What an absurd joke! Even the illusion is an illusion.
A quote from Huang Po:
“The arising and the elimination of illusion are both illusory. Illusion is not something rooted in Reality; it exists because of your dualistic thinking. If you will only cease to indulge in opposed concepts such as ‘ordinary’ and ‘Enlightened’, illusion will cease of itself.“
It’s interesting that I am only now starting to read a little of Ramana Maharshi’s words (or translations thereof); only now, after I have already begun to engage in this search. Interesting that I didn’t start reading his words before engaging in the search, or as the first step of that engagement. It’s not as if I haven’t heard of him. And actually, I have read some quotes of his in the past, and they were interesting, but didn’t really mean anything to me. Clearly, the actual experience of this search is crucial for the words to have any meaning. And there is a sense that the meaning of these words is barely beginning to be seen, and that a vast depth remains yet undiscovered.
A quote from Ramana:
“What is called mind is a wondrous power existing in Self. It projects all thoughts. If we set aside all thoughts and see, there will be no such thing as mind remaining separate; therefore, thought itself is the form of the mind. Other than thoughts, there is no such thing as the mind.“
And from Wikipedia:
Ramana warned against considering self-enquiry as an intellectual exercise. Properly done, it involves fixing the attention firmly and intensely on the feeling of ‘I’, without thinking. It is perhaps more helpful to see it as ‘Self-attention’ or ‘Self-abiding’ (cf. Sri Sadhu Om – The Path of Sri Ramana Part I). The clue to this is in Ramana’s own death experience when he was 16. After raising the question ‘Who am I?’ he “turned his attention very keenly towards himself” (cf. description above). Attention must be fixed on the ‘I’ until the feeling of duality disappears.
sleepwalk waking 