The Buddha. Jesus. Ramana Maharshi. Lao Tzu. It is difficult to imagine these eminences running. Two of them favoured donkeys. For reasons more suggestive than explicit, Lao Tzu is depicted sitting backwards on his humble beast. All these sages demonstrated high levels of lowness.
Two of India’s greatest sages, Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj, arrived at the same conclusion: Of all of God’s names, “none is indeed so well put as the biblical statement “I am that I am”.” (Exodus 3:14) In the New Testament, we read that Jesus was nearly stoned to death for saying “Very truly I tell you, before Abraham was born, I AM.” (John 8:58)
The desire to know oneself bespeaks a direct connection to the universal intelligence. Men who desire to know themselves begin to feel alienated from tribal, religious and political concerns. They lose their opinions.
We help more people than we can possibly know when we help ourselves.
Ramana Maharshi said that progress on the inner plane is determined by whether we are thinking less.
The mind claps its little hands in excitement. “Now you’ve given me something to think about!”
Men's Work 