Quotes and teachings of Annamalai Swami - a disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Self-inquiry must be done continuously. It doesn't work if you regard it as a part-time activity.
Self-inquiry must be done continuously. It doesn't work if you regard it as a part-time activity.
You can take as much water from the ocean as you are capable of carrying, but if you don’t bother to go down to the shore with a pot you get nothing at all.
To have love towards another human being is a blessing and to have anger towards him is a curse.
All desires can cause you trouble, even spiritual ones.
The ego is just like a ghost. It has no real form of its own…identifying oneself with the body and mind results in ignorance of the Self. This is how the ego takes birth. Detaching ourselves and disengaging from the body and the mind results in the death of the ego.
You have to keep up the enquiry, 'To whom is this happening?' all the time. If you are having trouble remind yourself, 'This is just happening on the surface of my mind. I am not this mind or the wandering thoughts.' Then go back into enquiry 'Who am I?'. By doing this you will penetrate deeper and deeper and become detached from the mind. This will only come about after you have made an intense effort.
You have to keep up the enquiry, 'To whom is this happening?' all the time. If you are having trouble remind yourself, 'This is just happening on the surface of my mind. I am not this mind or the wandering thoughts.' Then go back into enquiry 'Who am I?'. By doing this you will penetrate deeper and deeper and become detached from the mind. This will only come about after you have made an intense effort.
If you can give up duality, Brahman alone remains, and you know yourself to be that Brahman, but to make this discovery continuous meditation is required. Don't allocate periods of time for this. Don't regard it as something you do when you sit with your eyes closed. This meditation has to be continuous. Do it while eating, walking and even talking. It has to be continued all the time.
In every moment you only have one real choice: to be aware of the Self or to identify with the body and the mind.
Your ultimate need is to get established in the changeless peace of the Self. For this you have to give up all thoughts.
If you can hold on to this knowledge 'I am Self' at all times, no further practice is necessary.
All suffering begins with a notion of duality. As long as this duality-consciousness is strongly fixed in the mind, one cannot give real help to other people. If one realizes one’s non-dual nature and becomes peaceful within, one becomes a fit instrument to help others…
Meditation needs an awake mind not an unconscious one…
Meditation is not something that should be done in a particular position at a particular time. It is an awareness and an attitude that must persist throughout the day…
If you give your mind your full, detached attention, you begin to understand the futility of all mental activities. Watch the mind wandering here and there, seeking out useless or unnecessary things or ideas which will ultimately only create misery for itself….
Grace is important. In fact it is essential. It is even more important than effort. Realization of the self comes through both effort and grace. When one makes a steady effort to abide in the self one receives the guru's grace in abundance. The grace comes not only through the form of one's guru. When you meditate earnestly all the Jivanmuktas of the past and the present respond to your efforts by sending you blessings of light.
Continuous attentiveness will only come with long practice. If you are truly watchful, each thought will dissolve at the moment that it appears. But to reach this level of disassociation you must have no attachments at all. If you have the slightest interest in any particular thought, it will evade your attentiveness, connect with other thoughts, and take over your mind for a few seconds; and this will happen even more if you are accustomed to reacting emotionally to a particular thought.