First to give a short introduction of me: I am living in Germany and I am a librarian in a school library. Besides that, I am working on a biography in the German language about Sri Ramana, which isn’t yet finished and is meant for publishing. This work helps me a lot to gain more insight into Sri Ramana’s life and teaching – and is also a form of meditation and surrender.
Spiritual search was there since I can remember. I grew up in a Catholic environment and tried very hard to find the solution of life in this world of Christian ideas and belief. Yes, I even studied Catholic theology, and after that lived for some months in an austere contemplative Carmelitan monastery, to try if such a way of meditation and restriction could be a way to find what I was looking for. When I look back at this monastery I can do it only with deep respect for this way of life and the people living there. But nevertheless the world behind the wall was also the world and could not fully convince me and satisfy my longing. I found a lot of hints, of course, especially in the Christian mystics, such as Master Eckhart and others.
Then I stepped into Zen. I joined a Zen-group and went to lots of Zen sesshins and was the disciple of a Zen-master, who worked with koans. At the time I started working with koans with my Zen-master, now more than ten years ago, I found Paul Brunton’s book: “A Search in Secret India” in a library. When I read the chapters about Ramana and saw his photo, I felt drawn to him immediately. The question “Who am I?” in self-enquiry I found very near to koan-praxis. But there was also another aspect: I never met one whom I could fully trust, to whom I could possibly fully surrender one day, but Ramana. I found in him what is called a Sat-Guru. I studied his life and teaching and as often as I turned round and round the whole “thing” it was always right. His life and teaching was the same. It was and forever is the truth. So one day I discovered that I had found my real master now and there was nothing to do but to follow his teachings and surrender to him, until “Gabriele” is no more.
Sri Ramana’s teaching is centered on the one question “Who am I?”. The outgoing mind has to turn back to its own source, where it comes from and which is the eternal Self, that which remains after everything is gone. The question is meant to be asked not in the outside direction but within. This is something we are not used to do, we have forgotten, because from childhood onwards we are told to turn outside and to ask in that direction. But the answer to our deep question about our own reality can only be answered from our own reality itself and the answer is that, what is called self-realization. “Who am I?” is meant to search the source of the I-thought, which is the Self. The I-thought is the root of all thoughts. No other thought would be possible without that first thought. If thoughts occur one follows them back to their origin: Who is thinking? It is “I”. First we have to regain the awareness of this permanent I-feeling anew. This leads to the question: But from where does that feeling “I” arise? – this is no intellectual exercise – but following back to the very origin, from where everything arises: first the I-thought, then body-consciousness, and with that the world and the others and our concepts of god ….
The way back is death. One has to die . This is nothing else than real and full surrender: giving up everything. Sri Ramana told us, that when this happens something new takes hold of us, one is born anew as That. This was his own experience.
One day about two years ago I decided to write a biography about Sri Ramana in German language – not only because there is nothing up to date available in our language, but also because I saw in this work a chance for myself to dive deep into Sri Ramana’s life. His teaching and his life are one and the same, that was what I discovered more and more. His life was the most powerful expression of his teaching. He “died” when he was seventeen – when he had his death-experience and awakened to the real life. But Sri Ramana’s deepest teaching was not given in words but in silence. He was and is the Master of silent teaching. And in fact it was that silence, which is what gave and gives me full conviction. His silence can be experienced today as formerly – not only at the place where he lived – but everywhere. Until now I have had no chance to visit Ramanashram in South-India, but his presence and guidance is there for all who are attracted to him. There is no escape.
Gabriele Ebert
______________________________________________________________
Gabriele Ebert lives in Germany and works as a librarian.
Recent Books by Gabriele Ebert are:
Ramana Maharshi: Sein Leben, Stuttgart, 2003
Sadhu Arunachala: Erinnerungen eines Sadhus, Berlin, 2004 (German transl.)
Both books are available at amazon.de and can be ordered from each German book-shop.
Dear Sweet Soul
May the sweet silence of snowy peaks of the Himalayas delight you with peace of ease. I have a lot of letters from Alfred Sorensen, the Danish mystics saint known as Sunya Bhai, to my father. This is one of them.
