Conversations with Avant-garde Sages - The Wizard LLC

Conversations with Avant-garde Sages
change the rule, the mind to change the mind, and your outlook.
You become more pointed on that and then it fades away. All
teachings fade away and leave you in naked Is-ness. Ramana
Maharshi said that the truest and the purest language is silence.
TRIP: I wanted to spend a little time on The Seven Steps to
Awakening, because they were so rich, so right on. For example,
and I'm not going through the order, but here's another one that I
loved. You say, "Earnestness will take you through, not cleverness,
your own or another's" [Laughs]. And I don't think earnestness
can be over-estimated, I think it's critical.
REGINA AKERS: Yes, I agree. And in fact this is one of the things
that Ramana Maharshi helped me with, with the mantra. Because
what I had gotten into the habit of through my work with A Course
in Miracles, and also as I was receiving The Holy Spirit's
Interpretation of the New Testament, was I got in the habit of
spending my mornings in silence, but then when that time ended
and I need to get up and go onto other things, I left the silence
[Laughs]. And so this is why, when Ramana Maharshi seemed to
come to me, one of the first tools that was taught was the use of a
mantra. I was asked to say the mantra every time the thought
came into the mind to say the mantra. I was asked to say it with
love and devotion, and also to allow myself to stay in the silence
after saying it. And the mantra that I was given was "I am that I
am". And by practicing that mantra for quite a period of time, it
did allow me to take that silence with me once I got up and moved
out of my chair. I use to only be able to be silent when I had my
butt in that chair [Laughs]. And the mantra allowed me to move
into a walking silence.
WIZARD: I've used mantra in times of a troubled mind, the resort
of mantra, and it works.
REGINA AKERS: It works.
TRIP: One of your Seven Steps, you say, "Be still and unattached,
do not be anything". And I think that's correct, but you do want to
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