This process of destroying our desires or vasanas by tenaciously persevering in our practice of self-attentiveness is clearly described by Sri Ramana in the tenth and eleventh paragraphs of Nan Yar? (Who am I?) as follows:Įven though vishaya-vasanas, which come from time immemorial, rise in countless numbers like ocean-waves, they will all be destroyed when svarupa-dhyana increases and increases. The reason why this process seems to be so long is that we have accumulated innumerable vasanas - desires that impel us to think constantly of things other than our own essential being, ‘I am’ - and we can destroy all these vasanas only by this ‘process’ or practice of persistent self-attentiveness. It is true, as Anonymous says, that we ‘have to follow a long process before to arrive to the pure feeling of just being’, but the essence of that process is only the simple practice of self-attentiveness. Feeling is so much perfect that then I’m unable of asking “what is this? Who am I?īaghavan used to talk on weakness of mind as well, I guess he meant exactly this.I am not sure that I have correctly understood all that Anonymous wrote in this comment, but I hope that he or she may find the following few remarks helpful. To me, starting from that point is starting from just one more thought, I have to follow a long process before to arrive to the pure feeling of just being, and I don’t always arrive, only in very few occasions. Asking at that moment: who am I? it is something that I couldn’t do yet.īaghavan Sri Ramana talking on being attentive only to our essential self from the beginning, gives us a clue on how far we are from that state.
Effort is in paying attention to mind which is a reflection of true consciousness, but once attention becomes self-attentive the rest just disappears and all happens by itself. Otherwise, we have to be attentive to thoughts and so on, because it is only then, through this practice, that attention becomes self-attentive and therefore self-consciousness because then, there is not thought, sense-perception nor body-consciousness as a natural result of the practice, obtained without an act of will nor effort. If we are attentive only to our essential self, it is because there is not thought, sense-perception nor body-consciousness to be ignored by us.
Referring to a sentence that I wrote in my recent article Self-attentiveness, effort and grace, “We can free ourself from thoughts, sense-perceptions and body-consciousness only by ignoring them entirely and being attentive only to our essential self, ‘I am’”, an anonymous friend wrote in a comment today:Īs I see it, thoughts, sense-perceptions and body-consciousness can’t be ignored nor we can be attentive only to our essential self then.