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Our email address is editor @realization.org.

Copyright 2001 Realization.org.

Not Two

	This is an old editor's page. The current one is here.

October 27, 2001

While adding one of our new short pages describing the Ramana Maharshi Foundation UK, I ran across the following sentence on the foundation's website: "Members endeavour to expound Bhagavan's teaching faithfully, without the Intrusion of personalities, and to practise Self-enquiry and surrender in all circumstances of our everyday lives." All circumstances. A nice vow, don't you think? Very nicely stated.

October 21, 2001

There are many wonderful remarks in the interview with Douglas Harding that I just posted here. The man has a genius for seeing to the heart of things in his own way and expressing his insights in clear, pithy language. For example, he says that Ramana Maharshi's teaching can be summed up as, "I don't care what your problem is, the answer is to see who has it." And this one: "Little Douglas, really, is not conscious; little Douglas is a phenomenon for others, for me and so on. But he’s not a sentient being. Sentient being is one Being in all beings."

In fact, Ramana Maharshi said over and over that Self-inquiry only begins when thoughts stop. He also said that Self-realization is the permanent dissolution of the mind. He could not have been more clear about these things, and it amazes me to see how widely they are overlooked in the West.

I don't know why Douglas said what he did, but in general, I think some Westerners tend to overlook parts of Sri Ramana's teachings because they want to believe that their own experiences are the same as Sri Ramana's Self-realization.

But what happened to Ramana Maharshi was very unusual. It was so rare that in India, a place where people are much more familiar with these experiences than we are in the West, he was generally recognized as the greatest sage of the century if not longer. Thousands of people who would be considered enlightened by Western standards, including famous yogis and heads of elite religious institutions, bowed at Ramana Maharshi's feet and asked him for his silent initiation. Does it make sense that this would have happened if Ramana Maharshi had only been experiencing inconstant glimpses of nonduality and selflessness like many of his visitors?

David Godman's books help clarify this mystery.

October 18, 2001

Jerry Katz, publisher of the world-renowned Nonduality Salon website, recently invited readers to create logos for it, so I sent him the picture at the top of the page. It seemed amusing when I whipped it up in Photoshop this morning, but on second thought, now that I've had some coffee, the big red "don't do it" symbol is antithetical to the spirit of nondualism. But on third thought, maybe that makes it even more amusing.

October 17, 2001

I'd like to thank the readers who replied to my request for comments about the new page designs. Actually, only two readers replied, and they both said that the polka dots were the most hideous thing they had ever seen on a website. Okay, I can take a hint. Dots are out.

One reader asked for wider text, so on new pages, the main column is wider.

If anybody has more comments, please send them. I'm still redesigning.