Preetom

Of course. You wouldn't be able to 'survive' one day without pursuing conditional happiness. Start taking full responsibility and approach this path with a solid strategy. There are lots of trap and it's so easy to fall in many. Have a look at this useful post. Do not blame and shame yourself for pursuing conditional happiness. As an ego mind you can never stop that search. Focus on Truth/Enlightenment, unconditional happiness will come as a byproduct. You don't have to seek unconditional happiness Yeah that's the best case scenario but 99% will never get it. There are many level you can grasp a realization. One who has viscerally felt the shallowness, futility and hidden pain in the search for happiness will finally stop. He will rather sit alone and cry instead of seeking happiness in objects. The question is how convinced one has become of the fact there is no happiness in objects through contemplation and keen scrutiny? Anyone hardly ever thinks about this.

Those are some good question. But I really hope you don't stop there and go further to seek what unconditional happiness really is. It can't be completely explained with a conditioned language. Enlightenment/Truth is the ONLY way through which unconditional happiness is possible.In fact they are the same thing. No amount of physical doing, psychological gymnastics will do the work. Never! You'll have to clearly see how things really are. It's impossible to talk about post-enlightenment state. Lets just say that 'you' won't be there anymore to do stuff and seek happiness. Other people might see you doing shit and searching happiness but that's their delusion

Ego is just God having a confused and bad day

The unconditional happiness that spirituality promises is not really a phenomenal experience. It's a condition where for the first time you don't care about happiness. The dynamic of searching for happiness ceases. And what do we call the absence of search for happiness? It's called unconditional happiness

Shouldn't you be more concerned about the ingenious fact that how only an idea or belief can make your life a living hell?

Well God wrote his letter. He doesn't give a shit about how people will take it. Just like God created everything but doesn't care at all how everyone is shitting all over it

Well if he is attempting to shit on God, he'll have to go through the right hand of God first which is me

Like what? Are you referring to me or to God?

*Both nondual and dual police are on the way to arrest God*

He became the enlightened master but maybe forgot to get back to fetching water and cutting woods

Wow your life must have been a standstill in that year. It was totally worth it though

Maybe you could look into it again once more. I have to admit I've got a good understanding of Maharshi's teachings due to Michael James and Sri Sadhu Om's interpretations. On the contrary, Michael James claims that Talks with Maharshi can easily confuse people. As Maharshi always replied based on the level of of the seeker, it sounds contradictory when it is compiled in such a big book. Plus the usual translator Murugunar(not the Enlightened Sri Murugunar) used to heavily interpret things from his devotional viewpoints in a biased manner.

Yes that is a great book. I also like Michael James Happiness and the art of being which explains Maharshi's teachings in a very clear way

ugly arts are Creations as well

I just complimented him ffs

Joseph ''fookin enlightened'' Maynor we have a winner!

How successful have you been so far in your project of pretending to be an unenlightened master in order to irritate an enlightened master?

@theking00 Yeah you are not God. You are also not what you currently take yourself to be

Not sure if you've vowed to find out if you can bother an enlightened master or not

Indeed. Repeated reading and absorption does feel like deep self inquiry itself from time to time. There is a potency in the words spoken by a Jnani which works its magic when the time is right.

God needs to keep his lungs warm. If not HE, then who else is there to smoke?

Thanks for your responses. I'll keep at it. And I think I've read my fair share of scriptures including books on the conversation with Maharshi. Still read them everyday for inspiration and fine tuning the necessary ideas about the practice and the metaphysics involved in it. I must also admit your posts and book have inspired me to take it seriously as well. So thanks for everything

Thanks for the answer. Now it makes sense. So you were finally able to persist without having major personality puzzle issues. And that was the case because you integrated the personality for 19 years, so it didn't bothered that much or come as a big obstacle. Now I have something to say regarding the practice. This is where I am at right now. I can see that the so called holding 'I' or being aware of awareness was actually focusing on some very subtle, hard to detect sensations. Or at the very least, it was holding on to the thought that 'I am aware or I am present'' So that means, self-inquiry won't necessarily be a practice where the mind is completely calm and quiet, right? Because there is always movement going on and the simultaneous recognitions of what the 'I' is not. Right now it feels like a repeated moment to moment spark for me. The I feeling is there, but it is not a phenomena. It almost feels like an endless freefall with nothing to grab on to. From time to time, the tendency to grab the I collapses by itself. Usually by this time, I'd be distracted by thoughts. So should I keep on repeating the technique over and over again?

Thanks for sharing. This morning I found out that happiness can never be an object of experience. Just like you cannot ever be an object of experience! What we conventionally know as happiness, is not happiness at all! Just like what we conventionally think ourselves to be has nothing to what we really are. It was so clear all of a sudden that I finally understood why in advaita vedanta the Self is called existence-consciousness-bliss. Bliss and the Self are literally one and the same thing. You cannot ever 'know' happiness, just like you cannot ever 'know' yourself as an object. Happiness is just another name of you. Maybe forgotten but yet it's still there. Edit: This is why I said even if you are 99% happy, you aren't done yet. Keep going. You still haven't realized yourself. Complete self-realization will simultaneously be complete happiness. In fact, they are the same thing.

@winterknight Thanks a lot for the elaborate answer. It reminds me something I read in a conversation with Maharshi. A seeker was casually telling if he could self-realize within few days by doing constant self-inquiry in meditative sitting. Maharshi replied, ''Why don't you try? Your very tendencies won't let you'' So at this point, the question comes how did you know that you were ready to do intense self-inquiry after 19 years? Where did that conviction come from? Why not 5-10 years ago or later? Is there a sign where I can know it's time for me to dive deep into inquiry and leaving all else?