Self As Presence. What Is, Is You: By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar
The Truth of Existence is ultimately simple and never absent. It could not be otherwise. Sri Ramana used to say that the Eternal Divine nature cannot be present at one time and absent at another. So we must become aware of our Self in this present moment. It is only in the present that the Self is Realized. That is because the very nature of the Self is Pure Presence. It is Pure Being.
Truth is always Self-Seeing and Self-Being. Self Sees It Self by the power of its own inherent Truth. It needs no external agency for validation. You do not need anyone to tell you that you exist. You know you exist. Your existence announces itself perpetually and continually. That is the nature of the Self. It is unbroken and the whole mass of Awareness-Existence-Bliss. In Sanskrit, we refer to it as Sat-Chit-Ananada.
Advaita says that Self is the Truth and it is One without a second. There is no second outside of this One to verify its existence.
The Truth is only found by turning within. It cannot be found looking anywhere other than where you are in this present moment. The great Realization is that the Seeker, the one who seeks the Truth, ends up knowing that He/She is the Truth It Self. That is the end of seeking. Where can you look for the Truth when the Realization dawns that you are already rooted in the Truth of Existence.
We are already the Truth. There is nothing to gain which can add something to our original nature. We must See this with our inner Eye. This knowledge is not objective knowledge. This knowledge is purely subjective. That is why we call it Self-Knowledge. It is not the knowledge of objects of perceptions. The best one can say is that It is only what One Is.
Self is Always Self-Awake and complete. The awakened and quiet mind is able to recognize the Self shining through clearly. It is only Self-Recognition through the medium of the mind.
The mind identity that arises out of the Self, and that is of the nature of Self in essence, has the feeling of limitation and weakness due to identification with the body. Many explanations are given for this such as Karma, Maya, etc.
So the practical instructions of the sages emphasize contemplation on the essential nature of identity and existence. This method is known as Self-Inquiry. It involves inquiring into the nature of one’s own being and existence with conviction.
Without faith one can never jump into the arms of the Divine Beloved.
We do not have enough personal strength to go into the unknown. The personal identity cannot step into the unknown without faith. To allow that final surrender to the Divine to take place at all is called Grace.
Faith allows for total and immediate availability to the Divine, which ultimately is nowhere other than in one’s own Self. Without faith, one speaks eloquently of water but does not take the drink and remains thirsty.
Sri Ramana pointed out that any “doing” with the mind presupposes the retention of the mind. It is this very nature of “doing” that preserves the ego identity and does not allow the conscious sinking of the mind into the Self from where it arises.
There is no antidote to this except for faith. The complete acceptance of things as they are (not my will, but Divine will), when it permeates meditation and life, undermines the resistance of the mind.
Faith is important. It evokes Grace. It is the preface to Grace.
What is, is you. Self is Realized in the Present as Pure Presence. It is only your own Eternal Presence. If you pay attention, Self reveals It Self as your own Heart of Awareness.
3 thoughts on “Self As Presence. What Is, Is You: By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar”
What is not often spoken of us what happens in the process of arriving at the moment of surrender, the existential helplessness of the one who would awaken. When the resource that is Grace arises within such that the individual can face such a moment–an eternal moment that is facing and releasing oneself into the vast Unknowable, beyond even Presence, into the Absolute of pure unmanifest… where words fail, unto the utmost Silence and Stillness of This that Only Is. We all encourage one another to “Call off the Search” as Ramana devotee Papaji put it, yet give little information about what that really means, and what it means to then live one’s life, to integrate in daily existence This that is utterly transcendent yet fully immanent as well. The luminous Presence that is everywhere, is everyone, is the Seer. Self-inquiry as non-objective meditative living, the point of Sahaja Samadhi, is for many, a path of Self-knowledge not an event, but a series of such until one’s system actually stabilizes in its true functioning as our True Nature, as Self, unmanifest and fully incarnate all at once. OH what blessedness it is to live as This, as full human Being. may all Being discover This we are. Thank you for your on-going contributions and lovely, clear and succinct elucidations of Ramana’s Presence, may he continue to Grace us all! ~Anrael.
The trouble is the mind full of ideas is bent back on itself, creating the experience of a separate me.
This is why letting go is so powerful, because all beliefs, concepts, ideas are relinquished to the point of an inward stillness. It is practically a type of death, the hardware of the mind is hushed.
In this hush, one may see that all beings are in fact the same life, the same unspeakable divinity, and it has always been the case. It was only a backward bent mind which kept the notion of an individuated life idea in play.
Keep quite ( Papaji), is also so useful, because it’s negating movement of mind.
Luthar.com 
What is not often spoken of us what happens in the process of arriving at the moment of surrender, the existential helplessness of the one who would awaken. When the resource that is Grace arises within such that the individual can face such a moment–an eternal moment that is facing and releasing oneself into the vast Unknowable, beyond even Presence, into the Absolute of pure unmanifest… where words fail, unto the utmost Silence and Stillness of This that Only Is. We all encourage one another to “Call off the Search” as Ramana devotee Papaji put it, yet give little information about what that really means, and what it means to then live one’s life, to integrate in daily existence This that is utterly transcendent yet fully immanent as well. The luminous Presence that is everywhere, is everyone, is the Seer. Self-inquiry as non-objective meditative living, the point of Sahaja Samadhi, is for many, a path of Self-knowledge not an event, but a series of such until one’s system actually stabilizes in its true functioning as our True Nature, as Self, unmanifest and fully incarnate all at once. OH what blessedness it is to live as This, as full human Being. may all Being discover This we are. Thank you for your on-going contributions and lovely, clear and succinct elucidations of Ramana’s Presence, may he continue to Grace us all! ~Anrael.
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The trouble is the mind full of ideas is bent back on itself, creating the experience of a separate me.
This is why letting go is so powerful, because all beliefs, concepts, ideas are relinquished to the point of an inward stillness. It is practically a type of death, the hardware of the mind is hushed.
In this hush, one may see that all beings are in fact the same life, the same unspeakable divinity, and it has always been the case. It was only a backward bent mind which kept the notion of an individuated life idea in play.
Keep quite ( Papaji), is also so useful, because it’s negating movement of mind.
LikeLike