Last time I summarized Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi’s philosophy as presented in the Nan Yar. Now I would like to offer my thoughts and interpretation. First let’s reorder his key principles for comment; then I will consider his discipline of ‘Self-enquiry’ before offering final conclusions. If we reorder the key principles from the Maharshi outlined last time, they fall into four general categories: metaphysical, ethical, theological, and mystical.
METAPHYSICAL
- “Thought is the nature of the mind.” – This seems to me indisputable; we experience
the mind as an endless progression, regression, and repetition of thoughts. Eckhart Tolle, in his book The Power of Now, points this out as well, arguing that most of our thoughts are non-productive, and that stilling the mind is the means to tranquility. To some extent we can all confirm this since when drifting off to sleep,we observe thoughts decreasing, calmness emerging, and the mind fading away. I also note the implicit corollary principle that the mind is not identical to the self.20 - “All living things desire to be happy always.” – This may be a bit anthropomorphic for the Western philosopher as we cannot know that plants or even most animals seek ‘happiness.’ However with respect to humans, the Maharshi echoes Aristotle who tells us the ultimate end of human choices is in pursuit of happiness. On the other hand, Aristotle, uses the word Eudaimonia, meaning a flourishing life, which does not quite mirror the guru’s concept of happiness as inner stillness. Nevertheless, it seems fair to suggest that all things being equal, we would choose to be happy. That said, I, like Susan Wolf,21 believe that meaning is as important as and perhaps more important than happiness for most of us. Aristotle’s term Eudaimonia seems to incorporate both. The emphasis in Eastern traditions on contentment (and freedom from rebirth) over purpose and meaning is where I have often felt at odds with them.
- [The world is not real.] “The mind projects the world out of itself and again resolves it into itself.” –
This assertion by the Maharshi appears ambiguous, perhaps intentionally. I am not quite sure he is denying there is an actual world separate from our inner self. In any case, I believe that the existence of a world outside ourselves is a belief of very high certainty.22 Like Kant, I allow that we project from our individual mind our particular idea of the world as filtered through our senses, and that we do not perceive ‘things-in-themselves,’ but, again like Kant, I do not doubt those ‘things’ in fact exist. It may be the Maharshi is saying something similar.
(further continued next post)
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20I came to this same conclusion in the section Soul on this site; see particularly Soul – A Synthesis – Parts II and III dated 5/3/2019 and 5/6/2019.
21See Current Reading: Happiness and Meaning on this site dated 10/30/20 and 11/2/20 .
22See Table of Certainty in the Appendix on this site where I rank the existence of the world as #18 and roughly 99.2% certain.
