Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Ramana Maharshi and the Cult of "Pure Awareness."


Who is THE definitive poster boy of modern Advaita Vedanta (Non-Duality), beloved by traditionalists and progressives alike? Without a doubt it would have to be Ramana Maharshi. For those who have been living in a hermit's cave for the last several decades, Ramana had a panic attack when he was 16 years old, described here in his own words:

"...a sudden violent fear of death overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to account for it, and I did not try to account for it or find out whether there was any reason for the fear. I just felt "I am going to die" and began thinking what to do about it. (...)

The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inwards and I said to myself mentally, without actually framing the words: "Now death has come; what does it mean? What is it that is dying? This body dies." And at once I dramatized the occurrence of death. I lay with my limbs stretched out stiff as though rigor mortis had set in and imitated a corpse so as to give greater reality to the inquiry. I held my breath and kept my lips tightly closed so that no sound could escape, so that neither the word "I" nor any other word could be uttered. "Well then," I said to myself, "this body is dead. It will be carried stiff to the burning ground and there burnt and reduced to ashes. But with the death of this body am I dead? Is the body I? It is silent and inert but I feel the full force of my personality and even the voice of the 'I' within me, apart from it. So I am Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the Spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death. That means I am deathless Spirit." 

After this transformative experience, Ramana maintained silence for many years before eventually being recognized as a guru and having an ashram built up around him. He passed away in 1950.

Among many modern spiritual folks, it seems that Ramana is held in even higher esteem than the iconic and ever-popular Jesus Christ or Gautama Buddha. From all accounts, he was a really nice guy and that probably makes him more of a lightning rod for worship than many modern gurus who have been caught taking part in one or more criminal behaviors. A thriving tourist trade has sprung up around Ramana's ashram in Thiruvannammalai, India and pictures and quotes of his flood social media. The core of his philosophy is that we are an absolute, transcendental Self (capitol "S") that is synonymous with pure awareness. This is the same idea as the ancient Hindu concept of Brahman - the singular, unchanging, timeless reality.

I was once a believer in these concepts but part of my personal experience was a deep, spontaneous questioning of all of the things I accepted as truth. Then I realized that I had just internalized another conceptual system by accepting the tenets of non-duality. I find it impossible to believe any of these absolutist statements anymore so, when I hear my friends discussing them, I recognize the same religious fervor I once held for these ideas. I was also once very good at explaining these beliefs to others and could often cause them to have an "aha" moment and corresponding dopamine rush. Some might even call it an "enlightenment" experience! Many people came to me to talk about these things when I was speaking about them with certainty. Now I wonder if the fascination with "transcendence" is really just hopeful thinking and wish fulfillment. 

I felt, as many do who come in contact with the concepts of Advaita Vedanta, that I had reached "the end of the road" and that I had finally encountered "absolute knowledge." One hallmark of the form is extremely grandiose statements expressed with total authority. "I was never born and I will never die." "I am infinite, timeless awareness." "I am the Truth beyond all appearances." "I am the unchanging reality." When I was really taken with these ideas, I would tell them to my wife and she'd point out that they sound like the insane ramblings of a complete megalomaniac.

Today a friend posted some of these types of statements and, in the resulting discussion, Ramana was quoted and later in the conversation I wrote, "so many beliefs and philosophies are just the fear of death in action." Then I remembered Ramana's "awakening" story and it dawned on me that his entire philosophy was born in the fear of a panic attack!

If you've never had a panic attack, it is a powerful, visceral experience. The easiest way to describe it is the total, overwhelming fear of imminent death. I had many panic attacks in 2013 due to adrenal exhaustion. I eventually got rid of them by nutritional therapy and lifestyle changes but I can still remember their intensity. I often wonder if most "transcendental" beliefs are rooted in the fear of death, for example - the Christian belief in heaven. How different is it to believe that you are a birthless, deathless, eternal "Self"? This idea can feel really good but does it have anything to do with reality? I don't know, and I would be willing to bet Ramana didn't either. Why would we assume that any other human being is closer to truth than us or has esoteric knowledge that we lack?

