

This can be misconstrued as a process that leads to a goal. This is one aspect of the mind that is difficult to overcome. After awakening it is common to start chasing after bliss states thinking that the bliss will end your suffering—this is the proverbial golden carrot that is always just out of your reach. It is important to understand that moksha is not a bliss state that changes and it is not a goal. The yogic practices Ramana recommended, however, are the potent ancient alchemy with the innate power to remove the veils of consciousness that hide your eternal nature.

Moksha is the vast pure presence of sat-chit-ananda (consciousness-being-bliss)—this omniscient intelligence cannot be comprehended by the human intellect. This unseen omniscience is extremely intelligent—and this intelligence is what grants the ultimate release of moksha. But it is not effortless. It requires surrender and the intense tapas of yogic practice, which supports a gradual natural evolution.

In other words, you do not end your suffering. It isn’t possible. Ego cannot free itself from ego. Ego cannot see through the mirror of its own reflection nor is ego aware of unconscious tendencies in their myriad of forms—you simply don’t know what you don’t know. It is the unknown hidden tendencies that make the long-term process of moksha so incredibly challenging.

The ancient alchemy of sadhana requires a deep intimate surrender to the vast indescribable unseen omniscience, bhakti (devotion), patience, perseverance, and the vigilance of bone-breaking resolve. It is simple to awaken, but the challenge of a lifetime to practice with the determination of never giving up in the midst of the endless distractions life presents.

The process of moksha is simple, but not at all easy. It requires the sacred bonfire of your commitment, the deepest surrender, and the yogic practices infused with the potent power of the mantra and silence as the vichara that burns within you until the unknowable moment when the omniscience sets you free from the karmic wheel. Yes, you don’t set yourself free—God does—this is the great humbling of your egoic mind.

The potent vibration of the seed letters contained within every mantra is absolutely essential for moksha. It is virtually impossible to make any noticeable progress without this ancient alchemy.

Ultimately, moksha is earned through your deep commitment to sadhana, surrender, and intense effort. It is not instant nor is it effortless. 

Moksha is granted by God only when you have earned the grace of this eternal release.

This eternity is never given to you by your own ego!

 Tat Sat,

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The natural tendency is to trust your mind and all of the strategies that arise in your mind to get whatever you think you want and keep whatever you think you have. The narrow focus on thoughts about whatever is perceived through your five senses or the power of your mind to remember gives rise to many different emotions and reactions to your ever-changing life situations. This genetically strong tendency overlooks the unseen presence—a vast intelligent power invisible to your senses and imperceptible to your mind. The great secret of moksha is to trust this unseen presence over the limited perspective of your mind and senses. But how can you trust something you can’t touch, see, or feel? How can you trust the invisible? What exactly is this unseen intelligence?

If you take a deep intimate look at a flower you can begin to notice the power of the unseen. A flower is naturally more beautiful than anything imagined by the human mind. It contains an intelligent design infused with mathematical precision. Likewise, the seed of a flower contains the blueprint or the genetic design of the flower. The great mystery of a seed is it also contains the fingerprint of life. Life is within a seed. A seed can remain dormant for thousands of years, but the moment it receives the nourishing powers of light, water, and earth it springs to life. How is this even possible? How did this life get into the seed in the first place?

 To make any real progress on the path of moksha it is essential to first notice this unseen presence and then surrender to this infinite intelligent power. The act of surrender is like planting the seed of your mind into the ground of your heart and nourishing it with the water of your attention and the light of your consciousness. Once you plant the seed of your mind into the ground of your heart the seed dies and the lotus flower of pure consciousness begins to grow. The more you water the seed with your attention and light of your consciousness the more the lotus flower grows. It is simple. Yet, this simplicity does not equate to easy.

The conscious act of trusting the unseen unleashes the power of the universe contained within your heart. This unseen power has the ability to remove the unconscious tendencies that keep patterns of suffering repeating again and again. Over ninety-five percent of your suffering is caused by aspects of the mind and body of which you are completely unaware. The only way to address these unconscious tendencies is with the power of the unseen. It is simply impossible to address these tendencies with just the power of your own intellect. How can you address patterns of suffering caused by something you know nothing about?

The three primary tendencies of the physical body are described in the ancient texts as gunas, which are sattvic (seeking harmony), rajasic (pursuing pleasure), and tamasic (fighting to be right).  All three gunas are an extension of egoic identity. Everyone has all three tendencies to varying degrees, but usually, one tendency is predominant—like the destructive nature of the tamasic guna or the intense desire to be right or the fierce rajasic impulse to pursue pleasure or the sattvic impulse, which is the endless process of seeking harmony and happiness. For moksha to take root in your consciousness all three gunas are recognized as non-existent, which is easier said than done.

The impulsive nature of gunas is deeply engrained in the genetic mind—the genetics of survival. The repetitive nature of patterns of suffering is also due to the unconscious tendencies known as vasanas, which are karmic by nature or the result of many thousands of previous incarnations. This combined with all of your conscious and unconscious beliefs and experiences makes the illusion that you are your body extremely strong. Ultimately, all three gunas and all unconscious tendencies must be seen through as the visceral illusion they represent, but this is simply impossible without the power of the vast unseen presence.

In the do-it-yourself western mentality, the predominant perspective is that moksha is effortless and requires only one glance into the vast presence of your heart. The fallacy of this idea is that you cannot use your intellect to overcome the biochemistry, conditioned behaviors, gunas, or vasanas not to mention the karmic destiny you were born with, mostly because you are totally unaware of these tendencies and associated karma. How can your intellect address what you don’t know?

Notice, for example, what grabs your attention. If you look out at a mountain range what do you see? The mountains or the space? Right now, the words on this page grab your attention, but a memory of what happened yesterday and all the thoughts about the events that unfolded can also grab your attention. You might feel a lot of anger about whatever happened and are willing to fight to prove you are right—this is the human condition or the unending movement of the mind and ego filtered through the three gunas that fuels the endless pursuit of happiness.

The idea that moksha is effortless and only requires one deep look in your heart is like walking on a treadmill with two dead fish in your pockets—one is called arrogance and the other ignorance. This idea is trick of the mind that inflates the ego generating a trance state that creates the illusion you are making progress as well as the delusional idea that the stink is the sweet fragrance of your enlightenment. It is completely ludicrous to think you can make progress without the unseen intelligence or the necessary sadhana—the ancient art of letting go.

The presence is a vast unseen energy. It has an intelligence far greater than the human intellect. Once you trust this unseen presence surrendering completely to this force of nature your life transforms from the inside out and all the unconscious tendencies begin to evaporate like dew in the light of the morning sun.

To totally trust the unseen requires you immerse yourself in the energy of your own heart—letting go all of your desires and attachments. If you give this time to germinate in the depths of your being you will begin to notice a dramatic shift in consciousness.

Trusting the unseen will simply not happen without practice. It is essential to practice the art of letting go into the vast presence through the sadhana of meditation, the mantra, and self-inquiry.

This ancient art of letting go into the unseen ultimately unveils the illusion of you revealing the vast truth of you—sat-chit-ananda—pure consciousness awareness.

To make real tangible progress trust the unseen and practice the art of letting go—simple.

Trust in the unseen is the secret art of moksha.

 Tat Sat

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God is a loaded word. It evokes antiquated ideas, or the religious perspective, of a personified God. This small three-letter word can evoke painful memories of church or the sickening feeling that you hoped religion would satisfy the mysterious longing deep inside of you only to discover it leaves you feeling empty and dissatisfied. This dissatisfaction has led to the pervasive idea that God is not real and you simply liberate yourself from your suffering through the power of your intellectual understanding, but is this really true? Is intellectual understanding all that is required to transcend the suffering nature of your egoic mind? How can your intellect overcome the potent visceral presence of your ego infused with your genetics or the unconscious tendencies known as vasanas? Does this make any sense? How do you address something you are completely unaware of? But if God is the sine qua non of moksha—who or what is God?

God is omniscience. This invisible presence is so vast, so profoundly intelligent that it is beyond human comprehension. God as omniscience is the sine qua non of moksha—the invisible silent presence absolutely essential for liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering—samsara. It is simply impossible to liberate yourself from the suffering nature of your mind, ego, genetics, and prarabdha karma (destiny) without the vast omniscient intelligence often referred to as God, Self, Allah, or Siva. In other words, ego cannot overcome ego. The ego trying to overcome ego with the intellect of your mind is like holding up a mirror to a mirror—there is no end to the potent visceral illusions it generates.

The invisible or formless nature of God that eludes your senses is the primary reason you tend to trust the limited perspective of your egoic mind versus this vast intelligent omniscience of the entire universe. The mind is always a bit skeptical of the invisible. It prefers the solid physical nature of life versus the uncertainty of a realm you cannot see, feel, or touch. But what if God is actually infinite intelligent consciousness? What if you could access this vastness directly through the gateway of your own heart? Wouldn’t it be much more logical to trust this unseen realm of this unlimited intelligence versus the minuscule perspective of your mind?

From a scientific perspective, the invisible realm of the universe is teeming with light, sound, and energy. The infinite invisible nature of the universe is referred to as the quantum field or the Higgs field. This invisible realm seems to defy the laws of physics that govern the physical realm that you can see, feel, and touch. The intimate examination of the invisible has led to major scientific discoveries that reveal that what seems to be solid actually is mostly made up of empty space, but even stranger qualities exist in the subatomic realm that seems to defy the known laws of time and space. It seems that subatomic interactions can actually move faster than the speed of light.

This invisible realm is not random but has an intelligence that can be calculated with advanced mathematical equations and scientific research. Whether you call this invisible realm the quantum field or God—the power of the invisible is absolutely essential to see through the potent visceral illusion of ego and latent tendencies stored in your genetics that serve to keep you trapped in repeating patterns of suffering. In other words, it is impossible to free yourself from something that completely eludes your senses with your mind. It is simply impossible to think your way to liberation. 

In the do-it-yourself nihilistic culture of the west God has been kicked to the curb leaving you with the idea that you are the one who frees yourself from your suffering through your own effort. But this is only a surface understanding of sādhanā or the essential practices required to see through the very potent illusion of you. No spiritual bypass exists. The electromagnetic nature of consciousness has wired your brain for suffering. To break free of its ironclad grip requires the deepest surrender to the invisible intelligence with the innate power to burn through the unconscious tendencies that by their very nature you are completely unaware. But what exactly is surrender?

Surrender is letting go. It is the deepest trust in the unseen. Surrender is the conscious act of relinquishing whatever you perceive you want—even your desire for liberation or moksha. This total letting go opens your consciousness to the living truth—the infinite power that annihilates the grand illusion of suffering in its myriad of forms. It opens your awareness to awareness—the stateless state of joy that lives in you and all around you (sat-chit-ananda).

The nature of this joy is unending. It is not a bliss state that comes and goes. This joy is permanent or the ground of being—the invisible energy that animates your physical body. Surrender to this vast eternal presence is absolutely essential to see through the grand illusion of you and visceral feeling you are in control. The invisible realm was always in charge of every moment of your life. It is not enough to know this joy exists—you must let go of the feeling of you into this infinite presence.

The relinquishment of the illusion of control, the deep letting go of all ideas of you and whatever you think you want, is the very beginning of a deep dive into the invisible realm of God. This vast omniscience is electromagnetic energy—a silent frequency of light and sound with the capacity to burn through the visceral illusion generated by your ego. It re-wires the physical structure of your brain aligning your conscious awareness with the eternal

Once the silent frequency of the electromagnetic field of consciousness within you aligns fully with the silent frequency of the omniscience your realization of the vastness as the vastness becomes permanent.

The more you dive into the invisible depths of yourself melting into the omniscience the more you will taste the vast presence of bliss that never comes and never goes.

In that endlessness, there is no one who suffers.

Tat Sat

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The astonishing precision of the universe is invisible to your eye. This invisible realm is an intelligent presence far greater than the human intellect. During the prolonged silent samadhi Ramana Maharshi endured for over eleven years this invisible force of nature pulled him so deep into the electromagnetic energy within him this invisible vortex of light annihilated his ego.  This ancient alchemy transformed his physical form into the radiant presence of God—the perfection that lives beyond the grasp of the human mind to comprehend. In other words, his direct experience was not limited to just mere intellectual understanding or a few moments of realizing the bliss of his being—his direct experience transcends time, space, mind, ego, and the infamous nine gates of the human body whose potent genetics are infused with the innate power to keep you trapped in eons of suffering.  The mysterious experience of Ramana’s alchemy contains within it an ancient secret—a secret so potent it has remained hidden for centuries. What is this secret? And how can it permanently end your suffering?

Ramana is something of an enigma in western culture. In recent years, he has become the rock star of western enlightenment or what is often coined as Neo Advaita or the global satsang movement. His picture appears on websites around the world and is prominently displayed during satsang meetings by teachers who claim either Ramana, or one of his students, as their guru. But who is Ramana exactly? What is his teaching? What is the ancient secret his teaching contains? It is not uncommon to be attracted to the immediacy of awakening his teaching supports, but find yourself resisting the work required to guide you through the ancient gauntlet of the body, mind, ego, and genetics. This biological gauntlet has the power to obscure your own direct experience of the eternal state of consciousness known as Turiyatita and even has the power to hide the path of true and final liberation.

To begin the process of understanding Ramana and his sublime teaching you must look beyond the potent presence visible in the many black and white photographs of his face and realize with no uncertainty his radiant face no longer exists. During his life he placed little emphasis on his physical form always turning everyone’s attention to the eternal presence of the heart.  If you attempted to worship his feet he would immediately advise worshipping the eternal lotus feet alive in your own heart. At the time of his death his body was arranged in full lotus position, draped with colorful garlands of sacred flowers, and during a well-attended ceremony was placed in a hole in the ground filled with sacred vibhuti ash. The tomb that now covers this sacred burial site enshrines his radiance, but right now in this moment his famous face simply does not exist. The eternal presence of this sage never changed. His body fell away, but the radiant splendor that animated his body is eternal and unchanging. It is the pure radiant intelligence of God.

The pure energy that radiated from his form while he was alive, and even now after his death, has the power to silence the mind of anyone who draws near this mysterious sage. The intensity of his gaze naturally drives your attention deep into the infinite eternal realm of your heart. The potency of his primary teaching is contained in two wafer-thin books: Nan Yar (Who am I?) and Self-inquiry. This simplicity has lulled many into the trance of easy or instant liberation. But this is the great fallacy of the western perspective of his teaching. Simple does not equate to easy. Very few westerners understand or even appreciate the vast indescribable depth of his eternal presence and teaching. The mountain path of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi is recognized throughout the world as the fastest route to liberation, but it is also known to be the most arduous climb—only those with the deep resolve to remain steadfast and continuously apply his sublime teaching have an opportunity to realize the eternity known as liberation from the ancient and terrifying wheel of saṃsāra—ending eons of suffering.

The secret in his teaching lives in the invisible intelligence of the entire universe.  This intelligence cannot be known with your mind or grasped with your intellect but can be perceived through the strict application and adherence to the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. This secret has been hidden in plain view for centuries, but it was only understood by a handful of enlightened masters and sages who were able to see the silent presence of this invisible intelligence. The secret of his teaching lives in the ancient science of Pranava and is contained within the energetic potency of Atman Vichara (Self-inquiry). The essence of both Pranava and Self-inquiry is the invisible light, sound, and electromagnetic energy of the cosmos. It is synonymous with the sound inquiry Omkara—better known as the primordial sound represented by the two letters OM and the seed letters a-u-m.

The ancient sanskrit symbol for Omkara looks like the number three with a crescent moon hovering in space, but it is more than a mere symbol. It is actually a roadmap to the oasis of nirvāṇa or unending bliss alive in your heart. The seed letters a-u-m define the codex of Pranava. The potency of these seed letters is described in the ancient text of the Mandukya Upanishad as the unique sound frequency that transcends time and space. The sounds are the primary states of your consciousness: awake, dream, deep sleep and the ardha-matra—the vast silence of the Turiya state in your heart. The practice of Pranava, or focusing your attention on the source of Omkara in your heart, is a precise science. It is not random or accidental. This can be seen in the hidden math that defines the structure of the entire universe. But to understand this ancient equation you must first see the invisible realm beyond the ingenious mathematical squiggles of even the most advanced quantum theories.  What?!!

To decipher this ancient code requires more than intellectual understanding or the mathematical genius of the advanced calculus of physics or the science, math, and energy that defines the known universe. It cannot be known with the mind. Even in science, there is still much that is not fully understood about the visible and invisible nature of the universe, but it is well known that the energy or life force of your body is electromagnetic.  The power of this invisible energy is comprised of light, sound, and energy. The energy that runs through your entire body is pure conscious awareness—a potent invisible intelligent presence. This conscious energy is a radiant electromagnetic frequency that extends far beyond the limits of your physical form. This unseen dimension is self-luminous, intelligent, and fundamentally infused with the building blocks of the cosmos: space, time, light, and energy the very nature of which is unending.

The secret science of liberation lives in both the unseen energy of your body and the structure of your brain. The thalamus in the core of your brain translates everything you receive through your five senses. The living consciousness that enables you to read and comprehend these words is processed through the thalamus in your brain and routed to the precise locations in the brain that enable you to comprehend the words on the page. The thalamus is in effect the seat of the electromagnetic impulses of your senses with the power to analyze and interpret everything you perceive in the world through your five senses. It is the nature of the thalamus to interpret, process, and transmit what you receive. It does not naturally inverse the process or invite you to look inward to see what receives the electrical impulses of your senses.

The senses of your body serve to captivate your awareness directing your attention outward to the ever-changing movements of your circumstances. The combination of the thalamus and senses naturally keep your attention focused outward on what you are seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling. This biological focus of your attention outward is what engages your mind in its endless capacity to weave a story or cloud of thought about whatever is perceived. This great cloud of thought coincides with the emotions it generates and serves as a smokescreen that clouds your perception, causes confusion, and the mental fog of suffering. It is the great barrier to any real spiritual progress that serves to keep you trapped in a primitive consciousness—nescience or ignorance.

In other words, the mind primarily follows what you see and hear.  It is very simple math. What you see plus what you hear equals thoughts and emotions about what you see and hear. The thoughts coalesce around your point of view deeply rooted in your ego or the deep belief and visceral feeling that you are limited to your physical body. This very simple equation is the root of all suffering. The thoughts in your mind generate an unending stream of emotional responses, reactions, and actions that continuously spring from the thought stream of your mind. In other words, the limited point of view of your ego is the root cause of all conflict, fear, sadness, despair, and many other forms of suffering. Pranava simply turns this equation inside out and backward. 

The mind is complex, but the secret science of this ancient practice is simple. It represents a radical shift in your perception. The practice of Pranava enables you to directly discover the source of all the thoughts and feelings generated by your mind—not as a thought, but as a visceral experience. Seeing through the fog of the thoughts and emotions your mind generates is the essence of this practice. It enables you to become aware of the eye and ear of your mind. The invisible eye and ear of your mind is both internal and external. The outward eye of your mind is what you see with your eyes. The inward eye of your mind is your imagination, memory, projection, and dreams—the mental images that generate more and more thought. The ear of your mind is everything you hear with your ears on the outside but is also the inner conversation you continually have with yourself.

The practice of Pranava neutralizes the eye and ear of your mind naturally directing your attention inward to the source of the sound of the seed letters a-u-m. The sound frequency of the seed letters pulls your attention through the electromagnetic energy of your gross body (a), subtle body (u), causal body (m) and ardha-matra or the silent frequency of light that cuts through the reflective consciousness of your ego. The sound vibrates at an electromagnetic wave frequency of 396Hz, which silences your mind and shifts the electrical currents in the brain from the left, or analytical hemisphere of the brain, to the right hemisphere. This practice is extremely potent because it interacts with the electromagnetic light, sound, and energy that animate your body. But words pale in comparison to direct experience of being pulled into the electromagnetic vortex of your heart. Whoa!

To dive even deeper into the secret science of Pranava it is important to understand that electromagnetic energy consists of energy waves and transverse magnetic waves. The distance that electromagnetic waves travel in one second determines its frequency, which is measured in hertz (Hz). The nature of electromagnetic energy is vibrations of light, sound, and energy.  The electromagnetic frequency that shifts your consciousness from the left to right hemisphere of your brain, which enables you to realize higher states of consciousness, is 112Hz. The electromagnetic frequency of the seed letters a-u-m is more than three times that amount. Whoa! But hang in there we are about to dive even deeper.

Consciousness is electromagnetic—energy waves and transverse magnetic waves. Intentionally focusing on the source of the sound a-u-m and the silence of the Turiya state in your heart aligns the frequency of your consciousness with the frequency (Hz) of these universal sounds. This alignment purifies your mind, burns the karma contained within your genetics, destroys unconscious tendencies known as vasanas, unveils the illusion of your ego, and opens your mind to the infinite intelligence of the universe. It is no small wonder that ancient rishi’s said that the Mandukya Upanishad was all that was required to attain liberation from saṃsāra.

The inquiry ‘Who am I?’ is also electromagnetic. It represents the natural meditation practice known as Dhyana—focusing your attention on the source of the feeling of ‘I am’ inside your own heart. This reveals Brahman, which shines in the heart as the eternal infinite intelligence of the Self, which is the indescribable vast eternal witness of your intellect. The practice of Pranava energetically takes this a step further transcending the constant state of Turyia alive in your heart into the Turiyatita state—the place of the placeless in which the ego, the vast witness, and experiencer no longer exist.

This gives you the secret science of Pranava—waves of light, energy, and sound that open your mind to the pure clear awareness of the omniscience inside of you and all around you. The dharma of this eternal natural way is the law, essence, and nature of Pranava. The intellectual understanding of this is completely meaningless without your own direct experience.

As Ramana says, “The Divine Self shines in the heart as I-I, meditating on this is the nature of amatra which includes the three matras (a) as maunakshara (silence syllable), (u) as ajapa (muttering without muttering), and (m) as the Advaita-matra, which is the essence of all mantras. In order to get the true significance one should meditate on Pranava.”

The secret science of electromagnetic frequencies gives you the context needed to fully appreciate the power of Pranava.  Now, if you can muster the courage, focus on the source of the feeling ‘I am me’ inside of you and listen to the recording below. This recording is the seed sounds a-u-m at 396Hz—the electromagnetic frequency that carries you beyond the experience and the experiencer.

Notice what is noticing and notice what is beyond noticing. Notice what receives the sounds that you hear. Give you attention to this vastness as that endlessness. This is the power of Pranava.

Remember direct experience is the law of Ramana, silence is the essence, and moksha is the nature of this eternal natural way.

Pranava is more than a practice it is the path of moksha.

Tat
Sat

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The primary purpose of the life and teaching of Ramana Maharshi was to breathe new life into the ancient teachings of sanatana dharma—the eternal natural way. The meaning of sanatana is eternity or the presence of an invisible intelligence that was here in the past, is here now, and will always be here, but is rarely noticed or understood simply because it has no form and is invisible to your eyes. The essence of this eternity is an invisible quantum intelligence or network of universal laws or intelligent design that define the unseen nature of the universe. If sanatana is this eternity then what exactly does dharma mean? And what does it have to do with liberation from the great wheel of suffering—samsara?  What is the dharma of Ramana Maharshi? Dharma is a word that does not easily translate into the English language, but once you grasp its multi-faceted meaning it opens a new dimension of understanding about the nature of liberation.

 Often the word dharma is associated with the teachings of the Buddha. The great wheel of dharma was famously set in eternal motion during the very first satsang the Buddha gave in Varanasi India.  During this immortal satsang he described the natural laws associated with life and the middle way that guides you to the indescribable peace of enlightenment. This radical shift in awareness gave birth to the primary teaching of the Buddha—the four noble truths and the great dharma of the Buddha—the eightfold path or middle way that leads you to the ultimate goal of Buddhism—nirvāṇa or peace, love, and joy that surpasses all understanding. The eightfold path of enlightenment is the law and the way but is also the result of enlightenment—a paradox. But how is Ramana’s sanatana dharma different from the Buddha? What is the complete understanding of his teaching that coincides with sanatana dharma?

The four noble truths represent the four primary laws of nature or the entropic quality of human existence: 1) Life is suffering, 2) Birth, desire, attachment, death, and disease is the nature of suffering, 3) A way out of suffering exists, and 4) The eightfold path is the dharma or middle way that guides you out of suffering.  This is the sanatana dharma of the Buddha. But the word dharma actually predates the Buddha by more than a thousand years. It is intrinsic power is contained in the ancient scriptural text of the Rig Veda. This particular word more than any other provides the essential context for the nature of enlightenment or liberation from the ancient and terrifying wheel of samsara—the great wandering through lifetimes upon lifetimes of suffering.

The word dharma fundamentally means essence. If the essence is absent whatever is described by this essence is rendered irrelevant or non-existent. For example, the dharma of water is wet and without the essence of wet it would no longer be water. The essence of fire is hot and without the essence of hot then no fire exists. The essence of your life is consciousness without consciousness you have no life. The dharma of enlightenment is emptiness—or as the Buddha so perfectly describes in his famous heart sutra; form is emptiness and emptiness is form—without emptiness, there is no form and all form is empty—not as a dead blank nothing, but rather the vast alive unseen eternal presence. This primary nature of dharma and yet it is only one aspect of this ancient word.

The other aspect of dharma is natural law or intelligence. The natural law is intertwined with essence like your DNA is intertwined with your genetic code—you can’t have the law without essence and you can’t have essence without the law—they are completely inseparable and represent two very different aspects of the natural world.  The dharma of the Buddha was focused on the law, which naturally unveils the essence of his middle way; right understanding (view), right action, right concentration, right thought, right mindfulness, right speech, and right livelihood.

The word right is the law and absolute truth is the essence. This means without the essence of absolute truth the law of right would not exist, which simply means that absolute truth is absolute or the same or constant regardless of perspective or experience. The nature of this teaching is like a string on a sitar or guitar if the strings are too loose it makes no sound and if the strings are too tight they will break—if tuned to the right tension in the middle it makes sound or vibration. It is not one extreme or another—it is the middle way—this is the nature of the Buddha’s teaching.

The other aspect of dharma is nature or natural essence. The body does not exist without the genetic code that defines the nature of bodily existence. The nature of enlightenment is pure joy or bliss beyond all ideas of bliss—nirvāṇa. The law of a tree is the seed, the essence of a tree is life, and the nature of a tree is growth. The essence of a human being is consciousness, the law of consciousness is existence, and the nature of consciousness is bliss. Fundamentally, the three-fold meaning of dharma is law, essence, and nature.

The purpose of Ramana was to breathe new life into the ancient teaching of (eternal) sanatana (law, nature, and essence) dharma through his own direct experience. The law of Ramana is direct experience. The essence of both his realization and teaching is silence—without silence there is no Ramana Maharshi and no teaching. Silence is the essence, direct experience is the law, and the nature of his teaching is liberation—a natural evolution of your consciousness.

The dharma of his direct experience is based in the quantum laws of physics—the invisible realm of subatomic particles or the realm of unlimited possibilities, which tends to warp our understanding of the physical world in which we live. The laws of quantum subatomic realm are the essence of everything. Basically, the depth of his realization is the radiant quantum intelligence that reveals and is the eternal natural way of liberation.

The essence of this ancient way is transcendent of time and space—it is timeless and empty or a timeless emptiness—Śūnyatā—beyond all ideas of silent empty timeless intelligence. This does not equate to a nihilistic view that it is meaningless—in fact it is quite the contrary. The universe is an ocean of intelligence with infinite meaning. This vast incomprehensible intelligence, often referred to in a religious sense as God, is within you and free of you.

The law of Ramana is direct experience, but to experience the quantum realm of Ramana Maharshi there can be no experiencer. What?!! Doesn’t this violate the law, essence, and nature of direct experience? To experience anything don’t you need an experiencer? Hmmm…..? The answer is yes and no—the sanatana dharma of Ramana Maharshi exists and at the same time does not exist the way we normally think of existence. Whoa??!! What exactly does this mean???!!!

The answer to this paradox lies in the dharma of consciousness. What is the law of consciousness? Existence. What is the essence of consciousness? Life. What is the nature of consciousness? Bliss. The dharma of liberation is existence—consciousness (life)—bliss (sat-chit-ananda).

Without life there is no existence and without existence, there is no consciousness and in pure consciousness all that exists is the nature of essence or bliss. All of this is the unseen quantum intelligence of the entire universe and beyond. It is the absolute essence of who you really are.

Holy cow! This might seem a bit too much, but hang on we are very close to the ancient eternal way of liberation—the sanatana dharma of Ramana Maharshi—the law, essence, and nature of the eternal way of liberation.

 The essence of direct experience of his teaching lives in direct discovery without an experiencer or the recognition of pure consciousness as pure consciousness. The nature of consciousness is bliss. What does this mean? It simply means your ego is the way. What??!! 

The ego is a paradox. It hides bliss and it’s the way to bliss. The law of ego is existence. The essence of this existence is the ‘me’ you feel inside. The ego does not exist without this very strong feeling of the ‘me’ inside of you. The feeling ‘me’ in your body lives in your heart. But what is the nature of ego?

The nature of ego is reflective consciousness, which means its nature is to reflect the five senses of your body, which creates a loop of consciousness—the consciousness of ‘me’ in your body—this is the grand illusion that hides the natural bliss of your being or pure consciousness.

The teaching Ramana Maharshi and his direct experience guide your attention through the illusion of you, or ego, to discover directly, intimately, the truth of you—vast indescribable existence, consciousness, and bliss in the core of your being.

The great revelation of sanatana dharma is your own direct discovery of the source of consciousness beyond all ideas of the experiencer who discovers—here and now in time, in space, and free of time and space was here in the past, is here now, and always will be—eternal.

The eternal way is to give your attention to the feeling ‘me’ in your heart until there is no me or heart. This liberates the experiencer as bliss without end—the gateway of liberation. This knowledge, based on direct experience, supports the direct realization of the indescribable quantum intelligence of the entire universe. But….

Understanding this is of no great consequence—you actually need to go through the illusion of you and stay aware of the quantum reality alive in your heart long enough until the ‘me’ disappears entirely—simple, but not at all easy.

Ramana basically reveals the invisible door alive in your heart through which only you can enter.

This is the eternal natural way—sanatana dharma of Ramana Maharshi.

Anyone can enter this way, but so few muster the courage. 

Tat Sat

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Life was rolling along like it always rolls along—then wham—out of nowhere an invisible tempest shrouded the world in the dark shadow of fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and death. The experts on pandemics saw this coming for years but simultaneously were blind to the incredible speed this plague would spread around the world—a global blind spot.  Certainly, it is surreal that a virus invisible to the eye wields such immense power that it brought all of our lives to a sudden screeching deafening halt. But what if there is a greater purpose for this unprecedented change? What if there is a gift in this moment of profound heartbreak and uncertainty? What if it represents an opportunity to discover something much more potent that is also invisible to the eye? For it has been said, and it has been written, for everything, there is a season and a time for every purpose. But what is the purpose of this sudden global stop? How do you overcome the heartbreak of loss and the fear of uncertainty?

 The landscape of your life is filled with hills and deep valleys—moments of joy and moments of heartbreaking emotional storms that appear unexpectedly on the horizon of your life. Often the dark clouds of emotional heartbreak can vanish as quickly as they appear, but this is not always the case. The dark thunderclouds of heartbreak and loss can hang over you like a thick fog locking you in a virtual prison of the past for months or even years.  The pervasive belief is given enough time the shroud of heartbreak and loss will fade and eventually disappear. But a soldier whose buddy was killed while his body was blown to bits might recover from his physical injuries, but the shock, loss, heartbreak, and pain is frozen in time—the searing memory is locked in his limbic brain.

The brain actually has no concept of time and combined with the innate power of the mind to remember, the mind automatically brings traumatic events vividly into the present as if this unwanted event was occurring again in this moment. The mind tends to keep revisiting the past automatically hitting the repeat button in a futile attempt to fix or change the past to end the nightmare or produce a different result. But this attempt to change the past is like trying to grab a cloud in the sky—it simply doesn’t work. This power of mind serves only to re-traumatize again and again forcing the person with trauma to relive the past in this moment—the heartbreaking agony of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Time simply does not always heal. The deep searing wounds of PTSD can last for years if not decades especially if you are unaware of how your mind and ego work to re-traumatize you again and again. But what if there is something that can break this vicious cycle? Certainly, we are all experiencing a profound moment of loss—the heartbreaking loss of someone you love, the loss of the freedom to do what you want, to travel, to hang out in a café, or go to a concert or sports event. The world is at a standstill. Now after several weeks of this global stop, everyone is starting to feel the proverbial itch to get back to the way things were—the mind is hitting the replay button on a global scale, but clearly this is not possible right now and quite possibly things never will be the same.

The emotional pain moments of loss or traumatic events generate can be so devastating the pain feels physical like your heart is on fire or shattered into pieces. Or you keep experiencing the pain of a past event over and over again in your mind. It is a mental and physical agony that continues over time. This pain can be so overwhelming that you can find yourself contemplating suicide in an attempt to escape from the clutches of this all-consuming pain. Sadly, suicide is one of the great human tragedies. In moments of sheer desperation, it can seem like suicide is the best solution for putting an end to pain. The problem is this does not resolve the pain—it only serves to add to the pain. The pervasive thinking is this is the ultimate escape, but in reality, this is virtually guaranteeing that the pain and suffering will continue for eons—millions of incarnations are required to atone for the pain generated by suicide. This is the nature of karma.

The great surprise of suicide is you might be successful in ending the pain of your body, but you are still present in a different dimension of space and time—you are still present as a subtle body, which must reincarnate to atone for the pain suicide generates. Suicide simply does not stop the pain. It only destroys the body, but are you your body? Really?  Certainly, the last thing you want to hear when you are in the grip of suicidal thoughts is a spiritual or metaphysical solution, which you might have already tried with no lasting results. Drugs and alcohol might have provided temporary relief, but ultimately it does not fix the problem—it is a physical pervasive agony that you cannot escape from no matter what strategy you implement to try and get rid of the past and the pain it generates.

The only effective solution is the transcendence of mind and your point of view felt through the senses of your body. This is the ultimate cure. But simply having this information does nothing to address your pain. The words can even seem shallow or meaningless in moments of severe pain or moments of extreme duress. This information simply does nothing to directly address the pain you are experiencing. The normal response when you are consumed in the fog of pain—is a deep belief and feeling that nothing works based on your own direct experience. This leaves you feeling desperate, alone, and only increases your despair and sense of hopelessness, which guarantees, your pain will continue. It generates a cycle or loop in your brain that keeps the suffering occurring over and over again. Suicide simply does not end this cycle. Instead, it stretches it out over many centuries.

The natural question that arises is; how do you break this vicious cycle? Is it even possible? The eternal truth is your awareness is free of any form of suffering. It is free of time and space. This vast invisible presence has the innate power to end any cycle of suffering that has plagued you throughout your life. It is closer than your breath and extends past the milk way and pervades the entire universe and beyond—whether or not you are aware of this vastness. This is the living truth that has been known for centuries. But again, this knowledge does nothing to free you from the endless cycles of suffering generated by your mind and ego. This is the truth. Mind cannot break free of mind. Ego cannot break free of ego. The mind and ego work in tandem in both a conscious and unconscious way, which keeps you trapped in the illusion of the past and serves to keep the cycle in place.

How do you break the cycle generated by trauma, heartbreak, loss, and despair?  The answer lives in something invisible to the eye—incomprehensible intelligent omniscience with the innate power to put an end to the pain any suffering loop generates. Just like a mountain remains perfectly still in the midst of a violent storm this invisible presence alive in your heart is completely unaffected by the storms that blow through your life. If you look back over the landscape of your life you can notice that emotional storms that consumed your time and attention in the past have come and gone like clouds on the horizon of your mind. Most storms you experienced simply have disappeared and in some cases are barely remembered, but your awareness—the invisible presence—is still present and alive right now in this moment. The awareness of the awareness represents a radical shift in consciousness.

For this to shift in your awareness to be effective it is important to understand the nature of your mind and ego. The mind and ego have no real substance. It is reflective consciousness infused with your five senses and the invisible power of pure conscious awareness. This reflective nature of your consciousness is like an endless house of mirrors that produces unending sensations in your physical body. The mind has the innate power to generate images or memories that appear real in your mind and is the catalyst that generates your reactions to the tempests that unexpectedly appear and wreak havoc in your life. Reflective consciousness generates the pain simply because your mind and senses of your body combined with whatever you think, remember, or imagine transforms instantly into physical sensations and emotions and reactions. It feels very real. Traumatic events of the past can seem real in this moment—but are they? Is the past real in this moment?

