Part 1 - Few Talks With Sri Ramana Maharshi By LUCY CORNELSSEN

You see, the one eliminates all the not I cannot eliminate the ‘I’. To say ‘I am not this’ or ‘I am that’ there must be the ‘I’.This ‘I’ is only the ego or the ‘I’-thought. After the rising up of this ‘I’-thought, all other thoughts arise. The ‘I’-thought is therefore the root-thought. If the root is pulled out, all others are at the same time uprooted. Therefore seek the root-‘I’,question yourself ‘Who am I?’, find out its source. Then all these will vanish and the pure Self will remain over. (Talks, 197).

Only the annihilation of ‘I’ is Liberation. But it can be gained only by keeping the ‘I’-‘I’ always in view. So the need for the investigation of the ‘I’-thought.
(Talks, 139).

There is only one ‘I’ all along; but what rises up from time to time is the mistaken ‘I’-thought; whereas the intuitive ‘I’ always remains Self-shining, i.e., even before it becomes manifest. (Talks, 139).

The ‘I’-thought is only limited ‘I’. The real ‘I’ is unlimited,universal, beyond time and space. They are absent in sleep, and before seeing the objective world, there is a state of awareness which is your pure Self. That must be known (Talks, 311).

Soul, mind and ego are words. There are no real entities of the kind. Consciousness is the only truth. (Talks, 245).

Just on waking from sleep and before becoming aware of the world there is that pure ‘I’—‘I’. Hold it without sleeping or without allowing thoughts to possess you. If that is held firm it does not matter even though the world is seen. The seer remains unaffected by the phenomena. (Talks, 196).

How is the ego to be destroyed? Hold the ego first and then ask how it is to be destroyed. Who asks this question? It is the ego. Can the ego ever agree to kill itself? This question is a sure way to cherish the ego and not to kill it. If you seek the ego you will find it does not exist. That is the way to destroy it.
(Talks, 615).

Your duty is to be; and not to be this or that. ‘I AM THAT I AM’ sums up the whole truth. The method is, summed up in ‘BE STILL’. What does stillness mean? It means ‘destroy yourself ’. Because any form or shape is the cause of trouble.Give up the notion ‘I am so and so’. (Talks, 363).

The ego is like one’s shadow thrown on the ground. If one attempts to bury it, it will be foolish. The Self is only one. If limited, it is the ego; if unlimited it is the Infinite and is the Reality. (Talks, 146).

‘I am that I am’, ‘I am’ is God... not thinking, ‘I am God’.Realise ‘I am’ and do not think ‘I am’. ‘Know I am God’... it is said, and not ‘Think I am God’. (Talks, 354).

The mind is by nature restless. Begin liberating it from its restlessness; give it peace; make it free from distractedness; train it to look inward; make this a habit. This is done by ignoring the external world and removing the obstacles to peace of mind. (Talks, 26).

Is it the mind that wants to kill itself? The mind cannot kill itself. So your business is to find the real nature of the mind.Then you will know that there is no mind. When the Self is sought, the mind is nowhere. Abiding in the Self, one need not
worry about the mind. (Talks, 146).

Mere book-learning is not of any great use. After realisation all intellectual loads are useless burdens and are thrown overboard as jetsam. Jettisoning the ego is necessary and natural. (Talks, 28).

It is in the mind that birth and death, pleasure and pain,in short, the world and ego, exist. If the mind is destroyed all else are destroyed too. Note that it should be annihilated, not just made latent. For the mind is dormant in sleep. It does not know anything. Still, on waking up you are as you were before.There is no end of grief. But if the mind be destroyed the grief will have no background and will disappear along with the mind. (Talks, 195).

The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts arise because there is the thinker. The thinker is the ego. The ego, if sought, will vanish automatically. The ego and the mind are the same. The ego is the root-thought from which all other thoughts arise. (Talks, 195).

To imagine Muladhara at the bottom, the Heart at the centre or the head at the top or over all these is all wrong. In one word, to think is not your real nature. (Talks, 184).

Is not ‘I am’ also a thought?... The egoless ‘I AM’ is not a thought. It is Realisation. The meaning or significance of ‘I’ is God. The experience of ‘I am’ is to ‘BE STILL’. (Talks, 226).

Inward seeking is the path to be gained by man’s intellect.The intellect itself realises after continuous practice that it is enabled by some Higher Power to function. It cannot itself reach this Power. So it ceases to function after a certain stage.Then the Supreme Power is still left there all alone. That is Realisation; that is finality; that is the goal. (Talks, 502).

It is thus plain that the purpose of the intellect is to realise its own dependence upon the Higher Power and its inability to reach the same. So it must annihilate itself before the goal is reached. (Talks, 502).

Why is intellect developed? It has a purpose. The purpose is that it should show the way to realise the Self. It must be put to that use. (Talks, 644).

The mind becomes peaceful for a short while and again emerges forth. What is to be done?... The peace often gained must be remembered at other times. That peace is your natural and permanent state. By continuous practice it will become natural. That is called the ‘current’. That is your true nature.(Talks, 303).

People think that freedom (moksha) is somewhere yonder and should be sought out. They are wrong. Freedom is only knowing the Self within yourself. Concentrate and you will get it. (Talks, 31).

Source: HUNTING THE ‘I’ according to Sri Ramana Maharshi By LUCY CORNELSSEN