Like the practice of breath control, meditation on the forms of God, repetition of mantras, food restrictions, etc., are but aids for rendering the mind quiescent.
Ramana MaharshiRead
If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises, you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self, where there is no need for your effort to reject the thoughts.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of mindfulness and self-awareness in overcoming distracting thoughts to achieve inner peace.
Ramana Maharshi's quote speaks to the process of self-examination and mental discipline. It suggests that by being vigilant and actively rejecting unhelpful thoughts, an individual can cultivate a deeper understanding of their true self. Over time, this practice leads to a state of inner calm where such efforts become unnecessary, as a natural sense of peace and clarity emerges from within.
Themes
MindfulnessSelf-AwarenessInner PeaceThoughtsMeditation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be referenced during a meditation workshop to encourage participants to let go of distracting thoughts.
More from Ramana Maharshi
All quotes →Think of God; attachments will gradually drop away. If you wait till all desires disappear before starting your devotion and prayer, you will have to wait for a very long time indeed.
Ramana MaharshiRead
The mind of one meditating on a single object becomes one-pointed. And one-pointedness of mind leads to abidance in the self. Real attainment is to be fully conscious, to be aware of surroundings and the people around, to move among them all, but not to merge consciousness in the environment. One should remain in inner independent awareness.
Ramana MaharshiRead
You need not aspire for or get any new state. Get rid of your present thoughts, that is all.
Ramana MaharshiRead
Realisation is not acquisition of anything new nor is it a new faculty. It is only removal of all camouflage
Ramana MaharshiRead
Bliss is a thing which is always there and is not something which comes and goes. That which comes and goes is a creation of the mind.
Ramana MaharshiRead
Similar quotes
Most people catch their presuppositions from their family and surrounding society the way a child catches measles.
Francis SchaefferRead
This life was not intended to be the place of our perfection, but the preparation for it.
Richard BaxterRead
Every human has four endowments - self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change.
Stephen CoveyRead
Jesus Christ and all the writers of the New Testament call us to break free of mammon lust and live in joyous trust...They point us toward a way of living in which everything we have we receive as a gift, and everything we have is cared for by God, and everything we have is available to others when it is right and good. This reality frames the heart of Christian simplicity. It is the means of liberation and power to do what is right and to overcome the forces of fear and avarice.
Richard J. FosterRead
In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his sense a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, his fame doubtful. In short, all that is body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapors.
Marcus AureliusRead
Toohey: "Mr. Roark, we're alone here. Why don't you tell me what you think of me? In any words you wish. No one will hear us." Roark: "But I don't think of you.
Ayn RandRead