Reflective consciousness generates a visceral illusion of you—almost like a hologram—a three-dimensional multi-sensory experience of you as your body. This grand illusion is automatically generated by your mind and ego faster than the speed of light.  This reflective nature of your consciousness is illuminated by the vast invisible electromagnetic consciousness inside of you—the life force or invisible light that animates your body, but it is important to note that this electromagnetic field of energy is not limited to your body. It is a vast intelligent invisible omniscient presence that extends beyond the known universe—it is unlimited. This unlimited presence has the power to break the multi-sensory cycle of suffering generated by your mind, ego, and body.

The knowledge of this presence within you is only the first step in ending many forms of suffering, but knowledge alone does nothing to free you from cycles of suffering or suffering loops that repeat. The hard truth is you cannot end cycles of suffering primarily due to the fact that over ninety-five percent of your feelings and reactions are based on unknown aspects of reflective consciousness known as vasanas or the trauma stored in your limbic brain. In other words, you cannot break a cycle of suffering that you know nothing about or are only aware of certain aspects that you remember. The only solution is to see through the illusion of reflective consciousness. This is all well and good, but how do you see through an illusion that feels so real?

The only way to end cycles of suffering is first to stop, be still, and be quiet. This is one of the gifts of the global standstill—you have time to simply stop and give your attention to the silent awareness alive in your heart. This stillness and silence are essential to begin the process of seeing through the suffering loops generated by reflective consciousness. If you are not silent inside and out there is no space to notice what is really going on inside of you.  If you keep listening to the mind chatter of reflective consciousness and keep believing your thoughts are true and real, the pain will continue to feel like it is out of your control—this is the great trick generated by the reflection of your own consciousness—an unending house of mirrors.

To see through this potent visceral illusion you must first confront your ego.  What is this physical sensation of the ‘me’ that perceives what you think or feel? What is this ‘I am me’ you feel inside of you? Does this ‘me’ you feel inside have any substance? Who is thinking? Who is feeling? Who is this who? Who is the thinker? Who is the reader? This is a potent first step. Once you see for yourself that your ego is a thought with no real substance it creates the sense or feeling of an opening that allows you to notice something deeper.

This something deeper than mind and ego is indescribable. It is completely invisible to your eyes with the innate power to end any cycle of suffering, but for this presence to cut through the reflective nature of your consciousness you have to trust what you cannot see, taste, hear, smell, or touch. The trust in the invisible omniscience is the ancient key that unlocks the mystery of reflective consciousness.  This unwavering trust lives in your heart. It is unseen intelligent omniscience that holds the ancient key to your salvation—the permanent end to eons upon eons of gross suffering—a deep seeing through the illusion of you and the direct discovery of the eternal truth of you.

As you begin to emphatically trust this omniscient depth there is a radical shift in your consciousness that begins to unfold organically. It is a natural evolution. More and more you begin to see through the illusion of you and discover ever more deeply the vast reality of you. This shift in consciousness changes your perception of the storms that unexpectedly enter your life—like any storm it has no substance and does not last. It rumbles through your life like a dark cloud, but ultimately has no impact whatsoever on the stillness of your awareness—pure conscious being—sat-chit-ananda.

In moments when a storm is raging in your life trusting an unseen presence can seem totally ridiculous. Trusting something you cannot see makes no sense to your mind. The mind naturally rejects this as total nonsense that simply will not work. It is important to realize your mind has tremendous multi-sensory power of you and your life until you realize that all of your strategies to fix the problems in your life or the search for something that will make you happy are based on whatever you think and believe, which only provides moments of relief or moments of happiness.

Total trust in the unseen is the essential surrender of mind and ego that enables you to see through the great illusion of your ego-mind and the pain it generates. Ultimately, this is the only way to permanently liberate you from the pain inflicted by your mind and ego. It is like the reflection on the surface of a still lake—a mirror that hides the depth of the lake. Likewise, the reflective nature of your consciousness hides the vast depth of your being that is always unaffected by the storms that rage on the surface.

The permanent end of the visceral illusion of suffering requires that the lake of all your unconscious tendencies—vasanas—be completely drained away or seen through as an illusion. The unknown aspects of your mind simply cannot be addressed by mind alone. But the unseen omniscience has the power to evaporate all unconscious tendencies of your mind. This requires total trust in the unseen and the complete and total relinquishment of the anticipation of a specific result or timeline.

This is effortless—you surrender everything you want or everything you believe is yours, your pain, the past, the future, and your stuff as well as this you that you ‘think’ you are into the vast invisible presence. It is the end of trying to fix or change or get rid of your pain. It is the end of the struggle of trying to make your life move the way you want.

The unseen presence is like the heat of the sun—over time the illusion of the water in the lake, your reflective consciousness, and the lake itself (the body that perceives) evaporates—leaving only pure conscious awareness—you do not do anything except relax and let go of all expectations.

This total trust in the omniscience frees you from the endless house of mirrors generated by reflective consciousness. Ultimately, it puts an end to even the most painful cycles of suffering.

This evolution of your awareness is a bit of a paradox it is transcendent of time, but also requires time for you to realize any lasting results.

Total surrender is the advent of liberation from eons of suffering, but it is only the beginning.

The end of suffering arrives when you least expect the suffering to end.

This is unexplainable nature of liberation—it cannot be forced.

Liberation is a natural evolution of your consciousness.

 Tat Sat

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Panic is fear on steroids. It is the seemingly uncontrollable anxious fear that provokes impulsive frenzied reactions and actions. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic naturally evokes a sense of panic. It is almost too big to comprehend this global crisis and the fear of death it can generate. The microscopic invisible coronavirus has transformed into a huge monster with the power to steal your life. In moments of panic logic and reason fly out the window, the mind suddenly unplugs, and the primitive nature of your brain takes over with impulsive and even somewhat crazy actions. In a moment of panic you can even hear your inner voice say, “This is crazy!” But the impulse to react has already taken over. The human brain is actually wired for panic. This genetically strong instinct is programmed into the genetics of your body and hardwired into your brain and nervous system. It seems out of your control. But is it really? What triggers panic? Is it possible to overcome this primal fear?

Fear of death is the primary trigger of panic. This is the primal fear of every living organism.  Naturally, if you think your life is in danger, or the life of someone you love is in danger, it can instantly trigger an overwhelming sense of anxiety. It is almost like the brain short circuits and the primitive aspect of your brain takes over. Once primal fear is triggered it evokes an overwhelming sense of doom that generates the bone breaking strong impulse to fight, run, hide, and/or seduce to get whatever it is you think you need to protect yourself.  It is an overwhelming sensation that leads to irrational behavior. Like taking everything on the shelf at the store for yourself without even taking a moment to consider the needs of someone else. Panic is totally irrational thinking based on what might happen versus what is actually happening—it is a distorted perspective of reality based in the raw emotion of terror.

This survival instinct is contagious. If one person in a crowd of people panics it can trigger a chain reaction and suddenly everyone is panicking without even knowing why—reason and discernment vaporizes and the instinctual mind and impulses of your body take control as you lose rational thinking to impulsive rash reactions. The mind simply loses its natural ability to discern and the genetic impulse to survive takes over—at this point it feels like your actions and reactions are simply out of your control.  Fighting over toilet paper is a prime example of the crazy irrational actions evoked by panic.  How much toilet paper do your really need right now?!

The antidote to panic is calm. But is it even possible to be calm when you already feel completely out of control? The answer is—yes. It is simply of matter redirecting your mind to this moment. Panic always lives in fear of what might happen. It is natural to panic if you are in immediate danger, but often panic is about the future not what is actually happening right now in this moment. Now is always free of fear. But in order to shift your consciousness you have to stop believing whatever you are telling yourself or stop agreeing with thoughts that fly into your mind like, “Oh my God, I am going to die without toilet paper!” Really? Is this true or has your instinctual mind simply taken over?

The peace of now is always here and always now, but this is completely overlooked when you give your attention the rollercoaster of fear thoughts generated by panic that only serve to intensify the panicky feeling inside. Instead of following the impulse to react turn to the thoughts in your mind stop and unflinchingly face your fear—examine it closely. What is this fear that has you by the throat? What is its substance? You might actually have to grab onto the wall or hang onto a chair and take a deep breath to stop the your mind from spinning out of control. This hard stop is a rational reaction to panic versus the impulse of slugging someone in the face over a roll of toilet paper! 

Facing your fear of death immediately ends panic. It is the willingness to see for yourself who dies? What dies? This is the elixir of freedom. Facing your deeply engrained fear of death is actually the gateway to eternal life. Avoiding your fear of death or whatever has evoked panic only leads to an overwhelming sense of anxiety and even more panic, fear, and irrational behavior. 

The key to this is letting go of the feeling you are in charge and you need to do something to protect yourself—it is letting go of ego sense of control—a deep surrender to now. The attempt to control the uncontrollable is the nature of panic, but you have the innate ability to stop following this primitive impulse and simply STOP BELIEVING WHATEVER YOU ARE THINKING. It is really that simple.

Ultimately, it is your choice. You can give your full attention to the freedom of the eternal now and be happy regardless of whatever is unfolding in your life. Or you can continue to believe the myriad of thoughts flowing through your mind that trigger the instinctual impulse to fight, run, seduce, and/or hide. What are you choosing?

The wild out of control mind is the nature of panic.  Tame the mind with the love in your heart and you will instantly free yourself from panic. It is a great challenge, but do you want to be a slave to panic? Or would you rather bask in the solace of unending love and peace of your heart?

If you give your attention to your heart the mind will naturally calm down. This gives you the space and presence for rational appropriate decisions—like trusting there is plenty of toilet paper right now or trusting you’ll be fine without toilet paper.

This is emphatically trusting the absolute truth—all is well and everything is unfolding exactly as it should. You are exactly were you need to be in this moment. Ah….this is the true healing balm for panic.

Dive deep into that oasis of now to free yourself from the terror of an imagined tomorrow.

Now is the sacred key for overcoming the primal fear of panic.

Now is who you are—eternal—unending peace.

Tat Sat

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The swan is the famous symbol of Advaita Vedanta (non-dual) teachings. It represents gliding through samsara, the great ocean of suffering, untouched by the ever-changing drama of life as the one presence contained within form and free of all form. The swan also represents the seed letters of OM or a-u-m as described in the ancient text of the Nadbindu Upanishad. The sound of the seed letters correlate to four states of consciousness (a) awakened state, (u) dream state, (m) deep sleep, and the ardha-matra or the formless still silence of the Self or omniscience. The sound of these seed letters is an invisible frequency of light that acts like a laser beam that burns through the illusion of the reflective consciousness of your ego. It is the ancient and extremely potent practice of riding the silent sound of the swan supreme—the path of liberation. What is the secret of the swan? How does it relate to the sublime teaching of Ramana Maharshi?

No words accurately express the innate power of a-u-m. Whether sung silently or out loud the vibratory silence of these seed letters naturally directs your attention to the source of the sound—the vast silence of the Self. Ramana described this ancient teaching as pure devotion or the yogic practice of pranava, which simply means to focus on the source of a-u-m or the half-measure he described as ardha-matra—without element or form—the stateless formless state of Turiya in your heart. The seed letters correlate to the primary states of consciousness as well as the gross (a), subtle (u), and (m) causal bodies, which are veils of ignorance that hide the fourth state of consciousness or the state of Turiya and beyond or Turiyatita—pure bliss.

The mysterious power of a-u-m is described in the ancient text of the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, which is so potent that many believe it is the only sacred text necessary for liberation or moksha. The potency of the vibratory silence these letters generate is omnidirectional. In addition, to the four states of consciousness and the three bodies doctrine that describes the sheaths of ignorance or koshas—the gross, subtle, and causal bodies—it also represents past (a), present (u), and future (m) and is simultaneously transcendent of time and space. It opens your mind to the invisible realm of electromagnetism alive in your heart or the invisible light of silence that purifies the mind, body, and cuts through the grand illusion of the reflective nature of ego.

It is a mysterious force of nature described in the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad as everything in the entire world. The innate power of a-u-m prevents the mind from following the flow of your consciousness through your five senses outward towards the circumstances unfolding in your life and re-directs your attention to the sublime happiness of the Turiya state in your heart. It is a radical shift in consciousness that develops your capacity to recognize the eternal witness of the heart as the one and only presence.

The swan supreme is a-u-m the silent voice of Arunachala Siva. It is the silent sound of Turiya that Ramana described as; maunakshra (silence syllable), ajapa (muttering without muttering) and the Advata-mantra which is the essence of all mantras. It is an energy that grabs the mind and pulls the sense and feeling of you into the vast void of samadhi—the state of supreme bliss. This devotional practice contains the power to destroy the illusion of mind and ego—the root of all suffering.

The secret of the swan is the sound of silence—the unmoving light of the Self. This silent sound is a frequency of light that unveils the vast indescribable stillness of the Self. It transcends time and space. The silent sound of a-u-m stops the mind and opens the inner eye of discernment revealing the one eternal reality alive in your heart.

Ramana says, “In order to get the true significance, one should meditate on pranava (meditation on omkara or a-u-m). This meditation is the nature of devotion consisting of reflection on the truth of the Self. The fruition of this process is samadhi which yields release—unsurpassed bliss.”

The devotional repetition of a-u-m opens your heart to the eternal light of Turiya. It is riding this swan supreme of silence that carries you through the illusion of you into the vast indescribable truth of you—bliss without end.

Ramana illuminates, “Import of AUM, unequalled, unsurpassed, who can understand you, O Arunachala.” AUM is Arunachala—the invisible presence that destroys all that is false.

No words exist for this stateless presence of invisible light—the mantra supreme.

The great secret of the Swan Supreme is AUM.

Tat Sat
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The original definition of courage was to tell your story with your whole heart. Telling your story publicly meant facing ridicule, judgment, hatred, and even death. In ancient times telling your story, especially an honest story, simply meant you could be killed. The path of liberation is seeing through the story you have consciously and unconsciously been weaving about yourself. It requires the courage to face your own death, tell the truth, and intimately examine what is really going on inside of you. This is the maturity essential for facing yourself—not to improve or change yourself, but to see through the illusion of the story that you tell yourself to consciously and unconsciously define who you are. This seeing requires the courage to see through the illusion of you to discover the eternal truth of you. But what is the eternal truth of you? And what does facing yourself have to do with liberation or moksha?

Facing yourself can be uncomfortable. The normal tendency is to blame people and events outside of yourself for everything that you are feeling. It is natural to weave a story in your mind to justify your perspective about whatever happened. The ego will fight to be right about your point of view, which only serves to keep your suffering locked in place. It takes a certain amount of courage to turn inward and tell yourself the truth about the shame, fear, anxiety, self-hatred and other forms of suffering the story not only generates, but also maintains over time. The story is generated so fast it seems to be out of your control, but is it really? Who or what creates the story?

The nature of self-inquiry is an intimate inward examination. It is the courage to stop blaming other people or life situations for whatever you are feeling and instead take one hundred percent responsibility. The courage to take responsibility is the essential maturity for an introspective examination of what is really going on inside of you. This is an intimate seeing through the nature of your story or your point of view. What is the nature of your story? What is its substance? Is the story itself real or an illusion you generated in your own mind?

The power of your memory and mind to generate a story about anything you have experienced makes the story feel real. This is tricky. It feels real because you are telling the story, but who is this storyteller? Seeing through the storyteller is essential for freeing yourself from the suffering nature of your mind, but this does not mean suppressing your story or not telling your story. If you suppress your story, whatever it might be, the story festers into an internal conversation of suffering.

It is a paradox of sorts. To free yourself from the story you need to tell your story, but you do not want to keep telling your story again and again. If you keep telling your story either silently inside or out loud it creates a suffering loop that by its nature keeps you trapped in the past. This trap creates an endless cycle of suffering. To break free of this vicious cycle requires the willingness to examine more intimately what is really going on. Who is telling the story?

The ego, or conscious will, cannot overcome ego. Ego looking at ego is like holding a mirror up to a mirror—an endless stream of reflections. Using your ego to overcome ego and the story it generates is a bit like asking a thief to guard the bank. The root of every story is the deep feeling of you that will naturally fight to protect—your ego will always fight to be right and is like a mirror that reflects whatever you think. The ego seeks both protection and revenge at the same time. It instantly weaves a story to protect your point of view. This is painful. The fight to be right simply makes you miserable over time.

The courage to end the fight is facing yourself. It is a shift in consciousness from the limited point of view of your ego and mind to the expanded perspective of the omniscience alive in your heart. Letting go of your story is the beginning of trusting the unseen intelligence that is eternally free of all stories.

This is very humbling for the mind and not at all easy. If you are fighting to be right there is usually a strong emotion associated with your story. But the story actually generates the emotion, which continues every time you give your attention to the story. The suffering is generated by the story.

The question ultimately is; do you want to be right? Or do you want to be happy? True happiness is always alive in your heart, but if you cling to your story it is simply impossible to realize the happiness that you are in the core of your being.

The courage to face yourself is essential to break free of the suffering of your story. It takes courage to take responsibility. But the fruit of seeing through the illusion of the both the story and the storyteller reveal the most sublime happiness.

Lasting happiness is recognizing that both the story and the storyteller are non-existent.

If the storyteller and the story disappears what remains?

Check and see.

Tat Sat
<’)
( ~>

Faith is trust in the unseen omniscience of God. The teaching of Sri Sri Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi is the supreme faith—direct realization of the unseen intelligence of God. It releases you from the endless cycles of birth and death—the karmic wheel of saṃsāra—the suffering of the great wandering that has continued for lifetimes upon lifetimes. His teaching is simple, powerful, and endlessly deep. He was crystal clear there are only two methods that lead you to the bliss of eternal salvation known as moksha or liberation. The first is self-inquiry or vichara and the second is complete and total surrender to God—either approach requires an intense desire for liberation and perseverance. But what is the purpose for these two approaches? How does it liberate you from the ancient karmic wheel of suffering?

The inquiry into the Self, or omniscience of God, within you is the nature of self-inquiry. It is the direct discovery of the sat-chit-ananda (being-consciousness-bliss) of your true nature. This process is simple, direct, and potent. It is also an extremely challenging—it directly confronts your ego and everything you think you are. Surrender to God simply means to let go of every single thought and desire you have for you and your life and emphatically trust the unseen intelligence of God to guide your life instead. This is also a great challenge.

The root of reincarnation is ego. Unresolved egoic karma must be resolved in the next physical incarnation. The ego is the source and substance of complex thought. It is how you perceive yourself and your life. The gazillions of thoughts you have had since the moment you were born all arose from ego. Everything you have learned, experienced, and remember is the conditioned experience of your life arising from ego. The core nature of ego is identification with your body and all that entails—fear, sadness, pain, anxiety, stress as well as thoughts of your past, present, and future is the complexity that arises from your ego.

This is amplified by the feeling nature of your physical form infused with your five senses of sight, sound, feeling, smell, and taste. It is the feeling nature of ego that makes your ego viscerally real. It is the visceral sense and feeling of ego or the ‘me’ you think you are that must be overcome entirely for liberation or moksha. If there is ego, even a subtle feeling of ego, than liberation has not yet occurred. The purpose of surrender or self-inquiry is to destroy your ego entirely. The mind, which also emerges from your ego, can strongly object to your core identity being destroyed. How can you survive without ego? Who would you be without ego?

This can generate intense fear—death of the ego is the death of you and everything you think you are. This fear is natural. The ego has a strong survival instinct infused with your genetics and the mind or the genetic mind. Its primary purpose is to keep you and everything it thinks that you are alive. It is the survival instinct associated with ego that makes the process of liberation extremely tricky. The mind, ego, and senses will reject any confrontation or process that attempts to destroy the ego. The brain and body are simply wired for survival.

The genetic mind and ego is a huge force of nature. It is a tsunami of biological idiosyncrasies or the ecology of the human form. It is no simple task to overcome this force of nature. The body is designed to live and will put up a huge fight to stay alive. Confronting the ego either with surrender or self-inquiry generates friction—the natural resistance to annihilation. Both the practice of self-inquiry in the three forms recommended by Bhagavan (meditation, mantra, vichara—all as vichara or self-inquiry) naturally destroys the substance of your ego. But what is the substance of ego? What is the ego really?

The ego is reflective consciousness. This is one of the most astonishing revelations of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. The ego is like a double sided mirror—on one side it reflects the five senses of the your body on the other it reflects that eternal flame of pure conscious awareness—the Self. It is the eternal flame of the Self that that generates the deep feeling that you are invincible. The combination of the five senses and the Self is what makes the ego feel very real, but in reality the ego is an illusion or mirage. It feels real, but on close examination it can be directly experienced as non-existent.

This means that you do not need the ego to live—the vast intelligence of the Self is the life that animates your body. But simply knowing this does nothing to eradicate the deep feeling of ego. To completely see through the mirage of your ego requires the process of purification of the genetic mind, karma, and destiny. This is the purpose of total surrender and self-inquiry. It generates the essential friction or sacred fire that enables you to see through the mirage of reflective consciousness. It seeing through the mirage of your ego that begins the process that leads to moksha.

Moksha is unending bliss—but not as a feeling of bliss that comes and goes, but rather, the direct realization that you are the unchanging bliss of the Self or life force in the core of your being. The presence that is always here and now. Naturally, you can have a glimpse of this or a taste of bliss or what Ramana described as the turiya state—the fourth state of consciousness that is always constant, steady, still, and always present regardless of what you are doing or thinking. It is the direct discovery of this stateless state of consciousness within you that sets you free of the complexity of your mind and feeling nature of your body.

This taste is usually fleeting. The mind and ego will arise to reclaim your attention and it will seem as though you lost the bliss—but in actuality the bliss is still present but hidden again by your ego and mind. The taste of bliss and the eventual feeling that you lost bliss is simply because your mind is full of false concepts of who you are. Your brain is literally wired for suffering. For the experience of the bliss to become the constant experience requires the purification of your mind, which naturally re-wires your brain—practice and surrender are practices that physically change your brain. This purification and re-wiring requires continuous practice—the clear recommendation of Bhagavan.

The ego cannot be overcome with ego and mind. If you think you are the one who is practicing it creates a loop of consciousness that will generate momentary experiences of bliss followed by much longer periods of continued suffering—the reason is simply that your ego is left in charge. Both self-inquiry and surrender confronts the ego—until it seen through as non-existent.

This is not just a thought. In other words, you cannot simply know that ego is the illusion generated by reflective consciousness. No. It is a ruthless direct confrontation that annihilates the powerful tentacles of suffering—attachment, desire, and the pursuit of pleasure.

This purification is a process of learning to trust the unseen omniscience within you and all around you that in actuality is not in or out—the omniscience is everything perceived. Trust in the unseen grace of omniscience is essential to see through the grand illusion of your ego.

Trusting the unseen is the practice of both self-inquiry and surrender. Moksha is simply not possible without the power of the unseen presence.

It is total trust in the unseen that annihilates the source of all suffering—ego.

This is not an instant process—it takes time and effort.

Tat Sat
<’)
( ~>

The purpose of this article is to expose the truth that students of HWL Poonja (also known as Papaji) have corrupted the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. The pervasive abuse of power perpetrated by Papaji students is a clear indication that their teaching is corrupt and ultimately does not support liberation or moksha. This blog article is not a forum for the students of these teachers to defend these teachers’ actions or their exceedingly egregious abuse and ongoing lies meant to hide this abuse from the public. For the discerning reader, this article reveals the true nature of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi’s teaching as well as the root cause of the corruption generated by Papaji’s emphasis on his extremely narrow perspective of the advanced yogic teaching of Sri Ramana. Clearly, due to the recent suicides of several Mooji students, this is an emotionally charged subject. Please be advised that the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi is pure and requires the application of the advanced yogic practices recommended by Sri Ramana, which have been proven over time to produce real lasting results.

Florentin (Flo) Camoin and Helen Kelby are dead. Flo committed suicide at Mooji’s ashram known as Monte Sahaja—a spiritual community in Portugal steeped in the teaching of his master HWL Poonja better known as Papaji. Helen reportedly killed herself in India during a Mooji retreat. Indescribable heartbreak is the word that best describes the earth-shattering feeling of loved ones left behind when someone they love takes their own life—suicide is brutally painful and often an earth-shattering shock. But many current and former students of Mooji were not at all shocked or surprised by this news. This lack of surprise combined with emerging reports of outrageous, even depraved, abuse Mooji allegedly wields against his students is like a depth charge that has sent seismic shock waves throughout the global satsang community or what has been coined the Neo Advaita satsang movement. The teaching of Mooji is a carbon copy of his master Papaji. It is considered the fastest route to enlightenment—freedom from suffering in its myriad of forms—so what went so horribly wrong? It is time for a sober inquiry.

Papaji was ruthless, funny, unpredictable, and outrageous—a lion looking to devour your ego. Once you were caught in his ironclad jaws—it was the end of suffering and the beginning of indescribable, bliss, happiness, simplicity, contentment, and the immense freedom only available in the eternal now—total causeless joy and spontaneity—or so it seemed. Now, over thirty years later, Papaji students are exhibiting an extremely disturbing pattern of behavior—current and former students have accused Andrew Cohen, Gangaji, her husband, and now Mooji with practices and behavior that can only be described as gross abuse of power. This is heartbreaking given the humility, unconditional love, and grace of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi who is the catalyst, source, and origin of Papaji’s so-called enlightenment. What is really going on here? How could these teachers be abusing their students? Are they really enlightened masters or do they simply represent a cult?

For the past several years Mooji has been seen as one of the foremost students of Papaji. He is also seen as a guru or enlightened master and some of his deeply devoted students even see him as God. In recent years, large crowds of westerners have been flocking to see him at his ashram in Portugal as well as his annual retreat in India. His teaching and popularity didn’t happen overnight, it evolved over many years from the humble beginnings in a living room in the bustling city of London in the United Kingdom. But for anyone familiar with the teaching of Papaji and more importantly the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi it has been increasingly obvious that his sangha was transforming into a cultish subculture of primarily young people who all dressed in pseudo western Indian attire that conform to an unwritten coded of conduct—they tend to sound and act alike—no individuality.

The evolution of this subculture swirling around Mooji did not ring any serious alarm bells. David Godman, who was appointed by Papaji to be his biographer as well as many other westerners who sat with Papaji in Lucknow India in the 1990s, have all recognized Papaji as an enlightened master who was a direct disciple of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. Papaji students, especially the students he anointed to teach, are now viewed as powerful enlightened masters in their own right. But it is important to understand that Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi did not give Papaji any authority to teach and Papaji actually never gave Mooji, formally known as Tony Moo, any authority to teach. In fact, all of the well-known satsang teachers, like Mooji, spent a very short amount of time with Papaji before he left his body in October of 1997. But does any of this really matter? It seems Mooji and others experienced a profound shift in consciousness due to their auspicious encounter with Papaji. The evolution of his students into a teaching role sprang up spontaneously around him—it seemed like a natural evolution. Mooji’s obvious devotion to Papaji and the glowing reports of bliss-filled satsang meetings with Mooji overflowing with large audiences only served to confirm his authenticity. Finally, it seemed there was a student of Papaji who was the real deal.

Mooji’s grizzly beard, humble demeanor, and thick mane of grey dreadlocks that frames his sage-like rather wise-looking face replete with his loose-fitting Indian clothes and mala beads draped around his neck exude the image and feeling of an enlightened guru. The wisdom that rolls from his lips tickles your heart revealing an unseen dimension that serves to confirm his outward appearance—the general consensus has been he is a potent guru. Mooji seemed like the real deal, but the pseudo-Indian western subculture and large crowds swirling around him were a bit strange. He seemed to be a Papaji copycat. His mannerisms complete with the throne he sits on during satsang with a little stool for his feet forcing students to sit on the floor or kneel down in front of him is the exact same format as his master. This physical elevation is part of Indian culture and creates the obvious impression that Mooji is the all-knowing powerful Wei Wu Wei Mooji-baba God that no one dares question.

This grand illusion of Mooji began to dissolve in Austria when several Mooji students showed up in satsang. It was clear they had a deep respect for the teaching of Mooji and his master Papaji as well as the well-known sage, Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. The satsangs with these Mooji students were beautiful, but it was also clear something was slightly off—a pervasive subtle fear seemed to pervade their collective demeanor. It seemed they were cowed or restrained by a spiritual construct or groupthink. All of them were very aware of the “right” answer in satsang—story of any description was suppressed—there was a strong hesitancy to share anything about what they were actually feeling in the moment. It had an artificial quality. It was also alarming to hear, before it was general public knowledge, that a Mooji student had committed suicide. The gravity of this situation was dismissed by these students due to a powerful satsang Mooji offered right after his death that included this student’s parents at the Monte Sahaja ashram in Portugal.

This news was more than a little shocking, but this was swiftly followed by a certain uneasiness regarding another student who was kicked out of Monte Sahaja. Apparently, the staff at Monte Sahaja were troubled by her mental instability and sent her home. A few of the Mooji students that attended satsang expressed concern about this woman and felt she was in desperate need of help and a private online session was arranged. During the private session it was obvious she was extremely unstable and emotionally shattered. She was sobbing uncontrollably and it took a long time just to help her to relax and calm down. Therapy was clearly what was needed to help establish a context for healing, which was essential for her to stabilize her mental health. It was also explained to her at length that teaching of Papaji and especially Neo Advaita represents non-dual teachings and is not therapy.

Naturally, all of this was more than a little surprising, but they were all deeply identified as Mooji students most of whom planned on returning to Monte Sahaja to live and gushed with pure bhakti (love and devotion) for Mooji. This paradox was odd, to say the least, but there was no mention, or any discussion, regarding the alleged abuse that is now common knowledge. The online meeting was the first and last interaction with the woman who was distraught and this unplanned encounter with Mooji students ended as abruptly as it had materialized. But a few days ago a random click exposed the news that another student named Helen committed suicide during a Mooji retreat in India—two people in one year are more than a little alarming. This heartbreaking news was posted on a website intent on exposing Mooji’s alleged abuse of power, which apparently takes a myriad of forms—including sex with young female students. This is sobering news.

The posted report and other online forums include perspectives of other students who were emotional wrecked after being with Mooji, which might seem strange to the general public especially in light of his widely accepted image as an enlightened guru. But, sadly, many of the allegations online seem credible in light of the direct experience of Mooji students. But what is causing this abuse and cult-like behavior? Many can’t believe this is even true? Is it a hoax? The allegations against Mooji are so egregious it is not only pulling the rug out from underneath his enlightened master image it is destroying the reputation of Monte Sahaja and his cultish community. Unfortunately, as heartbreaking as this situation is, the reports of former Mooji students sounds all too familiar and reflect a similar excruciatingly painful experience with Gangaji and her husband, who are both students of Papaji. This reveals a pattern of abuse that can no longer be ignored.

It has been years since enduring what is best described as an egregious abuse of power by Gangaji and more importantly her husband as well as the subsequent lies intended not only to cover up this abuse but also meant to destroy any vestige of credibility—an egoic strategy to protect. This might leave you wondering about the reason for revealing this now. The answer is simple. It is time. The common reaction if you are hurt is to rush off in a cloud of anger and post a raving tyrannical self-righteous rant on a blog or forum or post a heart wrenching sniveling video on YouTube, or Facebook, or send out a firestorm of tweets. This is totally understandable—it feels good to vent or seek revenge. But this egoic impulse is not the nature of the teaching Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi—his approach is silent inquiry into ‘the who’ that is experiencing the pain. Who is this who? It is a ruthless direct confrontation of egoic identity—the source of all suffering.

It can be difficult for the western mind to wrap its head around an inquiry that lasted years. We have grown accustom to instant everything and are used to getting whatever we want right now—instant immediate gratification. This is the reason that Papaji’s perspective of Ramana’s teaching is so seductive for the western mind—we are easily seduced by the idea of effortless liberation. But a garden doesn’t grow overnight and the spiritual journey is like a garden that you have to tend to and diligently pull out the annoying weeds that appear again and again to choke the life out of your garden. This weeding process is the essential sādhanā or the spiritual practice of letting go—the time-tested approach that produces the most delicious fruit—happiness, peace, and freedom, beyond all ideas of happiness, peace, and freedom. The deep visceral realization that the weed-er, the weed, and the garden simply doesn’t exist they way it seems it does—the fruit of rigorous ruthless inquiry.

The first hint of a problem with Gangaji came only one year after the first meeting her—the same man who was the catalyst for a sublime introduction to her warned that she was not who she seems—he emphatically asserted it was dangerous to remain involved with Gangaji and the cult swirling around her. This was a shock—the antithesis of the bubbling enthusiasm and divine introduction a year earlier. In retrospect, his dire warning can only be seen as a raging fire of truth, but his alarming news arrived too late or perhaps too early—the love of the teaching was already life-consuming. But how can you know what you do not know? At the time, it was impossible to believe there was a problem with Gangaji or that she represented some type of cult. The relationship with her was believed to be the great golden key of liberation. This attitude reflects the very same sentiment of many Mooji students who still gush with love for Mooji in spite of alarming reports of abuse and cultish behavior. It is simply hard to believe there is a problem when the door of liberation has been flung wide open.

After years unfolded and thousands of hours had been spent in rapt attention in satsangs and retreats around the world the relationship with Gangaji had reached a fever pitch. She offered her love and support in ways never expected. She was warm, loving, and intimately supportive during some of the most painful moments in life. At this time the only thing that mattered was Gangaji and the life and teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. Naturally, it was with deep gratitude and joy that everything the world holds dear was left behind in order to become a full-time volunteer for her. At the time it was not known this would lead to an excruciating disillusionment. This initiation into Gangaji’s inner circle was the beginning of what is most aptly described as the season of the lie—a journey of treachery and heartbreak—the age-old human drama of love, sex, and betrayal.

Not long after joining her inner circle it became increasingly obvious that something was simply off—the inner circle was cliquish, cold, and cultish. It was also painfully clear no real progress was happening—the teaching seemed stagnant. Gangaji’s husband was an unwanted intrusion. Behind the beautiful satsang scenes and Cheshire cat smiles offered during satsang he was arrogant, rude, mean, outrageously angry, manipulative, and paranoid. This obtuse dysfunctional behavior combined with his belief he was an enlightened master was clearly a total delusion. It was without hesitation or regret that he was told to his face on more than one occasion that his perspective, behavior, and attitude was totally dysfunctional, unnecessary, and totally unwelcome. In response, he intimated that the absolute best way to awaken his students was to intentionally cause them to have a psychological or nervous breakdown. This was a total shock, but to make his depravity even worse he claimed to have the power to destroy the highly coveted student relationship with Gangaji. This made no sense, was shocking, strange, and had nothing to do with the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

At this point, it was clear there was a very serious problem. This behavior would not serve any purpose other than to cause more suffering and certainly did not have any power to liberate anyone from the karmic wheel. This evoked serious questions about the teaching, but the tendency of Gangaji and her husband was to justify their behavior with the teaching—they held themselves to a different standard. At the time, it seemed the only solution was to meet the master of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi—Arunachala Siva—the holy mountain of Tiruvannamalai India. This evoked the deepest awe; the master of one of the greatest masters to have ever lived is still in physical form—a mountain of wisdom you could directly experience. The living presence of this ancient master surely held the missing key to real progress. The events that unfolded in India were nothing short of miraculous.

The mountain was an ocean of grace—a living presence. Mysteriously Ramana appeared twice in physical form to deliver the most profound direct teaching and transmission. It was simply astonishing. This resulted in a direct realization of emptiness and beyond—śūnyatā. The impact of this experience was like being blasted open into a different dimension—naked and vulnerable. This realization was still intimately raw and vibrating in every cell after returning to the states to attend a silent retreat with Gangaji in Maui, but while shopping in Manna Foods—an organic store with a prophetic name (miraculous bread of God)—Gangaji attacked. Her demeanor was stone cold and unmoving like the Sphinx yet screamed with silent rage. She cornered and struck with such venom it seemed she was more cobra than a human being. It was shockingly painful and more than a little odd. It felt like being sucker punched. She demanded all communication with her cease and refused to explain her very strange behavior then as suddenly as she appeared she turned on her heels and stormed out of the store.

