Who wrote this note asking me about Ramana’s
teachings?
Well that’s a really good question and I
hope I can do it justice.
"What is the relationship between ethics and
the teaching of Ramana Maharshi?"
Ramana’s teaching is not really not a teaching
the way we think of teachings – with a whole
syllabus attached to it.
It’s simply be still, and know who you are.
And then, you live your life.
Now the easy answer, and it’s the true answer,
also is that, you know, when you know who
you are, you love that.
And so, it would be quite natural that you
would meet yourself, and love yourself,
and not cause, cause harm.
But the simplicity in being still and knowing
yourself, is then met by the complexity of
life and events and forms.
And it’s not for the teaching to tell you
what you should or shouldn’t do.
It's what you have to discover, is your ethical or moral
compass.
You are you are free.
And that means of course, you are free to
do harm.
And we do harm all of the time.
But you are free to tell the rigorous truth
of, who are you?
Where do you begin?
Where do you end?
And from that there is naturally a deep concern
with yourself in totality.
The expression of that concern has infinite
forms.
Ramana was a hermit, but he didn’t preach
that you needed to be a hermit to be still
and know yourself.
He was celibate.
He never was, he never had sexual relations.
He didn’t teach that that’s necessary
for you to know yourself.
He was vegetarian.
He didn’t teach that you had to be vegetarian,
or Brahmin or Hindu or Indian, or religious
of any kind.
It’s taking the intelligence that is innate,
being still with the workings of the mind
from that intelligence and recognizing who
you are.
In general, there are rules and counter rules,
and rebellions and reformations
when there is a teacher who is giving a teaching, like
Christ, or the Buddha.
And, there are wars, (or Muhammad), and then
there are wars between groups who say
“No, this is what he meant”.
Or “No, this is what you should do”.
“No, no, we got here first”.
This is, this is not, this teaching is not
in your life to tell you what you should and
should not do.
That’s really up to you.
Just your capacity to be still and know who
you are uncovers an ocean of intelligence.
Then that intelligence has to live, has to
make choices, has to take the consequences
of choices that are made.
And adapts to choices.
Maybe we live in particularly immoral and
ethical times.
But I think probably not in particular.
I believe that if you read a little history
you will see it has always been a really big
mess.
At least once we got into a sense of civilization
and interacting with other civilizations,
and different families, and different ethical
standards, and different moral idealisms.
So, I don’t want to treat this lightly at
all because I am great believer in the necessity
for living a moral life with ethical standards.
But I am not a believer in the burden of that,
or the imposition of that.
I have often said and I say it again, I’m
not a missionary.
I’m not here to convert you to Ramana’s
teachings, or Papaji’s teachings.
Whatever your moral life is you still have
the capacity to stop.
As Papaji would say, “call off the search.
Be still and know yourself.”
And then from that, live freely.
A free life does not necessarily mean doing
whatever you want.
It means freely, and in that freedom, recognition
of where you cause suffering unnecessarily,
and where you continue your own suffering
unnecessarily.
Because it’s also immoral to suffer unnecessarily.
Because that spreads vibration of suffering
and your misery into the world.
So really the willingness to take responsibility
for your own intelligence.
And to know that you can recognize your own
particular mistakes along the way.
And make amends, or correct course, or be
more still, know yourself more deeply.
That it’s, to me it brings it back to that
this is not really a teaching.
This is calling your attention to what is
here before any teaching, during any teaching,
and after all teachings are finished.
All religions, all ideas, all notions of myself
and other.
So, the ball is right back in your court.
At one time, someone heard Papaji’s teachings
and said “Oh my God!
What are you saying?
You’re saying this to people - to Westerners.
You’re saying this to people and you don’t
know!
Are they egomaniacs?
They could just go wild with this!
They could cause great harm!”
And he said, “It’s true you know, they
could, but what other teaching has not caused
great harm?”
You can encapsulate egotistically around anything.
And you do.
And you have.
And part of the invitation to self-reflection
is to recognize that tendency and to be willing
to simply lose all of the benefits that you
have gotten from that tendency.
To lose all your accumulations.
And be still.
And know yourself.
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