Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

Last updated on 18th Dec. 2023 My post: Viewing Awareness-I as essence or part of God in my meditation and trying to dissolve or merge into God (experience oneness with God), https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2023/06/viewing-awareness-i-as-essence-or-part.html , 7 Jun 2023, covers how I now view Awareness-I as essence or part of God in my meditation practice. Now it is around one to two months that I have been regularly using this practice. I continue to do my Namasmarana practice of "Om Sai Ram" too - so for some time I do "Om Sai Ram" chanting and for some time I do Awareness-I japa-dhyaana (chanting-meditation). It was a natural step after viewing Awareness-I as essence or part of God (nameless and formless God) to view my Awareness-I as essence or part of Sai (Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and Bhagavan Sri Shirdi Sai Baba) while I was doing "Om Sai Ram" namasmarana. Nowadays when I chant "Om Sai Ram", most of the time, automatically the attentio...

Previously I had created posts related to Thuravoor Narayana Shastrigal (TNS) on this blog of mine: ravisiyer.blogspot.com . On 14th April 2023, I copied all the posts with content mainly on TNS, to a new blog I created: tnarayanasasthri.blogspot.com blog (referred hereafter as tns blog). The corresponding old posts of this blog - ravisiyer.blogspot.com - inform readers about this move and provide the associated post of the tns blog as a link. Thuravoor Narayana Sasthrigal (or Shastrigal / Sasthrikal / Sastri / Sasthri / Shastri ) is my great-grandfather (my mother's father's father). I think the key Sanskrit word for the last name is a honorific - शास्त्री . For more about tns blog, please visit: https://tnarayanasasthri.blogspot.com/p/about-blog-and-author.html . Unfortunately, Google search for: Thuravoor Narayana Sasthrigal does not list the tns blog post(s) at all. Instead it returns one post of this ravisiyer.blogspot.com whose contents point the reader to tns blog. Whi...

Last updated on 16 Jun 2023 Note: This is a sensitive topic and I may be wildly wrong. But I felt an urge to write and publish it as it may benefit some spiritual aspirant(s), and so have done so. Any constructive criticism is welcome. I will be glad to change my views based on new material that I have so far not read or viewed. end-Note. Firstly I would like to say that well established in self-realization persons would surely not have fear of (bodily) death. The question in my mind is how they would view bodily pain and weakening of body due to disease and old age. Would they fear having bodily pain and suffering and so try to avoid it whenever possible? If they do have bodily pain and weakening of body due to disease and old age, how do they handle it?  In what follows in this post, when I use the term self-realized person, I mean a well established in self-realization person. In my own case, I am NOT such a well-established in self-realization person but have had some limited s...

In the process of putting up and later updating my previous post on Sam Harris interview video, I happened to write about some similarities and differences between how Sam Harris, an atheist, views experience of consciousness/awareness and how I, a Hindu theist, view it. I thought that I should now put up a separate post (this one) on these similarities and differences which is based on some of the contents of my previous post, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2023/06/rationalist-sam-harris-on-consciousness.html  , but omits some parts which are not directly related to this topic.  Note that there probably are more similarities and differences between Sam Harris' view and my view on consciousness/awareness but this post deals with only that related to one section of the video. That is why in the title of this post, I have used the phrase, 'Some similarities and differences'. 1) Both Harris (atheist) and I (Hindu theist) hold the view that almost all of life is impermanent inc...

I watched the section "Understanding Impermanence and its Relation to Suffering" (from 35 min. 19 secs), of the video: Sam Harris: A Rational Mystics Guide To Consciousness & Awakening | Know Thyself Podcast EP 47,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqA-ZRpl1jQ&t=2119s till 43 min. 31 secs. and also the next section. But in this post I am limiting myself to above mentioned section. Given below are my notes about some of the views expressed by Harris in above section of the video, along with my comments. In the first part of my comments (which goes on till I mention the start of the second part of my comments), I have not brought in faith in God, supernatural power of God, prayer and Grace in the context of the section. Harris is quite a famous figure. From his wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Harris , "Samuel Benjamin Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics...