I'm not saying this is necessarily the way it was but bear with me for a moment... WHAT IF, as a boy Ramana was faced with the idea of death and his young mind couldn't handle the overpowering fear? WHAT IF his entire philosophy was built on the DENIAL of this fear and an escape into wishful "magical" thinking? In his "awakening" story, it says his limbs went stiff and he imagined what it was like to be dead but was he REALLY dead? Of course not.

What do we really KNOW about death? Most of us know what it can look like from the outside but what do we ACTUALLY know about what the experience is like? Yes, we can believe what one "authority" or another has said about it but what do we KNOW about it? I will admit that I don't know ANYTHING about it and that suits me just fine. It seems we can only fear our IDEAS about what we don't know. No ideas = no fear. 

In all of the absolutist concepts, I find a denial of one's unknowing and of one's mortality, I also find a denial of the mercurial, ever-transforming nature of the observable universe. What if the idea of an absolute is just a false refuge for a mind in fear? We see what believers through history have done to protect their beliefs, their certainty. People were burned at the stake for even daring to question the "absolute" knowledge of those in power and still are today. 

These bodies are going to die. My Mother died last December and I went through the whole process with her, excluding the actual moment of her death (she was being cleaned by a nurse when it happened). It was a roller-coaster ride of emotions and experiences. I can see how someone faced with the heaviness of what is happening might want to cling to some comforting beliefs but I have deeply believed and then let go of so many things. What are we REALLY certain about? What if the whole human religious and spiritual enterprise is born in the inability to experience life as it is WITHOUT trying to explain the shadows away? What if we FACE the fact of death and recognize that we don't really know about what it's like to die? Why should we want to deny the natural cycles of birth and death? I told my Mom that consciousness either continues after death or it doesn't and that neither option is that bad. I won't claim to know the answer either way.

In my life, there have been what have felt like profound insights. The first was the recognition that there is something deeper to me than who I thought I was. This aspect can be called consciousness or awareness (among other things) and it must be present for us to experience anything. Many in the Advaita Vedanta movement apparently see this fact and then somehow imagine that this awareness is apart from life. Ironically, this venerated "Pure Awareness" is just another dualistic conceptualization. Life is everything happening, INCLUDING awareness. If we look at our own experience we don't find consciousness apart from what is perceived. In the name of "non-duality," many just imagine another form of separation - "Pure Awareness" from the rest of existence. Though I once believed in this division, this is not my direct experience. 

I can see that often, when we recognize the uncertainty inherent in life we reach out for something "eternal." In seeing death and pain, we seek a way to transcend these and there are plenty of philosophies and religions that claim to offer such transcendence, the cost of admission is belief in the system. Non-duality is no different. Once I started seeing that my new found "absolute truth" was merely just another conceptual system and started sharing these realizations, one of my friends who was still a believer asked me, "What happened to you, you used to be so clear?" I responded, "Every orthodoxy must have it's heresy." I understand the fear that would lead one into absolutist concepts. I have shared this fear. Now I find total security in letting go of the concepts. I see all of our beliefs about the nature of reality as mental poison and avoid them like the plague. Some of the poison is very sweet tasting but toxic, nonetheless. 

We over-thinking primates easily get lost in descriptions. We mistake our concepts for actuality. In my opinion it's so much easier if we can suspend our beliefs and just be openly aware of what is happening. As far as I can tell, our own life experience is the closest we will ever get to any sort of "truth."

I'm not saying that Ramana was wrong, how could I know one way or the other? Many seem to enjoy is teachings and I think there's merit in that, I'm just asking why we should accept the word of ANY external authority as gospel Truth. Instead of parroting ancient, dead "wisdom," I personally feel that we would be better served by looking at life for ourselves. For me, the greatest realization was how little I actually know. It was earth-shaking in it's implications and it freed me from a great many illusions that I had up to that point called "Truth" (with a capitol "T" - of course)!

Obviously I'm no more of an authority than you or anyone else, just sharing the way I see things. I try to keep an open mind towards whatever it seems like life is showing me at the moment. Whatever our beliefs about the nature of life and the universe are, there is so much beyond them.

16 comments:

Raj said...

You are lost because you didnot have the experience. This maybe because you never really practised what Ramana taught. I think had you practised what he taught you would have been a different man. anyway as Ramana says. Disciple might leave me but I will never him :)

Morgan Caraway said...

