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Context

Atma Vichara means self-enquiry. It is the core teaching at the heart of YogaLiving. It is the teaching refreshed and promoted in the early 20th century by Sri Ramana Maharshi. It can be considered as Jnana Yoga.

Jnana Yoga

Jnana yoga is one of the four primary branches of yoga. It is very old having a long and ancient tradition stretching back to the Vedas. In modern times this yoga is again attaining prominence and the practice of it is available, for those who seek it out, through the teaching of Atma Vichara.

Atma Vichara is Based on this Understanding

You are not what you appear to be. Your real nature is not found in the experiences of personality, memory and the senses. These things are happening but they are temporary and changing events, they do not define you. These things are themselves known to you, they are seen. Who is it that knows and sees? It is the witness, the very power of conscious being.

All your experiences are arising in this conscious being and that power itself has sprung forth from the centre of awareness that lights all existence. In yoga this is known as Hridayam, the spiritual heart, the ocean of peace, the perpetual source. This is who you are, this is your true nature, it does not die. It is awakening to the experiential knowing and seeing of that which is realisation.

Atma Vichara is the direct practice which turns our attention and identification away from the conditioned hopes and fears of the ego and towards the witnessing consciousness itself by posing the question "Who Am I?"

Pursuing this with motivation and the right guidance brings awareness of the following:

• There is a state
• It is constant real and fresh
• It is present all the time but is not recognised
• It is not a thought ,sensation, emotion or mood ,neither is it a new event
• It is a presence already familiar but not acknowledged
• Because of this, awareness of it is dull
• Through surrendering attention to it, it becomes increasingly prominent and bright
• Not because you have effected any change within it but because the process of looking dissolves the obstacles that prevent it being seen
• This state is the radiance of the witness
• It is best described as the presence of being
• It is to that which you can turn
• This turning is Atma Vichara

Practice involves a certain arrangement of mind, an application of the attentiveness within you to turn away from all objects and to allow the presence of the witness consciousness to shine alone. We do this by allowing thoughts to subside and remaining in the presence of being that remains. Pursuing this requires motivation, practice, guidance and support. YogaLiving is a framework within which a community of practitioners choose to pursue this practice and this yoga life.

For a description of the practice of Atma Vichara read the article the taught practice of Atma Vichara

For a detailed practice book outlining context, method and approach read Sphurana - The Yoga Practice of Atma Vichara.