Self-Inquiry: With Affection and Love...........................................
I have become convinced over the past year that
self-inquiry, practiced only by itself (basically as
described by Ramana Maharshi and my own teacher,
Robert Adams) is far less effective than simply going
within looking for the ‘I-sense’; the feeling that I exist,
as opposed to looking for the ‘I-thought’, or for the
place that the ‘I-thought’ comes and goes to: and then
loving that ‘I-sense’ when it is found; become devoted
to it.
Both Robert and Ramana became self-realized
without a method, they never had to struggle blindly
as do most of us through a quagmire of differing
concepts. And, through Self-Realization, they became
full of love for the self: and though they taught the
need to love the self, it was not made an essential
part of self inquiry.
The essence of the ‘I-sense’ is the experience of
the Turiya state of Sat, Chit, and Ananda: existence,
knowledge, bliss.
Self-inquiry, Self Realization is all about finding the
source of the ‘I-sense’, which is Turiya, Satchitananda.
When Turiya is found, meaning when it is isolated
from all the other distracting experiences of
appearances; mood, emotion, the body experiences,