The True Nature of Reality

"Prayer" is a word or label used after the fact to describe the spontaneous movement of bliss, awe,  reverence which arises in recognition of your own true nature.  This recognition cannot be planned or called forth -- it simply arises in response to the intensity or earnestness of the "seeking".  How absurd then to turn "prayer" into a static and  ritualized  practice. However -- when the emphasis is on the outer form of the practice,  characterized  by subject-object duality, this is also an indicator of body/mind/personality identification.   Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

Though it is true that the world is a figment of our imagination, like the snake, and that brahman is the reality underlying its false appearance, just as the rope is the reality underlying the false appearance of the snake, this application of this analogy fails if we try to extend it further by inferring that just as the snake will be found to be a rope if we look at it carefully, the world will be found to be brahman if we look at it carefully. No matter how carefully we scrutinise the world or any other second or third person object, their illusory nature and the true nature of their underlying reality will not be revealed, because by attending to them we are sustaining and perpetuating their seeming reality. Their unreality will be revealed only if we scrutinise the first person, the ego, which is the false foundation upon which their seeming existence rests.  –       Michael James  Happiness of Being Note: In this explanation...

The false state in which we experience ourself as a separate first person or subject that experiences second and third person objects is a state of duality or multiplicity, and it is sustained only by our diverting our attention away from ourself towards second and third persons, which appear to be other than ourself. When we cease to divert our attention away from ourself in this manner, this appearance of multiplicity will cease, and the non-dual consciousness of being that will then remain shining as the one essential reality is our natural state — the state in which we experience ourself as we really are.  –       Michael James  Happiness of Being Note: In this explanation, the first person refers to the phantom "I" or ego, the second person refers to thoughts and feelings, the third person refers to physical objects. Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

This is the fundamental principle of Sri Ramana’s teachings: second and third persons appear to exist only so long as the first person appears to exist, and the first person appears to exist only so long as it does not attend to itself; if it attends to itself solely and exclusively — excluding from its attention even the slightest trace of any second or third person — it will cease to exist as the first person and will remain only as the one non-dual reality, the pristine self-conscious being ‘I am’.  –       Michael James  Happiness of Being Note: In this explanation, the first person refers to the phantom "I" or ego, the second person refers to thoughts and feelings, the third person refers to physical objects. Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

[...] the ego has one and only one [relevant] characteristic. The ego functions as the knot between the Self[,] which is Pure Consciousness[,] and the physical body[,] which is ... insentient. The ego is therefore called the cit-jaḍa granthi. In your investigation into the source of aham-vṛtti [the thought ‘I’], you take the essential cit aspect of the ego; and for this reason the enquiry must lead to the realization of the pure consciousness of the Self.  –       Ramana Maharshi Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

All your worldly and unworldly activities are based on the individual identification. You, as an individual, want to have liberation. You remain as an individual, that is the difficulty. You want the knowledge of the Self without giving up identification with the body; but the two are contradictory. You consider your presence as a phenomenon related to the body. You come here as individuals expecting something from me, but there is no individual so how can I do something for non-existing individuals? Your true nature is in no way different from mine. Your true nature is not circumscribed by time and space. You are prior to all these things. You might be a very great person but when you go to sleep you forget yourself as a separate entity. Give up this limited identification as an individual and everything becomes very simple.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.