Revisiting Ramana Maharshi and the Knowledge-Ether: The Self or Absolute Void Radiates the Light as Impersonal Awareness

To understand Ramana Maharshi - is to have to confront his subtle logic. So we need to review his words very careful.

 The akasa (space) in the pit or well has not been created by us.

 Just as the elemental ether within the flame of a lamp is known to fill without any difference and without any limit both the inside and the outside of the flame, so also the knowledge-ether that is within the Self-light in the heart, fills without any difference and without any limit both the inside and the outside of that Self-light. This is what is referred to as Brahman. (Ramana Maharshi, SE, answer to question 17.)

https://www.arunachala.org/docs/self-enquiry/

This site has some quotes that I don't remember reading before.

in the sunshine cotton does not burn; but if the cotton be placed under a lens it catches fire and is consumed by the rays of the Sun passing through the lens.

Now compare that quote with this one:

 In a cinema-show you can see pictures only in a very dim light or in darkness. But when all lights are switched on, all pictures disappear. So also in the flood-light of the Supreme Atman all objects disappear. The Real is ever-present, like the screen on which all the [movie] pictures move. While the pictures appear on it, it remains invisible. Stop the pictures, and the screen, which has all along been present, in fact the only object that has existed throughout, will become clear. (Ramana Maharshi, GR, 46.)

 I can speak from experience due to the Shen (shakti) healing I have received from the qigong masters - what Ramana Maharshi is stating is literally true.

The mind as normal spirit lacks the "intensity." And so it is too dim. But what creates this "intensity"? The mind is quite literally from biophotons that are coherent laser light. That means the intensity is due to frequency resonance that is in phase. This is what the Daoists mean by "turning the light around."

Stop the pictures,

What does that mean? Ramana Maharshi says elsewhere this is literally "Nirvikalpa samadhi" - he also says the mind needs to "merge" back to its source.

 It is important for one who is established in his Self (atma nista) to see that he does not swerve in the least from this absorption. By swerving from his true nature he may see before him bright effulgences, etc., or hear (unusual) sounds or regard as real the visions of gods appearing within or outside himself. He should not be deceived by these and forget himself. (Ramana Maharshi, SI, Chapter 2, Question 16.)

In this state the individual has become completely merged in the Supreme Self. His identity which became lost in Nirvikalpa Samadhi has become enlarged and is now the Supreme Self and knows itself as such.

  To some people whose minds have become ripe from a long practice in the past, Nirvikalpa comes suddenly as a flood, but to others it comes in the course of their sadhana, which slowly wears down the obstructing thoughts and reveals the screen of Pure Awareness ‘I’-‘I’. Further practice renders the screen permanently exposed. This is Self-realization, Mukti, or Sahaja Samadhi, the natural, effortless state. (Ramana Maharshi, GR, 82-3.)

Nirvikalpas: the internal and the external. In the former the mind completely merges in the inmost Being and is aware of nothing else. This is compared to a lamp protected from wind. But in the latter, although the mind is absorbed in the Self, the sense of the world still prevails without a reaction from within, and has the calm vastness of a waveless ocean. In both the Self is realized in its nakedness and the essence of bliss experienced. When the waveless ocean of the external and the steady flame of the internal Nirvikalpa are realized as identical, the ultimate goal, the Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi is said to have been reached. Nirvikalpa is effortless, whereas Savikalpa is attended with effort. ….

 Now what David Godman (and his followers) never mention is that Ramana Maharshi had to meditate for 9 years non-stop - (even refusing to see his own mom!) before he achieved "eternal liberation" which he describes as his heart stopping for 15 minutes, thereby "cutting the knot" of this spirit off from his body. His spirit completely merged into the Ether (the Yuan Qi) on the right side of heart - beyond death.

So what he is saying is to MAINTAIN Nirvikalpa Samadhi until it's achieved - eternal liberation. How do we know this?

This inert body does not say “I.” Reality-Consciousness does not emerge. Between the two, and limited to the measure of the body, something emerges as “I.” It is this that is known as Chit-Jada-granthi (the knot between the Conscious and the inert), and also as bondage, soul, subtle-body, ego, samsara , mind, and so forth. (Ramana Maharshi, FVR, verse 24.)

So the light "merges" back into that which does not emerge!

 As for the jiva implied in the term “I,” one realizes its identity with Brahman by removal of obstruction (badha samanadhi karanam) through negating the idea of jiva, just as the man one imagines in a post (in a dim light) merges in the post on the negation of the idea of [its] being a man. (Ramana Maharshi, JGE, 17-8.)

So just as light as "phase" has distinct shapes - but needs "time" to make those shapes evident - if the frequency of light is turned around - back onto itself - this reverses all shapes to their origin which is the Ether that creates light - the Yuan Qi or Prana. This is why Ramana Maharshi says to "stop the pictures."

 So as the light is turned back around and the image is "stopped" - then its frequency self-resonates into greater intensity - and so gets brighter as the Ether source of the light then (the relativistic mass of the light) heals the image (from the future).

Then, there would shine in the Heart a kind of wordless illumination of the form “I” “I.”

Even as subtle forces like the electric current pass through visible wires, the light of awareness flows through a nadi (2) in the body.

