Ramana Maharshi Quotes

That is the ego which rises and sinks periodically. But you exist always. That which lies beyond the ego is consciousness - the Self.

I am not my thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, and experiences. I am not the content of my life. I am Life. I am the space in which all things happen. I am consciousness. I am the Now. I Am.

The mind, whatever else it is, is a constant of everyone's experience, and, in more ways than we know, the creator of the reality that we live within... Nothing is more essential to us.

I--this thought which is called I--is the mould into which the world is poured like melted wax.

Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part.

Our identification with the mind and body is the chief reason for our failure to know our self as we truly are.

That which is not present in deep dreamless sleep is not real

You are not a human being. You are not your body, you are not your mind, and you are not your soul. These are things that You have. The You that has these things - indeed, that has given your Self these things - is far bigger than any of them, and even all of them put together.

This perceiving, active being is what I call mind, spirit, soul, or myself. By which words I do not denote any one of my ideas, but a thing entirely distinct from them, wherein they exist, or, which is the same thing, whereby they are perceived; for the existence of an idea consists in being perceived.

The self... is not an organic thing that has a specific location, whose fundamental fate is to be born, to mature, to die; it is a dramatic effect arising diffusely from a scene that is presented.

The Self is here and now, it is the only Reality. There is nothing else.

Self-inquiry is the process and the goal also. 'I am' is the goal and the final reality. To hold to it with effort is self-inquiry. When spontaneous and natural it is realization.

Life is consciousness.

Light is time thinking about itself.

Whatever be the means adopted, you must at last return to the Self, so why not abide as the Self here and now?

The ultimate truth of who you are is not I am this or I am that, but I Am.

We do not become. We simply are.

The problem is we think we exist.

The world is... the natural setting of, and field for, all my thoughts and all my explicit perceptions. Truth does not inhabit only the inner man, or more accurately, there is no inner man, man is in the world, and only in the world does he know himself.

The simple fact of existence, of being aware that you are aware; this to me is the most astounding fact.

The fact that one can lose one's sense of self in an ocean of tranquility does not mean that one's consciousness is immaterial or that it presided over the birth of the universe.

The only way to give finality to the world is to give it consciousness.

The very act of questioning whether you exist proves you do, because you must be there for the doubt to be entertained in the first place.

Life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves.