Where self-inquiry meets self-deception
Ramana Maharshi’s Self-inquiry as the process and the goal
One of my favorite (now retired) nondual teachers often used to cite a quote by the Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman:
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.
This quote, as well as the teacher who shared it, have been invaluable to my own journey. There is something inherently self-deceptive about spiritual practice. It is easy to become enamoured by blissful states, clarity, insights, or believing you have passed some sort of threshold for “awakening” (a word which seems to be more palatable than the often derided and confusingly named “enlightenment”).
But there is a remedy to this mode of self-deception: more practice. Which practice? Well, the great 20th century sage Ramana Maharshi would claim there’s only one approach: inquire to whom this self-deception arises.
The genius of Ramana Maharshi
i feel deeply grateful to have stumbled upon Ramana’s teachings. My way into this “path” was through Buddhist practice, which seems to be the most accessible format for many folk these days. i toyed with Vipassana, but ultimately felt more at home in the Zen traditions, having practiced mostly the “just sitting” approach within the Soto Zen and Chan lineages, whilst all the while incorporating self-inquiry alongside it.
But Ramana’s genius teachings on self-inquiry offered, and continues to offer, something uniquely different to these other practices: real-time feedback on your thoughts, attachments, desires, and, perhaps crucially, suffering, as well as the ability to “deconstruct” the desirer/sufferer. There’s nothing quite like the worldly life of family relationships, work colleagues, and life situations that show us where these desires and attachments lie. By then deconstructing “the self” that has such desires and attachments, until there is only “Self”, becomes both the process and the goalless goal (as my Zen friends might remark!)
Confusion and self-deception
Unfortunately, Ramana’s teachings are perhaps some of the most misunderstood of all spiritual traditions. Many experienced spiritual teachers, including reputable ones whom i greatly respect and admire, such as Rupert Spira, in some conversations advocate a sort of “just being” rather than “just inquire” — a sort of non-practice — based on Ramana’s purported teachings, referring to self-inquiry as a “concession” of Ramana’s teachings rather than the very purpose of his teachings, which represent a clear misinterpretation of Ramana’s teachings.
Such teachings only cause confusion in many aspirants. On the one hand, these teachers advocate practice, on the other hand they say practice is an obstacle: just be. Which one is to be believed?
Ramana’s words on this matter were terse and unequivocal:
“No one succeeds without effort. Mind control is not one’s birthright. The successful few owe their success to their perseverance.”
It is liberating to hear statements such as “you are already That”, no doubt. And whilst it’s also true on a deeper level, for many of us, hearing the words isn’t enough. Killing the mind isn’t one’s “birthright” — practice is crucial. Ultimately, these teachings leave many with the impression that there’s no use in any practice at all. Were all the Zen masters who spent innumerable hours sitting, or even Ramana who spent years in a cave sitting in silence, just wasting their time? Are all the many Buddhist practitioners going on retreats just kidding themselves?
Another genius component to Ramana’s teachings is it is a practice which deconstructs the practitioner. You can’t take the practitioner with you to the “goalless goal”, after all. Whilst some may argue Ramana didn’t necessarily “practice” to reach his state, in the quote below, he perhaps gives some insight into those years he spent in silence after his initial awakening experience, which indicates there may still have been some “effort” needed after his initial awakening experience at the age of 16:
“Jnana, once revealed, takes time to steady itself….the Self remains veiled by vasanas (latent impressions or tendencies) and reveals itself only in their absence.….To remain stabilised in it, further efforts are necessary.”
The takeaway? Effort is necessary even if the one who makes the effort is a fictitious entity. The “process” of the practice will itself deconstruct the entity with time until it becomes “natural”:
“Self-inquiry is the process and the goal also. ‘I am’ is the goal and the final reality. To hold to it with effort is self-inquiry. When spontaneous and natural it is realisation.”
Long may the process continue…
