 129. Psychology |
"The over-soul," – "A man is a facade of a temple wherein all wisdom and all good abide. What we commonly call man, the eating, drinking, planting, counting man, does not as we know him, represent himself, but "misrepresents" himself. Him we do not respect; but the soul, whose organ he is, would he let it appear through his actions, would make our knees bend . . . we lie open on one side to the deeps of spiritual nature, to all the attributes of God" (the over soul).
-Emerson
When a religious method recommends itself as scientific it can be certain of its public in the west. Yoga (Hatha Yoga) fulfills this expectation, quite apart from the charm of the new and the fascination of the half understood. There is good cause for yoga to have many adherents. It offers the possibility of controllable experience and thus satisfies the scientific need for "facts" and, besides this, by reason of its breadth and depth. Its venerable age, its doctrines and method, which include every phase of life. It promises undreamed-of possibilities.
Every religious or philosophical practice means a psychological discipline; that is, a method of mental hygiene. The manifold, purely bodily procedures of a yoga also mean a physiological hygiene which is superior to ordinary gymnastics and breathing exercises, in as much as it is not merely mechanistic and scientific, but also philosophical; in its training of the parts of the body, it unites them with the whole of the spirit, as is quite clear. For instance, in the "Pranayama" exercises where "Prana" is both the breath and the universal dynamics of the cosmos. . . yoga practice . . . would be ineffectual without the concepts on which yoga is based. It combines the bodily and the spiritual in an extraordinarily complete way. In the east, where these ideas and practices have developed, and where for several thousand years an unbroken tradition has created the necessary spiritual foundations, yoga is, as I can readily believe, the perfect and appropriate method of fusing body and mind together so that they form a unity which is scarcely to be questioned. This unity makes possible "intuitions" that transcend consciousness.
-Dr. Carl Jung
A Biographical Sketch
Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) was one of the greatest spiritual teachers of modern-day India. At the age of seventeen he attained a profound experience of the true Self without the guidance of a Guru and thereafter remained conscious of his identity with the Absolute (Brahman) at all times. After some years of silent seclusion he finally began to reply to the question put to him by spiritual seekers all over the world. He followed no particular traditional system of teaching, but rather spoke directly from his own experience of non-duality. Ramana Maharshi wrote virtually nothing; his teaching took the form of conversations with visitors seeking his guidance (as transcribed by followers), the brief instructions he left with his followers, and a few songs. His method of instruction was to direct the questioner again and again to his true self and to recommend, as a path to realization, a tireless form of self-inquiry featuring the question Who am I?" The transcribed conversations of Ramana Maharshi are known among spiritual seekers the world over and prized for their great inspirational power, which transcends all religious differences.
Sri Ramana Maharshi was born on 29 December 1879 in Tiruchuli, Tamil Nadu (South India), the son of Shundaram Ayyar, a scribe and country lawyer; he was given the name Venkataraman, abbreviated as Ramana. At the age of seventeen he suddenly had an experience of death one day in which he realized that the body dies but the consciousness is not touched by death. "I" am immortal consciousness. "All these," he later reported, "were no idle speculations." They went through me like a powerful, truth that I experienced directly, almost without thinking. 'I' [i.e., the true I or Self] was reality, the only reality in this momentary state.