The human brain easily creates idols. Unfortunately, Ramana has been turned to one as Jesus and Buddha were. Really, we're just abstract-thinking primates who create our own "realities" based on our misconceptions. It's an amazing natural gift and allows us to live in our illusions. One popular falsehood is that anyone is closer to Truth than anyone else.

Linda said...

I agree with you 10,000% and I'm so excited to see an eloquent description of this, it's been tough to find this point of view in the Google, I say :)

To Raj's comment, I heard the same thing after leaving a 30+ year, sincere "walk with Jesus" - friends concluded that I just never really had the Holy Spirit or my faith was somehow incomplete. Nope, I understood it all, and now have rejected it based on seeing it for what it is.

Thanks for this blog post! I've bookmarked it. Will check out your others.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nick said...

Non-duality is a tricky subject. Why so? Are tsunamis, nuclear wars, rape and murder, and a Thanksgiving dinner not real? There's the non-duality that acknowledges our interconnectivity, then there's the whole "nothing is real" thing which can be tested with a loaded shotgun but strangely no one takes the test. And why do I suspect so? If you get shot in the head with a shotgun your brain will blow into pieces and then your consciousness that can spew metaphysical garbage will cease to exist. Something a first grader can tell you. But then children get tainted with their parents spewing their abusive dualistic nonsense. Non-duality can easily fall into duality where instead of the enlightened and unenlightened, the sinners and the saved, the smart and the stupid, it's the aware and the unaware. But yes, we are all interconnected.

And speaking of Raj's comment, well online I've had a "psychonaut" tell me to take 7.7 grams of mushrooms because I disagree with his views. When someone sees through your dogmatic bullshit, just keep dosing them 'till they're "fixed". Instead of mindlessly meditating into psychosis, instead you should utilize critical thinking and study real science and use common sense, you are the one who has to prove there's a teapot in space, not others. But of course phonies like you are put the burden of proof on everyone else instead of doing some critical thinking and self reflection. A huge red flag for a cult is being told "you don't get it/are unenlightened" when you question their nonsensical views. And then the good boys like you Raj come in and drag them back and beat them and then dose them with your grade-A bullshit 'til they "understand." Good thing Hitler's not around to really excite you and get you to unleash your "truths".

Unknown said...

I see your simple, powerful explanation. Ramana had a panic attack, couldn't handle the fear of death and developed some wishful thinking. Then he gave up everything, spent 15 years in a cave in total silence, neglecting his body, mostly starving. Nothing extraordinary, just like anybody would do after having such a strong panic attack. He certainly deluded himself with wishful thinking and somehow some others convinced him to delude them as well. That is why he broke his silence after some time. He never expected anything in return for his delusional stuff but just went on spreading his delusion for the sake of delusion itself. This delusional stuff went on spreading itself with the help of self hypnotized crowd even after his death until now. You are the one, eye opener. Thank you.

Justin said...

I believe that this is the nature of pursuing the Tao(到), or non dualism, enlightenment etc...the very nature of the thing we wish to pursue is that it is not a thing and actually you can’t pursue it. I think this has always been present in the Buddha’s teachings...but as a matter of human error we reign things. I agree that any conceptualization of “non dualism” is a contradiction, however if we are to use words to communicate about these things we must acquiesce to the woeful inadequacies of language. The old zen proverb “my finger points to the moon, but it is not the moon” applied. From Spira, “you are already looking at the screen” and the nomenclature of “non-dualism” as a separate school of thought, which I don’t understand because it is most certainly not a new concept. So this nomenclature is sort of a necessary evil. With time comes reform, and I believe Rupert and Ekaart Tolle are something like a Mahayana reformation for our age. But your point is well taken and one must always be wary of cults, it’s just I don’t think this is one of them. It seems in fact, pretty straight forward to me. I came across your blog in an effort to check myself and investigate this guy, but so far have remained completely unconvinced of any cult activity or dishonesty. Doesn’t mean it’s not there, but looks pretty good from where I’m standing.

Justin said...

Sorry, I know my post was a bit divergent and didn’t address the particular guy you were talking about.

desertman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
desertman said...

Who is the John Wheeler who wrote this incredible blurb to your book?