What was really going on? This question was the beginning of what can only be described as the great haunting. It seemed there was either a gross misunderstanding or Gangaji was caught in a tangled web of lies. The only solution was to relay to her the actual depth of what was unfolding, which gave birth to the YouTube video Who Are You….Really? The entire video literally made itself in a matter of minutes and was meant only to serve as a transmission and message to Gangaji of the realization of emptiness—śūnyatā. This video literally says what can never be said—a potent transmission. It seemed this video would surely heal this situation, but instead it had the opposite effect—it was like pouring gasoline on a fire. A few months later fifty thousand people had viewed the video when Gangaji asked to meet privately during a retreat. She felt the video was merely a stunt to promote myself. What?! This accusation was out of left field. She demanded that the video be taken off of YouTube, but the immediate and honest response was simply, “No!”—the video was helping people.

Her reaction was more than a little shocking—she flew into an abject tyrannical rage shouting she would take legal action as she stormed out of the room, which was yet another sign that her ego and mind were still very much in charge. Legal action?! How could she not understand that the video was about emptiness and the profound power and transmission of the mountain Arunachala Siva? Now the video has been viewed by over a million people and has been translated into over fifty languages. But the refusal to comply with Gangaji’s ludicrous demand led to public humiliation, blatant lies, mean spirited scorn from her inner circle, intentional propagation of gossip and innuendo infused with lies presented as truth. The only excuse for this is ego. All of this behavior became part of the great burning and inquiry that has taken place over many years. This ruthlessly raw disillusionment with Gangaji, her husband, and the inner circle initiated an unwavering examination.

The relationship with Gangaji was everything—the support essential for liberation. It is impossible to fathom the severe pain of the disillusionment unless you have directly experienced the great love and devotion that naturally evolves between a student and their teacher. The sudden unexpected end of this sacred relationship was like falling off a cliff. It was excruciating—a raging agony. It was either luck or the pure grace of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi that the living saint and avatar, Sri Amma Karunamayi, appeared exactly twenty-four hours before Gangaji flew into her tyrannical rage. It was Sri Amma’s unconditional love and compassion that provided essential support during this painful period of time. Sri Amma is an avatar—a deity in human form—one that is born enlightened. Her omniscience is a palpable experience. Nothing had been said about Gangaji, but just a few weeks after the great shattering tirade of Gangaji Sri Amma simply said, “The Ganga is polluted. You don’t go there for liberation.” This said it all. The truth of this statement generated a raging ruthless fire of inquiry.

The fruits of this inquiry were mind-blowing, but how had Papaji’s teaching become so corrupt? By all accounts, Papaji was an ocean of love and totally dispassionate—you either got his teaching or didn’t—he was unconcerned with either polarity. Now was his guru. The students who paid attention and experienced a major shift in consciousness were sent out to spread the word about satsang. This was his great experiment—the idea if satsang spread around the world possibly humanity could be saved from the path of total destruction on which it has been traversing for centuries. This was the very beginning of the global satsang movement recently coined as Neo Advaita—the effortless now simply is—past, present, you, and me are simply non-existent. Neo Advaita transformed into the predominant western perspective of Ramana’s teaching revered by many westerners as the direct path of instant enlightenment or liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering—presto—instant effortless moksha—the dogma of the spiritual bypass was born.

This western perspective throws out everything including the practices recommended by Ramana, the ancient wisdom of the Vedas and Upanishads as well as the potency of the mantra, meditation, and even God. The ancient wisdom known as sādhanā—practice—recognized as essential for liberation for centuries was suddenly rendered superfluous and totally unnecessary. Moksha was effortless. Papaji’s teaching lives in the idea you are already free in the core. The western mind heard this as instant enlightenment. The only practice is now—intense vigilance until your very last breath not as a person keeping vigil, but rather as the vigilance of pure presence—no person, no thought, no one to walk on his infamous razor’s edge. This sounds easy, but is it really that easy to nakedly walk through life without carrying a single thought? Does Papaji’s teaching really represent instant enlightenment?

No practice became the new mantra of Neo Advaita. The arrogance of western seekers was and is nauseously thick—the idea that instant enlightenment was yours without any effort whatsoever was infused with a sense of entitlement—moksha did not need to be earned, but simply realized in a mind stopping fraction of a second. But does this make any sense at all? Are there any examples of enlightened masters or sages who claim instant enlightenment? Even Ramana spent years in the deep meditative state of samadhi. Before Papaji met Ramana, for more than twenty years, he performed fifty thousand repetitions of the mantra and spent untold hours in mediation—an intense practice. But Papaji maintained after meeting Ramana his practices were dualistic and not necessary. The ancient proven perspective that liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering or moksha is extremely difficult and requires long periods of austere practices and study was suddenly transformed into effortless realization—sudden liberation—a ludicrous idea.

Papaji was the magic pill everyone was seeking—effortless enlightenment meant instant freedom from suffering. He was and is a paradox; on one hand his teaching actually does facilitate instant awakening, but on the other, it leaves you without the practices or context essential for liberation. His satsangs were categorically experienced as an ocean of bliss—not as a concept but as a palpable visceral experience. His teaching was potent and this potency later transformed into the encapsulated Papaji dogma of his western students that spread around the world like wildfire. This initiated the great season of the lie—the great fallacy of the Neo Advaita satsang movement that is the source and subject of ongoing controversy. Sending his half-baked students out to teach was very effective for spreading the good news about satsang, but also propagated a false teaching that falls woefully short of the due diligence and practices essential for liberation.

Certainly, his grand experiment seems simple enough and to an extent, his experiment worked—the news of satsang and Papaji’s teaching of instant enlightenment, as well as the sublime teaching of his master Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, spread prolifically throughout the west. The only glitch was Papaji’s teaching is a step too far from the core teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. It simply doesn’t work. The students he sent out to teach were infused with the delusional idea they where enlightened masters. Almost from the moment they began teaching in the early 1990s large audiences flocked to them gushing with love and gratitude, truckloads of cash poured into their pockets, and instant fame coincided with their newfound power, which only served to inflate their ego even more.

No one ever really stopped to question what was really going on—satsang was a new wondrous blissful experience for most western students. Bliss and love were the great invisible wings of the season of the lie, but at the time no one suspected anything was wrong or right—everyone was getting drunk on the newfound bliss alive in their heart. Consequently, Papaji students specifically and the Neo Advaita satsang movement, in general, started to propagate a gross misunderstanding about the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi and the very real practice essential for liberation. Papaji’s great experiment is very much like the proverbial Pandora’s box—effortless enlightenment is a seductive perspective for the western mind and it is a catalyst for the immediate experiences of bliss or higher states of consciousness. It also simultaneously inflates the ego leaving it cloaked in a deep sense of specialness, which overtime festers into abuse in its myriad of forms.

The lightning-fast speed of Papaji’s instant enlightenment simply leaves the ego very much in charge camouflaged by spiritual truth and direct experience—a trance that is virtually impossible to detect or overcome—a virtual prison of delusion. His idea of no practice, no teaching, and no student left his students in a kind of awakened limbo. Every student of Papaji, without exception, was left with an enormous ego as well as a mind awakened to the vast omniscience alive in the core of their being—a dangerous liaison. The common result of their superficial realization is an insidious thirst for power, control, manipulation, and the pursuit of pleasure. Papaji himself believed it was impossible to completely transcend egoic identity—the antithesis of the sublime teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

Leaving the ego shrouded in the delusion of this superficial enlightenment is the primary reason for the sexual, physical, psychological, and financial abuse perpetrated by Papaji students that is invariably kept a secret or explained away as essential for the spiritual evolution of their students. The sad truth is the teaching of Papaji is often used to justify just about any behavior—the Neo Advaita trap. If left unchecked this delusion is extremely dangerous and invariably leads to egregious psychological abuse and groupthink. It can also trick you into believing there is something wrong with the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, but is this really a problem with the teaching or something else?

The truth is Papaji’s teaching is an extremely narrow perspective of Ramana’s teaching that is often presented out of context. It simply does not represent the whole enchilada. The western mind loves the idea of effortless instant enlightenment, but is there an example that proves this is actually true? Papaji took the effortless aspect of the stateless state of Turiya or the infinite unmoving presence in your heart and transformed it into the entire teaching of Ramana—a gross misrepresentation. Papaji’s teaching is simply not the same. More importantly the pervasive pattern of egregious abuse exhibited by his students serves to prove his approach to Ramana’s teaching is a dismal failure.

Ramana was crystal clear—only in rare cases can advanced souls attain moksha in what appears like a moment of instant enlightenment, but he was also clear this awakening was many lifetimes and perhaps even eons in the making. He clearly stated continuous practice was essential for the average person in order to eradicate or burn through the deep feeling of reflective consciousness—the grand visceral illusion of ego and latent unconscious tendencies he described as vasanas. His teaching outlines the practices essential for direct permanent realization of the egoless state of Turiya and beyond—Turiyatita—moksha. The ancient wisdom of the Vedas, Upanishads, as well as the sādhanā of yogic practices served to confirm his direct experience and were never rejected by him.

Andrew Cohen, Gangaji, her husband, and Mooji—every single one of these Papaji students swallowed Papaji dogma hook, line, and sinker—they unwaveringly believe in sudden awakening and have systematically thrown out all forms of practice. The tendency is to simply return a student’s attention to what is always still, which only provides temporary realizations at best. As a result, every single one of Papaji’s students are still very much at the effect of their ego, mind, and unresolved vasanas, which has led to egregious abuses of power. Ramana was very specific—any experience or feeling of bliss, deep realizations, or even very high states of consciousness, like a deep samadhi state, come and go. He insisted old patterns of suffering will continue to reemerge until the ego, vasanas (latent unconscious tendencies), and prarabdha karma (unchangeable destiny based on unresolved karma) is burned entirely with the diligent continuous application of his core teaching.

None of these students of Papaji are enlightened masters. It is more accurate to describe them as treacherous, delusional, narcissistic, and in some cases sociopathic predators. For example, Andrew Cohen was forced to step down from his global organization due to the severe physical, mental, and financial abuse of his students. Gangaji and her husband were both under intense public scrutiny for his highly publicized affair with his student and executive director of his non-profit organization—a student over twenty years younger who claimed it was much more than just an affair. She described her relationship with him as predatory infused with intentional psychological manipulation; mind crippling hypnosis, dysfunction, and gross abuse of power. This led to a lawsuit that was settled out of court and more importantly out of the eye of public scrutiny.

Gangaji was complicit in covering up her husband’s mess and is not at all as innocent as she might seem. Behind the regal enlightened facade, she projects to the world she is every bit as deluded as her husband, has an enormous ego, and often wields gross abuse against her inner circle of students carefully hidden from public view. Many of her closest students, especially her inner circle, will leap to her defense arguing that Gangaji is a powerful teacher, but they are simply convinced she is beyond reproach due to their steadfast belief she is the sadguru or enlightened master who has facilitated dramatic transformation in their lives and the lives of thousands of people worldwide. This is true only to a certain extent. She is a powerful teacher and she is also deluded—a paradox. How could she be both? It is simple—she completely and totally believes her own delusion.

Her style of teaching is potent but sadly is steeped in the Papaji dogma that will invariably leave you woefully short of the depth of realization essential for moksha or liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering. It does not support liberation. She has been teaching for a number of years and definitely has the skill to facilitate a powerful shift in consciousness known as awakening. But is this because of Gangaji or is this more accurately due to the living eternal power inherent in the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi? No one questions her articulate, powerful, and fierce guidance held in the confines of satsang or a formal meeting or retreat. She is even known to reach out and help students in distress, but there is a dark vicious ruthless ice-cold heartless side to Gangaji void of any compassion or empathy that remains hidden from the general public as well as her global sangha.

The abuse arises when a serious student gets close to Gangaji and her husband or is invited into the inner circle. As soon as such a student reaches higher states of consciousness or evolves past a certain point the tendency to abuse their power creeps into the relationship. If the student is steadfast in telling the truth, the student-teacher relationship begins to crumble and Gangaji’s attempts to seduce (which she describes as a ‘tantric relationship’ with her students), control, and manipulate are no longer effective. This can be extremely confusing for a serious student who has reached a critical stage in their spiritual evolution primarily because things seemed to be going very well until you smash up against this invisible dead end.

If the student is deeply committed to liberation, telling the truth, and begins to question what is really going on, or flat refuses to submit to Gangaji’s, or more importantly her husband’s, subtle and not so subtle attempts to control or manipulate or abuse—the student-teacher relationship comes to a sudden screeching halt—a devastating betrayal that generates intense pain and confusion of huge proportions for the student. At this point, Gangaji as well as other satsang teachers resort to public shaming, ridicule, or blatantly lying about the student. Behind the scenes, fierce intimidation tactics and/or threats of legal action are also used to manipulate and control. Gangaji eventually rejects the student entirely if they do not conform to her latest whim and will actually prevent a student from attending satsang and/or retreats—eliminating any possibility of resolving this in a healthy more appropriate and mature manner.

The inner circle of students is well aware of this abuse of power and have learned to lie to Gangaji in order to maintain their status in the inner circle, while actively recommending other students ‘learn to lie’ in order to avoid being “kicked out by Gangaji.” The awareness of this abuse does not lead to the application of the teaching or compassion. The inner-circle callously and viciously scorns students who fall into any appearance of disfavor with Gangaji—the very epitome of a cult or worse group think or mob mentality. The horrendous part about all of this is the secrecy. The general public and global sangha is intentionally left in the dark. Even worse, students that Gangaji and/or her husband have anointed to teach are left with the same delusion, outrageous arrogance, or the enlightened ego carefully hidden behind a false facade of humility—the apple does not fall far from the tree.

Behind the beautiful scenes of satsang all of the students of Papaji mentioned here have engaged in egregiously abusive behavior that is normally kept secret by the inner circle of students. This takes the form of rage, anger, manipulation, financial abuse, and/or sexual advances. Any student who refuses to lie or those who do not blindly accept their behavior are systematically threatened with rejection or worse; lies, gossip, hearsay, and innuendo that are presented as facts backed by threats of legal action meant to threaten, manipulate, control, and discredit the student. This abuse often causes severe psychological damage and can even lead to suicide. This kind of behavior demonstrates total delusion at best and has nothing to do with the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

Often the egregious behavior of all these teachers is explained away by insinuating there is something wrong with the student or dismissing the students perspective offhand by using the teaching against the student claiming they are ‘too identified’ or ‘too attached’ to their story or simply didn’t surrender to their infinite wisdom or embrace their master’s dogma. Often abuse is justified simply as a harsh Buddhist teaching technique known as crazy wisdom or what Gangaji describes as, “The Slap.”—a technique meant to shock a student into a direct realization. But crazy wisdom is actually crazy not wisdom and does not represent the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

Lies, manipulation, legal threats, and abuse in all its varied forms are blatant idiosyncrasies of corrupt egoic personalities and is the telltale sign that the ego is very much alive and in charge—which simply means their so-called enlightenment represents superficial realization at best. The human ego always seeks to protect and will fight to justify any behavior. The ego gets drunk on power, fame, money, and loves to hurl the mundane tactics of legal threats against any student who does not conform or adhere to its warped ideology. Naturally, these tactics leave other students with deep unresolved fear of being cast away or left with the haunting sense they might also be rejected, which leaves them feeling a sense of doom or walking on proverbial eggshells to avoid attracting any unwanted attention or displeasure or worse leaves them with the deep-seated fear and foreboding that if they don’t have the support and guidance of their teacher there is no possibility of liberation.

Now two beautiful people are dead and there are credible reports that Mooji is running an abusive cult instead of an ashram that supports liberation, which includes verbal abuse and other bizarre behavior including demonic exorcisms as well as depraved sex abuse of young “hot” women some students described as his concubines. Apparently, Mooji is known to promise these young impressionable women that sex with him will facilitate their liberation and divine union with God. A student of Mooji’s expressed shock when he discovered Mooji was having sex with very young female students at Monte Sahaja ashram as well as during retreats in India. In response to this concern, Mooji whispered, "Hush, this is fine, this is fine, guru may share love with many.”

This is not love. Teachers who pursue students for sexual pleasure and discount any concerns with the false promises or the blatantly outrageous lie that it will somehow facilitate the woman’s spiritual evolution are sexual predators not masters or gurus. This is simply gross psychological manipulation. If it is “fine” then what is the reason for “hushing” or silencing students concerns about what he is actually doing or is the real reason a simple tactic to avoid any responsibility? What is the real purpose for threatening former students with lawsuits when there is mounting evidence to the contrary of his very public denial? All of this is a clue that he is has an enormous ego well hidden behind his guru facade. He is obviously well aware sex with students is not appropriate behavior or he simply wouldn’t “hush” anyone’s concern.

This is a travesty of huge proportions and there is no real accountability for this treachery due to the predominant western arrogance and deep-seated belief that instant effortless enlightenment is real—the great season of the lie propagated by the Neo Advaita satsang movement that has lulled so many into a delusional belief they are enlightened masters or the pervasive delusion that you can instantly jump off the ancient karmic wheel of samsara in less than a finger snap. This belief is arrogantly defended in snobby neo satsang circles, even wikipedia, and endlessly discussed as radical rogue neo enlightenment that works. This strokes the collective ego with its esoteric garbage presented as the absolute truth and sets the stage for continued abuse with no accountability.

If instant enlightenment had any real validity there would be thousands of enlightened masters roaming the earth. But is this Neo Advaita fantasy even close to being realized? Abuse of any description has nothing to do with the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. It is simple. All of the students of Papaji have an enlightened ego, have no practice, and worse have convinced themselves and their students they are enlightened masters or simply believe they are the all-powerful sadguru—total delusion. They also emphatically believe they are in charge and mercilessly wield their power over their students who are expected to unquestioningly, unflinchingly, submit to their abusive authority or risk ex-communication.

Papaji’s insistence that nothing ever happened erased what he saw as his naïve ideas of sādhanā and even God—nothing exists and no practice is necessary was his mantra. This idea is what led to his student’s egoic belief that they ‘got it’ with absolute certainty they are the Self, or the sadguru, which is an oxymoron—true enlightenment is the deep direct realization there is no one to enlighten—Śūnyatā—no person (ego) is the Self. No person (ego) is the sadguru. If their realization was as deep as they claim there simply would be no attempt to control, manipulate, threaten, hypnotize, lie about, have sex with, or abuse students in any way. True deep permanent realization simply does not equate to permission to abuse their position of power in any way, shape, or form. Period—end of story.

Most of these so-called teachers have an ironclad perspective, feel any behavior they exhibit is totally justified, and beyond question. They are completely and totally convinced that they are responsible for enlightening their students—there is a doer (ego) and when there is a doer (ego) there is an artificial mental projection onto the student that often coincides with attempts to control, humiliate, shock, or manipulate. Often these teachers exhibit a total lack of empathy, compassion, or humility, or hide behind a fake façade of humility. They are masterful liars and behind the scenes are abusively angry, controlling, paranoid, and manipulative. This is not idle speculation but is based on first-hand direct experience. It is the simple heartbreaking truth.

The names Papaji gave these students like Gangaji or names students projected onto these teachers like Mooji-baba have transformed into a new ego, a new identity, infused with a self-righteous superiority and delusional belief that they are special—an enlightened master who has the right and power to inflict anything on vulnerable students and in some cases is also used to justify a lavish extravagant lifestyle. The tendency of the enlightened ego is to justify just about any abuse of power with the teaching or simply use the teaching against the student. Abuse in its myriad of forms is always kept secret and carefully hidden from public scrutiny. If any hint of abuse emerges publicly the student is blamed, lied about, scorned, and/or threatened with legal action.

Cults of any description are deeply afraid of truth and have no doubt—Andrew Cohen, Gangaji, her husband, and Mooji are all cults that have secretly engaged in egregious abuse under the guise that it is somehow meant to help their students evolve spiritually. This is the sickening truth about every single one of these so-called Neo Advaita satsang teachers. It is common for them to hide behind legal threats or shallow statements that their teaching simply isn’t Advaita or Neo Advaita or their authority arises from the lineage of Papaji, or they are a cult of love, or their heart is clean before God—total hogwash meant to deflect a closer examination of what is actually going on behind the scenes. They always wriggle away from any responsibility by diving down the Neo Advaita wormhole of enlightened concepts or their collective fantasy of the spiritual bypass.

The video below is a segment from a satsang held in Tiruvannamalai India about a month after this article was posted. It serves as a powerful illustration of the Neo Advaita wormhole and trap. The man speaking with Mooji is expressing many of the concerns raised in this article, but he is completely shut down and the microphone ripped away. The response of Mooji is a story to justify his point of view and the man is accused of lying and being at the effect of his ego, which illustrates many of the points made in this article—the teaching is used against him. Mooji justifies his behavior by stating this man will not ruin his satsang, but satsang does not belong to Mooji or anyone. This man is expressing a relative truth based on his experience. This is always an aspect of satsang—the relative truth serves to reveal the absolute truth. All aspects of the mind, ego, and varying points of view are welcome in the context of satsang. It serves to pull the rug out from underneath the mind and ego revealing absolute truth—this is the purpose of satsang—the great remembrance of the bliss that you are and always will be.

As mentioned in the comment below the reaction of Mooji is understandable in the sense he does not want the satsang sidetracked into a conversation that does not support the intimate discovery of the Self—or the omniscience free of any thought or belief of the mind. However, Mooji's behavior only exasperates the situation. His reaction is a demonstration of the serious concerns expressed in this article and ripping the microphone away serves as an example of extremely cultish behavior. He actually does not address the core questions this man raised. It is extremely important for everyone to understand non-dual teachings are not psychotherapy and should never be used to address depression or other mental health issues. It is equally important to understand that you will not make any noticeable progress in your spiritual evolution unless you apply the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

The worst part about this abuse in its myriad of forms is it leaves no visible scars—students who are abused and rejected are left to navigate their own way to restore their own well being and mental health. The student has little power to overcome the onslaught of lies intended to discredit them primarily due to the unquestioned fame and status of these teachers. This is such a heartbreakingly painful process that it can result in total despair. It is extremely difficult for a rejected student to overcome the agony of this raw painful disillusionment. If you find yourself in this type of situation please know and find solace in the core teachings of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. His teaching and eternal transmission represent real living guidance, which has the intrinsic power to support your spiritual evolution free of any heartbreaking abuse.

The revelations regarding the abuse of several Papaji students calls into question the realization of Papaji—was he really an enlightened master, was he truly liberated, or a charlatan? The conversation regarding his realization is subjective, but based on the fact that Sri Ramana Maharshi clearly stated that Gnapti Muni was not liberated at the time of his death it is doubtful that Papaji was fully liberated. However, it is important to know that Papaji was very aware that he opened the proverbial can of worms by sending his half baked students out to teach. In the video below he explains that he did not send them out as masters, but rather as messengers. As Papaji intimates, “I sent them out as messengers to spread the news of satsang so that the whole world could be happy.”

He continues by highlighting several of his students, at the time this satsang was filmed who were claiming, and still to this day claim to be masters, which includes Andrew Cohen, Gangaji, and Isaac. In this video Papaji states unequivocally that anyone who follows these teachers with the false idea that there are liberated masters is going to hell—meaning they will pay the ulmate price of thousands if not millions of rebirths. Everyone laughed, but Papaji is deadly serious. He continues by explaining that the ego is very strong and that a minimum of twelve years of service to remove your ego, which is absolutely essential for liberation.

Using Andrew Cohen as an example, Papaji explains that Andrew only spent twenty-five days or the equivalent of twenty-five hours, which is clearly a grossly insufficient amount of time for mastery let alone liberation. Papaji explains, “This is the arrogance of the person, ignorance, and ego. All teachers in the world have an ego believing they are teachers, but the teacher has to be so humble, he has to be like a servant to serve the people so they become happy. If the teacher is himself arrogant what can he teach to others?” Based on direct experience to this very moment there is an extreme amount of arrogance exhibited by all of the teachers highlighted in this article. This video is worth watching in its entirety. Clearly, Papaji was very aware of this problem and the potential for the abuse.

This is the singular reason Ramana was adamant there was no human chain or lineage—a human lineage is inherently subject to enabling egoic identity to remain intact. His master was the sacred mountain Arunachala Siva—the formless presence of God—the destroyer of all that is false—the perfect lineage. Arunachala, he emphatically insisted, is the lineage, teaching, practice, and mantra. Ramana often acknowledged that seekers are drawn to his ashram in Tiruvannamalai in southern India not because of him, but because of his master—the magnetic mountain that draws those ready for moksha to itself and has for centuries. Ramana never encouraged the worship of his body.

The middle path of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi is clearly documented and has a proven track record of guiding you to liberation or moksha. It is known as the mountain path of liberation and does not in any way shape or form adhere to the dogmatic perspective of Neo Advaita, Papaji, or any Papaji lineage—or the idea that moksha is instant and simply recognizing the living truth within you is all that is required for liberation from the karmic wheel. It also does not represent the other end of the spectrum or the strict structure, practices, and rules of traditional Advaita Vedanta. Ramana’s approach is the middle way between these two extremes—the continuous unstructured practices described in detail in his core teaching Nan Yar (Who am I?) and Self-Inquiry.

It is important to recognize that the students of Papaji are often perceived to be powerful teachers or even gurus for a singular reason—they are cloaked in the grace and power of the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi and the potent transmission of his master—Arunachala Siva. It is not their body or form that is powerful, but the omniscience of God present in every satsang. The delusion arises when the teacher begins to believe they are this omniscient power—the ego secretly believes it is God—megalomania. The perspective presented here ultimately is not about these teachers, but rather the truth that abuse of power indicates these teachers are still very much at the effect of their ego. This simply means their perspective, deeply influenced by Papaji, falls short of the support necessary for liberation.

The sexual abuse and other strange behavior swirling around Mooji reveal his ashram in Portugal has all the hallmarks of a cult. If you believe Mooji’s teaching and his perspective, or believe any of these teachers, will continue to serve you—let them devour you completely until they spit you out. Eventually you will be spit out—especially if your deepest desire is true, real, and final liberation and you are unwaveringly committed to telling the truth regardless of the consequences.

Teachers who abuse their power will betray the sanctity of the teacher student relationship in an attempt to protect their perceived authority and sanctimonious belief they are masters as well as preserving the ego satisfying life styles they enjoy. Especially, if truth threatens their control, power, income, and delusion of grandeur that often accompanies an enlightened ego. This is simply because they are blind to their very serious limitations—the very definition of delusion.

The death of two students is extremely sobering. At the very least it is a wake-up call and an opportunity to put the breaks on the limiting ideology of Papaji and Neo Advaita. The western mind might be too densely arrogant for this logical conclusion. The real tragedy of the suicide of two Mooji students is this extremely loud wakeup call is already being explained away as the students’ problem, mental illness, or simply not the result of the teacher’s perspective or teaching—there is no real accountability. It is, however, very important to realize that satsang is not psychotherapy.

This translates into a simple message—the abuse of all of these teachers reveals the very serious limitation of their teaching—it falls far short of the practices recommended by Ramana Maharshi that supports liberation. The Neo Advaita perspective often leaves the student stuck in spiritual concepts for months if not years. But this is not an excuse for creating a victim story or wallowing in the heartbreak of disillusionment. What is presented here is not some sad sop pitiful victim story—no—it is meant to inspire a deep intimate healthy inquiry into the heartbreak and pain of any betrayal or any life event that triggers or evokes intense emotion as you move through life.

Most students caught in this web of lies will not believe there is a problem until they find themselves caught in an abusive situation. The promise of liberation and seduction of bliss is so strong it is difficult if not impossible to leave an abusive teacher until the pain of staying is greater than the fear of leaving—or until the deception of the great lie is seen through entirely by applying the sublime teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

If you find yourself in a situation where you are either told to lie or feel you must lie to maintain your relationship with your teacher or sangha—you are most likely in a cult. The absolute best solution is to walk away and never look back—the dogmatic perspective of these teachers will not support you in what can be the arduous process of liberation for the simple reason these teachers are not fully liberated.

The true teacher encourages independence steeped in the direct experience that coincides with applying the teaching of Sri Sri Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi the liberated master whose living eternal light of the heart is the perfect guide of liberation. The true teacher very simply encourages applying his very succinct instructions in every life situation.

Ramana says, “One who surrenders to God will never be abandoned.” This is the absolute eternal truth—the shining light that mends the broken heart of any student who has been betrayed, abused, and/or rejected.

The application of Sri Bhagavan Ramana’s teaching supports your natural spiritual evolution without abuse of any kind.

Abuse of any description is simply not necessary for your liberation.

This is the true manna—miraculous bread of God.

Tat Sat
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Anxiety is one of the most debilitating forms of suffering.  It lives in an overwhelming sense of doom and the panic it generates. It can lead to panic attacks or the visceral sense that everything in your life is simply too overwhelming. The deep sense of terror generated by a panic attack can be so intense that it can actually feel like you are having a heart attack. Overtime anxiety can lead to major health problems and even has the power to generate cancer in the body. When you are in the grip of anxiety it can seem impossible to overcome this overwhelming feeling, but what if anxiety and the panic it generates is simply an opportunity for a radical shift in consciousness?

The mind and ego work in tandem to generate a wide range of emotions, but this happens so fast you are not necessarily aware of the movements of mind that generate what can be debilitating emotions. If you are anxious you are at the effect of rapidly changing thoughts of what happened in the past instantly projected by your mind into the future as a series of potential negative outcomes, which generates a barrage of emotions that feel overwhelming. In other words, the mental spin that serves to generate anxiety creates your deep sense of panic. It is an example of a vasana or an unconscious tendency infused with the physical sensations of your body.

Anxiety often triggers past traumatic experiences stored in the limbic brain. The brain has no real concept of time. As a result, if you think of the past, or if a current event in your life triggers a past memory associated with trauma, you are actually re-traumatized in this moment as if the past is occurring all over again right now. This powerful movement of mind keeps you physically trapped in the past even if you are very aware whatever you are remembering is a past event. The mind instantly generates the visceral feeling of the trauma you experienced in the past and makes it feel like the past is happening right now and can happen again in the future, which only serves to generate more fear and panic.

The vicious mental spin of anxiety as well as any associated trauma can make it feel impossible to overcome. This mental spin is actually a frantic mental strategy to survive. It represents an innate strategy of your mind to keep whatever happened or might happen from happening again. This spastic spin of the mind is often infused with such a deep sense of terror, despair, and feeling of hopeless vulnerability it immediately generates the feeling that you are simply incapable of preventing this unwanted event from occurring. The vulnerability of hopelessness only serves to intensify the feeling of anxiety and the cycle continues.

The antidote to anxiety is relaxation. But how can you relax when you are feeling anxious—is this even possible? The most obvious answer is no. It is not possible to relax when you are a slave to the ferocious mental spin of anxiety.  It is hardwired into your brain. Effectively addressing the unconscious biological aspect of anxiety is essential in order to break free from its powerful grip. The solution does not live in thought no matter how enlightened your thoughts might be. The mind cannot overcome the anxious spin of the mind from the perspective of mind.

Deep down you are already aware of this. If you have every been anxious you are painfully aware that the deep visceral feeling of anxiety either has you by the throat or is lurking like a dark shadow in the recesses of you mind waiting for the right moment to strike. It is not a matter of if, but rather a deep seated fear of of when will the horrible feeling of anxiety return to haunt you.

In order to break free of the clutches of anxiety requires the willingness to meet anxiety where it begins—the sensations in your body and the thoughts of your mind. It represents a radical shift from being at the effect of anxiety to an intimate examination of what anxiety actually is—a deep inquiry into who or what is anxious? This examination opens the door of a new consciousness—a new frequency of energy.

You see, it is energy that breaks you free from the energy of anxiety or the vicious mental spin of your mind infused with the sensations of your body. The mind alone cannot break this cycle. As you are already know, if you focus your attention on anxiety and the feelings it generates—it gets bigger and stronger.

To break this cycle requires the invisible power of your focused attention or innate power of your consciousness combined with silence and sound. Focused attention generates an invisible frequency of light in an infinite quantum field of possibility—beyond the grasp of knowing. But how can you access what you cannot know and cannot see?

The antidote for anxiety is within you.  It is the light of your consciousness, the life of your breath, and a vast invisible light frequency. This invisible frequency of light has the intrinsic power to rewire the hardwired programming in your brain to eradicate anxiety entirely so that it can no longer reoccur again and again.

Breath is the energy of the life force of your body and sound is actually a silent vibration of light or an invisible energy frequency within you and all around you. The seed letters of OM or a-u-m is the breath of light. It is the indescribable intelligence of the entire universe.

The power of deep conscious breath and the sound of a-u-m ends the intense suffering of anxiety. It is omniscient consciousness that rewires your brain without you doing anything. The brain simply rewires itself based on the vast pure conscious frequency of light within you.

This sound combined with your conscious awareness is a frequency or energy that stops anxiety in its tracks. It naturally relaxes your mind into the heart—the energy of which heals and releases the trauma stored in your brain and stops the mental spin of anxiety.

The invisible light frequency of your consciousness, breath, and silence actually enable you to see through the powerful illusion of you or the ego, which is the source of the vast spectrum of emotions and the associated reactions to events you experience every moment of your life.

The frequency of light and sound that a-u-m represents relaxes you into the realm of absolute freedom from any thought swirling through your mind. It frees you from the past.

If you focus on your heart and silently sing a-u-m your anxiety will evaporate like dew in sunlight.

AUM is the alpha and the omega of a vast omniscience with the intrinsic power to end all suffering.

This is the sound of love without end—the eternal frequency of now.

 Tat Sat

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Papaji insisted that liberation was effortless. He famously proclaimed, “No teacher, no student, no teaching—this is the teaching!” The effortless quality of his teaching spread around the world like wild fire. It was popular to think you could be enlightened in a finger snap—no effort, no practice, no time—instant enlightenment. His perspective was seductive.  It lured many into the delusion of the enlightened ego—the great misconception that a single glimpse into your true nature equates to liberation—an instant ascent into the coveted state of nirvana, turiya, and beyond—Śūnyatā.  But is this the real nature of enlightenment? What if Papaji was just flat wrong?!”

No one familiar with HWL Poonja would ever imagine he was a charlatan or a fraud. He is revered around the world as one of the greatest students of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. He was by all accounts a potent guru. His power and grace was a palpable experience when you sat in a satsang hall listening intently to his other worldly wisdom. He words rang true. Life itself was his famous razor’s edge—not a single thought can be carried on this razor sharp blade. But who can walk through life without the incessant plague of thought? Is this even possible? Is it realistic to walk naked through life on this mythical edge?

It is a paradox. Papaji was right. The realization of your true nature is instantaneous. He was also wrong. Any glimpse or experience of the bliss of your true nature still leaves the ego very much in tact.  Realizing you are pure consciousness is a true awakening, but this realization has little to do with moksha or liberation. You see? Once you have a single glimpse into your eternity the ego still is very much alive and almost instantly transmutes itself into the enlightened ego—the arrogance of thinking you are fully liberated in the holy moment of now. “After all ,” the ego muses, “How can you practice what you always already are? Who you are is simply always here and now—the satguru—the one without the other. This is where Papaji’s perspective starts to unravel.  The ego simply cannot know itself.

If you take a step back from the natural awe Papaji’s presence inspires you can realize for yourself it is simply ludicrous to think that you can become fully liberated in a single instant or that you can walk through life free of the endless gyrations of your mind without any sort of practice or due diligence.  Ramana was well aware of the very real effort required to live from the effortless state of turiya—he was very clear about the essential sādhanā—the razor sharp edge of moksha or liberation from the karmic wheel—continuous practice!

The razors edge is sādhanā—the very intimate and essential process of letting go. If you apply Papaji’s teaching and make a valiant attempt to walk through life without a carrying single thought you will swiftly discover just how difficult, if not impractical, this approach to Ramana’s teaching actually is. Papaji’s idea is very effective at highlighting the essential nature of pure being, but it has little to do with the practices required to liberate your from the deeply engrained habit of you.

The habit of you is the very source and substance of suffering. This insidious wellspring of the all the undulating agony of pleasure and pain in your life is far more complex than simple thought or just the limitation of your ego—it is all of the hardwired programing implanted in the physical structure of your brain throughout your entire life as well as eons upon eons of programing implanted in other incarnations. No, the habit of you is no simple puzzle to solve. It is the complex genetics of suffering that present the almost insurmountable challenge of breaking free of its ironclad grip.