When the effulgent light of awareness shines in atma nadi (3) alone, nothing else shines except the Self.

 and yet the Self is NOT the light that it radiates! Remember the light has to be "turned around" so that your mind MERGES back into that which DOES NOT EMERGE. You can only logically infer the source of the light. You literally LASER BURN your mind as spirit back into its ETHER source!!

People want to see the Self as something. They desire to see it as a blazing light, etc. But how could that be? The [deep] Self is not light, not darkness, not any observed thing. The Self is ever the Witness. It is eternal and remains the same all along….Sages say that the state [or place] in which the thought ‘I’ [the ego] does not rise even in the least, alone is Silence [mouna] or Self [swarupa]. [That] silent Self alone is God; Self alone is the jiva; Self alone is this ancient world….Attending unceasingly and with a fully [concentrated] mind to Self, which is the non-dual perfect reality, alone is the pure supreme Silence;

—Ramana Maharshi

Just as the elemental ether within the flame of a lamp is known to fill without any difference and without any limit both the inside and the outside of the flame, so also the knowledge-ether that is within the Self-light in the heart, fills without any difference and without any limit both the inside and the outside of that Self-light. This is what is referred to as Brahman.

(Ramana Maharshi, SE, answer to question 17.)

There is a lot of confusion about what self-enquiry or Jnana Yoga actually is.  A 1947 edition of Ramana Maharshi's book "Who Am I?" actually contains his drawing of the Kundalini that is necessary to first right up the spine and then go back down to the heart. You can't find this image online - I found it in the South Asian library at University of Minnesota - and the book (straight from the Ashram, a limited edition - actually vibrated with Yuan Qi energy!!)

https://elixirfield.blogspot.com/2018/12/revisiting-ramana-maharshi-and.html

in the sunshine cotton does not burn; but if the cotton be placed under a lens it catches fire and is consumed by the rays of the Sun passing through the lens.

What this refers to is the fact that our spirit is from coherent - literally LASER - biophotons. When we "turn the light around" we then FOCUS the laser light as a coherent self-resonating frequency. This is the SHEN or  Shakti BURNING - I have felt this directly from qigong master Chunyi Lin when he does his healings to open the third eye http://springforestqigong.com and I have also felt it from http://guidingqi.com the only 2nd level qigong master student of Chunyi Lin.

Now that burning light is NOT the SELF (contrary to the claims of many Westernized thinkers).

Again the Self is the Yuan Qi as the Knowledge-Ether

People want to see the Self as something. They desire to see it as a blazing light, etc. But how could that be? The [deep] Self is not light,

So Westerners IGNORE this statement of RAmana Maharshi.

So he admits you are MERGING the Jiva or individual soul as laser light - back into its source THAT DOES NOT EMERGE. It is ever present - beyond time and space - as the Ether-Knowledge aka the Yuan Qi.

This is the "Absolute Void that Radiates Light" as it is describes in the book Taoist Yoga: alchemy and immortality.

So how do you do this? Through Nirvikalpa Samadhi - which means you just "turn the light around" as a "snapshop" - or as Ramana Maharshi states:

Stop the pictures,

So we experience different shapes due to phase of light but the phase depends on time as frequency. So when the time is zero (no phase) there is then infinite frequency. So when we turn the light around (at any frequency) - the light goes to its relativistic mass at zero time.

The relativistic mass of light is this Ether-Knowledge

The akasa (space) in the pit or well has not been created by us.

So this ether-knowledge is Always-already there but since we do not turn the light around in meditation - then the light is TOO WEAK since it is not FOCUSED AS A LASER - with coherent frequency!

It is important for one who is established in his Self (atma nista) to see that he does not swerve in the least from this absorption. By swerving from his true nature he may see before him bright effulgences, etc., or hear (unusual) sounds or regard as real the visions of gods appearing within or outside himself. He should not be deceived by these and forget himself. (Ramana Maharshi, SI, Chapter 2, Question 16.)

So what the Westernized views erroneously neglect is that Ramana Maharshi meditated 9 years before he achieved eternal liberation to "cut the knot."

This inert body does not say “I.” Reality-Consciousness does not emerge. Between the two, and limited to the measure of the body, something emerges as “I.” It is this that is known as Chit-Jada-granthi (the knot between the Conscious and the inert), and also as bondage, soul, subtle-body, ego, samsara , mind, and so forth. (Ramana Maharshi, FVR, verse 24.)

So Ramana Maharshi says this "knot" is on the right side of the heart - this is also the same as what Taoist Yoga: alchemy and Immortality teaches - the right side of the heart is where the Yuan Qi connects beyond death - to the formless awareness.

So our spirit "emerges" from the formless awareness - and it is attached to the body and depends on the body to have a sense of self. Since we do not FOCUS the spirit as a burning laser turn back to its source - then the spirit remains distracted even in the astral realms of other images, experiences, etc. This is why for astral travel there is a "rope of light" that connects back to the body. What Ramana Maharshi is saying is just keep burning that rope back to its source - beyond the body - through the heart.

And yet - the Light is NOT the ether-knowledge!!

When one discards the Jiva (individual being) of the form ahamkara (ego-sense), which is the apparent meaning of the word “I,” what remains merely as the effulgent and conscious Atman (Self), which is the implied meaning of the “I,” is Brahman. (Ramana Maharshi, JGE, 7.)

So the ether-knowledge is IMPLIED and it radiates light but it is not the light itself.