Speakibg Tree - The World Has No Independent Existence
According to Ramana Maharshi, an exponent of the path of Self-enquiry, the thought, 'The body is i', is the fundamental error. The body does not say 'i am'; it is the individual who says ‘i am the body'. Similarly, the world never proclaims its existence by saying ‘Here i am, the world’; if it did so, it would be constantly experienced in the three states of consciousness—waking, dream and deep sleep.
Since the world is not cognized in deep sleep, the continuity of its existence is broken which effectually means that the world has no absolute or independent existence. The world has only relative existence because it only exists in relation to the ego or i-thought, the ‘perceiver’.
For the world to exist, there has to be the perceiver or the ego to experience the world and talk about it. The world is perceived both in the waking and dream states, though at different levels. While in the former, the physical world is experienced through the physical body, in the latter, the subtle dream world is experienced through the astral body. In the deep sleep state, the perceiver is missing; therefore the world does not appear in this state.
What differentiates the waking state from the deep sleep state is the emergence of body-consciousness. While the body is experienced in the waking state, the deep sleep state is devoid of body-consciousness. It is only because ‘'i-am-the-body' thought is predominant in the waking state, that the external world of myriad diversities is perceived. Since the body is experienced in one state --waking -- and not in the other, that is, deep sleep, one can say that the body arose at a particular time with both an origin and an end.
Both body and body-consciousness emerge and sink simultaneously. While no limitations are experienced in deep sleep, the waking state is the state of bondage characterised by limitations. It becomes clear that the physical body was not in existence before it was born; is made up of five elements; does not appear in the deep sleep state; has both a beginning and an end; and is reduced to a corpse when prana, life-force, departs from it.
So the inert, perishable body cannot shine as the eternal ‘I-Consciousness’ that both pre-exists and survives the body. There is continuity of the Being, the eternal Self, in all three states, while the body and the worlds that appear in the waking and dream states are ephemeral.
The question is: How to realise or get connected with eternal ‘I-consciousness’? Ramana Maharshi emphasised that realisation consists in eradicating the idea that one is not realised; it is not something that is to be attained anew; it is only the elimination of ego, the false ‘i’, through constant Self-enquiry. When an earnest inquiry is made into the ego’s identity and source, it vanishes, making the eternal Self shine forth by itself.
The jnani who succeeds in eliminating the ‘i-am-the-body thought’ through sustained inquiry, remains firmly and continually entrenched in the lofty state of natural samadhi wherein he perceives the ephemeral world as a blissful play of the eternal Self -- which derives its reality from pure awareness, the sole ground of Being. Therefore the world has no independent existence apart from the Self.
Since the world is not cognized in deep sleep, the continuity of its existence is broken which effectually means that the world has no absolute or independent existence. The world has only relative existence because it only exists in relation to the ego or i-thought, the ‘perceiver’.
For the world to exist, there has to be the perceiver or the ego to experience the world and talk about it. The world is perceived both in the waking and dream states, though at different levels. While in the former, the physical world is experienced through the physical body, in the latter, the subtle dream world is experienced through the astral body. In the deep sleep state, the perceiver is missing; therefore the world does not appear in this state.
What differentiates the waking state from the deep sleep state is the emergence of body-consciousness. While the body is experienced in the waking state, the deep sleep state is devoid of body-consciousness. It is only because ‘'i-am-the-body' thought is predominant in the waking state, that the external world of myriad diversities is perceived. Since the body is experienced in one state --waking -- and not in the other, that is, deep sleep, one can say that the body arose at a particular time with both an origin and an end.
Both body and body-consciousness emerge and sink simultaneously. While no limitations are experienced in deep sleep, the waking state is the state of bondage characterised by limitations. It becomes clear that the physical body was not in existence before it was born; is made up of five elements; does not appear in the deep sleep state; has both a beginning and an end; and is reduced to a corpse when prana, life-force, departs from it.
So the inert, perishable body cannot shine as the eternal ‘I-Consciousness’ that both pre-exists and survives the body. There is continuity of the Being, the eternal Self, in all three states, while the body and the worlds that appear in the waking and dream states are ephemeral.
The question is: How to realise or get connected with eternal ‘I-consciousness’? Ramana Maharshi emphasised that realisation consists in eradicating the idea that one is not realised; it is not something that is to be attained anew; it is only the elimination of ego, the false ‘i’, through constant Self-enquiry. When an earnest inquiry is made into the ego’s identity and source, it vanishes, making the eternal Self shine forth by itself.
The jnani who succeeds in eliminating the ‘i-am-the-body thought’ through sustained inquiry, remains firmly and continually entrenched in the lofty state of natural samadhi wherein he perceives the ephemeral world as a blissful play of the eternal Self -- which derives its reality from pure awareness, the sole ground of Being. Therefore the world has no independent existence apart from the Self.
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