Sri Wuji Reminiscence – Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sorensen (Sunya Bhai)
https://www.academia.edu/129641773/Sri_Wuji_Reminiscence_Alfred_Julius_Emmanuel_Sorensen_Sunya_Bhai_
His silent Self radiance would suffice -. He would not have asked any trivial, polite questions and were not near to him during the two weeks, so, we were utterly surprised, when Paul Brunton wrote to us that Raman Maharshi had called the simple Viking Sadhu “one of the rare born Mystics”. And more so, later on, when the direct reminder sounded upon us: “We are always aware, Shunyata”. It came to us in such a way that we could accept it in ego-humble Grace and Gratitude – or rather : ego-free Shunyata.
with greetings, grace and gratitude
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Insights from Plotinus on Cosmic Consciousness – Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sorensen (Sunya Bhai)
https://www.academia.edu/143858536/Insights_from_Plotinus_on_Cosmic_Consciousness_Alfred_Julius_Emmanuel_Sorensen_Sunya_Bhai_
Maharashi Ramana, asks us to be ego-still and mind-free and so eliminate things extraneous – until the darashan is consummated in Empathy. We must withdraw from the body consciousness and the ego-identity, which overshadow our true nature or pure Self-hood-. We let go and let go of the ego-soul or mind that shapes the body, and the sense perceptions, appetites and emotions-, and also of the intellect – with its duality-divisions and clever fuss. We must die to the known in ‘the cloud of unknowing’ or Sunya-integrality, nakedly the pure intelligence reflects the pure Light-, the integral Being –Awareness-, the Self-, everywhere – within all things (dharmas).
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INTRODUCTION -Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sorensen
(Sunya Bhai)
https://www.academia.edu/146014247/INTRODUCTION_Alfred_Julius_Emmanuel_Sorensen_Sunya_Bhai_
Fancy a simple, impersonal Viking-autobiography devoid of the naughty word-symbols I –Me and Mine, a matter of nothingness, of consciousness rather than of events, of inner-stances rather than of circumstances, of light, intuitive and ego-free play rather than of mental and pandit-faced solemnity-! But really and truly-: devoid of ego we are the Himalayan Plenum Void or Sunya-Self. Wu!
Ramana Maharshi called us the ‘rare born mystic’ and duly reminded us out from his rishi-radiance: “We are always aware, Sunya !”. Silence is the eloquent language of the Real, the Eternal, the integral Self-, which we ever Are. Wu! But the Sahaja grace of non-dual experiencing cannot be conveyed in word-symbols or duality terms. Ideals-, concepts and abstractions vanish in the actual and practical experiencing. “Be still to Be wholly and to reflect purely and integrally- That which Is!”, was the Maharshi’s advice to egojis. Be willing, ready and mature to die from ego-consciousness into Self-awareness – and you’ll behold your anandaful Self everywhere in all forms and phenomena, the Real in actualities, the Eternal in time-play. Free also in your due Swadharma. The Divine Lila is Swa and anandaful grace.
So we deem it a blessing to have no urge or call – to express or assert the ineffable- the ever Self-evident. Effort was the helper. Effort is the bar: It blurs the integral awareness, the suffusing ananda, the gratuitous grace and the profound gratitude- in the divine Swa-Lila. So Guru Wuji in the invisible Real advocates and recommends: Self-controlled spontaneity. Wu!
“Viking Bhai in Himalaya Sunya”.
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Dancing with Himalayan Consciousness -Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sorensen (Sunya Bhai)
https://www.academia.edu/164711084/Dancing_with_Himalayan_Consciousness_Alfred_Julius_Emmanuel_Sorensen_Sunya_Bhai_
Dr. Carl Jung’s superbly mature ‘autobiography’: “Memories, Dreams, Recollections”, is now available here in English after 3 months of travel from the city of Brother love, Philadelphia. We had in vain solicited it for years, as, in it, as in no other book or human fellow-pilgrim, we have felt our peasant babyhood’s consciousness depicted and revealed so nakedly and so lovingly-: The pre-natal – and pre-ego consciousness, the seeming dual modes of values and of awareness-, co-existing and un-clashing then as now, The all suffusing, unitive light of Ananda and gratuitous grace in Self-awareness or God-experiencing-, in immanence as in Omni-presence. There is also a similar sense of destiny or dharma, of sure guidance, of being led and used – and inspired- in the whole as in the actual details in Swa-Lila. Also in the memoir we sense the rich, integral, intuitive light in solitude and in inner-stances, the solitude in aloneness that can be all oneness, beyond loneliness and desire, Also the non-urge to express and assert the ineffable. (No lust for re-cognition, no craving for requital or reciprocity. Wu!