Once a Papaji student railed violently against the mere suggestion that Papaji could be wrong in any way shape of form. The idea that Papaji told the most honest lie was a preposterous notion from his point of view. “How could you even suggest you know Papaji if you were not with Papaji?!” He protested. Sadly, if he really knew Papaji he would know it is impossible not to be with this eternal guru. Clearly this student had been duped by his own master—anyone who knows Papaji knows his physical existence has little to do with him or what he taught.  If you really see Papaji you see there is no space or time—you are simply in him as him—period end of story!

This student emphatically believes Papaji’s words. This makes sense. He loves his guru. But his valiant efforts to protect his master is the very fight that reveals his ego still has a strangle hold on him. Who, other than ego, would fight to protect a man who is already dead? Why is this student still staring at Papaji’s finger? If you look where Papaji is pointing is there any need to fight? The fight reveals the fallacy of Papaji and his teaching.  It leads you nowhere—the proverbial tail wagging the dog.  More often than not it leaves the ego in charge like the fox left to guard the hen house or the thief left to guard the bank. It is a dead end.

This is not just idol speculation. Many students of Papaji have realized that they made no progress at all since his death in 1997. One exasperated woman exclaimed, “When I was with Papaji I was in total bliss. I felt that I was enlightened that there was nothing more to gain and went back to my life. Now, three husbands and five houses later I am exactly where I was before I met Papaji—what the hell happened?! What went wrong?!”

It is simple. She had no practice—the bliss she experienced, like all experiences, was ephemeral—it changes and is dependent on the environment or specific circumstances. It was not the deeper, much more intimate, razors edge of liberation, or the realization of the stateless state of turiya that is always everywhere and nowhere at all. Words really are ineffective method for revealing this timeless truth.

The great trick of Papaji is his words. His words are not a dogma, teaching, method, or practice. The power contained in his words is the great pointing to the infinite now. But all words are limited no matter how ingenious they might appear and will not help liberate you from the habit of you or the deeply engrained patterns of suffering that are hardwired into your brain.

The only antidote to this unconscious poison of your egoic mind is the sacred fire generated by practice. What is the practice that Ramana recommended? Practice continuously by intimately examining this me you think you are—who is this me? Who is fighting? Who is lying? Who is dying? Who is this who?

 It takes bone breaking strong determination for your conscious will to overcome the unconscious tendencies Ramana described as vasanas that are quite literally hardwired into your brain. If you stop and question the ‘me’ you feel very strongly that you are the fire this generates begins to annihilate the story of you that always results in the habit of you.

The habit of you is the past of you that is continuously recreated in the truth of you. The habit of you is the very source and substance of suffering.

To see through this illusion requires the great fire of sādhanā—the razors edge!

Tat Sat

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The physical realm you perceive with your five senses every single day is your perceived reality. Naturally, the people places and things in your life behave in ways that are familiar and predictable. But there is an unseen realm that behaves in ways that seem to defy the laws of physics composed of subatomic photons of light and the emptiness of pure consciousness—the quantum reality. This quantum realm is the realm of infinite possibilities free of time and space. It actually informs the physical reality that you perceive—the living source of life itself. Quantum is alive. When someone’s body dies the assumption based on the physical reality is that the person has died, but is this really true? What is the real nature of life and death?

In April of 1950 Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi was at the end of his physical existence. His body was dying. This fact did not faze him in the least. He allowed his devoted disciples and physicians to make valiant efforts to save his dying body, but Ramana was very aware their well-intended efforts would fail. His time on earth in a physical body was over, but his life and teaching was actually just beginning. Ramana was quantum—not as a concept or even as a scientific fact, but rather as the quantum reality that he was, is, and always will be. The form of Ramana was finished, but Ramana the divine master was being born into his role as eternal guide— it was like his body was the pupa dissolving into the vast soup of eternal energy from which he would emerge as the living eternal butterfly—Siva Mariposa.

Naturally the impending death of this great master was a huge concern to his students and disciples. Who would be his successor? Was there a student that he would anoint to take his place? Or should they seek a new master or guru? How would they liberate themselves now that Ramana would no longer be physical present to answer their questions? The impending doom of Ramana’s eminent Mahasamādhi rippled through the sangha as a plague of anxiety. But in spite of this swirling energy of fear and sadness Ramana continued to transmit his eternal message. The body of Ramana was exceedingly weak, but his radiant presence was shining through his face anointing all who came to see him with the blessing of eternal life. His fierce gaze still had the power to stop the mind in its tracks.

The death of his physical body was the catalyst for his final teaching. “They say that I am dying, but where will I go? I am here,” Ramana explained. As it became more and more obvious his body really was dying several of his closest students asked whom he would anoint as his successor. Ramana’s response was crystal clear—there would be no human successor. “The mountain—Arunachala Siva—is the lineage,” He answered. “Arunachala Siva is the mantra, teaching, and practice that leads to liberation,” Ramana fiercely proclaimed. The invisible quantum reality of God is the eternal guide—the radiant light wave that transcends time and space. This is the realm of the infinite.

Ramana was not his body. Not as a concept, but as a realization so profoundly deep that Ramana himself was Arunachala Siva—the formless presence of God that eternally lights the way to liberation. When it was clear that he was not going to anoint a successor many students humbly approached him asking if they should seek another human guru. It seemed impossible that they could progress on the path of liberation without the aide of a human teacher. He smiled and replied, “You do not need another guru. If you need help simply call and I will be there. I am with you wherever you are.”

The quantum reality is very different from the physical realm that we can perceive and infinitely more real. Even when Ramana was in physical form he was quantum—it was documented on several occasions that he could bi-locate or be in two completely different locations at once. Sometimes Ramana was aware of this phenomenon and other times he seemed to be unaware or completely indifferent to this siddhi or spiritual power.

Many people have taken this to mean that he was the omniscience of the Self or Siva—the formless presence of God that by its very nature can never leave you. But there is another mysterious aspect to the quantum nature of Ramana. His form and presence is not constrained by the laws of physics that govern the physical reality in which you live. Ramana is alive. He transcends both time and space. His body is dead, but Ramana is ALIVE. This is the mystery and the grace of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

Since, his Mahasamādhi on April 14, 1950 he has appeared in physical form to many devotees. His appearance is more than a vision or apparition, but a physical presence of another realm. It has been said that this is merely an aspect of mind, but based on direct experience of this phenomenon—this is simply not the case. Ramana is a living entity that has the power to reach beyond his Mahasamādhi tomb to guide, to teach, to console, and even has the power to heal you.

Ramana’s core teaching is a roadmap into the quantum reality. This realm has the power to heal your body, end your suffering, and most importantly guides you through the eternal gate of moksha—liberation from the karmic wheel of endless birth and death. His appearances are never casual—it is a transmission of the divine and a teaching designed specifically for the student. Before he died he clearly stated that any devotee could call on him and he would offer his support and eternal guidance.

Is this not like the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Jesus also appeared not only to his disciples, but to over five hundred people after his crucifixion and has appeared again and again over the centuries to devoted students. Jesus was also quantum. Jesus is alive. This is the great mystery and eternal teaching of God, which is beyond all ideas of God. In this quantum realm it is realized that both the life and death of your body is the illusion and pure consciousness is the quantum reality that never dies.

Naturally this leads to the question; how do you access the quantum reality? How can you end your suffering? It begins with the strong determination and intention to free your self from the illusions of the past and the unconscious conditioning or vasanas that keeps suffering in place. This means you must apply the teaching of Ramana Maharshi continuously.

The quantum reality is in you as you. Perhaps this mystery is simply beyond the grasp of the human intellect. But if you are struggling and want to liberate your self from eons of suffering the karmic wheel represents simply apply the teaching and if you get stuck call on Ramana. He is waiting.

The quantum realm is total liberation from the paradox of life and death.

This realm liberates you from the mirage of suffering.

Tat Sat

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Life is unpredictable. It only lives in the timeless breath of now, but mostly you move through life unaware of your breath or now—lost in the endless gyrations of your mind. As you navigate the ever-changing landscape of your life you can find yourself plodding along following the path that everyone else is following unknowingly a slave to time, desire, pleasure, and control—a slave to your own mind. Liberation is rogue. It is a radical departure from the well-worn path just about everyone on this planet is mindlessly following—a radical shift in consciousness. This shift represents reaching down deep inside crashing through the surface of your mind and all ideas of your soul to muster the uncommon courage to trust the unseen intelligence of your heart. Trusting the unseen is the path of liberation upon which very few tread. What is this unseen intelligence? And how does it end the slavery and even torturous thoughts of your own mind?

Naturally, you tend to trust what you can see, what you can touch, feel, taste, and hear. But strangely the one thing you cannot see that you tend to trust emphatically without question is the endless stream of thoughts flowing like a river through your own mind. All of your thoughts are naturally infused with whatever you perceive and feel through your five senses simultaneously processed by the power of your brain as well as the mysterious consciousness that flows in you and through you. It simply never occurs to you to simply question what is real going on inside your own head. But what exactly is your mind? How does it work? What is really causing your tumultuous relationship with the ever-changing events of your life?

If you don’t know anything about how your mind works, it is only natural to find yourself preoccupied with trying to control the ever-changing events of your life. This powerful survival strategy to get what you want, and keep what you have, keeps you stuck on the treadmill of life only catching an occasional glimpse of the all-illusive happiness you seek. This vain attempt to control the uncontrollable lives in the idea that if you could just get your life moving in the right direction you might gain some iota of happiness, but instead you end up following in the footsteps of everyone else rushing around at break neck speed filling your life with unending activity and all the drama it entails. Like everyone else this limited perspective of your own mind unknowingly keeps your life shallow.

This great trick of your mind traps you in the insidious belief that if you could just change the constantly changing events and people in your life then by some unforeseen miracle you might finally realize happiness, or peace, or love that hopefully will satisfy the gaping grasping void inside that longs for happiness, but is never fully satisfied. This singular belief keeps you stuck on the well-worn path of striving to control your life to produce what you want instead of what you don’t—the endless struggle to attain the holy grail of nirvana—unending happiness. Sadly, this approach simply doesn’t work. It is not even logical. How exactly can your endless attempts to change everything that is constantly changing really produce any sort of contentment, happiness, peace, or love? Just this single question is enough to stop the insanity of your own mind.

The unseen magician of your mind fools you into believing the events and people outside of yourself causes everything you feel, but is this really true? The mind actually has no life apart from your consciousness. If there is no consciousness the mind does not exist. The first time you hear something like this it can be quite a shock. It begins the process of wondering what is really going on in your own head. What is really causing whatever you are feeling?

At first it can seems like it is definitely the events in your life that cause the myriad of your reactions. The natural tendency is to blame someone else or the events unfolding in your life for whatever you might be feeling. It does not appear to have anything to do with you, but in actuality what you are feeling has everything to do with you. Your instant agreement with the thoughts flying in and out of your mind actually generates your emotional responses—not the events unfolding in your life. But this happens so fast it seems to be the other way around—this is the great illusion generated by your mind. It is this lightening fast speed of agreeing with your mind that is the source of all conflict and the roller coaster of emotions you experience as you move through life.

This can seem to be out of your control. Feelings seem to just happen based on whatever is happening in your life. In a flash of light you instantly agree with the thoughts that appear in your mind filtered through whatever you perceive through your five senses combined with the three primary powers of your mind to remember, imagine, and project. It is the speed of the agreement in unison with these three primary powers of mind combined with the powerful sensations generated by your senses that makes this very difficult to perceive. You have to be very still and quiet to even have the slightest chance of noticing that your instant agreement with your mind is what generates whatever emotion you are experiencing.

It seems very much like whatever is happening outside of you is causing your reaction, but the reality is your reaction is based on the thoughts you agree with—if there is no agreement there is simply no reaction. It is the mind itself in unison with your ego, or deep feeling of ‘me’ inside you, and your five senses that generates your emotional response to whatever happened. In response to this illusion the mind also generates the strategy or idea that if you control, or fix and change, the people and events in your life it will give you whatever you perceive that you want. The ego produces the deep-seated belief and feeling that you are in control—but are you? What if an unseen presence was always in charge?

Naturally, the idea you are in charge or in control of your life provides you with a sense of power and safety. After all, if you don’t control and direct the movement of your life—who will? The natural fear is your life would simply spin out of control if you weren’t at the helm of the proverbial ship of your own life. But if you look back over the moonscape of your past—did anything really unfold exactly the way you had envisioned it in your mind? The moment you stop and intimately examine your life you can instantly see there were many moments of unexpected twists and turns, moments of intense heartbreak, loss, even moments of extreme excitement when the winds of fate brought some desperately needed change, which is also intermingled with the expected, the boring, and the mundane.

Let’s face it your life has been a kind of whirlwind of the expected, unexpected, excited, heart wrenchingly painful, as well as the miserably boring moments and all the emotions this constantly changing drama generated. But what if there is another way? What if there is a path that leads to indescribable contentment, happiness, love, and peace during the good times as well as the unavoidable rough times or the intense heartbreak of loss we all experience in life? Not by changing yourself in anyway—but instead by simply noticing the unseen within you and all around you. This noticing begins with the intimate embrace and acceptance of all your perceived flaws. What if real liberation from the torture of your mind begins with loving yourself exactly as you are fully embracing your hopelessly flawed humanity? Humbling shift in perspective isn’t it?

What if the path of liberation has nothing to do with your mind, ego, or control, or any of your endless strategies to get whatever you think you want? What if real liberation is simply a deep relaxation into the living presence within you that leads to the naturally deep enjoyment of this moment exactly as it is—a deep acceptance of whatever is unfolding in your life right now? Normally, your time and attention is consumed by all your attempts to change yourself and control your life, which only serves to steal your energy. This stifles and suppresses your natural joy. It actually suppresses life itself and locks you in the prison of your mind. It keeps your experience of life dead and almost completely devoid of your natural happiness.

All attempts to control and change your life bind you to the limited perspective of your mind. It is the path of slavery and the torture of the mind that plagues almost everyone. This is the path of the paper tiger. The endless chasing after the illusion of pleasure in all that is seen, tasted, touched, heard, and felt. This hot pursuit fuels the lightening fast pace of your life and the extreme arrogance of your mind that you are in control—the false promise that happiness, peace, contentment, and love lives outside of you in the world. This is the great illusion of this world—maya—the great sea of samsara—the great mirage that leads to eons of suffering.

The paper tiger bursts into flame the moment you stop believing everything you think. This naturally shifts your attention from the seen to the unseen—the deep dive into the invisible realm of your heart. In order to directly experiences this liberation for yourself requires the courage to unflinchingly fall into the endless abyss in the core of your being. This unseen realm is the invisible intelligence of all that is—the vast indescribable consciousness we collectively refer to as God. This intelligence is unbound by any limitation of time and space—it is the unseen providence that knows the way and has been in control of your life for your entire life.

This is a simple shift in perspective. The wings of freedom live in the unwavering trust in the sublime intelligence of this unseen presence. Freedom is living your life from the invisible realm of the heart. The great challenge is to first notice this invisible presence then emphatically trust this vastness instead of the miniscule and limited perspective of your mind. This has nothing to do with right or wrong decisions—it is simply not possible to make a wrong decision in the infinite realm of the heart.

The instant you shift your attention from the inherent limitations of your mind to the vast indescribable wisdom of your heart you can begin to experience the deep natural feeling of contentment, peace, happiness, and love that is free of whatever events or circumstances constantly changing and unfolding in your life. It is a deep return to your natural happiness.

If you trust this invisible intelligence your life catches on fire with love and bursts open with the deep satisfaction of living from the infinite depth and wisdom or your heart—a deep embrace of living without any fear of death or limitation of any kind. No problems exist in this realm. The self-torture of your mind has no power in this invisible kingdom. The source of all your suffering—your mind and ego—vanish in the vast intelligence of this omniscient presence.

Indescribable freedom awaits you the moment you muster the courage to go rogue and leave the crowd plodding along on the well worn path of suffering. It lives in the courage to crash through the veil of your mind and dive deep beyond all ideas of you or your soul and simply trust this unseen presence. The moment you trust the unseen your life is instantly fresh, alive—NEW.

This does not mean you are powerless to change or that you should stay in an abusive situation or with a person who is abusive. It simply means, if you trust emphatically in the unseen, you will have the deep courage and conviction to allow your old ways of thinking, reacting, blaming, and doing die. If you totally trust the unseen you will have the natural courage to walk away from any unhealthy situation.

Liberation is total trust in the unseen that always knows when its time to leave or when its time to make a change and time to simply relax—living intimately with the living truth—there is no greater guide than the wisdom of your own heart. This is total trust in the omniscience that knows the way—the silent voice that’s been guiding you all along.

The mind is tricky and leads to suffering—but your heart is indescribably vast and supremely intelligent—the eternal abode of wisdom. Perhaps the greatest challenge is to let go of the false sense of safety your mind and ego generate, but how challenging can it be to let go of an illusion? Is it really difficult to let go of something that doesn’t even exist?

To live powerfully, joyfully, in sublime contentment simply means total trust in the unseen intelligence.

This vast presence is always everywhere and never changes.

How can you leave this unseen vastness?

It is simply impossible.

This is certain.

Tat Sat

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The depth of Ramana Maharshi’s realization was so complete he totally transcended his physical form. As a result, he was the radiant transmission of God—a visceral tangible presence that everyone felt when sitting in his presence. Even though he left his body in April of 1950, the power of his presence can still be felt at his ashram in Tiruvannamalai India. The depth of Ramana Maharshi’s realization leaves a huge gulf between the power of his presence and just about every single western teacher who claims him as their guru. This includes HWL Poonja, better known as Papaji, the well-known guru who lived and taught in Lucknow India. What is the reason for this difference? Are their varying degrees of realization? Or is Ramana simply an enigma?

After several years studying and applying the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, under the strict guidance and teaching of Gangaji, it became increasingly obvious there was a significant difference between the realization of Gangaji as well as her teacher HWL Poonja (Papaji) and Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. This evoked a troubling question; what is the reason for this apparent difference? What was it about Ramana that rendered him so completely and totally different? What was causing the visceral difference between this world-renowned master and his students? The answer was shocking.

The reason is found in the famous quote of Papaji, “No teacher, no student, no teaching—this is the teaching!” This statement is the quintessential teaching of Papaji that leaves the mind suspended in mid air with nothing to grasp—a potent transmission of the absolute reality—the living truth that cannot be encapsulated by the human mind. In one succinct statement he successfully reveals the very essence of his teaching. This pregnant sentence also gives birth to the obvious difference between Ramana Maharshi and his famous student—Ramana did not think this, understand this, or know this—he simply was this with nothing added—no ego, no mind, no man, no name, no Ramana.

What?!! Isn’t this saying the basically the same thing? The answer is simply—no. The great trap of the ego is knowledge and in this case knowledge with the intrinsic power to trick you into thinking one thing when the truth is much more difficult to grasp. Papaji himself acknowledged this before he left his body. He intimated in no uncertain terms that he had only met two fully liberated people in his entire life—Ramana Maharshi and a naked Sadhu that emerged from the thick foliage of the jungle stared through him completely as the vast still indescribable presence of God and just as quickly vanished into the lush jungle from which he had emerged.

If Papaji recognized there was a difference than what exactly is going on? What does it mean to be liberated? What is so completely and totally different about Ramana Maharshi? To answer this question the only obvious solution was not to pickup another book or go to see another teacher—the answer lived in the only place it could live—at the feet of Ramana’s beloved master—Sri Sri Sri Arunachala Siva. This was the very beginning of a shocking discovery—who or what is this holy mountain? Who is Ramana Maharshi really and what is the reason his teaching is so simple, potent, and so astonishingly prolific?

This necessitated a journey to meet his mountain face to face. After all, the mountain was the master of perhaps the most famous guru that has ever lived—the master of literally hundreds of thousands of people known and unknown. What did Ramana see in this mountain? What was the real teaching of this mysterious presence? Simple enough. Why not see directly who or what this mountain actually is? This is the most obvious distinguishing feature of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi—he did not have a human teacher. His teacher was this mysterious mountain named after God himself. The most potent and miraculous aspect of this divine master is he is still in physical form. A divine master you can meet face to face—a divine presence that can guide you to full liberation.

It all started out rather innocently with the awe and excitement of meeting Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi’s teacher, but at the time there was no real idea of where this inquiry would lead. The first moment of this meeting is etched forever in the heart. The instant discovery was the mountain is not like other mountains. This divine form is infused with a potent energy—a visceral pulsating energy that emanates constantly from the invisible heart of this ancient one. It is a penetrating force of nature that quiets the mind and cleans out all of the karma stored in your physical form. The first realization was this mysterious master is a mountain of invisible fire that destroys all the illusions of you revealing the truth of you that defies all description.

The second realization is the mountain speaks in a silent tongue that can only be heard with your heart. This silent language sings the ancient song of emptiness—the great power of OM. The Buddha described this emptiness as Sunyata or emptiness beyond all ideas of emptiness and Jesus described it as Love. The third realization was the mountain was totally still and unmoving regardless of the ever changing weather and constant movement of people that swarmed around this ancient guru like a colony of tiny ants, but the penetrating quality of this presence is a fire that burns inside every cell of your body. The forth realization was that Arunachala was a giant mirror, but unlike any human mirror it was a mirror that only reflects the absolute truth—the vast living presence in the core of your being.

In this fire of grace everything that was known was stripped away—the name given at birth, the mind, the ego—everything was stripped of its perceived reality. This left only nothing, but not a nothing that is known or understood—this nothing cannot be touched by the human intellect. It is. This is-ness is the tasteless taste of now. It is God. The unseen intelligence that is unmoving, unseen, but always present here and now. This unseen intelligence animates your body and gives life to every living creature. It is the great see-er—the eternal one of all that is and ever will be—the vast unknowable presence of God. This presence is simply the all and the everything.

Language falters in this presence—words lose all meaning and all attempts to describe the indescribable are like a kaleidoscope without the colors. Words begin to sound like the meaningless chatter of an excited monkey. Let it suffice to say the power and presence of Arunachala Siva is an enigma. It just cannot be described with words, but can be experienced directly as the only reality. The discovery of this unseen intelligence that lives within your own heart begins a natural evolution—without a beginning or an end.

This was the very first step in understanding what distinguishes Ramana from every other master or teacher—he became the mountain. He was Arunachala—the formless presence of God. But how exactly did this happen? What did he do? How can you follow him into the heart of Arunachala? The way of Ramana is the middle way—total emptiness—the space in between all ideas of something and all ideas of nothing. The great golden key to liberation is Ramana himself and the words he spoke are infused with the self-authenticating power of his omniscience.

After the sublime meeting of Arunachala—an avatar appeared who unveiled even more about the indescribable difference between Ramana and every single human being ever met on this earth. It was not expected. It just unfolded. Meeting this divine being was a death—an annihilation of the arrogance of knowing. Ramana knew this person would be born as an avatar—one born already liberated. He prophesized she would be born as Thai—the divine mother. The purpose of her incarnation is to heal the planet and she is known throughout the world as Sri Amma Karunamayi—the embodiment of divine love and compassion.

Meeting an avatar pulled the rug out from under everything. Suddenly it was crystal clear there is a significant difference between someone who is awake, someone who is self-realized, and someone who is liberated. The presence of Sri Amma is like meeting Arunachala in human form, but even this description fails to describe the enigma that is Amma. Unbounded love—yes. Unlimited Compassion—yes. But more importantly there is a quality of being that emanates from her heart that silences the human mind—a presence whose innate infinitude has the power to liberate you from the genetic mind and ego. She does not need to speak. Her presence is an indescribable power that reveals just how juvenile our understanding of Ramana and his way of liberation actually is.

The touch of her hand sent a shock wave through the body with such force—it was an invisible tsunami of transformation. A few weeks later she explained who Ramana was and how many incarnations he endured in his quest for the ultimate realization—liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering. It was like falling into an endless spring of wisdom that revealed the purpose of practice as well as the purpose of the life and teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. He was simply born to reveal the radiant presence of God that you are and always will be.

This brings us full circle. His words are infused with the self-authenticating power of God. So what exactly did Ramana say? First and foremost he intimated in words and in silence that your inquiry must be continuous. You must consistently examine who you think you are. It is this essential inquiry that questions and ultimately annihilates the perceived reality of everything you think you are. The energy of Arunachala is contained in this life-changing inquiry; who am I? It is the energy of this question that eventually annihilates the questioner—if there is no questioner than you begin to make real progress.

The secret of Ramana Maharshi is this: you actually have to stop thinking and do exactly what he tells you to do—be still, be quite, and inquire. His core teaching is meditation, self-inquiry, and the mantra, but all three are meant to be utilized as self-inquiry or vichara with the sole purpose of helping you to let go of everything that is known, felt, experienced, and seen. The very essence of his teaching is surrender. It means letting go of everything—your name, your past, your future, your desires, attachments—let everything go and give your full attention to the invisible omniscience of God alive in your own heart.

Ramana’s words contain the intrinsic power to re-direct your attention and reveal the very real effort essential for true and final liberation. As he illuminates, “No one succeeds without effort…those who succeed owe their success to perseverance.” This is the exact opposite of what Papaji taught. It is Papaji’s own direct realization of the effortless nature of the absolute that has trapped many western seekers in an egoic idea of liberation instead of the actual realization of true and final liberation. Ramana reveals that your own effort is essential otherwise the ego is left in tact. If the ego is present—even if very subtle—liberation has not yet occurred. This simply means that understanding is absolutely meaningless. Liberation is not something that can be known.

The most powerful inquiry is silence and this silence is discovered directly in total silence or the sound of the mantra. The mantra is in effect the sound of silence. This is an aspect of Ramana’s teaching that is often overlooked—the fastest most direct inquiry is the sound of silence—OM. Ramana explained that the seed letters of OM are A-U-M. The seed letters correlate to the three primary states of consciousness: waking (a), dream (u), and deep sleep (m)—sung together the seed letters create the sound infused with the omniscient power of the stateless state of turiya in your heart. This stateless state is the gateway to liberation with the illuminating power to evaporate the grand illusion of your ego.

Ramana took great care in describing the nature of ego as reflective consciousness. This simply means that the feeling of ‘me’ inside of you is created by the senses of your physical body. This feeling of ‘me’ is very strong—genetically strong. The genetics of your body are the ancient code of survival. Without this encoded survival strategy the physical body would die. Ramana reveals that the ego is like a double-sided mirror—one side reflects your five senses and whatever you think and the other side reflects the invisible light of pure consciousness—the turiya state of your heart. This generates the strong visceral illusion that you are your body—ego.

The double-sided quality of reflective consciousness makes it very difficult to free yourself from the constantly changing states of consciousness in your body and the thoughts moving through what is described as mind. The nature of inquiry in the three forms that Ramana recommends is a powerful aide for surrender—a deep letting go of everything. It enables a deep seeing through the grand mirage of your ego. Ramana described the sound of AUM as Arunachala—the sound of silence —a potent catalyst for a seeing through the veil of reflective consciousness.

The sound of AUM has the intrinsic power to evaporate the illusion of you revealing the truth of you. It is the invisible light of a thousand suns that evaporates the deep feeling that you are the physical body. Once the veil of reflective consciousness evaporates completely all that remains is the omniscience that Ramana described as the Self.

It is meaningless to know or think you are the Self. The reflective nature of ego is like an endless house of mirrors. The only way through the illusion of reflective consciousness is through the power and grace of silent, still, inquiry, and the willingness to surrender everything.

Ramana gave himself completely and totally to the unseen in his own heart. This is the only way to liberation. It is the way of Arunachala—the heart of freedom.

Liberation is possible in the world, but liberation is not of this world.

This is the secret of Ramana that sets you eternally free.

Tat Sat

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The thick mental fog of the genetic mind and ego can generate a sense of foreboding deeply rooted in the terror experienced when you were born into this world. It is a deep feeling that you can’t quite put your finger on that generates the sense that something is hopelessly wrong with you or a deep feeling of self-hatred. It is often experienced as a sickening feeling that coincides with the deep belief that you are hopelessly flawed, unlovable, unwanted, alone, and abandoned. This is the original sin—the exile from the paradise of Eden—the heartbreaking loss of the bliss of pure being you experienced in the womb. The death of this insidious feeling is a rebirth into the bliss of your being—the dramatic return to the source or pure consciousness. This sounds wonderful, but exactly how do you break free of the torture of self-hatred?

Bliss is your original mother—the source of life itself that you forget entirely during the terrifying process of birth.  Once you are born, this raw terror transforms into an unconscious memory that is the fertile ground from which the seed of your ego grows, develops, and evolves. This unconscious terror is the root of every ego and is experienced as a deep sense that something is terribly wrong, which is what the baby naturally experiences during the birth process. After all, from the baby’s point of view, something is earth shatteringly wrong when their entire universe suddenly convulses in a series of overwhelming universal quakes that ruthlessly pushes them through a tiny black tunnel into an unknown, frightening, and foreign world.

Naturally, you forget your original birth mother and identify with your biological mother—this is the birth of self-hatred. Overtime the raw trauma of birth transforms from the feeling that something is terribly wrong on the outside into a deep sense and feeling that there is something terribly wrong on the inside, which is usually a secret known only to you—no one else seems as horribly unlovable and rotten as you. This dark secret is the origin of self-hatred and lurks behind everything you think, do, or say, which only seems to be confirmed by events unfolding in your life. This belief rooted in your subconscious acts like a thick invisible fog that hides the natural bliss in the core or your being. 

All of your complex strategies to survive evolve from this primal fear, which morphs overtime into a complex network of mental strategies that create an illusory wall around your heart. This invisible wall feels like protection, but in reality is a prison that entraps you in the raw terror of living and the raw terror of dying—the ego paradox. It is a deep sense and feeling that you are an individual separate from everything and everyone—abandoned by God. This grand illusion of self-hatred seems very real, but is it? The feeling is so powerful and deep the natural question arises—is it really possible to break free of this ego paradox—the insidious trap of self-hatred? 

The great golden key to the permanent end of self-hatred can be found in the ancient song of God—The Bhagavad Gita. This ancient scripture reveals the great secret to liberation from all forms of suffering lives in the three invisible and very holy rivers within you that are named existence or sat, consciousness or chit, and bliss or ananda the energy that animates your entire body. The convergence of these three invisible rivers is the great ocean of now—sat-chit-ananda—the unending bliss of your true nature alive in your heart that absolutely cannot be encapsulated or objectified by your mind. 

The Buddha describes this convergence as sunyata and Christ describes it as love, but no word or words have ever fully described the vast ocean of bliss from which you were born—your original mother who is pure unalloyed consciousness. It is this wordless realm within you that sets you free from the ego paradox—the great nemesis of bliss—the triune trap of mind, body, and ego. This great mirage of reflective consciousness is ego, which is the fertile ground of self-hatred. The birth, life, and death of your body are the grand illusion known as the transmigration of the soul that keeps you suffering for eons upon eons. But how do you free yourself from this very potent illusion?

Bliss is rebirth.  To be born again means you have completely totally seen through the illusion of you into the bliss of you—the direct discovery of the original mother—pure consciousness. It is simple. Bliss is consciousness. It is the great return to the ocean of bliss hidden within you that can occur faster than a finger snap—the great realization that you never left the bliss you experienced in the womb simply because you are that bliss—you never left the paradise of Eden—you just thought you did. How is it even possible to leave the great ocean of bliss that you always already are? 

This sounds wonderful and is the precious reality of bliss, but how exactly does this help you overcome the debilitating feeling of self-hatred? To begin your own discovery of the vast convergence of the three holy rivers of sat-chit-ananda begins by questioning this you that you think you are—who are you or what are you? Can you show someone self-hatred? Does it really exist?

Self-hatred is the graveyard of the past. If you keep digging in this graveyard you will continue to suffer, but if you throw away the shovel called ‘I am me’ and dive into the vast invisible presence of your heart—you can discover instantly that in actuality you are perfect love—the vast indescribable ocean of now—the convergence of the three holy rivers of sat-chit-ananda.

Please don’t take my word for it—dive in right now. Let go of the miserable illusion of you and dive directly, intimately, eternally into the reality of you—bliss beyond all ideas of bliss—peace beyond all ideas of peace, and love beyond all ideas of love—this is the nature of bliss that never comes and never goes—the unending bliss of your true nature.

The ancient song of sat-chit-ananda is a-u-m the essence of the stateless state of bliss. If you sing this out loud or silently and give your full attention to its source in your heart you can see through the illusion of reflective consciousness. You can recognize you are love beyond all ideas of love.

This love annihilates the shadow of self-hatred with the eternal light of now. This now is the absence of time. It is the reality of you—the vast ocean of now you are is transcendent of time.

To realize this for yourself it is essential to stop believing the incessant chatter of your own mind and look inward to the source of the feeling ‘I am me.’

If you find the source you have found the ocean of bliss that you are and always will be.

This is bliss without end.

Tat Sat

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The birth of Jesus was the advent of a seismic shift in consciousness—the birth of God. He had a sacred destiny; to bear witness to the living truth—the eternal presence that transcends death. Jesus is God—the omniscience that is both human and divine—a quantum leap in consciousness—an Avatar. He set the world on fire with a new conversation that has been the source of controversy for centuries. His miraculous birth was heralded by angel who proclaimed, “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’—the prophesized Messiah—the messenger. Is this a religious message or does it transcend religion entirely? What exactly does the birth of Jesus have to do with the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi?

Jesus is the birth of a new consciousness. He represents the great exodus from slavery—the imagined bondage caused by the body and genetic mind—sound familiar? Is his message really any different from Ramana’s? The misidentification with the physical body or ego is the root cause of all perceived problems in your life and the world—but is the ego, or deep identification with your body, even real? Jesus illuminates, “Let the dead bury the dead for where the body is there the vultures will gather.” What does he mean by this? Are you the limited form of your body that will die or so much more? What is the nature of your mind and ego and why is something that is relatively simple to understand so difficult to master?

The gift of Ramana is his simplicity. He said many time the name of God heard by Moses on Mount Sinai—I AM THAT I AM—is the perfect name of God—pure being—pure love. The name of God unveils the vast power of the teaching of Jesus and Ramana. God is Love. Jesus is Love. You are Love—I AM LOVE—no separation—ONE LOVE. When Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He is saying I AM (God) is the way, the truth, and the life—divine love—the omniscience within you and all around you—a love that defies all understanding in the core of your being. Love is the way. Love is the life. Love is the truth. Love alone is the way of salvation. This love sets you free from the bondage of the egoic mind—the new covenant—unending joy. Love is the only way. No one comes to the father  (source) except through love—the eternity alive in your heart.

If you muster the courage to dive into your heart you can immediately discover this divine love—a joy without end—this is the good news—eternal life. It really is that simple. The great challenge is the ego does not like the annihilating force of this endless timeless love. It wants desperately to be in control and maintain a sense of specialness. Ego thrives on limiting ideas of right and wrong and will always fight to be right—this is the fundamental reason wars have been waged in the name of Jesus—the antithesis of his teaching. Ego enslaves you to the tyranny of your mind and body.

The great exodus from the bondage of your mind demands the willingness to humble your ego—surrendering all ideas of specialness and everything you think you want. This surrender crucifies your unconscious practice of suffering and ends the tremendous effort required to suffer. It is a deep seeing through the mirage of your ego—the source of the arrogant belief that you are special, in control, and unlovable—the three primary aspects of mind that keep your ego in tact. As long as you continue to identity with your body and mind you will suffer—you will feel that your are separate from everyone and everything, which keeps you stuck on the roller coaster of the ever-changing ups and downs of your life.

The birth of God is the dawn of a new understanding of who you really are. The only difference between you and an avatar is simply that you identify with your body and suffer. An avatar identifies only as God from the moment of birth—I AM THAT I AM—pure conscious awareness free of the ego. The avatar is simply I AM with nothing added. This is the great challenge—your mind instantly labels everything you perceive as good, bad, right, wrong, etc… the endless movements of mind to control and protect your body. This primal identification with your body labeled with your name makes your ego feel very real. It is this labeling aspect of mind that be seen through in order to be free of the tyranny of your own mind.

The primary question of self-inquiry ‘Who am I?’ questions the label of you. It is God’s name backward—AM I—that naturally directs your attention inward to the source of the feeling ‘I am me.’ It is a question with no answer—the spark of energy that ignites a holy blaze within your heart—the divine spark that sets your heart on fire with truth—the vast love that is God. If you fully understand the great secret of I AM the living words of Jesus ignite a holy blaze in your heart. His eternal proclamation, “I am resurrection and the life,” points directly to your true nature—in the core of your being you are the resurrection and the life—eternal. This vast presence is never touched by death. Love is the resurrection and the life alive within you.

