A Personal
Note from Ramana
In this time of
great and rapid change, do you sometimes find yourself desperately
trying to hold on, or find yourself falling into outdated
patterns of fear and doubt? Do you sometimes obsess on real
and imagined issues in your personal life, as well as the
state of the economy and the world?
Take a deep breath. Relax. As hopeless as it seems, right now there is something
opening for you: the door to your freedom. Once you pass through that door,
all circumstances take on a different light, and you realize that there never
was a door in the first place.
It is possible to surf the waves
of change masterfully, intuitively, and in a heart-felt way,
for in the background of all perception is the purity of
your true self.
This true self is not making enormous
efforts to transform itself into a more in-tune, spiritual
person whose success or failure depends on creating a perfect
life; it is much simpler and more basic than that.
The distance between
your self-assumed identity and the infinite, creative awareness
is thinner than a silken thread, where less than a whisper
of effort is required to break through. As identity begins
to merge with this ever-present awareness, perception opens
to a vast, loving, compassionate space. Within this vastness,
identity is immediately perceived as nothing more than a bundle
of arising thoughts and programming, as attention is naturally
drawn to the love and depth of awareness.
If your heart is hearing and feeling
what I am speaking of, you are ripe for awakening.
Radical Awakening is a sudden
and impactful shift in one’s conscious awareness of
Self, where the "spell" of false identification
is broken. It is a veritable waking up from the dream. For
the last 12 years, my focus has been the sharing of this
pure awareness.
In recent years
I have discovered that after an awakening, there is an emergence
of the spiritual heart, where action begins to spring from
a place of compassion, wholeness and unity, rather than hidden
designs and personal gain. Fear shows up within the context
of spacious awareness, softened within the purity of heart.
This emergence is what I call the Opening to Heart Consciousness.
I encourage you to examine your
priorities and to put your energy, attention and resources
into those activities which nurture the emergence of the
true self. To do so is to tap into a font of purity, goodness
and infinite power. In this Heart Consciousness, the human
heart—so frail and alone—blossoms into the flowering
consciousness of pure awareness.
This may be the last workshop
you feel that you will need to do (although you may be moved
to do others). I believe
that after a Radical Awakening, your search for self-improvement
can finally come to an end, and you can finally come to rest
in the heart of Silence.
Come, let us meet where the frailty
of the human heart and the infinite, creative energy of the
true self live as one.
Yours in love,
Ramana