Source from old paper collection of letters (1950s,1960s,1970s) sent by
Alfred Sorensen known as Sunya Bhai to my father Radhey Shiam –
Compiled & Notes by _Rama Kant s/o Lsh Radhey Shiam
– Author of – ‘Song of Life,’The Book of Life’, ‘Quotes of Life’, ‘Nature and I’ and ‘My Soul, My Mother Ganga in English and ‘Haiku Paheliyaan’ in 2 Vol., ‘Haiku Ramayana’, Vedhai Haiku Uttar Ramayana’, ‘Mukri Haiku Paheliyaan’ and ‘Adharma Uvachaa’ in Hindi
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The Mystic Light in World Religions – Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sorensen (Sunya Bhai)
https://www.academia.edu/164917604/The_Mystic_Light_in_World_Religions_Alfred_Julius_Emmanuel_Sorensen_Sunya_Bhai_
In the Zohar doctrine of emanation God, as He is in Himself prior to the creation of the world, is called ‘eyn sof’ –: The formless Infinite, which is ineffable and unknowable to ego-souls. This hidden ‘eyn sof’ may be compared with Eckhart’s distinction between the Godhead, which is the dark emptiness and Silence, and God, who is the creator – ‘eyn sof and also sefirot (Self-radiance) may be mystical concepts and visions, but not the empirical non-dual experiencing. Moses may have experienced God in the white supernal light of the “burning” bush-, which neither consumes nor demolishes, nor changes.
“It is not the object – but the Light that maketh Heaven on Earth”. It is the pure Light of integral awareness – and death-free Being.
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Horticulture to Himalayan Silence: The Global Spiritual Journey of Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sørensen (Sunyata Bhai)
https://www.academia.edu/170603836/Horticulture_to_Himalayan_Silence_The_Global_Spiritual_Journey_of_Alfred_Julius_Emmanuel_S%C3%B8rensen_Sunyata_Bhai_
Truth, God, Reality and integral Consciousness is one-, a non-dual one-, and our ego-consciousness is a due mode in the duly blinkered part-play within the integral One. What we call facts are not truth. The actual is not the real. Knowledge is not wisdom. Power corrupts egojis and is not integral strength-. Peace is not joyous ease (Ananda). Lust and liberty are not the freedom of no desire. Yog is not Self controlled spontaneity – but awakening into integrality is a kind of gratuitous grace-. The God-head, the Christ, the Comforter, or ‘ghostly Spirit’ are but word-symbols, concepts and (imposed?) abstractions to us until we realise, experience and live it- integrally. Wu!
This autobiographical meditation by Alfred Emanuel Sorensen (Sunya Bhai) traces the gradual unfolding of a life rooted not in an intellectual search for truth but in the spontaneous maturation of integral awareness. Recalling his early encounters in England with Theosophy, J. Krishnamurti, Sufism, Vedanta, Taoism, and the spiritual wisdom that “made our Asia mild,” Sorensen distinguishes between superficial acquaintance through books and lectures and the transformative realization born of direct experience. He argues that authentic spiritual understanding is not the product of analytical study, memory, or accumulated knowledge, but of “integral reading”—a contemplative mode of awareness in which consciousness itself becomes the medium of understanding. Knowledge, in this sense, is existential rather than conceptual; it is lived, not merely learned.
