What really is the "Direct Path" of Ramana Maharshi? And the Positive Principle is the Yuan Qi=Formless Awareness

Ramana Maharshi spent 9 years of nonstop meditation to "achieve" his goal of "eternal liberation" which happened when his heart stopped for 15 minutes and then suddenly a strong shock went from the right side of his heart to the left side, thereby restoring his spiritual light ego, from the formless awareness.

If you really study Ramana Maharshi he says to visualize light on the right side of the heart where there is a "secret pinhole" as the direct path to the formless awareness. He says at first to repeat I-I-I-I-I not as a mantra but rather as self-enquiry, as ALL thoughts are based on the root of the I-thought. So the logical question is where does the I-thought arise from? But he says this verbal "japa" is just the beginning and then to visualize light on the right side.

Ramana Maharshi says this practice will naturally cause the kundalini to rise up the spine and then down to the heart - I saw his image describing this, directly in a book from his ashram, from his time there and the book, at the South Asian Library (University of Minnesota) literally had the Shakti energy of Ramana Maharshi stored in the book! But Ramana Maharshi also recommended being vegetarian to weaken the body, so as to strengthen the mind.

Although he was ostensibly against the caste system, he relied on the Brahmin "mind yoga" or jnana practice and then to have his students take care of his body, as his body wasted away.

So we can call this the "direct path" but actually Ramana Maharshi called it the "three in one unity" of the three gunas - Tamas, Sattva, Rajas. And the Western followers of Ramana commonly confuse the "light" as in "enlightenment" with the Self but Ramana Maharshi was very clear that the Self is NOT the light. He said that when in deep dreamless sleep our mind returns back to the Self but our mind is ignorant, not aware of the Self. In contrast, in meditation, the light of spiritual ego becomes so bright that we lose awareness of the ego and the spiritual ego merges back into the Self. Ramana Maharshi says the Self is actually the "ether" force of the light - not the light itself.

So in Daoist Yoga - the Yuan Qi originates on the right side of the heart, as detailed in Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality - this is the SAME as what Ramana Maharshi teaches - the Ether as the SELF then "restarts" the sense of the spiritual ego as light, but the SELF is actually the Yuan Qi.

prenatal vitality [yuan qi] coming from the heart....The heart is the seat of 

(essential) nature which manifests 
through the eyes....Prenatal spirit in the heart is nature and prenatal 
vitality in the lower abdomen is life; sublimate the outer agent in order 
to gather prenatal vitality from nothingness

And the practice of Ramana Maharshi relies on certain specific "strictures" in the context of the Brahmin caste system (as much as Westerners try to deny this). The "three in one" unity is actually the same as the T'ai Chi of Daoism - the three gunas is the oldest philosophy of India. So Ramana Maharshi's "direct path" is actually the same as the T'ai Chi Daoist alchemy training secrets.


If you combine it with Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality, a book that also discusses the golden light and golden flower - it makes sense to me.
https://archive.org/stream/TaoistYogaAlchemyAndImmortalityLuKuanYCharlesLuk/Taoist Yoga Alchemy and Immortality Lu K’uan Yü (Charles Luk)_djvu.txt

    Quote

For the cultivation of nature alone ensures only the descent of positive fire without the ascent of (vital) breath from below, the result will be that nature and life cannot unite. Therefore, you should gather fire to lift up the (vital) breath below.

The light 
of the eyes directed downward is positive....Only the eyes are positive 

whereas the rest of the body is 
negative.

  So what this means is the light of the eyes directed downward is ALSO the light of the two eyes combined - the left eye is yang shen (yin qi), the right eye is yin shen (yang qi)- combine the two and you get the positive principle as Heaven from the yuan qi.

So visualizing light on the right side of the heart - the yang shen combines with the yang qi.

gives rise to sexual desires and so exhausts whatever 
remains of his prenatal positive principle in its positive 
condition.

 So yang qi - positive condition. But the Yuan Qi in the "negative condition" would be "yin qi" from the FUTURE as yin matter (the Golden Light - see below).

When the positive principle manifests thereby transmuting 

the generative force into vitality

 Yuan Qi=positive principle. But the fasting is required to build up the Golden Light.

To sum up the positive principle should at the beginning 
of the exercise return to the body as soon as it is out of it 
until it is familiar with the practice.

If the five vitalities are full a golden light will soar up to 
unite with the light of (essential) nature to become a 
single light which is the union of the radiant vitality of the 
positive principle (yang) in the head and the bright light 
of the negative principle (yin) in the abdomen into one 
single light which will result in the egress from the immortal 
foetus.