Blogs Posts on "Nan Yar? (who Am I?)"

‘Holy indifference’ and the love to be self-attentive by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Oct 21, 2009In reply to a friend who wrote to me asking for some advice concerning the psychological effects of some health problems that he was experiencing, I wrote as follows:Whatever we experience in our outward life as a body-bound mind or ego, we are desti...

Thinking, free will and self-attentiveness by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Aug 16, 2009The following is a reply that I recently wrote to a friend:Regarding your final sentence, ‘We are only given the thoughts that we are allowed to have, and we can only act from the thoughts we are given’, who gives us the thoughts that we are allo...

Self-attentiveness is nirvikalpa – devoid of all differences or variation by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jul 27, 2009A friend recently wrote to me suggesting:... Indeed Nan Yar? contains everything we need to know and I would be very grateful if you would do translation for mumukshu, giving roman transliteration of every word according to the dictionary (minimum tw...

‘Tracing the ego back to its source’ by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jul 12, 2009A friend recently wrote to me asking:I am stuck at a point where I feel I need help ... While reading Sri Ramana Maharshi’s work and Talks, there is this constant mention of tracing the ego back to the source. When I try to do it there is an arrest...

‘Just sitting’ (shikantaza) and ‘choiceless awareness’ by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jul 11, 2009A friend recently wrote to me as follows:I have been reading chapter 9 (Self-Investigation) of your book Happiness and the Art of Being.What you describe regarding the practice of atma-vichara as advocated by Ramana Maharishi, I interpret as being ve...

Svarupa-dhyana and svarupa-darsana by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jul 8, 2009A friend recently wrote to me asking:Does svarupa-dhyana, atma-chintana and atma-smarana mean focusing attention on the first thought ‘I am’, consciousness of being? I mean, is it concentration on being, staying without thoughts but still aware o...

Atma-vichara and metta bhavana (‘loving-kindness’ meditation) by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jul 4, 2009A friend recently wrote to me asking:I’ve got a question concerning atma-vichara in relation to some meditation techniques.Before I came across Sri Bhagavan's teachings I practised some form of Buddhist meditation which is called ‘metta’ or lov...

Sadhanai Saram – The Essence of Spiritual Practice (sadhana) by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jun 27, 2009As I had intimated in several of my recent articles, today I have uploaded the following four new e-books to the Books section of my website:An e-book copy of the English translation by Sri Sadhu Om and Michael James of Sri Arunachala Stuti Panchakam...

Upadesa Tanippakkal – an explanatory paraphrase by Happiness of Being - The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Jun 26, 2009In continuation of my previous six articles, which were explanatory paraphrases of Upadesa Undiyar, Ulladu Narpadu, Ulladu Narpadu Anubandham, Ekatma Panchakam, Appala Pattu and Anma-Viddai (Atma-Vidya), the following is the last of seven extracts fr...