YOU ARE THAT:
continues.....
Mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts, says Sri Maharshi. So thoughts are much subtler than even ether. Subtler still than
thoughts is the parent-thought, the 'I'-thought, says Sri Bhagavan.
Beyond the 'I'-thought is the Pure Mind, devoid of any thoughts, including the 'I'-thought. This Pure Mind is the basis for the rising
of the 'I'-thought immediately on waking from sleep. It is in the 'form' of brilliance (of course, without form or heat).
Beyond even this brilliance, illumination, light, is the Self - the subtlest of all, the very ground, turiya, on or from which everything
arises and into which everything subsides.
Self alone IS -- the one eternal unvarying ground of all existence. All else is , by definition, neither real nor true. Everything comes and
goes and does not abide beyond time and space, that is, the Mind.
Thus, beyond and transcending the five elements, time, space, and thoughts, and even the 'I'-thought, is THAT, the Self.
Now, picture the place of Mind in this geographical map.
It is the one which is subtler than ether, yet as gross as earth in relation to the Self. See the predicament!
Does not the demand on us to transcend the Mind appear insurmountable, incomprehensible, and therefore impossible?
That is:
We do not even know what ether is. Mind is subtler than ether. Thus, how can we ever hope to get rid of something which we
do not even know?
Accepting the validity of the Upanishadic statement 'it is like walking on a razor's edge', the task does look difficult and, perhaps,
impossible!
Yet, sternly turn your attention to Sri Bhagavan Ramana who confirms again and again that 'it is the easiest'!
The former statement poses it as a problem. Whereas the latter categorically affirms the opposite.
That is:
If you want to try to tackle it as a problem, then the mind becomes all important, predominant, projecting the whole undertaking
as extraordinarily difficult, almost impossible.
continued.....
Arunachala Siva.