Michael James

Life sketch of Michael James and Sadhu Om

Michael James, born in England, travelling around India from the age of 19 and reaching Tiruvannamalai in September 1976.
Being lent The Path of Sri Ramana, meeting Sadhu Om, and eight and a half years in his company until Sadhu Om passed away in March 1985.
Sadhu Om’s four years with Bhagavan from July 1946 to April 1950, and the depth of The Path of Sri Ramana Parts 1 and 2.
Michael James’s book Happiness and the Art of Being, its planned print edition from the Sage Sri Ramana Maharshi Centre of Learning in Sydney, and links to his website and blog.

Michael James coming across Bhagavan’s teachings in 1976 while travelling in India, and living in Tiruvannamalai for the next twenty years.
Nan Yar? as the first book he read, and how muddled English books on self-enquiry left him unsure of the actual practice.
Sadhu Om’s The Path of Sri Ramana explaining self-enquiry as simple self-attention, and eight and a half years in his company until March 1985.
Studying Bhagavan’s original Tamil writings and Guru Vachaka Kovai, and how Muruganar’s and Sadhu Om’s time with Bhagavan differed.
Sadhu Om helping Muruganar arrange his verses, editing Sri Ramana Sannidhi Murai and Guru Vachaka Kovai, and the nine-volume Sri Ramana Jnana Bodham.
Why neither Muruganar nor Sadhu Om saw themselves as a guru, Sadhu Om’s “guru alone is living, and we are all dead”, and the guru as our own real self.

Sri Ramana Vazhi, Sadhu Om’s Tamil original of The Path of Sri Ramana, with HTML pages and a PDF of the 2012 edition.
English translations of Sadhu Om’s Sadhanai Saram and The Path of Sri Ramana.
Michael James’s The Original Writings of Bhagavan Ramana, Anma-Viddai: The Science of Knowing Oneself, and Happiness and the Art of Being.
Earlier joint translations of Sri Arunachala Stuti Panchakam, Sri Ramanopadesa Noonmalai and Guru Vachaka Kovai, and a note on moving to consistent transliteration.

David Godman telling Michelle about the years after Be As You Are and No Mind - I am the Self, and his plan for a book on 1,500 years of Arunachala saints.
Robert Butler’s Tamil translations, Michael James saying Sadhu Om would check the verses the next day, and Sadhu Om’s stroke that same night.
Robert Butler stuck in England over a visa mix-up, Vanmikinathan’s Tevaram translations blown away by the wind, Ratna Navaratnam, and an American scholar’s Arunachala Mahatmyam plans falling through.
Jagadish Swami dying in meditation before reading the Kodi Rudra Samhita, Saradamma staying noncommittal, and a stray bill taken as Arunachala’s sign to stop.
Collecting old devotees’ reminiscences, and Sundaram getting Annamalai Swami to talk by reading Be As You Are out to him.
The making of Living by the Words of Bhagavan, Annamalai Swami asking for it to be kept hidden until 1994, and the follow-up Final Talks.
Helping Lakshmana Swamy and Saradamma find land behind the Government Arts College, which Lakshmana Swamy had seen in a vision in the early 1950s.

Michael James's years of studying Bhagavan's teachings under Sadhu Om, their translation of Tamil spiritual texts and his book Happiness and the Art of Being.
Bhagavan's teaching that happiness is our real nature, why external pleasures provide only temporary satisfaction and how peace and deep sleep reveal the happiness within.
The certainty of our own existence as I am, the distinction between the real Self and the individual ego, and the similarities between Buddhist teachings on not-self and Advaita Vedanta.
The practice of self-enquiry, why asking Who am I is not a verbal exercise but a turning of attention towards oneself, and how the mind survives by attending to external objects.
The nature of vasanas, how they arise during spiritual practice, the importance of gently returning attention to the Self and how repeated self-attention gradually weakens outward tendencies.
The relationship between devotion and self-enquiry, how love for God can draw attention towards the I within, and why spiritual practice can continue alongside work, family and daily responsibilities.
Bhagavan's teachings on Arunachala as the Self, the role of different spiritual practices in preparing the mind, and why direct self-attention is considered the means to Self-realization.
The nature of waking, dreaming and deep sleep, the distinction between consciousness and the body-mind, and how the apparent world arises as a projection of the mind.