Rejecting the conventional role of teacher, preacher, or spiritual authority, Sorensen maintains that genuine realization carries no impulse to convert, instruct, or save others. Instead, truth expresses itself naturally through effortless presence, echoing the Taoist ideal of non-doing (wu wei) and the silent radiance of awakened consciousness. His reflections on India reveal a profound appreciation for the continuity of its spiritual traditions. Although he visited numerous ashrams, caves, and holy places associated with saints, sages, and realized beings, he emphasizes that liberation is never dependent upon external proximity to a master. The true pilgrimage is inward, where the Self alone is the source of realization.
Drawing extensively upon the life and teaching of Ramana Maharshi, Sorensen presents Advaita Vedānta as an immediate state of non-dual awareness beyond the egoic notions of “I,” “me,” and “mine.” Ramana, he suggests, did not merely teach non-duality; he embodied it completely. In such integral consciousness, there is no separation between knower and known, no duality between seeker and sought, and no need for psychological self-assertion. Silence itself becomes the highest language of truth, transcending conceptual thought and verbal instruction.
The autobiographical narrative deliberately avoids sensational spiritual experiences, miracles, or esoteric claims. Instead, it portrays enlightenment as the quiet continuity of consciousness that remains unchanged from childhood through old age. Concluding with the principle of swadharma, Sorensen affirms that every individual must realize truth through his or her own authentic path. The essay thus offers a profound critique of intellectualism and spiritual ambition, presenting integral awareness as a lived reality characterized by humility, inward freedom, self-abidance, and the effortless expression of universal consciousness.
Source from old paper collection of letters (1950s,1960s,1970s) sent by
Alfred Sorensen known as Sunya Bhai to my father Radhey Shiam –
Compiled & Notes by _Rama Kant s/o Lsh Radhey Shiam
– Author of – ‘Song of Life,’The Book of Life’, ‘Quotes of Life’, ‘Nature and I’ and ‘My Soul, My Mother Ganga in English and ‘Haiku Paheliyaan’ in 2 Vol., ‘Haiku Ramayana’, Vedhai Haiku Uttar Ramayana’, ‘Mukri Haiku Paheliyaan’ and ‘Adharma Uvachaa’ in Hindi
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Self-Realization Beyond Birth and Death – Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sørensen (Sunyata Bhai) https://www.academia.edu/171734223/Self_Realization_Beyond_Birth_and_Death_Alfred_Julius_Emmanuel_S%C3%B8rensen_Sunyata_Bhai_ Sri Wuji is still a little dazed and distrait after weeks of dissipation in wordiness and in what he calls food-fuss and silly birth-death celebration. Is it 19 or 90? he asks regarding the candles on the birthday-cake, but there were no candles at all on the cake, only in large letters : “Sunyata: Ego-free Inner-standing”. However, instead of visible candles, there were present 90 loveable egojies-, all enlightened, though only a few of them aware of being luminous in Self radiant Light. We quoted Ramana Maharshi: “You who wish to celebrate the birthday, seek first whence was your birth? One’s birthday is, when he enters THAT which, transcends – birth and death, the Eternal Being. To seek one’s Self and merge in the Self, that is wisdom”. Sri Wuji adds, Thou art thy Self the object of thy search. Ego-oblivion is Self-awareness – Grace-awareness. The waves on the Pacific Ocean are very close to the Sea. The Source and i are a non dual. Today, August 13, marks the 42nd death anniversary of this revered holy man. It is a touching coincidence that, in a letter written in November 1980, Sunya Bhai expressed his heartfelt wish to live for one hundred years and celebrate his birth-centenary with Rabindranath Tagore, Magrethe behin, the Queen of Danes, Queen of Spain, Indira Gandhi, and the Queen of Denmark,Prince Peter of Greece, Svetoslav Roerich, Ranika Devi and Saints/Masterjis. This extraordinary aspiration reflected his universal vision, his childlike joy, and the deep friendships that transcended nations, cultures, and generations. He also mentioned his autobiography in this letter, entitled Sunyata – Ego-Free Inner-standing, which was being printed in Chicago. Although he had no desire in life, he lived ego-free, death-free, and body-free. He has always quoted, “I have nothing to say.” Destiny, however, had another design. On August 13, 1984, Sunya Bhai left his mortal body following a road accident, and his cherished dream of celebrating his hundredth birthday remained unrealized. Yet the true measure of a life is not its length but its enduring influence. Though he did not reach his centenary, the light of his wisdom, compassion, and spiritual presence continues to illumine the hearts of seekers around the world. -Rama Kant-
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Simply to Be: Ramana Maharshi on the Self and Non-Doership– – Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sørensen (Sunyata Bhai)
https://www.academia.edu/168897744/Simply_to_Be_Ramana_Maharshi_on_the_Self_and_Non_Doership_Alfred_Julius_Emmanuel_S%C3%B8rensen_Sunyata_Bhai_
Ramana Maharshi stated: “Sometime I stayed with my eyes closed and, when I opened that people said I had come out of my blessed Samadhi, but I never knew the difference between meditation and non-meditation -, blessed or otherwise. I simply lived – a tranquil witness to whatever happens around me. I never felt called upon to interfere actually. I could never feel any urge to be anything except to be. I awared that all and always been done by HIM, by the self alone, though we poor puppets of Maya feel ourselves so (ego) Important as the doer, the action at the reformer of everything.