None of this is about religion.  Turning your attention inward to the living source of your heart is a profound shift in your perception that ends the war inside of you and opens the gateway of unending joy. It is an invitation to grow up and leave the immaturity of your ego behind. It requires that you ask yourself; do you want to be right or do you want to be happy? If you stop believing whatever you are thinking and surrender the story you are continuously weaving in your mind—you will be born again of the spirit and experience the great joy that you are and always will be.

If you look intimately at the ‘me’ you think you are—you can see directly it is a great illusion—the mirror of reflective consciousness that enslaves you to your thoughts and physical senses. The reason this can be difficult to perceive is simply due to the deep feeling of you infused with your story, your point of view, your beliefs, and cultural conditioning—your identity. But the moment you see though this powerful illusion you immediately fall through the mirage of your ego into the heart—a joy beyond all ideas of joy.

Suffering is the instant agreement between the ‘me’ you think you are and your mind.  For suffering to continue requires the intense effort of believing everything you think and all the emotions your thoughts generate—the imagined bondage of the mind. Freedom from this bondage is alive in your heart, is beyond belief, and cannot be practiced. Love beyond all ideas of love.

The moment you see through the mirage of the ‘me’ inside of you, it is possible to stop agreeing with your mind. The instant you stop agreeing with mind your fight to be right comes to a sudden screeching halt—freeing you from the graveyard of the past—death. It opens your heart to the joy of eternal life.

Ultimately, it is your choice. You can continue to be a slave of your mind and pursue the endless fight to be right, and suffer, or live in the joy of the eternal presence within your own heart—love without end.

Choose wisely!

Tat Sat

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Love is a word that can evoke many different meanings. It is usually associated with the deep feeling of affection for someone else or the pleasure derived from something you really enjoy—like ice cream or your favorite object—your diamond ring. Love is also a word for a special relationship or sexual bond with someone else. It is a word that connotes two instead of one—it is predicated on you and other or you and something that you love. Love of God is devotion, but is devotion the same the same as the human emotion of love or something else? What is the real nature of Bhakti or love of God?

Bhakti is an ancient word that means liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering. It is a path, practice, and way of life—loving God as Love. This practice fundamentally ends the relationship with other. It is loving the omniscience of the divine with all your heart and all your mind and all your body—total love. A love so total you vanish in the infinitude Bhakti represents. The teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi is the combination of Bhakti Marga (Devotion) and Jnana Marga (Wisdom). Both paths lead to liberation or moksha—unbounded happiness.

The mārga (path) of Jnana is knowledge and the path of Bhakti is love—the two side of the mountain path of Arunachala Siva. The nature of Bhakti Yoga, or the practice of devotion, is surrender—falling in love with God so deeply that you recognize the divine love in you, which is not separate from God. This fierce devotion represents a radical shift in consciousness from the ‘me’ who loves God to the direct experience that you are the vast consciousness of the heart—loving love as love—love itself. This is the nature of Bhakti—the purest love as love. In pure bhakti the sense of ‘me’ vanishes in complete union with the divine—ecstatic unending love.

The yoga of Bhakti is now. It is total surrender to the omniscience of your heart. If you surrender to love you end up in the Jana or divine knowledge. If you surrender to divine knowledge you end up in love or Bhakti—both paths are irrevocably intertwined—one leads to the other. Ultimately, whether you chose the path of love or knowledge you end up in Love—the ruthless fire of divine grace with the intrinsic power to destroy the source of all suffering—the ‘me’ you think you are—ego. It is a deep seeing through the mirage of your ego.

This mirage of your ego is the reflective consciousness that hides the living truth of love in the core of your being. The power of love is ruthless—it is not the cuddly teddy bear love of a hallmark card. It is a fierce fire of grace that destroys all that is false—it reveals that the ego is the great illusion infused with your senses that keeps you trapped in endless cycles of suffering.

It is natural to fall in love with your teacher or guru—who is the embodiment of divine love that reveals your divine nature. This love of teacher is the fire of bhakti the fire of love alive in your heart. It is total union with the heart of Siva—the formless presence of God.

The poetry of Rumi is the embodiment of Bhakti. His famous words open your heart to the living truth of Bhakti—close your eyes, fall in love, stay there—this is the essence of Bhakti Yoga.

This yoga of love is the one pointed focus on this source of everything—the omniscience alive in your heart. It is this falling in love with love that sets you free from the illusion of you.

This purification of mind develops the one-pointed attention on the source essential for liberation.

Tat Sat

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One of the great powers of your mind is to judge, to discern, and in the relative sense, use this powerful movement of your mind to make informed decisions based on your perspective about what you perceive to be right versus wrong. It is a natural power of your mind that enables you to navigate through the great illusion known as the world. Survival is simply not possible without this force of nature deeply engrained in your physical form. The mind is fundamentally wired for survival—it is genetic. The ego combined with the mind is the neurological and biological construct that enables you to survive. Ego is simply essential for survival. But is survival the nature of suffering? Does survival have anything to do with suffering? Is survival and the power of judgment a form of bondage?

Often the fear of applying the teaching of Ramana is based on the primal fear of death. Ramana’s teaching represents a counterintuitive movement into the core of your being that moves in direct opposition to the natural biological drive for survival or the movement outward toward the world. The teaching annihilates the deep feeling of the you that you think you are. The teaching of Ramana simply represents an annihilation of your ego—it is a permanent end to any idea you might have about who you are. Naturally this can evoke a sense of fear and foreboding. Annihilate me? How does this help me in anyway?

Simply—the teaching of does nothing to help you or the sense and deep feeling of ‘me’ that you feel intimately is your core identity. The teaching annihilates this me. It annihilates any sense or feeling of specialness associated with your ego or feeling ‘me’ in your body. Ramana’s teaching has nothing to do with human empowerment or thinking positively or even the mindfulness practice prevalent in Buddhism—it is the annihilation of the mind, doer, thinker, questioner, and meditator. It represents the ultimate humbling of the egoic mind. Ramana’s teaching simply is a ruthless unwavering annihilation of the ‘me’ that you deeply feel you are—this is the fundamental nature of liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering.

Basically, me is ego and ego is me. Liberation from the suffering nature of mind is the permanent annihilation of this deep sense and feeling of any identity associated with the biological form of your body. Ego cannot exist in the context of the turiya state or the forth state of consciousness—pure bliss. Ego does not exist in the turiyatita state or the state ‘beyond the forth,’ which is the state beyond the experience-er—literally there is no one to experience or do anything in this state. The stateless state of turiyatita is liberation from the karmic wheel, which is also known as nirvana or the pure omniscience of God. This annihilation is the dramatic and permanent end to eons of suffering, birth, and death.

Simply, no feeling or sense of ‘me’ can exist in either the turiya or turiyatita states of consciousness. It is the feeling of ‘me’ that judges everything and anything. This root identity is cause of any and all judgment. You can judge yourself, someone else, and your circumstances based on your own limited point of view, which is deeply rooted in the sense and feeling of ‘me’ in your body. Judgment in all of its forms is a powerful movement of mind to be right. It is the movement of mind to protect yourself, your point of view, and ultimately provides you with some sense of control.

The natural state of the ‘me’ or ego is judgment. The ego is constantly assessing and judging its situation in the context of living in what is perceived to be a physical world. It naturally does this to survive, but we all know that judgment in its many varied forms can be painful, can cause hurt feelings, and lead to accusations, fights, and even war.

Judgment is ego. It is the source of all ideas of right and wrong as well as the perception of ‘me’ and ‘you.’ The war with yourself and the war with other cannot exist without the ego. Liberation is the annihilation of this ‘me’ as well as the other—it is a sudden and dramatic shift in consciousness. It is the great remembrance that there is only one—no other. This is the essence of Advaita Vedanta.

So is judgment bondage? Is survival suffering? No. It is simply a biological aspect of the human body—but is this who you are? No. The body is simply not who you are.

The end of judgment is the annihilation of the judge—this is the nature of the pure bliss of being—no one to judge or to be judged.

This is the nature of liberation—the heart is the only reality beyond all ideas of heart and reality.

This is the bliss beyond all ideas of ‘me’ and other—even beyond all ideas of bliss.

This bliss is eternal; liberation beyond all ideas of liberation.

It is freedom beyond all ideas of freedom.

Tat Sat

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The path of liberation is ruthless. It demands a deep unwavering commitment to the vast invisible omniscience alive in your heart. This commitment represents the end of excuses.  It is the profound humbling of your mind—a deep surrender to the vast indescribable unseen omniscience of God—a ruthless truth-telling and complete relinquishment of whatever it is you think you want. The natural tendency of mind is to conjure up all kinds of reasons to ignore, or not even notice, the omniscience we collectively refer to as God. The mind tends to doubt this unseen existence, which often fuels the idea that God might not even exist. The natural tendency is to trust the very limited perspective of your mind and believe whatever you think. But have you ever stopped to contemplate; what are you actually trusting? What exactly is the voice inside your head we call mind? What is mind? Or for that matter what is thought?

What if the mind is not even limited to your form? The mind actually arises from a vast nothing. You can see this for yourself by simply taking a moment to notice where you thoughts come from and where they vanish. What exactly is this mysterious void that is often totally overlooked when you give attention to the ongoing conversation unfolding in your mind? Is this void limited to your body? Does it have a beginning or end? The examination of the origin of thought is the beginning of a radical shift in your consciousness that supports a dramatic shift from conversing with the voice in your head and believing whatever you think to the direct discovery of the source of this mysterious voice or the thoughts you feel in your head that we collectively refer to as mind.

It can be quite a shock to discover there does not seem to be an entity or substance to your mind. We could call this empty void consciousness, but what exactly is consciousness? The truth is no one really knows what consciousness actually is, but it is the nature of consciousness that holds the ancient key to what is known as enlightenment, self-realization, or liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering. But what exactly does this mean? What does it mean to be liberated? Perhaps more importantly what does it take to get off the nauseating wheel of countless rebirths and countless deaths?

How exactly did the energy of consciousness even get inside of your body?  What are the electrical impulses in your brain that transform into thought or the somewhat annoying voice in your head that never seems to shut up? This is not about right or wrong or an esoteric philosophy, but rather is a deep inquiry into nature of mind, ego, and the nature of liberation from this grand illusion generated by your senses. Lets stop for a moment and intimately examine what is actually required to be liberated from the karmic wheel of suffering—the suffering you’ve endured through endless lifetimes of birth and death. Is it simply recognizing you are pure consciousness or is it something much more demanding? Is the karmic wheel real or a figment of your imagination? And perhaps more importantly can you break free of its ancient clutches?

Many spiritual teachers are perpetrating a great myth—liberation is instant and you don’t have to do anything to liberate yourself. It is effortless. This idea is based in the absolute truth that you are already liberated in the core—after all how could pure consciousness ever be bound or imprisoned? But this very misleading idea lives in a simplistic perspective of liberation or the idea you do not need to do anything to be what you always already are—this is the mantra of this very naïve perspective. The western mind can gobble this up like its candy—instant enlightenment is a very seductive idea, but is this dogma actually true?

The answer is yes and no. It is true in the absolute sense, but not true at all in the relative sense or from the perspective and deep feeling of specialness the deep feeling of ‘I am me’ or ego. The deepest truth is instant enlightenment is basically total nonsense. It is simply not true that you can declare you are enlightened or liberated, or self-righteously proclaim “I am free” or think enlightenment is simply thinking you know what enlightenment means or is, which unfortunately is the common response of many western seekers who have had a deep insight into their true nature. Awakening and liberation are often smooshed together into one and the same thing, which is the great fallacy of this perspective. But stop for a moment and ask yourself; did any great master simply declare their enlightenment based on some book they read or did they practice for many years—perhaps even eons? Did any truly enlightened sage simply snap his or her fingers and suddenly become enlightened? The answer is simply hell no!

The evolution of the Buddha did not happen in an instant—his realization was years in the making. It can seem like Ramana Maharshi’s realization was instant at the tender age of sixteen, but Ramana himself indicated on several occasions his awakening involved lifetimes of intense practice—he earned his liberation. It is totally unrealistic to think you are somehow exempt from the intense effort essential for total liberation from the powerful force of your ego and genetic mind. The ruthless truth is; like all sages and masters from the beginning of time you also have to earn your liberation—it simply is not given—liberation takes years of the consecrated practice of sādhanā—the deep letting go everything including all the ideas you have about you and what you want.

It is, however, absolutely true that awakening is instantaneous. In less than a fraction of a second you can awaken to your eternal nature. But, and this is a huge “BUT,” to burn through the powerful illusion of ego requires fierce dedication to continuous sādhanā (practice). You could say it is a bit of a paradox—awakening to the truth is effortless, but intense effort is necessary to develop the skill to abide in the vast living eternal happiness within you that can instantly be discovered faster than you can say Ramana Maharshi. It might even bruise your ego a bit to realize even Ramana said it takes years of service to Sat, or the living consciousness within you, before you can develop the skill necessary to continuously abide in this indescribable happiness of your being.

After the sudden shift in your consciousness that awakening represents it is common for the ego to instantly inflate like a balloon that is suddenly blown up with helium. This inflation creates a deep sense of specialness based in the feeling that you are enlightened or awake. But the truth is no matter how euphoric the moment of awakening is it only represents the tiniest tip of the proverbial iceberg. Even after the most profound states of bliss, or moments of unshakeable realization, the insidious power of ego is left very much in charge.

The belief that you are somehow miraculously enlightened or liberated after a moment of awakening is a bit like allowing the fox to guard the hen house or a thief to guard the bank—awakening basically is only the very first step on the ruthless path of liberation. After a moment of awakening or deep realization it is not uncommon to say, “I was so blissed out” only to find yourself totally confused when this moment of euphoria mysteriously evaporates and is replaced by your normal morass or the bitter feelings of judgment, sadness, fear, and other forms of suffering.

The moment of awakening often feels so good you can actually become obsessed with trying to regain this state of euphoria and find yourself endlessly seeking to recapture this illusive bliss state or secretly wonder what happened to this incredible feeling—after all you were so sure you were suddenly enlightened so what went so horribly wrong? Often bliss transforms into your new addiction—a frantic search for the next high—you can become a consummate bliss junky—always looking for another teacher who can provide you with your next fix—the next bliss drug.

Naturally, the inflated ego feels better than the poor pitiful you paradigm you have lived your life from for god knows how many eons. Awakening just feels so much better than the deflated ego or deep sense of self-hatred that often initiates the search for the freedom and the state of endless happiness enlightenment promises. But the ruthless truth is; the euphoric feeling of the awakened ego that is often associated with bliss or a deep state of realization is fleeting—it simply doesn’t last. This due to the genetic resilience of your ego, which simply means the deep feeling that you are your body and associated karma remains intact even after the most profound moments of awakening.  

Sadly your experience of what is often described as bliss is a trick of your mind. It is not actually the bliss of true and final liberation, or the final state of enlightenment known as the stateless state of Turyatita, which simply means beyond the fourth state of Turiya—the eternal source alive in your heart and beyond all ideas of heart. This experience of bliss often only serves to strengthen the ego or deep feeling of specialness—after all it was “your” bliss or “your” realization—right?  

The idea that bliss or realizations or experiences somehow belongs to you—from your point of view—seems to be true, but this simply means your ego or the idea of you as a body has experienced something, but who is this you who experienced a bliss state? Do you see? When you were experiencing the euphoria you called bliss it was clear—from your point of view—not everyone around you was experiencing this incredible state of bliss, which generates a feeling of specialness that often leads to an enlightened ego—the extreme arrogance pervasive in western non-dual spiritual communities that lives in the idea “I am free” or “I am awake” or “I am liberated.”

The fallacy in this point of view is inherent in these limited statements; the deep feeling of “me” or ego is still the primary identity. But this inflated ego feels so much better than a deflated ego it can trick you into thinking something spectacular has happened, which creates a strong feeling of a very new special you—the enlightened ego. This is an insidious trap—the mind generates a kind of enlightenment trance that in actuality is an illusion or mirage created by the reflective consciousness of the inflated ego. It is extremely difficult to perceive this trap due to the egos inherent power to camouflage itself as truth.

This is important to absorb and understand. What is being revealed to you here is the inflated ego actually has the power to cloak itself as enlightenment, truth, and even your ideas of liberation and whatever that means to you. This aspect of ego is very tricky and very subtle. It can look like you have made real progress and you can even convince yourself that you have attained the coveted state of enlightenment or liberation, but in actuality you have only been tricked by the mirage generated by your own ego and genetic mind.

Liberation is simply not given. It is not instant. The simple truth is you must earn your liberation. It takes effort, perseverance, vigilance, and the powerful discernment of focused attention. You could say this is common sense. If you want to become proficient at anything you must practice. It is totally unrealistic to think you will make any real progress without effort. The core practices of silence, sound, and mediation is sādhanā—or the intense process of letting go of the core identity or ego, which is the essential yogic practice of the mind that develops the acute ability to discern between reality and the illusion generated by the genetic mind and ego.  

The core practices are infused with a powerful energy essential for burning through the very tricky illusion of you—the ego. The practices simply represent a deep letting go of the deep feeling that you are special—it is the great humbling of your mind. Practice is absolutely essential to develop the necessary skill to focus your attention on the source of your attention until there is no ego, no doer—no you! This is the nature of liberation.

It is a deeply humbling process that annihilates any sense that you are special and in control. Ramana was crystal clear about this—practice means continuous effort. He explained in detail the ego is the very powerful force of your body infused with vasanas or latent unconscious tendencies of your genetics infused with the physical nature of the body. The ego is essentially the reflective consciousness of the source of life itself in your heart infused with your senses—it is a mirage of your mind that generates the deep feeling that you are a unique person who is very special and is in control of your life.

The reflective nature of ego acts like a kind of mirror that hides the pure bliss of your being, which is always present regardless of the constantly changing states of consciousness you experience. The ego in effect works like a double-sided mirror, which is the nature of the reflective consciousness of your mind. It reflects your senses and the feeling nature of your body as well as the vast omniscience of the energy in your heart. This mirror is the source of the visceral feeling of ‘me’ or doer, but this deep feeling is the great lie of the ego that leads to lifetimes of birth and death—the infamous karmic wheel of suffering.

The pure genius of Ramana Maharshi is he realized that the reflective nature of egoic identity is a powerful illusion that acts like a mirror to reflect whatever your senses are sensing infused with the unlimited power alive in your heart. The reflective nature of ego hides the vast light of the Self within you known as the Source of your being—pure joy—vast indescribable omniscience. Do you see? It is not the smallness of your ego that causes suffering, but rather the vastness of the reflective nature of ego that is the root of all your suffering.

The genius of Ramana is he realized that the ego reflects everything you perceive like a still mountain lake and your body and states of consciousness you experience are actually sounds or the seed letters of the root mantra or the primordial sound—om. He recognized that to break free of this very potent illusion it is essential to question the ego itself with inquiry, the silent vibration of the mantra, combined with silence or meditation on the source of thought. He was crystal clear you must practice in order to develop the capacity to remain focused on the source that is eternally free of the illusion of your ego or the deep feeling that you are special.

Ramana was adamant it was essential to continually apply the core practices of self-inquiry, the mantra, and meditation. He emphasized that the teaching was very simple, but you must—practice—practice—practice—until there is no one practicing, no one meditating, no one inquiring, and no one singing the mantra—not as a concept, but rather as the actual visceral experience that there is no doer and no experiencer. This is ruthless—a deep letting go—a dramatic end to giving credence to the endless gyrations of the thoughts, strategies, beliefs, and ideas flowing through your mind that generate endless feelings in your body.

The powerful energy these practices represent simply destroys the power of your ego to hide or camouflage the living eternal nature of your being—pure unalloyed happiness. Practice annihilates the ego. It is the deepest letting go of everything and trusting the unlimited unseen omniscience of God or pure consciousness until only this indescribable vastness exists—the eternal moment when the doer simply vanishes into it source permanently.

Sādhanā or practice is simply a deeply letting go into the eternal love that you are until only love remains. It is a ruthless total surrender into this vast indescribable love without end—happiness beyond all ideas of happiness.

Ultimately, freedom from the karmic wheel is love only—no one to think, realize, understand, or do—just this vast indescribable love. It is the total annihilation of you and everything you ‘think’ you are.

This is the ruthless nature of liberation.

Tat Sat
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(   ~>

Atonement is a word that contains a mysterious power. It symbolizes the crucifixion of Jesus Christ—a cross over in consciousness—a return to the living eternal truth in the core of your being. Atonement is a radical power—the living foundation of forgiveness. In life one of the greatest challenges we face is to atone or forgive especially when you know you are right and the other person is wrong. The fight to be right makes it almost impossible to forgive. Perhaps forgiveness is one of the most misunderstood words in the dictionary. What does it really mean to forgive or atone? 

In life there are moments that stand out. Painful moments that break your heart so deeply it can tempt you to seek revenge or follow the powerful movement of your mind to prove you are right and the other person is wrong. The common reaction when you are hurt is to fight back. It is the natural egoic reaction to anything you feel is wrong or unjust. It evokes the insidious egoic desire to inflict pain in someone else. The ego naturally seeks revenge. Revenge feels good to the ego, but like all moments of pleasure, it only lasts for short time. The moment of revenge is fleeting and usually only serves to cause you more pain or frustration and anger. 

One of the most painful experiences you can face in life is betrayal. If you are betrayed you have been tricked—you have been lied to—you are victimized. The betrayer and the betrayed is one of the greatest tricks of the human mind. The belief that you are a person who has been betrayed or tricked is the crux of the problem. It requires the deep belief that you are a victim—a person who has been betrayed or who can be betrayed—this belief not only solidifies the role of victim, but also serves to solidify the role of the betrayer. This generates a story of betrayal that serves to extend the deep suffering of betrayal over time. It is egoic. It only serves to make the egoic sense of separation feel even more real.

Ultimately, the attachment to any form or relationship, or even the attachment to things unfolding in a certain way in your life, is deeply rooted in your ego—this is the source of all the pain and suffering you experience. If there is no ego there is no one suffering. It is simply impossible to experience any pain if you realize you are not the limited mind or ego of the body. The Self or essence of your being is never betrayed—it is simply impossible to betray pure consciousness. The atonement is the deep direct realization that you are the vast consciousness of the one Self—the most sublime peace and pure happiness alive in the core of your being. This is the foundation of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not condoning the depraved behavior of someone else. It is simply the sublime wisdom of letting go of the illusion—a deep recognition the past you remember and the story you weave in your mind about whatever you remember is simply not real—it is an illusion or mirage generated by your mind. It is only a figment of mind or memory. Letting everything you remember go completely is the atonement—absolute forgiveness—the end of the story. Atonement is the annihilation of the story and ultimately the storyteller. It is total union with God or pure consciousness as that vastness. If you want to forgive let go of your story. It is that simple.

The temptation to tell your story of betrayal to elicit sympathy or to justify your deep desire to seek revenge is genetically strong. It takes a deep determination to stop following this intense seduction of mind that will always attempt to convince you that your version of the past is true and real and you must take action—you must expose the scoundrel that caused you pain or avenge your badly bruised ego. But this overlooks the real scoundrel—your own ego and mind—the genetically engrained tendency to fight to be right. 

If you don’t move to touch a single thought it is possible for you to intimately discover the peace alive in your own heart free of this insidious movement of mind. This is the atonement—the return to the one love alive in your heart free of the betrayer, the betrayed, and the story of betrayal. Atonement is simply the annihilation of the ego—the sudden dramatic end to the ego’s strong tendency to fight to be right. Atonement ends this illusory fight unfolding in your mind.

To atone is to reconcile with God. It is the death of the ego or feeling of separation at the root of all suffering—the death of the victim, the betrayer, and perhaps more importantly the death of the deep feeling of ‘me’ or ‘doer’—the end of the story of you. It is an intimate surrender to the invisible omniscient realm of the heart. Only the ego reacts. Do not react—be still. Burn in this stillness. This is the bonfire of your ego that sets you free.

It is through your own willingness to inquire into and see beyond the source of the heartbreak of betrayal or any form of suffering that it is possible for this atonement to live fully in your heart as the vast stillness of love—peace beyond all understanding. It represents a deep and total letting go into the infinite now.

In this realization Papaji’s words come to life: Nothing Ever Happened! 

This is the atonement—the radical power of forgiveness.

Tat Sat
<’)
(   ~>

Fear is the raw human emotion that has the innate power to keep you trapped in the prison of the mind. The genetics of your mind, or the genetic mind, is the deeply ingrained survival mechanism of your physical body combined with your five senses and your natural capacity to think. The impulse to run or hide is in effect the hard-wired survival mechanism deeply ingrained in the physiology of your body and mind. This natural survival instinct can keep you running and hiding your entire life. But what exactly is fear and how can you break free of its invisible clutches?

Perhaps the greatest fear we face in life is either the death of the physical body or the fear of endless rebirth. This fear is basically two sides of the same coin. It represents a primitive reaction to death that lives in the genetic prison of the mind—a grand illusion. To see through this powerful mirage it is essential to intimately examine the nature of fear and other debilitating emotions you can experience as you move through life. What is fear exactly and how can you overcome what can be the deeply ingrained fear of death, rebirth, and even life itself? Perhaps more importantly who is afraid? Or what inside of you is aware of fear or any feeling or emotion for that matter?

Fear left unexamined keeps you reacting or running and hiding from whatever you perceive to be a threat. Fear is a very strong feeling that can seem completely out of your control, but if you stop following the very strong emotional impulse to react to fear, which actually only serves to make your fear even stronger, you have an opportunity to see through the great illusion of fear. If you turn your attention inward to examine fear more closely you can see for yourself that fear is nothing more than a vibratory energy that moves through your body.

If you intimately examine any emotion you can see for yourself all of your emotions are simply comprised of energy that your mind instantly assigns various labels based on your past experience: fear, anxiety, sadness, stress, anger, rage, terror etc... The moment your mind assigns a label it generates what seems like an instant reaction. The label instantaneously generates the impulse or the strong tendency to react based on the instinctual genetics of the body, your senses, and your mind. This deeply ingrained genetic impulse is designed to protect you from any perceived threat to the physical body.  This is the primary purpose of your mind and ego—it is a natural protection mechanism that serves to keep the body alive.

This genetic wiring is one of the primary reasons it is difficult to break free of your fear and perhaps more importantly makes it very difficult to master your mind or cut through the root cause of fear or the deep feeling of “me” or ego. Without the feeling of this “me” is it even possible to be afraid? It takes a certain amount of courage to turn and unflinchingly examine the nature of your impulse to react to anything—what causes you to react? Who reacts to anything? Who is this who? This inquiry natural takes you to the source of the mind itself and cuts through the root cause of all suffering—your ego—or the deep feeling you are your body.

The moment you stop and question fear or anything you might be feeling is the very instant you have an opportunity to break free of the debilitating effects of any emotion. Meeting the deeply ingrained fear of death is the essential inquiry for cutting through the root cause of every emotion or the natural impulse of your body to react rooted in the ego or deep identification with your body. This inquiry represents a major shift in consciousness from the limitations of your physical form to your eternal nature or the unlimited nature of the pure consciousness alive in your heart. It is the direct intimate discovery of who you really are free of the physical limitations of the body.

The reaction to anything is ultimately purely based on whatever you think and feel. If you are the master of fear you will experience fear differently than if you are a slave of your fear. To stop the torment of fear you simply must turn and face your fear down—don’t let it slip away into the shadows of your mind. Stop and inquire—who is afraid? Who is this who?

If you continue to think you are your body you will continue to be at the effect of the natural genetic impulse of the mind and body to react to your circumstances. If you begin to inquire into the nature of your physical form you can see immediately you are the consciousness animating the body, but you are not the you that you think you are or your body. Is pure consciousness affected by anything?

Once you fully embrace this essence—or the consciousness animating the body—how can there be any fear of death or rebirth or anything for that matter? Consciousness is eternal—it never tastes death or birth—consciousness is simply never afraid, is never angry, never sad. It is totally free.

Fear only lives in the body, but if you are only the consciousness animating the body how can fear even exist? Is death or birth even possible? The moment you see deeply you are pure consciousness is the instant you will be forever free of fear or any emotion that rolls through the physical form.

Seeing beyond death is the deep seeing that who you really are is ETERNAL LIFE. In this realization, you are fearlessly HERE and NOW.

This is the freedom of seeing beyond the illusion of YOU.

Tat Sat

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(  ~>

Loss is part of life. It is deeply interwoven with the constantly changing unfolding tapestry of you and your life. It is simply inevitable that you will lose something precious or someone you love—a close friend, a parent, or a beloved pet. It is painful. Loss is especially painful if it is sudden and unexpected. The shock of losing someone you love can leave you feeling empty, alone, and even violated. Loss of any kind can be devastating and even a debilitating experience. But have you ever wondered what causes this pain? How can you overcome the heartbreak of loss and the sadness and despair it is known to generate?

Every single day someone dies. Instantly you receive news about death, destruction, cold-blooded murder, and terrorism on your smartphone—the inhumanity of human beings towards other human beings can be a tremendous assault on your senses. You might have a momentary feeling of ‘oh my god that is awful’ or a deep feeling of dread that coincides with the thought ‘not again.’ A tear might even slip down your face and you can even feel a deep sense of despair or compassion for those who are suffering from the heartbreak of loss, but then your attention shifts almost immediately to the constant thoughts about you and your life.

Even the most shocking news eventually falls away from your mind after a few days—in spite of the constant drumbeat of the news media’s obsession with the dark side of the human psyche. This morbid fascination with the endless tales of death and destruction unfolding around the globe almost continuously bombard your senses every single day. But even with this unending deluge of horrifying news—after a while, you can become numb and indifferent to this barrage of death, destruction, despair, and the gross suffering it generates. The news simply has little or no impact on you. 

On the other hand, if it is your leg that has been ripped off by an improvised bomb, or if your best friend, or husband, or wife, or child, was killed by a mad man’s bullets while they were enjoying a concert, a movie, a vacation, a religious service, or simply going to school—you would have a completely different perspective than someone watching the news. A personal loss has a searing burning painful impact on you. It is much more intimate and the pain lasts much longer than a blip on the news. The heartbreak of loss can simply be devastating.

The lingering impact of loss actually intensifies once the initial shock evaporates and you are left reeling with all of the life changes this loss signifies. Naturally, it is essential to allow time to mourn the loss of someone you love, especially if you have experienced a sudden or unexpected loss. It is perfectly natural to find yourself on a wild rollercoaster ride of emotions as you attempt to assess the impact of loss and deal with the deep painful burn of heartbreak. This swirl of emotion has led to the new cliché of accepting your new normal—the spiritual teaching of accepting what is.

This is definitely a step in the right direction. The idea of a ‘new normal’ gives you a new baseline for beginning your life freshly, which naturally minimizes the pain of longing for what was or the powerful tendency of the mind to revisit the past in a desperate attempt to create a different or more desirable outcome. This exercise in futility only leads to more heartbreak, despair, and a deep sense of hopelessness. If, however, you pay close attention you can recognize this very strong tendency of mind to revisit the past only serves to maintain your pain. The past is the graveyard—revisiting it only creates more pain and suffering.

The more you accept the new normal of a lost limb, a debilitating or disfiguring injury, or the diagnosis of a terminal illness, or the death of someone you love, the more you will be able to endure and eventually overcome the pain of heartbreak. The full acceptance of your life the way it is now is simply a catalyst for a more rapid healing process so you can get on with your life that way it is instead of dwelling on what your life was before. As powerful as this approach is, it does not alleviate the burning, raging, the sting of loss.  It simply does not address the underlying issue—what causes the intense pain of loss? This is one of the great riddles of life.

The clue for solving this riddle lives in examining your reactions more closely. A news report about someone you don’t know generates little or no reaction, while your own direct personal experience of loss can be totally devastating and can generate an intense reaction—what causes this dramatic difference? The answer lies in the nature of how you perceive yourself and the world. Perhaps you could say it is the very nature of your perception that causes this difference. Who perceives? What inside of you perceives anything?

It is your relationship with your mind and your identification with your body that creates the intense pain of heartbreak. Naturally, you are intimately attached to people, pets, and things you love. This attachment is very intimate and personal. This personal attachment combined with your identity, or ego, is the root cause of all negative reactions you experience as your life unfolds. If you are unattached you feel nothing. If you are attached you feel pain—and often intense pain, which is rooted in the deep feeling of you or ego.

Certainly, loss can shake you out of your complacency and give you a new lease on life. Often the tragedy of loss leads to a totally new direction for your life. It can also infuse your life with a new sense of purpose and a deep sense of urgency. This is one of the great benefits of loss. But how do you overcome the heartbreak of loss? What makes it hurt so much? The reason is simply your sense of self, or ego is very sensitive and perceives everything personally. The news is mostly impersonal—you have no attachment—so it has no lasting or real impact.

The events in your life, on the other hand, are deeply personal and are steeped in your attachment. The longer you are attached someone or something the deeper the pain is when the attachment is broken or ripped from you. Naturally, you are very attached to the people, places, things, and animals you deeply intimately love. If this is stripped away from you—it hurts because of this intimate personal attachment. If there is no attachment then there is no possibility of pain. Since your attachments naturally evolve over time you are not necessarily aware how deeply attached you are until you are experiencing the searing pain of loss.

The pain of heartbreak extends over time due to the deep longing for things the way they use to be and the strong tendency of your mind to revisit the past. But knowing this does nothing to alleviate the pain. The intensity of the pain of loss can actually seem to get worse or more acute overtime—the old adage ‘time heals all wounds’ is not at all true unless you are intimately aware of the secret workings of your mind.

The untamed mind relentlessly, and often chaotically, moves from one thought to another. It easily flits to the past or flies to the future in a kind of time travel. Your mind has the innate tendency and power to constantly revisit the past in an attempt to fix what happened or use what happened as a springboard to fly into the future as a strategy of preventing this pain from happening again. Sadly, this powerful movement of your mind only serves to continue your pain and re-traumatize you.

Releasing the pain of loss begins instantly when you find the source of the pain. What is actually causing this pain? Who is in pain? If someone you love dies, obviously they are no longer in pain, but naturally, you are in pain, because they are gone—this is the pain of attachment and the source of the heartbreak of loss. The deeper question is who is this who that is experiencing pain? Who are you—really?

This type of inquiry solves the riddle of the pain. Clearly, if you are suffering from the heartbreak of loss, you are the one who is in pain. But if you take this a step further to examine the nature of this you that you think you are then you can begin to see through the source of your pain—your ego—or the deep identification with your body. But what exactly is ego? Is it even real? If there is no ego there is no possibility of attachment to anyone or anything. If there is no ego there is naturally no pain even in the midst of the most heartbreaking loss.

Typically, you give your attention to the thoughts rolling through your mind, or your memory, which only serves to continue and even intensify your pain. The pain originates with you, or ego, and your thoughts. If you give your attention to your thoughts or memory, it intensifies your pain. But if you stop giving your attention to the thoughts rolling through your mind and instead shift your attention to the source of your ego it immediately eliminates the innate power of your ego to take things personally. Taking the events in life or loss personally is the reason you unknowingly inflict pain upon yourself.

The events in your life, no matter how dramatic they might seem, are not personal. It is really that simple. Events in life are simply events unfolding it actually has nothing to do with you. This simplicity, however, does not equate to easy. You have to be willing to stop listening to, and believing, your mind and give your attention to the invisible depth of your heart—the source of the deep feeling of ‘me’ or ego. It is seeing past the heartbreak into the invisible presence of you, or pure awareness, that is free of any heartbreak. Giving your attention to your attention or the vast presence of your awareness beyond all ideas of you instantly ends your pain.

It does take an intense resolve and a fierce desire to be free of your pain in order to see through the powerful illusion generated by your ego. But if you fully give your attention to the source of your attention, or the source of your ego, you can see for yourself that there is no ego—it is simply an illusion generated by the feeling nature of your body. If there is no ego there is no pain—how could there be?

This does not have to take years—as fast as a click of your fingers you can be forever free of the heartbreak of loss. In an instant, you can discover the vast intelligent awareness within you—the eternal now where no loss exists.

If you recognize the vastness of now alive in your heart how can you possibly gain or lose anything?

No loss is possible in this Holy Instant of Release—the eternal moment of NOW!

