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Happiness and the Art of Being: A Layman's Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of the Spiritual Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana

by Michael James

656 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #07-0799; ISBN 1-4251-2465-8; US$52.24, C$54.00, EUR40.73, £27.00

An in-depth study of the philosophy, science and art of true self-knowledge taught by Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, giving detailed guidance on the practice of self-investigation (atma-vichara), 'Who am I?'

About the Book

Happiness is our essential being. The transient happiness that we seem to derive from external experiences actually arises from within ourself, and is experienced by us due to the temporary calming of our mind that occurs whenever any of our desires are fulfilled. So long as our mind attends to anything other than our own essential self-conscious being, we can never experience unqualified happiness. To experience infinite happiness, we must experience true self-knowledge — absolutely clear consciousness of our essential being. Such is the truth revealed by Bhagavan Sri Ramana.

The philosophy of Sri Ramana derives solely from his experience of self-knowledge, an experience that transcends all thought. However, because we imagine the existence of duality, we seem to lack the non-dual knowledge of our essential self-conscious being that Sri Ramana experienced as his natural state. Therefore to enable us to be firmly convinced of the absolute reality that underlies the finite consciousness that we now mistake to be ourself, he presented his philosophy to us in terms of an analysis of our present experience of ourself.

However, the spiritual teachings of Sri Ramana are not just a rational philosophy, but are also a precise science and art. He intended his philosophy to serve only as the theoretical foundation upon which we should practice the empirical science of self-investigation, which is the art of keenly self-attentive and therefore perfectly thought-free being.

This book is an in-depth exploration of both the philosophy and the practice of the spiritual teachings of Sri Ramana.

About the Author

Michael James spent more than eight years studying the original Tamil writings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana and of his foremost disciple, Sri Muruganar, in minute detail under the clear guidance of another close disciple, Sri Sadhu Om, and since the passing away of Sri Sadhu Om in 1985 he has continued to study and practise the spiritual path revealed by Sri Ramana.

Together with Sri Sadhu Om, Michael has translated into English most of the original Tamil writings of Sri Ramana, and also Guru Vachaka Kovai, which is the most comprehensive and reliable collection of the sayings of Sri Ramana, recorded in 1255 Tamil verses composed by Sri Muruganar, with an additional 42 verses composed by Sri Ramana himself. Their translations of these works, which include detailed word-for-word meanings of most of the original verses composed by Sri Ramana, and their translations of many of Sri Sadhu Om's own Tamil verses, have been published in several volumes.

This book contains Michael's own translations of the whole of Sri Ramana's prose treatise Nan Yar? (Who am I?) and of most of the verses of his philosophical poems such as Upadesa Undiyar, Ulladu Narpadu, Ekatma Panchakam, Anma-Viddai and Upadesa Tanippakkal.

An electronic copy of this book is available for free download on Michael's website, www.happinessofbeing.com, and many of his other writings are available on his blog, www.happinessofbeing.blogspot.com.

Excerpts