The Jumbled Thoughts-Part II

Ramana Maharshi

-Staff

By Staff

Tuesday, May 6, 2008, 15:18

Ramana says that though thoughts are innumerable and varied and are quite an army they are all the individual's thoughts. All thoughts are my thoughts. Unless the individual pays attention to a particular thought it remains in the background and will not surface. This will be clear if we look at our daily thought pattern. The individual's attention when he gets up would be on thoughts relating to getting ready for the office quickly, later in his office on the jobs on hand there, and in the evening of the family, on recreation and so on. The thoughts not relating to his particular need would not be there at all because the attention of the individual is not on them. Hence the 'I am so and so' is the core thought and it irrigates the whole system of thoughts. It is the root and other thoughts are like branches and twigs.

Following from this Ramana would say that there is no point in paying attention to thoughts for they are parasitic and dependent on the individual 'I' thought. Therefore, if you want to control the mind you must shift the focus of your attention from the thoughts to the thinker. If you succeed in this you have succeeded in paying attention to the core instead of peripheral things. This shifting of attention takes place if you question 'For whom are these thoughts?' The answer of course is 'For me'. If you question further, says Ramana, by inquiring 'Who am I?' the thoughts would cease. Silence would reign. If thoughts emerge again on the horizon the same process should be repeated. As Ramana says, it is like capturing a fort by laying siege to it. As and when the soldiers come out they are dealt with until at last the fort is captured.

Here again Ramana would caution against thinking either that 'who am I?' is a mantra or that it is a question. It is neither. It is only an attitude or spirit of enquiry about the mind. It is an attention catching device which enables the fixing of the attention on the individual so that thoughts may not be formed. The formation of thought clouds is nipped in the bud. The results in this method are quick. Because we are dealing with the centre of the mind and focusing attention on it. It also has the advantage that it requires no particular background, no particular religious belief in order to practice it.

Self enquiry can be practiced at any spare time. Only you should have the spirit of adventure. You should have the keen desire to know. Then you will achieve a breakthrough in mind control. You will become its boss and not a victim of its whims and fancies. Why? For you have understood its real nature. This understanding frees you from the endless thought movement. You are always at rest. Whether active or inactive the repose, the peace of mind, is always there.