Tat Sat

<’)
(  ~ >

The teaching of Ramana Maharshi is simple. It is powerful. It is direct. It is fast. This power is so powerful we often overlook the nature of this power. Rarely, if ever, do we stop and ask ourselves what is it about Ramana that makes him so powerful? Let’s face it. Ramana is dead. His face is no more. Whatever is left of his now badly decomposed body is enshrined in a samadhi tomb at his ashram in Tiruvannamalai India. Some of you reading this have never even heard of him and possibly don’t even know what an ashram is. So what is it about this man known as Ramana Maharshi that is so powerful? Who is Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi?

How can a man who is dead have any power to do anything?  The answer is so simple it is easy to overlook. Ramana is not Ramana the way we tend to think of Ramana. He is not a man. He is not a teaching. He is not the plethora of books left behind that stand as a testimony to the power of his presence. He is not anything that you might think. Some say he is God. Others say he is Siva. Still others say he is omniscience. The more astute might say he is nothing at all. But none of these descriptions accurately describe Ramana or his power.

Ramana is synonymous with enlightenment, but not in the way we normally think of the slow process of attainment or the mastery known as enlightenment—Ramana is instant enlightenment. He is enlightenment now—a sudden dramatic shift in your consciousness. His life and teaching represents the dramatic end of suffering. Naturally, you can instantly love this wondrous news; your suffering can end in a finger snap. You can jump off the karmic wheel ending eons of suffering in a single instant. More importantly, you don’t have to do anything for this instant relief.  His timeless gift is enlightenment is possible for anyone right now in this moment. It is simply always here and now.

Instant enlightenment translates in the human psyche, or more accurately the western psyche, into the idea you do not have to do anything to be enlightened—you simply have to realize you are already enlightened then voilà you are enlightened. This totally irrational idea is based in the pure ignorance of what enlightenment actually means, but this fundamental aspect of his teaching is generally accepted as totally rational simply because human beings by their very nature are totally irrational emotional animals.  The average person irrationally bases decisions on feelings and later justifies the decision based on their thoughts—even if their thoughts are totally erroneous or a complete and total lie.

Instant enlightenment actually makes no sense—in fact there is no proof it is even true—but this actually does not matter. Instant enlightenment is good news. It makes you happy. This is the secret power of Ramana Maharshi; instant enlightenment is completely and totally irrational, but, even though it totally flies in the face of common sense, it makes you feel tremendously happy. Salvation is possible for even the worst of the worst of us is Ramana great teaching. But how can anyone be enlightened instantly? Don’t all the ancient scriptures say you must practice, practice, practice in order to become enlightened?

What is really going on here? Is Ramana right? Or is he just a total quack?! The reason we love the idea of instant enlightenment is simply this—it feels good. It does not matter if it is true or not.  It doesn’t even matter if it is instant or if you have to work hard to earn enlightenment. The idea it is here and now is all that ultimately matters. The idea your suffering can end instantly is the wonderment of wonderments—the great good news of nirvāṇa—perpetual happiness or causeless joy. This idea of instant enlightenment simply makes us feel good—period. This is the unseen power of Ramana Maharshi.

His simple teaching represents a dramatic shift in your perception. It turns your attention to the source of your attention. Naturally, this feels amazingly good—it is the total absence of thought and that always feels good. The power of Ramana is simple happiness—a return to your natural state. The trouble with this simplicity is it does nothing to free you from the powerful movements of your mind or the deep identification with your body or ego. You can have a taste of instant enlightenment and continue to suffer for one simple reason—you still think you are you.

Of course, can fool yourself into thinking you are enlightened, while your ego beams with its newfound specialness. You simply justify this irrational idea with your thoughts in order to create a hallucination that destroys this obvious cognitive dissonance. You are simply already free is the lie you tell yourself that serves to hide the truth that your actions do not match your belief that you are enlightened. In other words, you are still suffering and know you are suffering, but justify this inconsistency in your own mind by reaffirming to yourself that you are already enlightened. In other words, you simply hallucinate your enlightenment and fool yourself into believing this lie. This is the arrogance of the western mind.

As long as you exist as the deep feeling of you, or you think that you are enlightened, you are not even close to the eternal freedom known as enlightenment. This is simply a trick of your mind and ego. The idea of you, or ego, is the root power of your mind. It is not a little power. It is the power of life itself infused with the strong sensation that you exist. A power so explosive it has the innate power of a thousand suns encapsulated by the very strong sense and feeling that you are the doer. This deep feeling must be snuffed out completely or you will continue to suffer—even when you think you are enlightened.

It is deeply true that Ramana is like a light switch—the ultimate guru—he snuffs out your ego with three simple words; who are you? This question ultimately ends the idea of you. If there is no you, no mind, and no story of you, then only happiness remains. How could it be otherwise? But don’t let this simple truth fool you. This simplicity does not equate to effortless or the totally ignorant idea you don’t have to do anything to become enlightened. It is sad this is how his teaching is often heard and understood in the west.

This deep delusion often blossoms into the enlightened ego or the idea that you are enlightenment itself. Is it even possible to be enlightened by simply clicking your fingers? Hell no! This is also a lie of the lazy arrogant western mind and ego. Just knowing about enlightenment does not make you enlightened. The knower and the known are the same thing—the observer and the object observed are the great illusion of saṃsāra—the unending dream of life. The truth is it doesn’t matter who you are or how ripe your soul might be—you must earn your freedom. It is simply the arrogance of ego to think otherwise.

You must see for yourself that this you that you think you are is a complete and total illusion. It is this simple. But it is not easy. It requires fierce determination, resolve, and vigilance to see through this you—the very persistent illusion constantly reaffirmed by the feeling nature of your body.

The practice of Ramana is ruthless. You must be fiercely here and now—not accepting anything in your mind as real. He stated the necessary practice very succinctly; a continuous inquiry that returns your attention to the source of you until you do not exist to practice or do anything.

To realize your own enlightenment you simply cannot exist—this is the reality of Ramana’s teaching. It is happiness without the person who experiences happiness—total happiness.

As strange as this sounds to the western mind it also feels amazingly good. This is the nature of lasting happiness—nothing at all—causeless joy.

This causeless joy is the power of Ramana; absolute zero—zippo, zilcho, nothing.

This is the purest happiness.

Simple.

Tat Sat

<’)
(  ~ >

The impulse to react is encoded in your genetics. This impulse is normally viewed as simply the way you respond to life situations. It seems perfectly acceptable to fight to prove you are right. The mind can conjure up any reason to justify the egoic tendency to fight, to judge, be rude, or mean to someone else. This is often seen as the normal mode of living in the world. But is it really? Is this impulse to fight a normal reaction? Is the tendency of your mind to blame other people and situations for how you feel a normal reaction? Or is this a symptom of a pervasive human disease?

The human brain is wired to fight. It is a deeply ingrained instinctual impulse to survive. This impulse to fight, or react to situations you face in life, is the extremely potent genetic programming rooted in the genetics of your mind and body. It is a built-in insurance policy designed to ensure you survive. This genetic impulse to react is simply based on what you perceive, what you feel, what you think, and what you imagine it all means. This deeply ingrained impulse is simply the bone breaking strong biological survival mechanism of your body.

The impulse to fight is explosive. It seems like an instantaneous or sudden reaction that occurs when something or someone triggers you. The moment you are triggered the mind instantly moves to justify your point of view. It will continuously search for evidence from your past, things you’ve learned, or read, or heard, to justify your reaction, and defend your perspective. The evidence your mind collects only serves to fuel the powerful genetic tendency of your mind to judge, blame, fight, and be downright mean. But what if your impulse to react is really based on an illusion? 

The mind is very tricky. It is an illusion generator. You could say your mind is a bit paranoid—it views everything it perceives through your senses as a potential threat. Its sole function is to keep your physical body alive, but this perspective is skewed by your ego or deep identification with your body. It is a very limited point of view. From this limited perspective of your senses, mind, and ego it always seems like someone or something outside of you causes your reaction. But what if your tendency to react is actually caused by you? What if you are actually reacting to a mirage generated by your own mind and the sensations flowing through your body?

It is common sense to immediately leave a building if it is on fire—this is the basic purpose of your mind, but it is a neurosis of mind to believe everything you think or whatever you imagine might happen based on whatever you are thinking. The mind will always trick you with its incessant thoughts about whatever is happening, has happened, or might happen. The mind is a time traveler that endlessly moves from the past to the future in a somewhat desperate attempt to anticipate any potential threat. It is like a biological radar system constantly scanning your environment to ensure you survive.

You could say the body is more comfortable with reacting. It seems the ego is simply allergic to happiness and the mind is a bit too paranoid to simply relax and enjoy your natural state of the most sublime happiness and peace that you always already are. The genetic mind and ego are actually a bit afraid of happiness and joy. If you are too happy then your mind begins to think you are vulnerable to attack, or so it seems, from the limited perspective of your egoic mind and imagination. 

It is the common experience to be more comfortable with unhappiness than the raw natural state of happiness of simply being here and now. It does take a certain amount of courage to live from your heart free of the gyrations of your mind or live from the core of your being that by its very nature is always unaffected by anything that unfolds in your life, whether it is perceived by your mind to be good or bad.

The mind is actually much more comfortable with the complexity of fighting, judging, meanness, or the deep resistance to what is, versus the utter simplicity of your natural state of pure happiness, which by its very nature is totally fine with whatever is happening.  The mind is constantly looking for the fight or scanning the horizon of your mind looking for the justification to resist or explain your perspective instead of simply embracing what is.

The impulse to react is the nature of anger, fear, hatred, judgment, and many other forms of suffering. The innate movement of mind to react to, or avoid unwanted situations, is the source of all your negative emotions. All the negativity you experience is solely based on an egoic reaction to life—or the dualistic perspective that you are right and everyone else is wrong based simply on whatever you think and imagine.  This is the common human disease.

The antidote for this pervasive disease is simply to stop. It is simply a matter stopping—period—nothing added. Stop thinking. Stop imagining. Stop reacting—not as a suppression of the reaction—but rather as a burning in the impulse to react. If you allow yourself to burn in the impulse—it will eventually pass by like a cloud in the sky.  

If you remain still in the impulse before you follow the movement of your mind to react, at first the impulse itself will feel like an intense burning sensation than it will suddenly vanish.  The impulse and the reaction simply cannot be maintained without thinking. It is like a wave in the ocean in perpetual motion. It cannot be maintained without thought.

The challenge is not to believe the next thought that appears in your mind or immediately react in the moment. Simply be still and quiet. If you wait twenty-four hours before you react to anything—you will see for yourself that the impulse to react will simply vanish. 

The secret key of happiness is stillness. The more remain still and quiet the more you will be able to see through the impulse to react. The more you simply remain still the happier and happier you will naturally be. 

The moment you stop believing whatever thoughts appear in your mind the more you will simply be what you naturally are—happy : )

The old adage is really true; do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?

Happiness is always here the moment you stop thinking!

Tat Sat
<’)
(  ~>

Shame is not something that is comfortable to discuss or inquire into. It is the hidden undercurrent or feeling something is wrong with your life, but you can't quite put a finger on what that something might be. Often this lives in the idea that you are worthless, unlovable, or horribly flawed in some way. This feeling of worthlessness is rooted in the terror you experienced when you were born into the world as a limited vulnerable naked human being. From the perspective of the baby the birth process does feel like something has gone horribly wrong, which evolves over time into a feeling there is something wrong with you. We often pretend everything is fine when deep down, if you muster the courage to tell the truth, there is the deep gnawing feeling this simply isn’t true.

This feeling of worthlessness is the essence of your secret shame or a deep sense of self-hatred. Shame is the root of your false persona—the facade you create to hide this sense of worthlessness. This attempt to camouflage the feeling of worthlessness lives in the powerful genetic movement of your mind to avoid the pain of vulnerability.  This generates an intense aversion to or even a fear of vulnerability. The avoidance of vulnerability leads to secrecy, judgment, and striving for perfection—the three things that only serve to intensify the deep feeling of self-hatred—a powerful and vicious cycle of suffering.

The intense fear of vulnerability often leads to numbing this feeling with food, drugs, sex, things, or the pursuit of pleasure—the endless strategies of your mind to avoid the pain associated with the deep sense or feeling you are worthless and unlovable. But this attempt to numb the pain of self-hatred also numbs your joy and happiness, which only serves to intensify the feeling of worthlessness. This leads to the idea that happiness comes from the people, places, and things in your life—the hope that you will find some sense of safety, well being, and lovability if you can simply find the one thing you long for the most—love.  

Vulnerability is generally synonymous with weakness. If you are vulnerable you will die is the limited perspective of your egoic identification with your body that is deeply rooted in the reptilian nature of your brain—the primitive genetic impulse to survive. This primitive aspect of your mind leads to secrecy, judgment, pretending, and striving for perfection to avoid being vulnerable, which only serves to intensify this vicious cycle of suffering rooted in a deep feeling of worthlessness or self-hatred. This avoidance lives in in the deep feeling you are simply not worthy of love.

The truth is vulnerability is not weakness—it is the courage to be totally authentically be yourself and tell the truth. If you are authentically you with all your perceived, warts, wrinkles, and flaws and stop hiding behind a false persona you will immediately begin to feel a deep sense of love, happiness, and well being. If you dive into the belly of the beast—the deep fear of vulnerability—you can directly, intimately, see for yourself that all of your imagined flaws are actually a gateway to your greatest strength; the most sublime beauty of total vulnerable authenticity.

The impulse to protect yourself with a false persona lives in the deep fear of being seen, being wrong, being vulnerable, and not in control. This attempt to hide the feeling of worthlessness, and the shame often hidden underneath, drives all of your attempts to control every aspect of your life. This egoic impulse to hide behind a false persona also leads to rage, fear, and the fight to be right, which naturally leads to the secrecy, judgment, and striving for perfection that keeps this cycle of suffering in place. The fear of vulnerability simply gets worse and worse the more you hide, judge, and fight to control everything in your life. This leads to the tremendous pain of pretending everything is okay when you really feel something is simply horribly wrong.

This false persona drives all of your strategies to hold it all together in a vain attempt to maintain the feeling that you are in control. The tendency to try control everything works for a while until you reach the breaking point and the false persona begins to unravel, which exposes the one thing you fear the most—vulnerability. To break this cycle of suffering you must see through the false persona you created to protect yourself from the shame of self-hatred and the intense fear that this dark secret might be exposed leaving you out of control and vulnerable. The antidote  to this insidious form of suffering lives in fully embracing vulnerability and loving yourself exactly as you are without attempting to fix or change anything about you.

It takes courage to let the false persona fall down, embrace vulnerability, and simply be authentically real.  It is the willingness to authentically be yourself that pulls out the deep root of shame and self-hatred, which is simply a mirage generated by your own mind. Seeing through this mirage lives in the willingness to let go of everything you think you should be to the freedom of simply being yourself. It is this raw vulnerability that leads to the discovery of the  indescribable happiness deep inside your heart—the living and eternal presence of the vast love and happiness that you are.

The courage to be totally vulnerable, the courage to let go of trying to control your life, the courage to look in the mirror and unflinchingly face your hidden secret of shame and worthlessness; this is the courage necessary to simply be open, honest, and free—the direct, intimate, discovery of your eternal beauty—LOVE.

Authentic vulnerability is simply the courage to let go of the lie of you to discover the living truth of you.

Tat Sat
<’)
(  ~>  

Fear and doubt are two sides of the same coin. This ancient currency of the human mind generates a vicious cycle; fear creates doubt and doubt creates fear, which ultimately leads to cynicism—the harsh closing of mind around dogmatic beliefs, ideas, and thoughts. It is a deeply ingrained strategy of mind for survival that only serves to continue this insidious cycle of suffering. The cyclical nature of fear and doubt is deeply rooted in your ego and genetic mind—the great nemesis of your natural happiness. If left unchecked, this cycle of suffering will continue endlessly transforming your life into the misery of despair this mental spin creates. But what if it is possible to permanently stop this insidious nature of your mind?

The genius of Ramana is his natural wisdom. He realized if you focus on doubt it only serves to create more doubt. Likewise, if you focus on fear your fear only intensifies, which generates more doubt and ignites a fierce mental spin—the grasping nature of mind that jumps from one thought to another in a frantic search to find a way of protecting yourself from any perceived threat. It is like a pinwheel of thought—your attention moves from one thought to another until your mind spins out of control. This spinning swirl of thought only serves to create more and more doubt as well as more and more fear and the cycle of suffering continues. To bring this spin to a screeching halt you must, as Ramana suggests, doubt the doubter. “Who is it that doubts?” Questioning the doubter immediately ends the mental spin of your mind and returns your attention to the source that is free of the whirlwind of thought flowing through you mind.

Doubting the doubter is the very essence of Ramana’s teaching of vichara or self-inquiry. If you habitually experience doubt, however, Ramana’s simple question, ‘who doubts?’ often evokes another form of doubt deeply rooted in self-hatred, which lives in your secret the inner conversation or the thought, “It is not possible to stop the incessant spin of my mind. It is just too strong. I am doomed to suffer for the rest of my life.” This idea that you are doomed to suffer generates a feeling of hopelessness that can overwhelm your senses, but this idea is simply another doubt—the closing of mind on a thought instantaneously followed by your agreement with this thought, which generates what can be the very strong belief this thought is actually true and very real—then presto—the cycle of suffering begins again. The challenge is to catch the initial doubt before the spin consumes your attention and drags you back into this misery.

The agreement with your inner doubts, or the silent conversation in your mind, happens in a flash—it is seems instantaneous and out of your control. But is it really out of your control? The moment you agree with doubt; you are like a magician waving your magical wand over a shiny black top hat and the rabbit of fear once again pops out. The moment your rabbit of fear appears you once again fall hopelessly into the trance of fear and doubt generated by your mind.  This trance is a very powerful illusion that feels very real. The moment you give your attention to this illusion unfolding in your mind—wham—you are once again caught in the mental spin of fear and doubt, which lives in the deep feeling there is something wrong with your life and, perhaps more importantly, there is something wrong with you. The problem is, you just can’t quite put your finger on what this something is, which causes the mind to spin in circles and the cycle continues unabated.

Naturally, this seems like an impossible situation—one that cannot easily be resolved. After all, the mind is the problem right? It is the habitual or genetically ingrained aspect of fear and doubt that can make it seem like it is impossible to resolve this cycle of suffering, but this is just another trick of your mind. The deeply held belief or idea that it is impossible to overcome doubt is simply another doubt. What is really going on here? It seems there are simply no end to the doubts or the tricks your mind can play on you. What is causing this mental spin? If you examine this more intimately, you can see that the pinwheel of fear and doubt has been a part of your life for a very long time.

If you habitually experience this mental spin it has been part of your life since you were very small child. Over time you learned to trust fear and doubt as a strategy to protect yourself, which evolved into part of your identity—an extension of your ego. This is so deeply engrained in your psyche it feels like you simply couldn’t function unless you were haunted by fear and doubt. It is also an unconscious strategy your ego uses to maintain its sense of specialness. This is the trick within the trick—if you were to actually break free of fear and doubt—then what? Who would you be without your pinwheel mind? Maybe instead of feeling like a hopeless miserable wreck, what if it is actually possible you could be exceedingly happy? Hmmmm…? What is really going on here?

When you are ruthlessly honest with yourself and intimately examine this more closely, you can begin to see for yourself you are actually addicted to fear and doubt. It gives you a sense life is normal. ‘After all, it is normal to suffer isn’t it? Everyone suffers.’ Your mind might reason. But this cynicism is deeply rooted in the genetic mind and ego, which fuels the firm belief that it is not possible to be happy. Life is suffering and then you die is the mantra of the cynical nature of your mind. It is a belief system that acts like a dense cloud, which hides your natural happiness and perpetuates this seemingly endless cycle of suffering. But is it really impossible or is there a way out of this messy aspect of mind?

The mind is like a biological radar tower incessantly scanning your environment for any potential threat to your existence. This deeply engrained survival instinct generates fear and doubt. This natural tendency of your mind traverses back in time to the moment you were born. It is the primal terror generated during your birth process that transforms into a deep feeling or sense there is something wrong, which over time evolves into the deep feeling there is something wrong with you—the root of self-hatred and overarching feeling that there is something unsafe about life. This deep feeling was initiated by the break from the warmth and safety and feeling of oneness and love experienced in the womb.

The moment you were born it naturally felt like you were suddenly separated from this omniscient love—but is this even possible to be separated from omniscience? If you examine this even more closely, you can begin to recognize from the moment you were born into this world a gnawing feeling that something is wrong with your life has lurked deep inside. Naturally, from the perspective of a baby, the rude process of being ripped from your mother’s womb definitely feels like something has gone horribly terrifyingly wrong.  This terror evolves into the unconscious feeling and belief something is terribly wrong with you and your life, which evolves over time into the belief you are worthless, unlovable, and abandoned—the root cause of fear, doubt, and self-hatred.

The fear generated by the birth process is deeply rooted in your ego, which is in effect the hub of your pinwheel or the endless spin of your mind from one doubt to the next and the fear this cycle generates.   As strange as this might seem, over the span of your life it actually feels more normal to live with the endless spin of fear and doubt than to be happy. If you are happy too long your mind can actually start looking for a problem so you can return to the familiar spin of fear and doubt. This is your “normal” experience of life, but what if this is not normal at all? As Ramana explained, ending this cycle of suffering begins with the willingness to doubt the doubter. Doubting the doubter begins the process of pulling out the very deep root of your ego. But this cannot remain a purely mental process or you will fall back into the insidious trap of your endless mental spin.

To make any real progress toward eradicating this cycle of suffering you must allow your mind to fall deeply into your heart and love yourself with a fierce unflinching intensity; embracing yourself completely and totally exactly as you are with all of your perceived warts, wrinkles, and imperfections. It is the deep love of yourself as love that ignites a sacred fire within you that has the innate power to evaporate the thick cloud of fear, doubt, and self-hatred that hides your natural happiness.

If you courageously meet your fear and doubt from the fire of love in your heart, you can realize directly the shocking truth; fear and doubt, and the cynicism it generates, are simply a powerful illusion generated by your mind. If you stop and intimately examine the nature of your mental spin you can see for yourself it is an illusion or a whirlwind of thought. It is simply not normal to suffer in this way—it is a powerful trick of your mind and ego. If you see though this illusion you can directly experience your natural happiness hidden underneath this cloud of thought.

This might seem a bit scary at first simply because you are familiar with your habitual cycle of fear and doubt or you might actually be addicted to the mental spin it generates, but your natural happiness is free of your mind and the deep feeling you are your body or ego. Recognizing this for yourself annihilates the hub of your pinwheel or mental spin—it annihilates the ego and stops your mind. How can there be a mental spin if no hub exists, no one to doubt, and no one to think?

Love naturally doubts the doubter—it stops your mind from spinning. Love is not fooled or tricked by the illusion of you or your mind. This can be directly experienced the moment you love yourself so completely only love remains. Love in effect stops the pinwheel of fear and doubt and reveals your natural joy.

No mind. No spin. No you. This is the unending joy and love of pure being transcendent of mind and ego. This is the living and eternal truth free of all ideas of you.

In this realization there is no spinning mind—only happiness exists.

Tat Sat
<’)
(   ~>

Rage is one of the most avoided or suppressed emotions, which can easily lead to an expression of this destructive force of the human mind and ego. This power of the human psyche is often the source of man’s inhumanity to man—the destruction of each other. But what exactly is rage? What if it is purely the genetic wiring of the human brain? What if rage actually has nothing to do with the deeply ingrained genetic movement of mind to fight to be right, or the movement of mind to seek revenge, or the root nature of jealousy? Are these nefarious emotions a barrier or a gateway to your natural happiness?

Rage is explosive. It is the huge power behind the movement of mind to attack deeply rooted in your egoic identification with the body seated in the reptilian brain and instinct to survive. It is also a point of view deeply rooted in your ego and cultural conditioning—all of the things you have learned from your parents and the culture in which you live. For example, if you are raised in a family that is constantly raging about this issue, or t hat circumstance, or against an individual or individuals, you will naturally feel rage is a normal form of communication. It is not uncommon for rage to be seen as completely justified by your point of view or your perspective of the situation.

Rage itself is the vast power of your being—the life force of the body and combined with thought rage is the elixir of destruction. In ancient times rage was seen as the powerful force behind a perfectly justifiable conquest. Alexander the Great is the perfect example of this ancient and egoic mentality of attack, kill, rape, and possess. To this day he is still admired for his military prowess. He is viewed as the epitome of the powerful and the strong—the alpha male—hence the name Alexander The Great. But is rage strength or a fundamental weakness of the human race?

After his successful conquest of great swaths of territory and amassing more money than could be fathomed by most men of his epoch in history, just before he breathed his last, Alexander exclaimed, “I have conquered everything. Yet I have nothing!” In the end he realized having everything does not satisfy the fundamental human desire for happiness—in fact, having everything can lead to a profound disillusionment with life. But what if rage itself is one of the secret keys to breaking free of all genetic movements of mind?

Rage is fire. It is a spark that can ignite the destructive forces of mind that is usually suppressed, but can easily go nuclear when seemingly triggered by an outside event; something someone says or does rubs you the wrong way and triggers your primal instinct, which in turn ignites the idea that this person must be squashed—it sparks the basic egoic need to prove you are right and the other person is wrong. But perhaps you know from experience, actions based on rage often have disastrous results. The wise know when rage is triggered to wait for twenty-four hours before doing or saying anything—remaining still and burning in the impulse to fight is the great key of salvation. This is the great strength of stillness—the power within you that NEVER REACTS.

It in the willingness to be still, and not react to what can be a very strong impulse to move, that the deep heat of rage can be examined. If you intimately examine rage you can discover the deep sadness and even despair and self-hatred often lurking underneath this primal emotion. It is in the willingness to examine rage and the associated emotions that opens the gateway to a profound realization—rage is actually is the power of light—the Big Bang that generates the human form—the joyful light of the life force within you. “What?!” Your mind might protest. “How can rage be joy?!” The answer lives in examining the actual substance of rage; raw unformed conscious energy. How can raw unformed conscious energy do anything?

Rage is an energy that in and of itself does not cause the movement of mind to attack or the deeply genetic movement to prove you are right. The mind can seem to automatically react, but his leads us to the core questions that have the power to free you from this insidious movement of mind: Who fights? Who wants to be right? Does rage do this? Who is the one who rages? This smacks you in the face with the root cause of all suffering—the ego and genetic mind. It is the combination of the genetic wiring or your mind, cultural conditioning, the deeply engrained avoidance of despair, and the movement of your mind to either attack, or prove your perspective is right and the other person’s perspective is wrong, which forecfully pulls you out of the root of rage—or pure unformed conscious energy—unalloyed happiness. “Hunh?” You might wonder.

The trick of rage is this; if you act on the impulse of the mind to attack, or move to fight in order to prove you are right—this primal impulse of mind that rage can ignite within you—then you will find yourself in a heated war with yourself and whomever you are attacking. Ultimately, you are fighting the person in the mirror—what you seem to be fighting on the outside is merely a reflection of the egoic thoughts on the inside—you are actually fighting yourself and avoiding the deeper more vulnerable emotions of sadness and despair. You are actually avoiding the gateway that rage really is—the hidden gateway in the core of rage that leads directly to the unalloyed happiness of your being.

If you think of this as an equation; it is the unformed conscious energy of rage ‘plus’ the deep feeling that you are your body ‘times’ the thoughts, beliefs, and cultural conditioning or your mind, which ‘equals’ the very strong impulse to prove you are right. If you follow this impulse outward into the world, or attack the people who appear in your life, you are at the effect of your mind, ego, and circumstances—this is gross suffering. What is worse, is this cycle of suffering will continue for life times upon life times until you find the courage to stop and dive deep into the belly of the beast.

If you have the courage to stop and dive deep into the heart of rage an astounding realization awaits you. But it does take courage and the desire to be free of this ancient demon of the genetic mind that is firmly seated in your reptilian brain. It is very much like a moth flying into a flame—if you dive into the fire of rage all ideas of you simply vanish in the unformed conscious energy of rage—the sacred inferno of the divine that only has the power to destroy what is false—this is eternal fire of Siva.

This is the sacred key; the fire of rage has the power to destroy the one whom rages, which returns you instantly to the sublime happiness of now—the unalloyed happiness of your being. It is easy to say this, but not so easy to jump off the seeming safety of your identity to dive into the unknowable life force of rage. It is not easy to stop following the strong impulse to be right, which is simply because you are accustom to believing what your mind is saying—you are simply use to believing your perspective is right and the other person’s perspective is wrong, and your mind will find all kinds of justifications and reasons why your perspective is the right perspective.

It is the polarity of right versus wrong or good versus bad that again points directly to your ego. Only ego and mind swings between these polarities, but the presence of the heart is eternally free of either polarity. When you muster the courage to dive deep into the heart of rage you can discover directly, intimately, that the one who rages simply does not exist.

When you see this directly, intimately, for yourself then you are free of the impulse to be right. Once you are free of this impulse there is no reaction to whatever the circumstance might be. The moment you realize you are the infinite stillness, then you are free as the pure unformed conscious energy deeper than any idea of you or rage.

The ultimate truth is this; rage is a gateway to your natural happiness.

Tat Sat

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( ~>

The trap of the ego is knowledge and the trap of the mind is thought. It is these two traps that either inflate or deflate the egoic identity, which is the root of all suffering. If you do not pay attention to the guidance and wisdom of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi you will miss important insights. If you do not pay attention you will simply be endlessly trapped by knowledge and thought—the endless stream of consciousness arising in what we collectively refer to as mind. But what is mind exactly?

On close intimate examination it can be seen directly the nature of mind is thought arising from emptiness—a vast indescribable void in the heart. The natural tendency is to give your attention to the thought and overlook the emptiness, but to see the emptiness for yourself requires the radical rigor of now. What does this mean? What did Ramana actually say about the process of discovering your true nature? What does this discovery offer you?

To discover the substratum, or the vast emptiness of your being, requires the radical rigorous practice of discovering the source of the thought ‘I’, which is the deep feeling of ‘me’ or ‘I am me’ in your body. This is not a one-time event or an experience—rigorous means the intense ruthless redirection of mind to its source in the heart. It is the Bhakti Jnana practice prescribed by Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi meant for mature seekers whose deepest desire is liberation from samsara—the ancient and horrifying karmic wheel of suffering. 

This rigor does not entail focusing on the I-thought or focusing on the perceived source in the heart, but is more accurately described as discovering directly, intimately, the source of the deep feeling ‘I am me.’ This direct intimate discovery can only be fresh and alive in the eternal moment of now. Ramana described this intense continuous rigorous practice as self-inquiry known in India as vichara.  Self-inquiry is the practice of returning your attention to the source of your attention in the heart continuously until there is no one to inquire and no one to experience.

What does this rigorous practice actually do for you? It simply annihilates the idea of the you of you so that you can directly experience the vast empty nothing of you. Strangely, it is the direct discovery of this nothingness that sets you free from the endless strategies, fears, hatred, revenge, jealousy, sadness, anger—or the nature of suffering generated by your mind. The challenge is to really apply the teaching in a radical rigorous continuous way in this moment—until the deep feeling of you completely dissolves in this eternal now.

One of the great misunderstandings being propagated by various teachers in the west is to place your attention on the I-thought itself or the space to the right of your physical heart in your chest, which produces a feeling of bliss. This is a wondrous feeling and experience, which only serves to perpetuate the feeling you are special—it generates the enlightened ego. The enlightened ego is an arrogance of mind that has nothing to do with self-realization.  It is part of the great illusion of Maya.

If the specialness of you, or ego, who is the one experiencing bliss, continues than the mind remains intact and patterns of suffering will reinstate themselves. The enlightened ego is like thinking the water in a mirage will quench your thirst—it is great trick of your genetic mind and ego. In other words, this is a bliss state deeply rooted in the arrogance of mind that inflates the ego, but does nothing to destroy the ego. As long as the egoic identity remains it simply does nothing to liberate you from the endless hell realm of samsara.

When you wake up in the morning the I-thought immediately leaps into your brain, which creates the deep feeling that the ego is real, but is it? What is the I-thought exactly? If you intimately examine this for yourself you can discover directly that the ego or I-thought is a powerful illusion of thought and feeling that has no real substance. It is seeing through this illusion that begins a deeper inquiry into the astounding happiness of pure being—the astounding, dumbfounding, stupendous JOY that you are in the core.

Ramana so beautifully illuminates, “When other thoughts arise, one should not pursue them, but should inquire: ‘To whom do they arise?’ It does not matter how many thoughts arise. As each thought arises, one should inquire with diligence, “To whom has this thought arisen?” The natural answer will emerge ‘To me’. Thereupon if one inquires ‘Who am I?’ the mind will go back to its source; and the thought that arose will become quiescent. With repeated practice in this manner, the mind will develop the skill to stay in its source.”

This radical rigor of now is essential to develop the skill necessary to stay in the source until only the essence remains—this and only this is self-realization. This is Jnana marga—the bhakti path of freedom.

The true Jnani, realized one, is non-existent and in this emptiness is eternal bliss.

Tat Sat
<’)
(   ~>

HWL Poonja, better known as Papaji, instigated what has been recently coined the Neo Advaita Satsang movement. As the name suggests, neo means new—a new approach to Advaita Vedanta—the ancient non-dual teachings of the Vedas and Upanishads of India. Neo Advaita was Papaji’s “great experiment” to see if spreading satsang around the world with his students could alter the course of human history, which for centuries has been on the perilous trajectory of total extinction of the human race.  Satsang, Papaji believed, was the only logical solution for ending the destructive nature of the human mind and ego, which is the root cause of all war and conflict.

Advaita Vedanta, in the traditional sense, is known to require years of preparation before a student is fully self-realized and properly prepared to teach, but in complete defiance of tradition, Papaji sent out hundreds of students to teach as soon as they had a direct experience of the truth of their being, which he often described as finding the Diamond.  His experiment was simple—as soon as you awaken to the living truth, or have a direct experience of the living truth of your being, he would send you out to teach or share your realization. This approach did spread satsang around the world at a high rate of speed, but it was also a catalyst for a deep misunderstanding of the teaching, abuse of power by several of his students, and opened the door for the proliferation of what is known as the enlightened ego or the shear arrogance of thinking an awakened experience equates to liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering.

Neo Advaita is primarily based on Papaji’s existential statement, “No teacher, no student, no teaching. This is the teaching!” Papaji was primarily focused on the absolute truth, that the living presence in the core of your being is pure conscious awareness, which by its very nature is already liberated. Due to the fact that you are essentially already liberated in the core of your being as pure awareness, Papaji maintained it was possible to be fully liberated in a single instant simply by recognizing this truth for yourself. This perspective is true in absolute sense, but utterly false in the relative sense, or the very strong ego sense or deep feeling you are your body. His perspective opened the door to the utterly false belief that awakening or the direct experience of the pure awareness in the core of your being equates to liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering—nothing could be further from the truth.

Neo Advaita has evolved into the very dangerous idea that none of the traditional practices are necessary for liberation. At this point in time, it is the virulent dogmatic belief of many Neo Advaita teachers that anyone can become instantly liberated without any effort. This idea is based in complete and total ignorance of the science and practices essential for self-realization to take root in your consciousness. This idea of instant enlightenment often leaves the ego very much in charge—the enlightened ego—that keeps patterns of suffering recurring even after the most profound moments of realization or high states of consciousness. It also opens the door for megalomania, or even worse, the gross physical, mental, and financial abuse perpetrated against students demonstrated by Andrew Cohen—a former student of Papaji.

Neo Advaita is at best extremely misleading and at worst the catalyst for profound suffering. It is, however, quite possibly the most honest lie ever told. In extremely rare cases, it is possible for someone to become fully liberated in a single instant, but this is so rare it is hardly even worth mentioning. In other words, in the absolute sense you are already liberated, but in the relative sense, or the deep feeling you are your body, this idea is utterly false and totally misleading. Neo Advaita simply does not take into account the genetics of mind known as the genetic mind, which combined with the naturally deep feeling you are your body or your ego, creates a powerful energetic force in the body or the very strong invisible neuro-net of the genetic mind.

This neuro-net of the genetic mind is extremely resilient and almost impervious to change—it is the bone breaking strong genetic code of survival. Even after profound realizations or moments of awakening this neuro-net retains the power to regenerate itself, which enables patterns of suffering to re-immerge. The genetic mind is basically the huge biological force or the subtle nature of the body clearly documented in the ancient texts of the Vedas and Upanishads. The ancient teachings took this force of nature into account and after careful study developed the science and practices essential to purify the mind and burn through the very resilient neuro-net created by the genetic mind and reinforced by the five senses as well as the genetic and cultural conditioning stored in the human brain.  