If it's the physicist John Archibald Wheeler I wonder how he could have written this - Wheeler died in 2008 and the book is from 2011.

Apart from that - I do like the article a lot. I am looking very intensely into nonduality since about three years (after having been with a so-called Spiritual Master for more than 30 years). It is the most plausible thing in regards to "the truth of things" I have found so far. And yet I am questioning it again and again. For my taste the teachers I am looking at are not saying very often "I don't know," but rather something like "the truth is unspeakable" which I find intriguing and unsatisfying at the same time.

Unknown said...

Their are many people who believe the moon landing was real, their are many people who believe
the moon landing was a hoax, who is right, being confident in regard to either is not intelligent,
it is just accepting.
Their are only a very few people who know the truth about the moon landing and obviously
Armstrong is one of them.

if you have not experienced what non dualists are searching for and you say it is not possible then it is not possible for you.
I have been on the moon(metaphor) albeit briefly and without drugs(i have never used drugs), so I know the moon landing is real(metaphor).
I don't expect anybody to believe it, it is of no consequence, besides believing is just faith and faith is for the ignorant.
So the question is are you ignorant? Whether you say "yes I believe" or if you say "no you are full of sh#$", either one is ignorant.
However if you say, "I don't care I am not interested", then that is fine, or if you say, "I don't know but will investigate", this is also fine.

The word "real" in terms of non-duality is not what real means in everyday life, don't get hung-up on semantics.

Knowledge comes from experience, information is hearsay.

NF said...

Great essay Morgan.

Unknown said...

Test.

Chris Beatrice said...

I know this thread is old but I'm going to comment anyway, in part because you are one of the few people touching on this subject in this important way. I agree with your concerns. And, further, the counter-argument that comes up "you have not experienced it..." I think is also false. Non-duality (and even just a bit of intellectual reasoning) leads us to see that in terms of suffering, personhood is the problem. No "me", no suffering. So "me" needs to go. But me does not go so easily. We can also see that some people suffer more than others, because when something happens TO THEM it is seen as a bigger deal than for some other people. Well, what would happen to a brain that is pushed to confront these facts that only human creatures know: we're going to die, we're going to suffer, we can't really control anything, and our lives don't really have a purpose that we know of? What would a brain forced to face this dilemma do? Might it not come to the only possible conclusion, "I (this person) don't exist"? It's literally suicide. People have multiple personality disorder as the result of trauma. Being another person is very real--to them. You're the one living the illusion---to them. Why is "enlightenment" so rare, if it is our "natural state?" It seems to me that the simpler explanation is this is some kind of psychosis. The fact that it feels great to the experience is another matter. It doesn't necessarily feel great to those around him/her.

Unknown said...

lol there isn't much to say really. Shame you didn't "get" it. Did you ever spend time in India at or near the Ashram? If you did you might think differently. Proof is in the pudding.

There are zero cult things going on with Ramanashram, though many idiots who claim to gurus set up camp in the town there in the annual spiritual supermarket.

The reason people can't achieve anything these days is because there are so many distractions imo. The plastic gurus aren't helping either. Also that type of teaching is not good for the general public imo. Thirdly...Ramana had no teaching really. Just that people who would sit in his presence would feel an immense feeling of peace come over them. If he had a teaching, it's silence.

Leif Arne said...

> I realized that I had just internalized another conceptual system by accepting the tenets of non-duality. I find it impossible to believe any of these absolutist statements anymore so, when I hear my friends discussing them, I recognize the same religious fervor I once held for these ideas. I was also once very good at explaining these beliefs to others

> I felt, as many do who come in contact with the concepts of Advaita Vedanta, that I had reached "the end of the road" and that I had finally encountered "absolute knowledge." One hallmark of the form is extremely grandiose statements expressed with total authority. "I was never born and I will never die." "I am infinite, timeless awareness." "I am the Truth beyond all appearances." "I am the unchanging reality."

> We over-thinking primates easily get lost in descriptions. We mistake our concepts for actuality. In my opinion it's so much easier if we can suspend our beliefs and just be openly aware of what is happening. As far as I can tell, our own life experience is the closest we will ever get to any sort of "truth."

Sounds to me like, ironically, you are closer to nondual awareness as an apostate than you were as a zealot! 😄

I love your writing btw!