Source from old paper collection of letters (1950s,1960s,1970s) sent by
Alfred Sorensen known as Sunya Bhai to my father Radhey Shiam –
Compiled & Notes by _Rama Kant s/o Lsh Radhey Shiam
– Author of – ‘Song of Life,’The Book of Life’, ‘Quotes of Life’, ‘Nature and I’ and ‘My Soul, My Mother Ganga in English and ‘Haiku Paheliyaan’ in 2 Vol., ‘Haiku Ramayana’, Vedhai Haiku Uttar Ramayana’, ‘Mukri Haiku Paheliyaan’ and ‘Adharma Uvachaa’ in Hindi
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The Mystic Light in World Religions – Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sorensen (Sunya Bhai) https://www.academia.edu/164917604/The_Mystic_Light_in_World_Religions_Alfred_Julius_Emmanuel_Sorensen_Sunya_Bhai_
All mysticism is paradoxical and in Buddhism the paradoxicality is over and the Buddhist mystic delights in it. In Churchianity the contradictions are often glossed over because egoism is a special characteristic of the West. The mind usurps -. Theories and philosophies- and the greed of power and pleasure and mere knowledge, blur the non-dual experience, which exists without theories and philosophies (Theoria and Philosophia, in old Greek, meant rather Darshan and Empathy-experience). Paradoxes appear- the same in all mysticism – in all cultures-, and spiritual values manage to survive-. Wu! We might quote from the simple mystic lore of Dame Julian of Norwich – (“Sin is behovely”). Thomas Traherne, Jakob Boehme; Brother Lawrence (“The practice of the Presence”); or from some fellow-pilgrims we have actually experienced and loved in Empathy: Edward Carpenter and Rabindranath Tagore. The latter writes -: “Now that the ego was put into the back-ground, I could aware the world in its true aspect-. And that aspect has nothing of triviality in it. It is full of beauty and joy—-. All of a sudden a covering seemed to fall away from my eyes- and I found the world bathed in a wonderful radiance with waves of beauty and joy swelling on every side-. It flooded my heart with universal light. From infancy I had seen only with my eyes (senses and mind), now I began to be aware with the whole of my consciousness”. “It is not the object – but the Light that maketh Heaven on Earth”. It is the pure Light of integral awareness – and death-free Being.
Source from old paper collection of letters (1950s,1960s,1970s) sent by Alfred Sorensen known as Sunya Bhai to my father Radhey Shiam – Compiled & Notes by _Rama Kant s/o Lsh Radhey Shiam – Author of – ‘Song of Life,’The Book of Life’, ‘Quotes of Life’, ‘Nature and I’ and ‘My Soul, My Mother Ganga in English and ‘Haiku Paheliyaan’ in 2 Vol., ‘Haiku Ramayana’, Vedhai Haiku Uttar Ramayana’, ‘Mukri Haiku Paheliyaan’ and ‘Adharma Uvachaa’ in Hindi
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