In other words, the Vedas and Upanishads are not just hogwash, ancient fantasies, or mystical experiences written down by bunch of Advaita Vedanta quacks nor is Advaita Vedanta some kind or antiquated religion—it was never a religion—it is more accurately described as a science. In fact, it is a proven science that provides the methods and practices essential for total liberation from the genetic mind and egoic identity of the human form. Naturally, you can love the idea of instant enlightenment, but it is the pure fantasy of the western mind to think it is possible to bypass the rigors of spiritual practice essential for full self-realization.

The harsh reality is you must work on yourself in the relative sense to realize the truth of you in the absolute sense—there is no bypass or short cut. The continuous practices of the various yogas prescribed in the Vedas, Upanishads, and also clearly indicated by Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, are the practices essential for full and final liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering.

Don’t be fooled by the false promise of Neo Advaita. The practices of self-inquiry, the mantra, and meditation are the essential triad that generates the sacred fire necessary to completely annihilate the genetic mind and ego.

Neo Advaita might be the most honest lie—but the truth always sets you free.

Tat Sat
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(  ~>

The path of self-realization is actually quite simple—so simple it is easy to overlook. The focus tends to be on how you can make your life better or what you can do to fix or change your life or developing strategies for how can you get more of what the world values most—pleasure, power, money, love, and sex. But the movement of your mind to fix or change your life or get more of what the world values is the crux of the problem—in the end it does absolutely nothing to free you from endless cycles of suffering. Perhaps it is the very definition of insanity to think that fixing or changing your life, which by its very nature is always in a constant state of change, will somehow offer you lasting happiness. How could fixing anything that is constantly changing provide you with any form of lasting happiness or freedom?

Do you see the fallacy in this idea or can you recognize the natural movement of your mind to fix or change your life won’t actually solve anything? This single question is enough to give you pause, the great and sacred opportunity to stop following all of the pig trails your mind will lead you down in pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain and death. It is in your willingness to stop fixing, running, changing, and strategizing that offers you the sacred key that begins to unlock the great purpose of your life—ending lifetimes upon lifetimes of suffering. The teaching being offered to you here is actually much more direct and simple than the Buddha’s four noble truths; the great and ancient pillars of enlightenment. The direct discovery of your natural enlightenment actually lives in a single word; stop.

Stop and see what sees. This is the fundamental teaching of self-inquiry. It represents the immediate relief of life times of suffering—the direct discovery of your eternal nature—the purest most indescribable happiness. It is a shift in perception so immediate, so simple, you can easily miss the message being relayed here. It is common to think and feel you are your body—this is the nature of ego—but what if you are not your body, which, like everything in the world, is constantly changing? What if who you really are is the one and only constant in the world—the vast indescribable consciousness looking out of the lens of your eyes? What if the invisible presence within you that receives your five senses represents that ancient and sacred key that unlocks the mystery of your life?

This is not about your role, your money, your relationship, your career, your life, your family—none of these things have anything to do with self-realization or liberation. You can be locked up in prison and be totally happy and free or living in the lap of luxury and be trapped in the darkest prison—the hell realm of your own mind.  You might find yourself wondering; if it is so simple then why aren’t more people enlightened, self-realized, or liberated? The reason is simply this; you don’t just believe what you think is true, you agree with yourself that whatever you think is true. The underlying agreement between your mind and this deep feeling of you, or the ‘me’ inside of you, is the fundamental nature of suffering. It is the agreement between your ego and mind that keeps you trapped in the great trance of the world—the slave world of the ego—the great illusion of samsara—the endless and ancient ocean of suffering.

The world, your parents, the culture in which you grew up, all served to reinforce this simple and deep feeling—the supreme illusion that you are your body and mind. You have been taught from the moment you were born to trust the feelings of your body and the limited perspective of your own mind over the more expanded perspective of your own heart. In fact, you might not even be aware that your heart is omniscience and your mind is limited, but it is the limited perspective of your own mind that leads to many different forms of suffering; mental, emotional, and physical, and ultimately leads to more and more suffering.

The way out of suffering is the quiet empty space of your heart. Diving into the depths of your heart is more than a meditation—the empty space of your heart is constant, alive, fresh, and always here. This vastness holds the great and sacred key of your natural enlightenment—eternal liberation. But so few dare to enter this ancient and holy temple of the heart, simply because it is not possible to take your deep sense and feeling of your precious specialness with you—the ego.  The ego must die for you to be born again to eternal life. Yes—the ego must die for your natural happiness to reveal itself.  Please take a moment to allow this great and ancient truth to sink deeply into your heart; the ego must die for you to truly live.

This revelation might be a shock to your mind, but if had just one taste of the happiness these immortal words point to, instead of continuing to protect your ego and mind, you would beg to have your ego destroyed. No words really exist to describe the sublime happiness and contentment of your true nature. The how of self-realization is simple, but the practice of self-realization is perhaps the greatest of all challenges. Nothing in the world supports the direct discovery of your natural happiness. The world is oriented toward money, sex, and power—the ancient currency of the world, which from a worldly perspective will always be valued over freedom, peace, and enlightenment.

In spiritual circles this harsh reality and even cruel nature of the world, often translates into the idea that money is bad and poverty is good. But the sacred key of self-realization lives beyond the paradoxical nature of life or primitive ideas of good and bad, money or poverty, happy or sad, or whatever mood you are experiencing, or whatever role you play in life. It is so much deeper than these surface level experiences. The truth of you is already liberated—already free of the karmic wheel of suffering. But it is a great fallacy of mind to think this absolute truth frees you from the karmic reality of your physical body—the ego and your genetic mind.

If what you really want is freedom from the karmic wheel all ideas of you must burn in the great and ancient fire of your own heart. It takes time, patience, perseverance, and the deepest resolve. It is not for the faint of heart or the weak minded—you must truly want to be fully liberated more than you want to live—your desire must be bone breaking strong in order to whether the emotional storm of awakening and the inevitable tricks and traps of your own ego and mind as well as the great illusion of the world.

The great paradox is you are already liberated, but you must work to liberate yourself from your ego. If you do not work at it—apply the simple practices of self-inquiry, meditation, and the mantra—it is totally unrealistic to think you are liberated. If you say ‘I am free’ or ‘I am liberated’ this is true in the absolute sense, but absolutely false in the relative sense. Even if you understand the truth of you is inherently liberated this does nothing to liberate you. The thought ‘I am free’ is actually no different than the thought ‘I am bound’ or ‘I am suffering,’ even if you have had an awakening, or glimpse, or a taste of your true nature, the idea that you are liberated after a moment of awakening is simply a bad case of enlightened ego—the deep delusion that this you as you think yourself to be is the freedom you seek. Thoughts of truth simply never free you from from the invisible bondage of your ego.

“Who am I?” Is the fundamental question of the ancient scripture of the Vedas and, as Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi suggested, the repeated use of this question annihilates the questioner (ego) and returns your mind to its source, which is a palpable presence of peace and joy within you that is simply impossible to fully describe in words. Your ego will never be enlightened! Your body will never be enlightened! This is the great trick of the egoic mind that has the power to hypnotize you into thinking you are liberated when in fact you are still bound to the great feeling and illusion of your ego. Simply put, awakening does not equate to liberation from the karmic wheel.

The way of freedom is your own direct experience. You will never find it in a book or wise sayings of various gurus or sages—no matter how evolved they may appear and no matter how deep their realization—the absolute truth is; no guru or sage can liberate you from your own ego. Only you can take the great leap of faith and dive head long into the cave of your heart—the great and eternal gateway of liberation. The only role of the outer teacher or guru is to point the way to the heart—the eternal presence of the satguru—the one and only guru. The practices bring you to the great precipice of the heart, but the satguru pulls you in until there is no you and no satguru—only the eternal presence known as the Self remains. Your heart is the realm of eternal salvation and the end of the karmic wheel of suffering.

Ultimately, the only advice worth listening to is to follow the deep feeling of ‘me’ inside of you to its source—who is this who you think you are? Once you discover the source of yourself, lose yourself so deeply in this vast indescribable space that you discover who you really are is happiness without measure. Be forewarned, this is not a recipe for instant enlightenment—for lasting happiness to fully take root in your consciousness it is essential to actually do the work of self-inquiry until there is no doer and no one to inquire. You must repeatedly and consistently purify your mind with the core practices of self-inquiry, meditation, and the mantra to make any significant progress.

Throw out any ideas you might have of attainment or any motivation for enlightenment, self-realization, or liberation. Motivation to attain something leads to a future goal as well as the objectification of liberation by your egoic mind. This postpones the direct discovery of what is always already here and now. To be perfectly clear, only when the deep feeling of ‘me’ inside of you is completely gone will you be unstuck from the great wheel of karma.

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing—find out who you really are deeper than name and form and you will discover directly the happiness you seek is the happiness you are—not as a concept, but as the direct and indescribable truth—happiness without end!

This direct discovery and deep realization is the fundamental purpose of your life.

Tat Sat
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(  ~>

Papaji is famous for comparing the mountain path of Ramana Maharshi to the razors edge. His eyes flashing with pure delight, Papaji would exclaim, “One thought is too much to carry on the razor's edge!” He knew the great secret of Ramana Maharishi. He knew the mind was the ten-headed demon that guards the ancient gateway of freedom—a single thought and you fall off his famous razors edge. Naturally, you might wonder how to stop your thoughts from knocking you off this mysterious edge? 

Why not pause for a moment and drink in Papaji's eternal wisdom?  Why not stop to carefully ponder what he is pointing to? A single thought contains the power to pull you back into suffering—it contains the innate power to distract you from the sublime happiness of your being. The root of all suffering, doing, and seeking lives in the very deep belief that you are the one seeking freedom, enlightenment, peace, and happiness. Or you are the one walking on the razor's edge of freedom, but who is this you?
 
The search for the secret knowledge, formula, or method that will set you free from the endless gyrations of your mind is driven by the core belief that you are a person who is bound. You are the person who must find the sacred something that will set you free. But what if you are already free? What if the razors edge, the mind, the search, the path is non-existent? What if who you really are is the fourth state of consciousness—the vast and ancient realm of Turiya?

Sadly the pursuit of freedom is like trying to make a rope out of sand or like running on a treadmill thinking you are going somewhere—it never ends your suffering and never leads to freedom. Secret knowledge will simply never set you free. The issue always comes down to one simple truth; this you that you believe yourself to be will never be enlightened, liberated, or even self-realized—the idea of you is the great trick of the mind that keeps you seeking and never finding. 

This fundamental belief that you are the you who wants freedom, enlightenment, and the peace it promises is the single thought that knocks you off the invisible razor's edge of your heart. It postpones the freedom that is always here to some unknown point of attainment—liberation from the ancient wheel of karma. Basically, the great secret of Ramana Maharshi is there is no secret. 

Ramana and every word he uttered pointed to the vast realm of liberation that is always here. Simply put; there is no razors edge and no one walking upon it. The only issue, the root of every single problem you think you have, the cause of every feeling of worthlessness, sadness, fear, anxiety, stress, and even the desire for freedom, peace, and happiness lives in the single letter ‘I’ the deep feeling you are your body or the deep belief ‘I am me.” 

The secret of the razors edge is simply this; STOP THINKING. Stop trying to be anything or do anything or find anything or attain anything. Take one deep look into the source of the feeling of me and recognize you are this source—nothing more and nothing less. Do not move to touch a single thought. Be Still.

It is so simple. Immediate. Here and Now. Once you see for yourself this you that you think you are is non-existent you are free like the wind to simply be what you are and will always be—happiness beyond all ideas of happiness.

This is the great secret of life—you are the freedom you are seeking—everything else is a trick of your mind!

Tat Sat

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(  ~>

When thinking of Arunachala the mind simply goes blank—falling endlessly into the vast no mind state of no one, nowhere, and from this silence springs the most sublime happiness. Certainly, this happiness has been written about and talked about since Ramana first popped into the global consciousness—but the direct experience of this happiness is beyond anything words can ever convey. Silence is the only true messenger. 

Arunachala is the stillness singing your liberation—the radiant one inside you that never speaks and never sleeps—an endless river of freedom. This presence tethers the mind to a vast indiscernible light consuming everything in this endless radiance—caught like a starship in an invisible force field—a tractor beam that devours this sense of me and you and I. No room for vanity, arrogance, fear, and problems—every lie is devoured in this Siva Fire of Grace.

No choice but to surrender to this fierce and ruthless annihilator. Funny how the mind wants to describe its assassin—like the mind itself wants to shout for joy that its spastic movements can finally come to rest—happy to die a thousand deaths to breathe the sweet air of freedom. Yes, even the mind longs for this endless peace. 

Arunachala is the mind magnet that keeps you from wandering off into the past or stressing over the future—what future?! Nothing. This presence will stomp you dead in your tracks—destroying your image like a mirror smashed to smithereens. Not a shred of evidence will remain. 

Only love dances with this guru—the great laughing fire that carries away your misery leaving only the majesty of pure being in its fiery wake. Om Arunachala—like this you have devoured the birth name of sages and saints for eons.

No warning. A rush of bliss with one thousand doors flying open in an instant. The invisible light washes over—purifying—opening as this divinity that can never be spoken. 

Self-hatred is laughable in this great giggle of the heartbreaking open to nothing—who knew we are all a mountain inside?!

Sri Bhagavan Ramana dances in your heart cave—singing his eternal bhakti song of Bliss Love.

Om Divine Master—you are the heartbeat of now.

Jai Siva Siva Arunachala Siva!

Tat Sat
<’)
(  ~>

The animal instinct to fight back, attack, and destroy is an aspect of the genetic mind that is perhaps the greatest nemesis of your natural happiness. This powerful movement of the genetic mind is based on primitive ideas of right and wrong or good and evil. It lives in the dualistic perspective of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ or one perspective versus another. Just take one small glimpse of the horrifying images of human suffering unfolding every day in the news and you can see for yourself the heartbreaking consequences of this primitive aspect of human consciousness. In fact, the Neanderthal perspective of the genetic mind is the great nemesis of the entire world—one that threatens the total extinction of the human race.

Whatever you perceive is filtered through your mind and five senses. The filter of your body and mind generates a kind of invisible fog or veil. In other words, your perception is not just clouded by what you think, but also by what you feel as well as your mind’s lightning fast ability to imagine, remember, and project based on your past experiences and cultural conditioning. Due to this thick multisensory fog you are not seeing what is actually occurring. The extremely strong impulse to react emerges from this biological fog of perception. In other words, what you perceive is not clear in the mundane or relative sense and totally blind to your natural joy and peace alive in your heart in the absolute sense.

Naturally, from the perspective of ego, your perspective is right and the other person's perspective is not just wrong—it is totally idiotic. Sound familiar?! This powerful movement of mind to judge and attack someone else shows up in obvious ways as a fight or conflict on a personal level, or a micro-scale, and also on the national or international level, or macro-scale. But this powerful movement of mind does not always show up as an outer conflict—it can be very stealth or subtle. It is not uncommon to look as cool as a cucumber on the outside, while an epic battle is raging inside as you plot your revenge in the hidden recesses of your mind. 

Any time you follow the powerful movements of mind outward toward the world you are caught in one of the greatest tricks of your ego and genetic mind. After all, you must fight to protect whatever you perceive is your turf or protect your perspective—right? This is the collective human agreement—you must fight, not only to protect yourself, but also to prove you are right and the other person is wrong. The movement of your mind to justify, scheme, judge, and attack is the supreme illusion generated by your own mind and deep feeling that you are your body.

The root of all this insanity is the genetic mind and ego—the origin of all human suffering. The ego is not bad or wrong—it is simply performing its biological function of survival, but if you want to directly experience the lasting happiness of your being, it is essential to break free of this powerful aspect of the genetic mind to react and all of the negative consequences this movement generates.  The natural question is; How? The answer lives in a single word: STOP! 

If you look at a mountain it is absolutely still. Just in a single day it is faced with violent changes—covered by fog in the morning, clouds in the afternoon, pelted by rain, snow, and ice in the evening, and yet it remains perfectly still. To be the freedom you already are, you must realize on a deep level that you are the mountain—one who remains still in the midst of what can be a very strong impulse to react.

Mind your own business, pay very close attention to what is unfolding inside of you, and stop thinking and reacting to whatever everyone else around you is thinking and reacting to—and more importantly you must stop reacting to whatever you are thinking and feeling. You really have to stop. You have to stop fixing yourself, your circumstances, and other people in your life. Whatever anyone is doing is their prarabdha karma—destiny of the body. Is the prarabdha karma—whatever someone else is doing or not doing—really any of your business? Don't play God—be still!

Stillness is not at all easy in the midst of these powerful movements, but you have decide what is more important—do you want to be free or do you want to endlessly struggle, fight, and judge? If you keep following the movements of your mind, you will be happy for a moment and then angry, frustrated, and sad for days on end—is this what you really want for your life? It has to be a firm decision—a bone breaking strong decision—to stop and discover the eternal spring of freedom, happiness, and peace alive in your own heart

Stillness is the holiest blaze of self-inquiry—a raging sacred fire. It is essential to burn unflinchingly in this sacred blaze. Lasting happiness requires that you don’t move past the tip of your nose. If the impulse arises to move—stop and burn in the impulse, but do not react. No matter how strong the impulse is or how clear your justification—STOP—DO NOT REACT. Be still and give your full attention to the source of the feeling ‘me’ inside of you—discover directly what is always still and always at sublimely happy. This burn of stop is the fiery path of self-inquiry.

Forget the mind and its endless justifications and reasons why you are right—forget it! Nobody gives a damn what you think and whatever you think today will change tomorrow. Even if you are right—who really cares except you? Stop messing around in the mess of your mind and mind your own business! This might sound harsh, but this is the sacred gift of stillness—it contains the great invisible power to set you free—FOREVER! What are you choosing?!

If you want to be fully self-realized the only job you have is to stop, be still, be quiet, and find the source of the deep feeling of ‘me’ inside of you and give your attention to That! Allow your body do whatever it came here to do, but do not allow the karmic destiny of your body to distract you from the eternal salvation alive in your Heart.

It is that simple and that difficult. Mountain wisdom is stillness, as stillness, the omniscience alive in your own heart. The great challenge is to be still in the midst of the furious current of life. Eventually, this fire of grace will remove the veil of ignorance that clouds your perception—the dawn of the clear awareness.

If something or someone triggers a reaction in you—do absolutely nothing—simply stop thinking. Really, you most stop to simply be. Don’t move past the tip of your nose. Wait and see. 

Be the omniscient mountain that you are and eternally will be—this is the amazing grace of STOP.

Tat Sat
<’)
(   ~>

Most of our time and attention is given to the problems we face in life. Just when one problem is solved another problem pops up. Life seems caught up in the whirlwind of the ever-changing problems we face. It is the common experience to find ourselves happy one minute, sad the next, angry the next, and so on. This is the problem sickness of the world that generates varying degrees of misery as we move through life. 

Life is like a rollercoaster of ups and downs until you realize the source of the problem is not your circumstances or perceived problems—the problem is simply the deep belief that you are a person who has problems. But is any problem really your problem? What exactly is going on in your life? If you’re honest—you’ll admit that you spend most of your time solving the problems you have or running away from your problems and/or developing strategies to avoid any potential problem in the future.

The problem is actually the problem. All problems belong to your physical body—the destiny encoded in your DNA—the ancient karma you incarnated to fulfill. This ancient wisdom has become almost cliché in the spiritual subculture around the world. It is not uncommon to hear, “Oh, that’s just your karma.” But what if “karma” itself actually does not belong to you? What exactly is going on in our lives?

The truth is you do not have any control over the problems that emerge and disappear from your life. Whatever is happening in your life was simply predestine to happen. Your physical body incarnated on earth to fulfill a very specific destiny. This is known as Prarabdha Karma—the predestine nature of life. It might not sound like it, but this is actually really good news.

Once you deeply recognize that everything happening in your life and everything that will happen in your life was predestine—it is simply impossible to make a wrong decision. It is also impossible to change the outcome or destiny of your physical body. The truth is your physical body will fulfill whatever destiny it came here to fulfill—period.  You can fight or resist this truth or you can simply relax.

The source of all suffering is the deep belief and feeling that you are your body—the supreme illusion of life. Naturally, if you believe you are your body when the body dies then you will die is the logical assumption, which can generate tremendous fear. But what if this most basic assumption is simply not true? What if you have a body, but are not your body? The more you realize that you have a body, but you are not your body, the more expanded your perspective of life becomes. This is the essence of all non-dual teachings.

Once you recognize who you really are—there are no problems—how could there be? It is simply the belief that you are a person with problems—both real and imagined—that is the source of most of your suffering. If your happiness is dependent on the people, places, and things in your life—this simply means you will be miserable most of the time.

The root cause of all suffering is the deep belief and feeling that you are your body—this is the essence of ego. Your deep identification with the body combined with the genetic mind, the very strong survival mechanism of the body, is a very strong genetic force that creates the supreme illusion that you are separate from everyone and everything—it is also the source of the belief that you have problems that you must solve.

As long as you believe this illusion is real you are subject to the ups and downs of your mind, ego, feelings, and life experience. Once you stop and see through the root cause of this illusion you are immediately free as freedom itself. To see through the supreme illusion generated by your mind, body, and egoic identification is extremely simple and also the challenge of a lifetime. 

The natural question that can arise is; How can you see through what you not only believe is real, but feel is absolutely real? It is simply a matter of diving deep within yourself to see if your ego is even real. To begin with examine your name. Is your name real? Or is it comprised of loosely connected memories of your past? And even deeper is the deep sense and feeling of ‘me’ real. Is the ‘me’ you think you are real?

This deep dive into the core of yourself begins a natural organic awakening—a deep seeing that you are not your body. The body will die, but who you really are is eternal and cannot possibly die—in fact this eternal presence was never born.

The more realize that you are this eternal presence the more and more you will feel a tremendous sense of peace, happiness, and well being regardless of what is happening in your life. This presence is always free of all the problems associated with your body.

The absolute truth is your life is perfect exactly as it is and freedom is alive within you before you breath. If you are unhappy the reason is simply due to your deep belief and feeling that you are your body. To break free of this profoundly deep illusion you must begin to notice what are you giving your attention to? What are you focused on?

If you want to be continuously and profoundly happy—dive deep within your heart and discover who you really are. The initial recognition of this living truth is instant; to stabilize in this living truth requires determination, perseverance, and paying attention.

If you do not pay attention it is very easy to slip back into the deep trance generated by your genetic mind and ego. To be happy all the time is the mastery of now—the eternal wisdom that you are nothing you ‘think’ you are.

Freedom is the deep recognition that you are nothing at all—the eternal sunyata that was never born, never dies, and is eternally happy as the most profound happiness. 

This is Grace and Wisdom of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

Tat Sat

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(     >

One of the many mysteries of Ramana Maharshi is his famous master and guru—Arunachala Siva—the sacred mountain of southern India believed to be the embodiment of Siva—the formless presence of God. This timeless master transformed Venkataraman, as he was known in his boyhood, into one of the greatest saints of India—Sri Ramana Maharshi—the great seer.  

Since I first met Gangaji in July of 2001, the power and grace of this mysterious mountain as well as the life changing and eternal presence of Sri Ramana Maharshi has consumed this life. Nothing is more freeing or mind blowing than the teaching of this master of masters. Truly, Ramana Maharshi is the great seer who reveals the true purpose of human life—eternal salvation—liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering. His life and teaching represents the end of lifetimes of suffering.

Perhaps the greatest gift of Ramana Maharshi is the simplicity of his teaching—his deep realization that the primal I-thought, the ego, or deep feeling that you are your body is the source of all suffering. Once you see the source of this I-thought you have recognized the freedom that you are in the core of your being—the eternal presence of now. The source of the I-thought is an infinite presence of pure bliss. If you concentrate on this source the mind, ego, and the genetic mind will eventually be fully absorbed in this vast presence. Complete absorption in the source is the nature of liberation. 

The sacred mountain Arunachala Siva revealed itself to Ramana when he was a boy appearing in his mind as a great light. He intuitively felt Arunachala was an ethereal or heavenly realm and was amazed to discover that Arunachala was a place here on earth that you could visit. It was the silent voice of this ancient mountain that called him home to fulfill his sacred destiny. 

At the tender age of sixteen, not long after his all consuming awakening to the truth of his being, Arunachala arose in his mind as the command of his father. He subsequently ran away from home and once he arrived at the feet of his beloved mountain he never left. His home and ashram are still situated at the feet of this ancient and holy domain. 

Ramana had no real desire to be a guru, teach, or create an ashram—those manifested of their own accord. He preferred silence and solitude on his beloved mountain. Most of his teaching was and is conveyed in the ethereal silence of the heart, but once while walking on his beloved mountain the words of a mantra began to arise in his consciousness. At first Ramana ignored these thoughts thinking it was a trick of the mind, but he soon realized the words that were arising were a command from his master and he composed the Marital Garland of Letters—a mantra (hymn) to his beloved Master.

All mantras are more than just a song or poem—they are infused with the infinite power of silence. The Garland of Letters is deeply infused with silence and bhakti—love of the divine—the deep love that Ramana had for his master.  Ramana maintained that it was Arunachala that opened his heart to his eternal nature. This song is also a teaching of deepest humility and surrender. As Ramana illuminates, “Ocean of Nectar full of Grace, engulfing the Universe in thy Splendor, O Arunachala, the Supreme itself, be thou the sun and open the lotus of my heart in bliss.”

Word of Ramana’s spiritual power has spread around the world like wild fire through the silent grace of Arunachala Siva. His teaching continues to spread horizontally through the heart. The reason is simply that Ramana’s heart is not separate from your own heart—his awakening and teaching is timeless and unfolding right now in the infinite realm of the heart of all the hearts. The great hunger for freedom arises in the heart and those who hear the silent call often find themselves mysteriously confronted with the silent mind stopping eyes of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi and the massive stillness of Arunachala Siva.

The common belief is that Ramana is like a magnet that draws people to his ashram to receive is life changing teachings, but Ramana knew it was not his limited form that brought people to his ashram and the teaching of vichara or self-inquiry—the deep inquiry into the vast silence of your real nature. He always maintained it was the infinite power of Arunachala Siva, the formless presence of God, that draws those who are ready to Tiruvannamalai and eventually into their own heart—the heart of hearts.

It is the call of the mountain that has guided thousands to eternal salvation—the liberation that can only be discovered in the infinite realm of the heart. Or as the famous teaching in the Garland reveals, “When I melted away and merged in you, my refuge, you stood there naked, O Arunachala. Naked—formless, as I—as snow in water, let me melt as love in you.”

It is the naked meeting of this formless presence before the deep feeling of ‘I’ that is like snow melting in water—a deep realization of emptiness—the sweetest surrender. A deep realization that the ego is not real.

No greater love exists.

Tat Sat
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Around the world different spiritual perspectives, teachings, lineages, practices, ideas, realizations, and thoughts about freedom, self-realization, enlightenment, and the vast consciousness described as God, or pure being, are bantered about like a ping pong ball bouncing from one side of the table to another. This esoteric tug of war between different perspectives has evolved into an epic struggle to explain the unexplainable. Often witty mind twisting rhetoric leaves students simply scratching their heads at worst or at best leaves them in total awe of the mind stopping moment of self-realization. But just hearing a mind-twisting phrase ultimately leaves you in the limbo of conceptualized understanding with no real direct experience of the living freedom you truly are.  

Seldom do teachers have the courage to stop beating around the existential bush and speak the naked truth—with no attempt to sugar coat the rugged, ruthless, intensity required for real spiritual evolution. How many teachers are willing to stop trying to captivate an audience with their seemingly all knowing cloak of guru wisdom, personal charm, or mind numbing rhetoric, and simply tell the truth as the infinitude they are pointing to? How many teachers are willing to stand up in front of their students and allow themselves to be stripped totally naked of their precious role of teacher, master, enlightened one, or self-realized fluff, and simply lay it all down and be nakedly human? How many teachers have this kind of courage? Or for that matter, how many students have this kind of courage?

Only the truly courageous demonstrate the uncommon courage necessary for entering the infinite cave of the heart—the eternal realm from which no one ever returns. Only the truest of the true have this kind of naked ruthless courage. Any teacher, no matter how many years they have meditated, or how much they have inquired, sweated, cried, or realized, is not extraordinary, but rather is simply an ordinary human being. After all, who is the teacher really? Is the teacher an inflated ego or personality? Is the teacher limited to a physical form? Or is the true teacher something more eternal, raw, naked, and deeply intimately here as something far reaching—something intangible and indescribable—something deeper than any words could ever hope to convey—something that can never be encapsulated with any thought or realization no matter how profound. What is this something? Who is this something? Who is the real guru—the real teacher?

The answer lives in the direct discovery of the eternal radiant master within you that never says a single solitary word and, at the same time, is the source of all words—the solitary one from which all words emerge and vanish into—the unknowable intelligent radiant void of the heart. Only those who have the courage to be naked of every role, strategy, desire, or attachment—only those who have surrendered fully and vanished into the unknowable realm of the heart—possess the humility, honesty, and clarity, necessary to speak the raw, uncomfortable, naked truth—you are nothing—and even this says way too much.

All words crumble into dust at the feet of this holy master who is waiting silently to be discovered in the void of your own heart.  The radiant silence within you that never speaks, never sleeps, is always aware, and silently receives what you are seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, deeper than any identity and much deeper than your senses that are sensing. It is the realm of unknowing that reveals the eternal knower—the timeless eternal realm of your own heart—a wisdom so vast and all encompassing it defies all attempts to describe.

The teddy bear cuddly spirituality of lovely pink hearts and pastel bluebirds flies out the window with this kind of rugged and real honesty. The ferocious truth is; the lion of consciousness within you is waiting patiently to devour any idea of you, shred any concept of enlightenment, teacher, student, or any myth about what enlightenment will give you or how it will transform you. It quite literally is the end of you that reveals the truth of you. This death of you is essential in order to discover the eternity that is you. It is a return to the ordinary wonderment of life within you and all around you—the bliss of perfect wisdom that remains untouched by anything that flows through your life.  This kind of raw and real truth telling is simply essential for any real evolution of your spiritual development.

Ultimately, no idea, thought, or perspective touches the untouchable presence of God that lives within your own heart. This untouchable one is here with nothing added and nothing subtracted—period. No circumstance, feeling, or thought produces this presence or changes it—the living eternity is simply always here and now—free of any circumstance, feeling, thought, or storm that emerges in your life experience. Freedom is never ever about getting anything, fixing anything, or changing your circumstances—it has nothing to do with your circumstances—period. Freedom is free of the mind and its endless stream thought—freedom has nothing to do with any thought no matter how wise or enlightened words might seem—silence is the essence of the real guru.

Freedom has nothing to do with all of your strategies to get whatever you think you want, keep whatever you think you have, or any idea of how you might generate a newer better transformed you. Your mind and ego, infused with your genetics, or the genetic mind, will always conjure up various strategies to protect your body, and whatever you imagine your body to be, which is the deeply ingrained egoic identity that keeps you feeling like you are separate from everyone and everything. Just one deep look into the void of emptiness in your own heart cuts through this primitive primal mirage and ruthlessly reveals your life with all of its apparent ups and downs is totally and completely empty and meaningless. This might seem a bit depressing until you realize how totally free of any meaning life actually is—a deep realization that life is completely empty and it is absolutely meaningless that it is empty and meaningless—in other words no words can imprison this eternal formless reality that you are and always will be.

Freedom is free of all desire and attachment—free of happiness and sadness—free of the paradox of life. No words can ever adequately describe the living eternal presence, which can only be intimately discovered in the willingness to die to the idea of you so you can discover directly the living truth of you—a peace and joy that surpasses all understanding—the clear awareness that is unaffected by anything.

The uncommon courage of freedom lives in the willingness to be stripped naked of everything—and vanish completely into the unknowable river of consciousness within you that can never be transformed, killed, burned, or destroyed. The direct discovery of this presence that is not a presence, emptiness that is not emptiness, and freedom that is not freedom—is the essence of a much deeper realization—the clear awareness eternally untouched by anything is the real guru.

Ultimately, everything that is born must eventually die. The great key to real spiritual evolution is your own direct discovery of the living presence within you that can never die simply because this presence was never born. Nothing is more naked than That.

Nothing is more mind stopping than THAT and THAT Thou ART. This is the real and ONLY GURU.

Those with ears let them hear. 

Tat Sat

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By Kosi

Perhaps the most famous teaching of Papaji is his ruthlessly true statement, ‘Nothing Ever Happened.’ This quintessential teaching of Papaji is so far reaching it annihilates the mind’s natural ability to grab onto definitions or concepts that define how we perceive the world and ourselves. ‘What?!” Your mind can protest. How could nothing ever happen? Certainly, you have loads of experience that says the exact opposite. Lots of things happen every day—right? But nothing ever happened is the essence of freedom—how could anything happen right now? Nothing is now.

On closer examination, now transforms into the shockingly simple and provocative inquiry into your true nature. What is now exactly? Is this something we should strive to be in or is it more expansive? If you stop and examine this mind stopping teaching it describes the indescribable. Nothing is the essence of freedom—nothing is your true essence—not an enlightened something, a special something, an eternal something, a worthless nothing, an empty nothing—no! You are nothing at all with nothing added—period end of story! This silence is the eternal voice of freedom.

Now is Freedom. The instant you add anything to this moment you are trapped in the endless house of mirrors of your own mind. This endless mirage is a powerful force that generates how you perceive yourself, your circumstances, and your feelings. The mind is an illusion generator that drags you to the past and propels you into a non-existent future. Most of us move through our lives in a deep trance generated by the powerful illusion of our mind and suffer deeply as a result. To cut through this trance is the great challenge of freedom—the great call of the heart to remember the great power of presence.

It is rare to realize that the thoughts constantly swirling through our minds have no substance—no reality. The past is not real. The future is not real. Who we think we are has no reality—no substance—everything we use to define ourselves ultimately is simply not real. This can be quit a shock. What? Surely I exist—I must be something—the mind protests again. But when you intimately inquire you can discover for yourself the name you call yourself, your past, and imagined future is an illusion generated by your mind.

What is really strange is the truth of nothing is often twisted by the mind into something—another definition of you. Nothing is often transformed into the new mantra of freedom. ‘I am nothing,’ claims the mind, but this like believing you are God—the mind by its nature is constantly redefining you in its own image. If you believe you are a loser than that becomes your predominant experience. If you believe you aren’t free than you are in bondage—even nothing transforms into an endless conversation that is the mind’s attempt to recreate and substantiate the deep feeling that you are who you think you are—a very special someone.

Even if you are suffering you can secretly believe that no one suffers as deeply as you or as long as you have—you are a special sufferer. Or your mind can grab onto a new definition of how special you are—just how awake, free, shiny, and powerful you really are—you can even ‘think’ you are the freedom of now—so special in its infinite emptiness. Ugh—the ego is so tricky, sneaky, and sticky—so stealth. The mind simply can morph into anything.

The great AH…HA of a deeper realization simply does not occur until you surrender all ideas of you to the infinite now of you. This is not a fluffy cuddly feel good kind of surrender—this is the ruthless raging fire of freedom that devours everything. It is like acid rain that dissolves the illusion of you. But strangely, in the willingness to be devoured by now—you can experience the most profound peace and happiness of the boundless freedom you are. This can evoke the deepest belly laugh and profound contentment of now.

Yes. Now. This is the great key to your eternal freedom. Why not dive deep and let go into this eternity? In this great power—the indescribable presence of you—no words exist that can define you. How truly amazing is this? Allowing yourself to be completely devoured by now is the sacred and eternal freedom of now—a sacred holy blaze that reveals the mind itself is non-existent. No words exist to describe this freedom.

Nothing Ever Happened is the living truth of your Being. The death before death arrives. In this living presence you can simply relax and enjoy the bliss of the Now that you are and always will BE.

Nothing is the only reality—the endless freedom of now.

What a relief!

Ramana Maharshi is one of the greatest spiritual masters of all time. His name is the essence of his teaching—the great unveiling of the indescribable presence, which resides in the heart of all beings. His life and teaching was and is a direct pointing to this living presence that has the innate power and grace to end lifetimes of suffering.

His teaching is radical in its immediacy, radical in its simplicity, and radical in its implications for the average person—enlightenment is ordinary and simply always here and now. His teaching is a gateway to the infinite that makes enlightenment—the end of suffering—possible for everyone regardless of the role they play in life or past experience.

