What Do You Think Of This Quote From Ramama Maharshi Regarding Not Thinking

[Joseph Maynor]

"Giving one’s self up to God means remaining constantly in the Self without giving room for the rise of any thoughts other than that of the Self."   (Ramana Maharshi, "Who Am I", Paragraph 18, "Of the devotees, who is greatest?")

Does this mean that we should not intellectualize at all?  What do you think?  How do you weigh-in on this?  Is this a moral injunction, or is it grounded in the fact that thinking is a trap in itself from enlightened practice?  This seems very conservative to me.  Too conservative, no?

Edited July 11, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Visitor]

self (ego-self) is not Self (being-self). Being is the true self, the self based on your truth. It knows the truth and does not need to intellectualize it. It knows the truth about intellectualizing - pulling apart what is truth into something else. Each part gets claimed by the ego and part then contains a story of how the mind had the smarts to understand it.

To remain constantly in the Self is like hitting the 'pause' button on self. In that 'pause' the ego-self is off the stage of life and has allowed the Self to take its place.

Both Being and Truth has no need to be validated. So the only way for it to be present is for it to be invited, by giving it space to emerge. In our 'pause', softness, humbleness, the Being of Truth emerges, often with the expression of truth and love.

[Nahm]

@Joseph Maynor It's relative to what you want. If you want non thinking and inner peace, don't intelectualize at all, practice. If you obtain what you wanted, and then you want to intelectualize, do that too, but you may find there is no need to anymore. 

[Joseph Maynor]

@Nahm Got it!  

[Natasha]

3 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

"Giving one’s self up to God means remaining constantly in the Self without giving room for the rise of any thoughts other than that of the Self."   (Ramana Maharshi, "Who Am I", Paragraph 18, "Of the devotees, who is greatest?")

My dog is my best teacher on this 

[Heart of Space]

I'd need way more context to make any sort of statement about what he said here.  

I think people tend to deify Ramana too much.  He was just a man.  And many of the things he said leads me to believe the guy was very talented to begin with and didn't really understand how to teach normal people very well.  He was also very lucky too, if you read how he became enlightened it was very random as it is with many people who become enlightened. 

[AlwaysBeNice]

Most thoughts we have are negative ego thoughts aren't they:

'What do I say, how will I come across, wasn't this stupid, what shall I do/who should I become (to be liked), what will satisfy me' etc.

He said: "of any thoughts other than that of the Self.", as he says the Self is love, (practical) (conceptual) thinking can be done out of pure love too, instead of delusion.

42 minutes ago, Heart of Space said:

I'd need way more context to make any sort of statement about what he said here.  

I think people tend to deify Ramana too much.  He was just a man.  And many of the things he said leads me to believe the guy was very talented to begin with and didn't really understand how to teach normal people very well.  He was also very lucky too, if you read how he became enlightened it was very random as it is with many people who become enlightened. 

You are just as lucky  

[Prabhaker]

4 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Giving one’s self up to God means remaining constantly in the Self without giving room for the rise of any thoughts other than that of the Self.

Ramana Maharshi was not teaching to a complicated clever modern man, he was teaching to Indians almost a century before, they were different kind of people. You can't  "remain constantly in the Self without giving room for the rise of any thoughts" right now. First grow towards meditation then you will be able to drop your mind. This journey needs great patience. 

 

[Heart of Space]

22 minutes ago, AlwaysBeNice said:

 

You are just as lucky  

In a way yes, but that's beside the point.