When author of post or comment is not mentioned, it should be assumed that it is me (Ravi S. Iyer). To save time, I am usually not providing my FB post links but only contents. I am also not hyperlinking links. So readers may have to copy-paste links from this post onto a browser link box and then browse to that link. ==========================================    Interesting words about spiritual awakening. In my humble view, spiritual awakening term seems to have a similar meaning to, if not the same meaning as, becoming or rather being spiritually aware (of your reality as the Atma). [FB post https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/pfbid02SkiqGke1EQyAYXBfN5ahabizSvoGaqUxg8W551BQXe6M63rk9QdFwvTnEVrK5Uuil shares another post] ========================== Karma is one of the great mysteries of life, for me. I mean, I believe in Karma from what is said in Hindu scripture and which has been reinforced by quotes/words of Bhagavan on Karma. Note that I have heard some of Bhagava...

Contents of my recent Facebook post: Being focused on Awareness-I while being without thoughts in meditation; Chanting helper-statements while being focused on Awareness-I,  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/pfbid02v3BAgB7FUAR1nBzkMX4zUt5tjJ6HWbzUYZ1m3qMjzbg8KBmCcPaWYvnh2GWuivsKl :  In my meditation practice, about being without thoughts and not chanting anything within, I have observed that I can do it in two ways: a) Stop thought with focus being on the front side of my head including my forehead (including Bruhamadhya which is point between the eyebrows). The Awareness-I, of course, is there but I am not focusing on it. b) Stop thought and focus on Awareness-I in an inner zone which is from the center of my chest to the head including the Bruhamadhya I find that way b) is easier for me to maintain whereas way a) needs some more concentration effort and so more difficult to maintain. Therefore I prefer way b). In both the ways mentioned above I am not chanti...

Last updated on 19 Jun 2023 For a few weeks now, I have slightly modified my meditation helper-statements and practice to additionally bring in "Dissolve into God" helper-statement. It has got somewhat settled now in my meditation practice and so I thought I should share it. First, some background ... The Awareness-I which I view as the Atma is one of the two most precious parts or aspects of me with the other part being God in formless aspect and in name-and-form aspect of Bhagavan Sri Shirdi Sai Baba and Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. However, my belief is that both my Atma and God, in their essence at least, are one. But, as of now, it is a belief and not an experience of God/Paramatma, the universal divine consciousness that I believe, pervades all of creation.  Over the past few weeks when I meditate, I view the changeless awareness part in me to be part of God, and in its essence, same as God. I also view it as a pathway to experience God, the universal divine consciousn...

These are follow up questions (slightly edited) I sent to some who told me that they feel there is a part of them which does not change over time (other than parts that change like mind and body). I thought I should share them as a public post. Readers who feel that there is a part of them that does not change, are welcome to respond to them, if they want to, either publicly as comments or privately as a message to me. Of course, I will keep names of those who send private messages to me as completely confidential. But I may share general content of such messages without giving any indication of who wrote those messages. This way knowledge about the topic gets shared publicly along with confidentiality of persons (names) being maintained. I have kept the questions simple so that persons can quickly answer them and move on to some other work/activity. 1) Do you feel that this unchanging part of you is a deeper part of your being than the changing mind? Or do you feel that it is just ano...

Recently I read Shanmugam P's very interesting and detailed account of his spiritual journey including claimed self-realization (very, very long, 46 min. read): The Journey of a Seeker — My Story, May 16, 2017, https://medium.com/@shan_bally/the-journey-of-a-seeker-my-story-f9672bdf573e . I put up the following comment on the article: "Thank you very much for sharing the detailed account of your spiritual journey and related experiences as a public post/article. Your frankness is admirable. I particularly appreciated the questions that you raise related to the enlightenment accounts of contemporary or near-contemporary persons. Once again, many thanks." I have given below some notes about the parts of the article that interested me along with some comments of mine within [Ravi-comment ... end-Ravi-comment] tags or if comment is short then only as [Ravi-comment ... ] . Shanmugam P (SP) had his first notable experience when in a Chennai polytechnic college as a student. I...