Current understanding of the Self

Picture is Sri Lakshmana Swami, and Mathru Sri Sarada. (his Realized adopted daughter)

This was a letter to a friend, excitedly telling what I understand about the Self (as a Self-inquiring ajnani), and what it is.

Thank you. I decided to write you also about what I now understand of the Self, i.e Vedantic teachings, because that's pretty much what it is.It's interesting because most religions have alot of the purly mythological, but Vedanta, and Advaita, the core teachings are something that is"supposedly" verifiable within experience. So this is my current understanding of the Self. (disclaimer: I'm describing within these teachings, not for the purposes of conversion) The Self is the same as God, and in truth, there is no other thing. Everything is only the Self, which is God. The reason it's called the Self, is because if the illusion of individuality is dispelled (i.e. the ego)all that is left over is God, and it has no outside of it, so it can also be called the Self with a capitol S, the real Self. I could say, that when the ego, the false sense of particularization into individuality is dispelled, then God acts through me, but since there is no other, it's an awkward way to put it.The world, the body, the individual, become more like illusory mirages without much substance, and what is real is the Self, God, I believe alsothe Universal Witness might be another way to put it, alot of Jesus quotes in the New Testement seem to be referring to the same thing. (i.e. The Kingdom of Heaven is within you), and Rumi almost sounds like Ramana. There are different phrases used to describe that all the characteristics we associate with good are it. Being-Consciousness-Bliss, True, Knowledge, Infiinte, the True the Good and the Beautiful. That is why Ramana, and really Vedantic teachings for thousands of years advised Self-inquiry.Which as far as I can tell, it's a deliberate setting out to destroy the false sense of being an individual in a body who is acting in a world. One reason for doing this, is because really, in these teachings, when we are seeking happiness from forms in a "world", we are really seeking the effulgent bliss of our own true Self. Any searching for happiness is an intuition of the real Self of which there is only one. When we see beauty in other people, art-forms (Van Gogh or Dali), classical music or Grindcore (lol), we are seeing the effulgent beauty of the Self. So a purpose of Self-inquiry is to find the enduring happiness of the true Self which never changes, and never loses it's luster, and which all luster is contained within it (i.e. it's where it really is), because really the forms are illusory and transient. If we associate the beauty or happiness with being a certain form, another person. (i.e. infatuation), we are sensing the true Self, which could also be described as God. When the individual is dispelled through thorough Self-inquiry, by a meeting of effort and grace, and there is no person left over. There is awareness only of what really exists, which is the Self, and to everyone else in the world, that person becomes a Jnani, which basically means The Self, or God (Siva, Brahman, Krishna (in the Bhagavad Gita)) appearing as in my own words an "archetype" in our waking dream, reminding us of our true identity, our true happiness of, and in the Self. One of Ramana's statements was "God, Guru, and Self" are the same. From Nome's advise as an instructing guru, and a Jnani (I can't imagine otherwise), it seems like for a while in response to my e-mails he solidly focused on that happiness is within, and that as meditation I should seek to know the source of happiness which is within, within being within consciousness. And ultimately being the nature of the Self. As an antidote to worries, desires, cravings, aversions, where is the source of happiness? When the bliss starts to be known within, then almost methodically, hunting out Vasanas which are tendencies of a manifest ego. Basically any identity that arises in reaction to something, immediately dissoluting it right then and there. Thought is fine, and doesn't need to be repressed, though I get the impression that perhaps the Realized state is a state without thought, whcih doesn't mean the brain isn't functional. A Jnani could function in any line of work, it has nothing to do with the body. (Papaji heroically rescued his family from the Punjab during ethnic cleansing--because Maharshi told him to, and ran a mining company) It's that there isn't a particularized mind in a body for the Jnani. There is just Consciousness, and Consciousness acts through the body, without any notion of being an individual. Lakshamana Swami's autobiography (a devotee of Ramana Maharshi that Realized the Self for instance is called "No Mind, I am the Self". It also covers the life, teachings, and Realization of his adopted daughter Mathru Sri Sarada). That Consciousness is perfectly capable of doing math problems, and infact really the ego is the obstacle to getting work done, or being fervent in striving to fulfill activities, because it sees happiness in a circumstance, so there are things it doesn't want to do. So you were talking about all the artistic projects you wanted to do, my impression is that if you Realized the Self, you probably would be doing the same artistic projects, but probably better, because Consciousness wouldn't be limited. I think when I was 22, I fell into a full awareness of the Self, and then freaked out, which was probably because the ego wasn't totally destroyed in the merger into the Self, and that is why things were really scarey, visually, and hallucenatory, and fearfully the it seemed like I was imaging the world. That may also have something to do with why I was eventually after lots of yoga, and tai chi, exposed to, and brought into contact with a Realized guru (potentially, there could be a connection there). That was one of Ramana's points, and it almost seems like a black hole to me. Through any kind of spiritual practice, even devotion to God, or Zen meditation, if done earnestly, it ultimately leads to a direct investigation, or dissolution of the ego-notion. I might post this on my blog as my current understanding of the Self.