It is not just the radiance of his presence that has transformed countless lives. Ramana was able to simplify and reveal what has been hidden in the famous scriptures of all the world’s religions. In a single sentence he unveils the mystery of Buddha’s enlightenment, exposes the secret teachings of Christ, and solves the great mysteries of the Vedas. He is the great code breaker of real enlightenment, real freedom, and is a catalyst for sudden awakening.

From the moment I first heard his name, his teaching, his grace, and the profound mystery of his presence has captivated my attention. He is something of an enigma. The great mystery of his awakening continues to draw people around the world to him like a moth is drawn to the great light of a campfire—it represents the total annihilation of the great illusion of identity and strangely this annihilation leads to the most sublime happiness. Ramana is simply an embodiment of the great light of god; an all consuming beacon of radiance—the great revealer of the eternal presence you are and always will be.

The immediacy of his teaching is a catalyst for a dynamic shift in not only how you perceive yourself and the world around you, but also it is a dynamic shift in understanding the internal mechanisms and genetics that are the root cause of your suffering. Ramana’s teaching is not some esoteric concept, but rather a practical guide for your own direct experience of the living truth you are deeper than name and form.

The truth is Ramana did not really care who awoke or who didn’t or who could hear his teaching or who was deaf. He left everything to the great pervasive force of God—the eternal presence always free of the deeply engrained prarabdha karma, destiny, of each individual person. It was not that he did not care—he simply was deeply aware that God, the Heart, was the only reality and each person’s destiny was predetermined. If you were meant to be liberated from lifetimes of suffering you would be and if you were not so destine you wouldn’t be—from his perspective it really was this simple.

He was acutely aware that although his teaching is extremely simple and directs your attention immediately to the source of everything—the infinite invisible light of God—it is not easy to break free of the great illusions generated by your own mind. He made himself available twenty-four hours a day everyday to anyone with a sincere desire to be fully self-realized—fully liberated from the karmic wheel of suffering. His support was, and is, essential to the liberation of so many.

Ramana walked all over his beloved mountain; Arunachala Siva and preferred solitude and silence to any conversation—even enlightened conversations. It has been said there is not one place on the mountain he did not step and when you walk on his sacred mountain you are literally walking in his footsteps—you are on the pathless path of God. Ramana simply knew from direct experience there is no path and it is not possible for a person to be enlightened—no one exists in true enlightenment.

Ramana’s life was an expression of true enlightenment—the radiance of pure being. He was deeply aware that no words exist to describe the eternal nature of God and no words can ever describe the ecstasy of this eternal presence or the bliss of simple being. When questioned he would simply re-direct the questioner’s the attention to the source of all questions—the living presence of the heart—until the questioner’s mind surrendered to this infinite source.

The great secret of living the freedom that Ramana’s teaching reveals is to re-direct your attention to the source of the feeling ‘I am me’ over and over again until there is no ‘me’ and only the source remains. This can take years of the deepest effort, but nothing on earth is more precious or happier than the bliss of your own being.

Freedom has nothing to do with your circumstances or anything you perceive yourself to be—it is the life of the life within you that is eternally free of any idea of you. If you have a deep desire to be free—simply give your attention fully to this living source of your own heart and you will be like the moth vanishing in the flame of a candle—all that remains is the most sublime happiness.

Walking in the footsteps of the Master of Masters is disappearing the infinite presence of your own heart. Truly, no words exist to describe this happiness.

The word freedom can evoke many different ideas about what it means to be free. Often we think of freedom as doing whatever you want, but the freedom of enlightenment has little to do with what you are doing or not doing or what you are feeling or not feeling.  We like the idea of bliss or feeling good or doing whatever we want, but freedom has more to do with facing what is uncomfortable, facing our fear and pain directly—an uncomfortable, intimate, examination of what is really here deeper than the circumstances of our lives.

What is known, as enlightenment is free of the sense that you are the doer or the idea that you are in control—enlightenment lives in a much deeper realization that you are not and never were in control of your life. An invisible presence, a predetermined destiny, ultimately is the guide of everything that happens in your life. If you accept this truth it is a great relief, but if you resist this truth it can be the source of great anxiety, even a kind of raw uncomfortable terror.

The courage to stop everything for a moment and deeply examine this invisible presence directly, intimately, for yourself is the essence of real freedom. This investigation requires a certain amount of courage—the courage to face what you are most afraid of, the courage to face the lies you have been telling yourself, the courage to meet death, and the courage to meet the demons of your past and future—the courage to tell the truth about what you really want in life. 

Authenticity is one of the great golden keys of freedom—it is a ruthless kind of honesty with yourself essential to see through the many tricks and traps of the genetic mind—the great illusion that you are an individual separate from everyone else. It is this supreme illusion that keeps you trapped in your circumstances, thoughts, feelings, and ideas of the future—like a fly stuck on fly paper it is your natural tendency to give your attention to your thoughts, feelings, and circumstances that keeps your trapped in seemingly never ending cycles of suffering.

Just the thought of meeting your own death can make you want to turn and run, but what is the nature of death and how does it hold the secret of eternal life? Deep down if you tell the truth—you feel invincible—like there is a force that defies description within you. This invisible force is veiled by your thoughts, feelings, desires, attachments, and the deeply ingrained physical sensation that you are your body. In fact, your feelings, desires, and attachments are in effect the food that feeds the deep feeling that you are your body—a unique, limited, and fragile human being that must be protected at all cost. 

It is the natural movement of the genetic mind to protect ourselves that is the root of many different forms of suffering—it is the genetic code to survive, to avoid pain, to avoid anything uncomfortable, to avoid our eminent death, that is the root of all complex strategies to survive. Suffering lives in the complexity that evolves in your mind to protect yourself, get whatever you think you want, and keep whatever you think you have. Cracking this genetic code is essential in order to break free of the deeply ingrained nature of suffering. 

Cracking the code of enlightenment is the intimate discovery of who you really are beyond all ideas of who you thought you are. The courage to face the illusion of you to the deep discovery of the reality of you reveals a kind of peace and freedom that simply defies description—the living eternal presence within you and all around you that is the essence of who you really are. The essence of freedom is that you are freedom itself—in the core you are the enlightenment you seek.

This freedom is always at peace, always free, always silently waiting for your attention. Awakening is the immediate discovery of this hidden presence, but what is know as self-realization or liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering requires the courage and maturity to do the real work of freedom—cleaning out the garbage of lifetimes of suffering. It is a deep cleanse of the soul.

We love bliss and seek to always maintain this deep sense of euphoria—the sense of limitlessness that awakening reveals. Yet, to be truly liberated you must have the maturity and responsibility to do the deeper more uncomfortable dirty work—a deep look at the arrogance of your own mind. It is a fire of grace initiated by the first deep look at yourself that ignites the sacred fire of purification required to become fully established in the freedom that is simply always here.

This purification is the great invisible fire generated by the courage to stop and examine for yourself what is free of everything—even your ideas of freedom. It is the courage to be naked to yourself that unlocks the ancient code and ignites the eternal flame of the heart that burns through the deep feeling you are the doer. It is a naked intimate meeting with yourself.

Do you have the courage to be this ruthlessly honest with yourself, this vulnerable—this naked? The courage to be open, naked, and intimate with yourself is the ruthless fire of grace that sets you free from life times of suffering. The courage of freedom is the willingness to burn in the naked openness of your own heart—the reality that is eternally naked, open, and free—the living eternal truth that needs no protection.

This courage lives in the eternal now that you are and always will be. The moment your surrender to this eternal flame is the moment the organic awakening of freedom begins to evolve in your life.

Ultimately, the courage of freedom is the courage of now—the fierce urgency of this eternal moment cracks that ancient and mysterious code of enlightenment.

Once again the entire world is confronted with the face of terror and the prison of belief it represents. The recent terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris is a prison of ideology deeply ingrained in the egoic feeling that we are separate. This separation lives in the proverbial ideas of good versus evil, or us versus them, or good guys versus bad guys, or Muslims versus Christians. What is perhaps more horrifying is the ordinariness of the terrorists that committed these diabolical acts. If you strip away the labels jihadist, terrorist, radicalized Islam, or even martyr you are left with the horrifying reality that these are simply ordinary people who are intent on killing and maiming other ordinary people.

The terrorists is trapped in the prison of the ego—the thirst for power, control, and domination—the deeply engrained genetics of mind that thrives in the genetic drive to destroy any perceived threat or enemy. To the terrorist they are simply killing the infidel—the phantom devil of Jihad—the proverbial struggle between true believers and non-believers. This ideology is a trick of the genetic mind—the shadow that only lives in the prison of belief—a mirage that only lives in the genetic mind.

Naturally, we are all struggling with how to deal with the alarming escalation of terrorist attacks around the world. We are all struggling with the heartbreak, stress, fear, and anxiety terrorist attacks generate. What should we do in the face of such diabolical depravity?  What is the right course of action? How can we end terrorism? Will bombs kill this phantom of ideology and the prison of belief at the root of this global problem? The proverbial conversation between Krishna and Arujuna comes to mind—what is the dharma—right action? It provokes the question; does the fight of terror with terror end or exasperate the problem? What is the right course of action or inaction?

Questions of this nature are only natural, but doesn’t fighting terror with terror only generate more terror? Jesus famously stopped Peter from attacking the soldiers who came to arrest him with the famous words, “Those who live with the sword will die with the sword.” Jesus demonstrated the power of stillness—the power of resisting the tendency of the genetic mind to fight back. The great challenge here is stop and reflect more deeply on the cause of terrorism instead of the symptom that all terrorist attacks represent. It is a call to awaken to the truth of who we are, which transcends all differences that we perceive in our minds. How can we see through the prison of fear that terrorism generates?

Certainly, terrorism forces us all to confront the specter of our own mortality.  Suddenly, tragically, terrorism destroys life in an instant. A person is here one minute and gone the next—this is the horrifying reality of terrorism—the horrifying reality of life—eventually we all must meet the death of our physical form. Many lives are irrevocably changed in a single act of terror. Random acts of violence are impossible to predict and the nature of its unpredictability renders terrorism deeply disturbing, deeply terrifying. It confronts the mind and ego and triggers the natural response of the genetic mind to protect.

This is not necessarily about fighting for peace or fighting to end terrorism on the outside, but rather an opportunity to deeply inquire and examine the terrorism that lives within all of us. The tendency to super ego judge ourselves and even hate people we perceive to be different than ourselves. It is the great call to awaken to a deeper truth—the love that we all are in the core of our being.

Ramana famously said, “Why worry about the world. The world will take care of itself. Know who you are and all else will be known.” His eternal pointing sets you free from your own prison of belief—sets you free from fear, anxiety, stress and so many forms of suffering that lives in the mind. The challenge is always to stop and inquire intimately into the heart—the living eternal presence that is never touched by death, fear, sadness—never touched by any diabolical act that lives in the genetic mind.

The challenge is always to face your fear, to fully meet the physical death of your body, and discover the eternal peace that lives in your heart. When you overlook this eternal presence, you remain trapped in the invisible prison of the ego—you remain trapped in the prison of the genetic mind.

We might not be able to solve the problem of terrorism in the world, but we can put and end to the terrorism that lives in our own mind. This is the great challenge and gift of inquiry—discovering who we are sets us all free from the prison of belief—the prison of the mind.

Do we have the courage to collectively awaken to the living truth that sets us all free from the invisible prison of the mind? Can we collectively end the terrorist that lurks in the genetics of our own mind?

The heart always sees through the prison of mind. This is the great challenge and eternal call of the Heart—the great call to evolve.

Can we see the world from the freedom of the heart? This is the great challenge and gift of Sri Bhagvan Ramana Maharshi!

We love movies for their innate ability to transform the ordinary moments of life into the extraordinary.  In contrast, the mundane moments of our lives always seem to be an entangled monotony of ordinariness—a constant flow of change through the changeless presence that surrounds us and breathes us, which we usually overlook in the cacophony of changing circumstances that assault our senses.  This invisible presence holds the eternal promise of freedom, but we find ourselves constantly distracted by the roller coaster of emotions rolling through our lives.

It is the monotony of daily life that lends itself to the boredom of ordinariness; the monotony broken only by the moments you deem special or even spectacular—those precious moments with friends and family when you feel happy, loved, or perhaps even extraordinary. Sometimes you escape the ordinariness of life in the secret fantasy unfolding in the hidden recesses of your mind—the realm where you dream of a future you hope will deliver you to a different reality than the one you find yourself tethered to by the every changing unfoldment of your personal circumstances.

If only things were different, is the dream of the perfected future that overlooks the perfection of now present in all ordinary moments of life—the life of your life overlooked in the rush to live your life. Strangely, it is the ordinary moment when your life is shattered by an unexpected disillusionment—the sudden realization you have no idea what your life is really all about. This heartbreak of seeing through the illusion of your life is the catalyst for questioning life itself. What is life all about anyway? What is the purpose?

It doesn’t matter how this shattering moment of disillusionment unfolds— the shock of an unexpected end, a death, a loss, a relationship ends, or a book falls off a shelf and the silent stare of a saint captivates your attention while an inexplicable shiver of recognition runs down your spine—no matter how it happens this shift is no accident. It is the predestine catalyst for a sudden inexplicable truth telling—the moment when you see through all the lies you’ve been telling yourself.

This shift is essential. It is your heart breaking open to something deeper than your mind. It is the great seeing through the lies of your life that kept you trapped in the circumstances of your life as the never-ending story of you. This shift is the spark of consciousness that causes you to search for the answer to life’s deepest questions. It is the miraculous awakening or realization; your life is not at all what it seemed—the spark of deeper awareness that has the power to ignite your search for the freedom known as enlightenment.

Often seeking is infused with the idea that enlightenment will deliver you from the monotony of ordinary life to the special or extraordinary life of the enlightened one. This idea overlooks the true nature of enlightenment—the ordinary enlightenment—the ordinary recognition of seeing what you truly are beyond all ideas of what you imagine you are—the deep recognition of the pure presence that is always at peace no matter what is unfolding in your life. It is a deep seeing through the illusion generated by your memory, your projections, and imagination. The predestine moment when you notice the vast indescribable presence of life itself—the freedom that is living you before your breath—the ordinary enlightenment.

This realization is a ruthless humbling of your mind and a deep confrontation of your ego. It is a moment of surrender. If this moment is resisted it is painful, but when it is welcomed fully it transforms into the ruthless grace that naturally frees you from the limitations of your mind. It is a scared holy blaze—the bonfire of the ego—the ruthless fire that destroys the past, the future, all ideas of you, and returns you to the profound happiness of now alive in your heart. This confrontation of the arrogance of mind, which lives in the delusion of knowing, cracks you open to the truth of yourself that can never be known.

In the willingness to surrender to this fire of the heart, all that is false burns away leaving you face to face with the indescribable emptiness of your being. The shock of this realization often gives rise at first to a primal fear of death and later to the most indescribable peace, happiness, and profound clarity, but to realize this directly for yourself you must turn and face this demon of death. Meeting death is the willingness to fall into the gaping void within you. In the willingness to fall into this void you can discover intimately the overwhelming love of your being—the great and eternal fire of your heart. This fire of love is the life within you that beats your heart—the life of your life—the eternal presence never touched by life or death.

This deathless presence is the life before your breath—eternal salvation—the ordinary enlightenment untouched by any feeling, experience, or thought. Enlightenment is this ordinariness. The intimate realization that you are this living presence that naturally reveals how precious, how absolutely perfect, every boring monotonous mundane moment of your life is. In fully embracing this ordinariness you can directly experience the indescribable eternal love that you are in the core of your being.

Ordinary enlightenment stretches into this eternity of the heart as the perpetual sunrise of the purest most indescribable love. No words exist to describe this love that devours every false idea that binds you to the suffering nature of mind. Enlightenment is the process of being devoured by this love until there is no one to perceive, or resist, or even understand this love. It is the willingness to be devoured by love that you set yourself free from life times of suffering.

Being devoured by love is the bittersweet nature of Freedom. Why not be devoured? Why not be free as the freedom that lives beyond all ideas of freedom or enlightenment?

No greater love exits. It is ordinary and in this ordinariness your life is recognized to be truly extraordinary.

Ordinary enlightenment is the life of your life—the heart.

This heart is the only reality.

Perhaps you have heard the word satsang before and maybe even know what it means, but often the deeper meaning of this sacred meeting is misunderstood or completely unknown. Satsang is a Sanskrit term that means association with truth or association with the wise.  It is a meeting held in the highest truth guided by someone who is considered enlightened, or awakened, with the sole purpose of directing your attention to the eternal freedom known as enlightenment or state of consciousness that liberates you from the karmic wheel of birth and death, but these words only scratch the surface of the life changing nature of satsang. 

The very essence of satsang is truth—an honest, open, intimate, discussion that supports a dynamic shift in your consciousness from the limitations of your mind to the indescribable freedom of your heart. The Siva Kasyapa lineage is a radical teaching steeped in the power and grace of ancient traditions that can immediately end sadness, fear, anxiety, stress, depression, and many other forms of suffering. 

Many teachers around the world offer satsang, but the teaching of Siva Kasyapa lineage is a potent transmission based in the Vedas and Upanishads—the ancient scriptural texts, practices, and science of India infused with the grace of Sri Amma Karunamayi and Sri Ramana Maharshi. This lineage and teaching transmits an inexplicable power that burns through the root cause of all forms of suffering; the genetics of your mind and ego.

Perhaps your own direct experience is the best way to describe the powerful transformation this teaching supports. The focus of satsang in this particular lineage is silence (meditation), sound (mantra), and satsang (self-inquiry). The combination of these three practices is potent support for your own direct experience of the lasting happiness and fulfillment of your true nature. Over time this teaching can permanently end the most stubborn patterns of suffering that can continue even after the most profound moments of realization or states of bliss. 

This teaching is not esoteric or conceptual. It is radical, real, and down to earth support for the intimate discovery of your eternal nature—the direct discovery that you are happiness itself—the stateless state of bliss that lives in your own heart.

This teaching smashes the many myths of enlightenment and supports living a naturally happy ordinary life free of the suffering nature of mind.

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]]>What is Satsang?KosiTue, 15 Dec 2015 11:26:58 +0000https://www.kosi.org/blog/2015/12/15/the-gift557d33ede4b0db2f0d0d54a1:55c67b1de4b0c5879a2303e8:566ff87adc5cb42a29998b6aEmbracing What IS
By Kosi

Life itself is a gift—the most indescribable divine love. When a mother holds her newborn baby she instantly feels this indescribable presence—the indescribable love of life itself. This pure divine essence is hidden over time by the deep-seated feeling that you are a unique individual, which serves to pull your attention into the story about your life and the lives of others generated by your mind and overlooks the sublime grace of the indescribable love in the core of your being.  

The mind fantasizes about life and creates stories in a vain attempt to explain the random nature of the circumstances of our lives—accidents and accidental meetings can even generate fantasies about the mysterious synchronicity of the invisible divine plan. This movement of mind provides a sense that we are in control and hides the unconscious belief that our story will somehow protect us from the unending storm of change that eventually leads as all to the great unknowable abyss of death. 

Strangely, this natural tendency of mind to generate stories about life actually keeps us from living life fully and freely in the grace of what is actually here free of any story, idea, or judgment. The mind is always moving to the past or the future and naturally your attention is on this inner conversation unfolding in your mind, which overlooks the single most important aspect of your life—the vast indescribable living love that you are and always will be—the recognition of which leads to the direct experience of indescribable happiness and peace as the stateless state of who you are in the core.

During a single event that unfolds in your life, everyone who was present, and even those who were not, will view the circumstances differently. The stories that unfold in your mind are always limited by your own point of view filtered through your past, your feelings, thoughts, ideas, and judgments. Seldom is what is truly here seen as the pure simplicity of what is—there is always some explanation lurking in mind to explain the unexplainable randomness of life.

All stories are an attempt to provide a kind of resolution to explain why things are the way they are. Often we reject what is actually happening, or wish things were different, or resist unwanted changes without realizing this resistance to what is actually unfolding generates a deep sense that something is wrong with us or wrong with our circumstances—it generates suffering. The mind can even attempt to change what unfolded in the past with the false hope that changing the past could somehow change what is happening now.

The stories generated in your mind evolve and change over time and develop into strategies that you hope will offer pleasure and eliminate completely or reduce your pain and suffering. It is the natural tendency of mind to weave a story about your life as a kind of resolution of life’s grand mystery, but in truth, no story, no matter how exciting or sublime, or mundane or boring, offers any resolution to the cacophony of unending change that constantly unfolds in life. 

The great gift of inquiry is the resolution of now. It is the innate power of the razor sharp lens of your discernment—the invisible blade of your awareness that cuts through the fog of any story and returns your attention to what is actually here. Not what you imagined, hoped for, or remembered, but very simply what is actually here without the context of your story. It is not that the story itself is bad or wrong—we all love a really good story—but the story arises from mind, lives in the mind, and is the past. The moment you give your attention to the past is the very instant you start to feel a kind of deadness and sadness that lives in the graveyard of time.

Dwelling on stories that unfold in your mind is the very nature of suffering. In other words, the story is in effect the glue that holds your suffering in place—it creates a fantasy world of fear and judgment that feels real. We project our stories onto other people, our lives, as well as our uncertain future. It is a mirage—a grand illusion—generated by our mind that we blindly believe is true and deeply feel is reality. 

The natural tendency of mind is to think that if our circumstances where different then we would not feel bad—the idea that if we changed our circumstances then we would be happy—but attempting to change the constantly changing circumstances of life only serves to create a sense of perpetually waiting for the happiness we long for to arrive at some point in the future. This perpetual longing for happiness overlooks the sublime happiness that lives in the heart—the eternal love that we all are in the core—that is alive now.

Discovering the truth of this love is the great love affair of life—the profoundly deep embrace of what is. The great love affair of God—the realization of the most sublime Freedom—a deep recognition that nothing needs to be changed—that everything that is unfolding in this moment is the most sublime perfection.  Freedom never lives in the surface level, and ever changing, circumstances of life.

Freedom is a love affair with now—the deepest welcoming and total acceptance of what is—a grand return of your attention to the divine love that is the one unchanging constant free of all changing circumstances, feelings, and thoughts. Not as a concept, but as the truest deepest reality of who you actually are in the core of your being.

Freedom is in effect falling in love with love so deeply there is no one to love or be loved, because you simply are this love. This love is free of the past, the future, your story, and is simply eternally alive as the eternity of now.

The more you give your attention to this love—the more you fully and totally welcome what is actually here and now—the more and more you will experience life from the pure joy of now. 

From this joy everything is deeply welcomed as part of the great mysterious unfoldment of life—without fear, or judgment, dread, or hopelessness. It is welcomed as the wonder of life—a return to innocence.

Fully, deeply, intimately, embracing what is—is the resolution we long for—the love that is simply always here and now.

No circumstance, or feeling, can ever stop this eternal joy. It is simply lives now—only now.  Freedom is this simple.

Awakening happens in a fraction of a fraction of a second and mastery of the endless gyrations of mind that occur before, during, and after awakening, takes an entire lifetime. It is the willingness to take a deep look into the depth of your heart that a profound and mysterious transformation begins to take place. This transformation has a physical, mental, and emotional aspect. It can evoke the deepest sadness, rage, and fear—any emotion that has been suppressed throughout your life will suddenly, and sometimes with an unexplainable vengeance, push up from the depths to be released.

This release can be experienced as the floodgates opening or an ancient seal being broken open. It is the deepest of all heartbreaks that can evoke the most profound sob or almost animal wale. The resistance to this heartbreak can be physically taxing and produce a feeling of exhaustion and even nausea, but in the willingness to simply be still and open—in the willingness to let your heart break all the way open—the demons of your past, your fears of the future, the rage of being incarnate in physical form, and miraculously, the demons of your entire ancestry can be freed.

This heartbreak can be experienced as a tiny crack or a huge gulf between what you thought would give you happiness to the realization that nothing in this world offers any lasting happiness or fulfillment. This disillusionment with life, even the disillusionment with the spiritual pursuit, practice, attainment, or spiritual knowledge, is the essential shift, which opens your heart to the possibility of true freedom, lasting happiness, and fulfillment.

Awakening is pushing the mind off the comfortable ledge of existence to the uncomfortable free-fall into the abyss of non-existence—the most profound and direct meeting of death. The mind can begin to struggle with this heartbreak and you can feel confused or disoriented or your mind can begin to spin as it looks around frantically for something to hold or cling to, but this is simply the egoic mind trying to regain some sense or feeling of being in charge or being in control when the reality is the mind is not in control and never was.

The intense feelings of worthless, self-hatred, and even a deep rage can emerge as the mind struggles to understand that which can never be understood. Culturally, physically, genetically, and emotionally, we are conditioned to move away from any unwanted feeling or experience, but to awaken means to meet everything we are conditioned to avoid. To awaken in the midst of these emotional storms is simply to allow that emotion to have a drink of the infinite peace of your own Heart. 

It is in the allowing and the full-on meeting of the unwanted emotion or feeling of worthlessness or self-hatred, sadness, hopelessness, or rage, with an open mind, without any thought or knowing what the emotion means or is, that the deeper issue, memory, or physical sensation that was covered by the initial emotion, can be directly, intimately, discover to be gateway into what we most avoid—the great empty void of our own Heart—the narrow gate of Freedom—true redemption—eternal Salvation.

When we are willing to fall into this gaping void that is underneath the feelings of rage, self-hatred, and/or the deep feeling of worthlessness; we can experience that which is not an experience, we can experience That which the mind can recognize, but never understand, we can see the seer—that which is invisible but can be fully seen, but never described or understood—That which is eternally free in every breath, every moment.

It is in this deep and profound recognition that the deepest laugh can emerge of its own accord. A moment before you might feel like you will never stop crying and the suddenly and mysteriously you can feel like you will never stop laughing; you might even cry and laugh at the same time. This is the Great Laugh of Liberation that is waiting for all of us to simply stop and discover. It is the laughter of the heart that is the essence of who we really are, but any conceptual idea of this freedom or Oneness and laughter is like a dry husk of wheat in comparison to the actual recognition of this endless Joy of our true nature.

Nothing, no effort, no doing, can produce this Heartbreak and emotional storm of Awakening or the Great Laugh. All that is required is the willingness to be still, be quiet, and take one deep an unswerving look into your Heart. Simple and yet it is not easy to move against the cultural, genetic, and personal conditioning of the egoic mind. Yes, simple, but not at all easy. It is a challenge of a lifetime and it takes incredible courage to face the three great demons of sadness, terror, and rage that can arise—the ancient and terrifying sentinels that guard the great void of Freedom.

When you are willing to take stand for your own liberation, when you are willing to tell yourself the truth, you can see through the lie of your emotions that can seem to act like a barrier to the freedom, peace, and happiness that you have been longing for all your life. It is in seeing through the greatest of all lies, your identity, vanishes effortlessly in to the void of pure being beyond any concept of purity or being the moment you let go of or see through this identity as unreal.

This is the essence of the teaching of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. It his through his courage and willingness to be still; that so many have found the courage to fall of the cliff of existence into the limitlessness of non-existence—the endless Living Silence of the Heart.

When emotional storms come; welcome them! This is the great sign that you are close to true liberation—eternal Salvation—the realization that who you really are is Freedom—the deep and unending realization that Love is the Only Reality.

What is keeping you from falling off this cliff of Freedom?

Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi is a global phenomenon and profound mystery. Even though he left his body in 1950, his teaching is a tidal wave of consciousness that is still flowing around the world revealing the living freedom and happiness of our true nature. The Ramana phenomenon is tied to the simplicity of his teaching and the fact that his awakening and subsequent silence was a shift in consciousness so deep that his awakening is actually still happening right now in your own heart—the living truth that lives eternally in everyone’s heart.

To the mind this might be a strange thing to say—how could Ramana’s awakening still be happening when he awoke in 1895 when he was only sixteen years old? The answer lives in the nature of his awakening. It occurred suddenly as a deep realization in his physical body and awareness when he asked himself the simple question ‘Who dies?’ He describe the realization that unfolded as, ‘not a dull thought, but rather a powerful current’ that ran through his body. 

It was as if this vast energy of God caught him in this timeless realm and from the moment of his awakening he was completely captivated by this inexplicable energy and remained in silence for many years. The energy of this awakening was so intense; it cracked open his heart and mind to a realm that transcends time and space.  His awakening was and is a vibrational force that continues to unfold in the timeless and eternal realm of the heart—your own heart—the heart of all hearts.

Ramana Maharshi is something of an enigma. His life was simple, but the impact of his simplicity is still being felt around the world. He is in effect the code breaker of enlightenment—the great seer and the great revealer of eternal truth. Once you follow Ramana’s gaze deep into your own heart—suddenly a mysterious wisdom arises that lives beyond all knowledge. He is in effect a magnifying glass that reveals the infinite depth of any scripture or spiritual teaching.

In the context of Ramana Maharshi the teachings of the Buddha come to life with an ethereal light, the mystery of the secret teachings of Jesus are revealed, and suddenly the teachings of Moses make perfect sense.  Truly Ramana is the greatest code breaker of all time. His simple teaching represents sudden awakening—an immediate recognition and direct experience of the living freedom that you are in the core of your being. 

In a sense, Ramana Maharshi offers instant enlightenment, but he also reveals just how difficult true enlightenment is and the intense desire required for full self-realization. He is a great light that reveals the living and eternal light that lives in the core of everyone. For me, Ramana Maharshi is the single most important guru who has ever lived.

He is totally and completely radical in that he lights the path of true enlightenment for everyone regardless of his or her role, or path, or religious beliefs. His simple teaching and profound transmission of grace can support anyone in ending their relationships with suffering nature of mind and eternally supports the direct and intimate discovery of the infinite grace of your being.

The process of his awakening was as mysterious as the awakening itself. He would fall into deep states of meditation, so deep that he would lose body consciousness completely and even wake up in locations different when he would fall into this state and have no idea how his body moved to another location.

Over time his egoic identity was absorbed into this great unknowable electrical current of God in the core of his being. His depth of realization was so deep and the current that continuously surged through his body was so strong that he was unable to hold his head still—it constantly was vibrating with this inexplicable current of the purest grace. In fact, this current running through his body was so strong it was and continues to be a visceral experience in the room in which he taught at his ashram in Tiruvannamalai India. 

Ramana Maharshi could remove lifetimes of suffering by a single glance and by placing his hands on a person who was dying—he was able to guide them into final liberation from the karmic wheel of suffering. In fact, this current was so strong he rarely touched anyone—his touch was so potent it could actually kill someone.

It is not just this mysterious power that coursed through his body while he was in physical form—it is the living current that reveals the happiness and freedom in the core of your being. He is the code breaker of eternal life—eternal salvation.

Ramana is the life of the life and the eternal breath of the breath inside your own heart. This is the essence of his name and teaching.

A war is raging in the human consciousness that is reflected in the many conflicts erupting around the world.  The war inside is always reflected in the war outside and the wars end begins with a return to peace—awakening to the peace and stillness of our true nature.

A natural end to the internal war begins the moment we take the deepest truest look into the depths of our heart to discover directly what is still and unmoving in the core of our being—that which is always at peace. This awakening deepens and evolves over time with our willingness to stop, welcome, and deeply examine what is actually going on inside of us.

The genetics of the human mind makes this extremely difficult. We are wired to fight, wired to run, and wired to seduce. These primal movements of mind are based on our genetic lineage and this wiring is bone breaking strong. It lives in the primal drive to survive and procreate and evolve. It is the genetic code of evolution that is embedded in our DNA as well as the reptilian and limbic brain—the seat of survival. 

The genetics of choice is your natural ability to discern, the ability to recognize patterns of suffering that develop over time from the moment we have self-recognition as a child. These patterns develop differently based on our unique life experience, but the source is the same for every human being—the ego. To break free of the powerful movements of the genetic mind to fight, run, and seduce requires the willingness to surrender the mind to its source. 

The willingness to surrendering the mind to its source is the nature of true inquiry. It is natural to follow the movements of mind and counterintuitive to stop. To break free of the genetic movement of mind to survive lives in becoming aware of what we are thinking and feeling and stop following these very powerful movements of mind by surrendering our attention to what is already stopped in the core. 

It is in the willingness to surrender our attention to what is already free, at peace, and perfectly still in the core of our being that generates a burning energy, which burns through the genetic impulse to fight, run and seduce. This willingness to stop and notice, and then examine through self-inquiry is the burning ground of egoic and genetic tendencies that close the mind around images, ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

Suffering happens with this closing of the mind. Over time we develop an intimate relationship with our mind and not only identify with our thoughts, feelings, and memories they become a definition of who we are, which is the source of all suffering. True inquiry opens the mind to the direct discovery of its source, which enables you to see that this identification is an illusion. This is the great gift and grace of Ramana Maharshi.

Awakening happens in a fraction of a second the moment you surrender your attention to the source, but liberation is an evolution that is only possible if your desire to be free is bone breaking strong. It takes time and strong resolve to allow inquiry to burn through the strong genetic egoic tendencies known as vasanas.

It is like trying to tame a wild horse. If you get on a wild horse it will take you on a wild ride. This is a metaphor for the powerful movements of mind—following an untamed mind is like riding a bucking branco—it will you on the very wild ride of your ever changing thoughts, feelings and circumstances.

To tame the wild horse of your mind you don’t beat it with a stick. You gently walk it to the sweet eternal spring of your heart and allow it to deeply drink. In time this horse will simply rest in this eternal spring of the heart.

Resting in this eternal spring is the nature of true and eternal liberation. This alone is the wars end—the advent of lasting happiness and true fulfillment.

Seeking freedom is in vogue. The spiritual subculture around the world is in hot pursuit of the all-illusive state of bliss known as enlightenment—the golden carrot that keeps you seeking, but never really finding the freedom you seek. Esoteric conversations about enlightenment and the lasting happiness it promises are buzzing in coffee shops and tearooms around the world—fueling an almost frantic search for the miraculous. 

To crack this esoteric sky—the endless, and mostly fruitless, discussions about freedom, states of consciousness, teachers, and teachings that fuels the endless search for states of consciousness—requires the willingness to call off the search and be ruthlessly honest with yourself. What is the real reason you are looking for freedom or enlightenment? Do you secretly think it will give you magical powers? Or maybe provide you with notoriety or fame? Or maybe simply you are looking for freedom in the hope that it will end your deep sense of self-hatred? But what does your search for freedom actually avoid? 

Initially, the search is essential. You have to begin the search in order to discover the teaching and teacher that supports your spiritual evolution. Yet, if you continue to jump from teacher to teacher, and lineage to lineage, it keeps you trapped in superficial realizations or passing states of consciousness. If you continue looking for freedom there is no real opportunity for deepening or the evolution of spiritual maturity. 

The process of seeking, and never finding, is simply an avoidance of the naked intimacy of the bliss of freedom that is alive in your heart right now. Constantly looking and never really finding is a form of self-torture that lives in the promise that you will find freedom somewhere else, which keeps you searching for what you hope will give you the happiness you are seeking. Sooner of later the endless process of seeking transforms into spiritual suffering. Or you might read these words and find yourself wondering how bliss can be inside of you when mostly your feel sad or deep down you feel worthless and unlovable.

It is simply essential to stop seeking in order to give yourself the opportunity to discover what is really going on inside of you. This stop can be uncomfortable. When you call of the search, the deeper unwanted emotions can come to the surface. Often, self-hatred, or the deep sense that there is something wrong with you, is lurking just underneath the constant distraction of seeking happiness or freedom. 

Once you stop, you can cut through the deep root of self-hatred by noticing that it is fed by your own internal conversation and deep belief that you are worthless. This internal conversation can often be traced back to something that happened in your childhood—a moment frozen and time—the source of the deep sense that there is something wrong with you, which was the beginning or root of your story of self-hatred.

Often this long forgotten memory remains as kind of immaturity, or shadow child, that has been abandoned in your subconscious.  On examination, you can discover a deep feeling of being a child that is still present even though you are an adult. The moment you fully meet this shadow child—and consciously invite this long abandoned aspect of yourself to rest in the infinite safety and love of your heart—the deep root of self-hatred simply vaporizes.

Seeing through the shadow of self-hatred is an immediate relief. It represents the end of years of self-torture and immaturity. It is the beginning of the natural maturation process essential for true freedom and lasting happiness to take root in your consciousness.

When you are willing to stop postponing freedom—you can discover directly, intimately, the lasting happiness and freedom you are, which is simply always here and now.