English articles
About Jiří Vacek and his activities
Basic information on spiritual activities of ing. Jiří Vacek and his friends
Sri Ramana Maharshi´s school of atmavichara (Self-enquiry) as presented by Ing. Jiří Vacek
Ing. Jiří Vacek was born on May the 25th in 1931 on the spiritual holiday of the Holy Spirit. He started meditating when he was 14 on Christmas of 1945. From the very beginnings of his spiritual path he felt great admiration and respect to Ramana Maharishi who became his spiritual master.
J. Vacek started his atmavichara practice by the end of 1950s and attained Self-realization due to the help of Bhagavan and a master Jaroslav Kočí in the early 1960s. Then he started to complement his spiritual practice by translating spiritual literature as well as writing his own works. For that he drew inspiration from his own spiritual practice.
He also wrote a few articles in English for the Ramanashram´s magazine „The Mountain Path“ both under his own name and a pen name „A Czech devotee“. The ashram appreciated them as very good.
When communists seized power in our country and started to reign (1948-1989) they persecuted all spiritual activities. They banned and even punished all kinds of spiritual practice including publishing of spiritual books, organization of group meditations in own flats and also spreading of illegally typed spiritual copies. J. Vacek was persecuted by communists and their secret service and even sacked from work.
After the so called Velvet revolution in 1989 J. Vacek started to publish his translations and original works as well as to guide public spiritual gatherings. As time passed an informal group of Czech spiritual aspirants practising the path of Self-enquiry as taught by Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi has formed around him. These people practice individually on a daily basis but they also gather together for group meditations in their flats or bigger public meditation gatherings. Every year they also organize a few weekly meditation retreats in hired facilities in natural environment which are fully devoted to the whole-day spiritual practice.
Příspěvky
Works in English and other languages by Jiří Vacek - now available in e-format in our e-shop
12. 4. 2024
We are glad to announce that the works featured in section Works in English and other languages are now available in a pdf format.
More titles will be added soon.
Přátelé Jiřího Vacka
On my articles published abroad
29. 4. 2015
Jiří Vacek
During the communist regime it was not possible to publish spiritual articles. So I started to write such articles in English for Indian magazines. At first for The Call Divine which was in a way a predecessor to the Ramanashramam´s magazine. The Call Divine ceased to exist when The 
Mountain Path journal appeared. Then I continued sending my articles there...
... Below there is a list of my earlier English articles with details concerning their publishing. However, I do not claim that the list is complete...
The last mentioned "unpublished" article together with several new ones are included in my first English book called "Handful of Gems".
Basics of Right Effort Leading to Self-realization
21. 10. 2007
Jiri Vacek
Effective effort leading to Self-realization originates from the right understanding of what we have to achieve, of course without mistaking this understanding for the realization itself: we simply try to realize what we already are.
The Path to Self-knowledge
10. 9. 2007
Jiri Vacek
(Published in The Mountain Path, June 1992)
The Path to Self-knowledge requires the withdrawal of our attention from all objects - the world, our body, our mind with its thoughts, images, feelings — and fixing it on the witness of all objects, the Self, and realizing the Self to be all there is. This is not a creative process, but rather the recollection of our true nature. The Self is there all the time, but we are not aware of it. Instead, we limit it to the body or mind, thus creating the illusion of the ego with its attendant superimpositions. When, with practice and grace, we break free of this illusion, the Self shines resplendent and unimpeded as Pure Consciousness, and we know ourselves as we really are.
The Essence of Atmavichara
8. 7. 2007
Jiri Vacek
Atmavichara, enquiry for our true Self, is work with our consciousness and its attention but not with our mind. Its aim is to pull away attention of our consciousness from everything that can be observed i.e. the whole world and its beings, our body with its feelings, states and activities and our mind with all of its emotions, thoughts and ideas. If we back off our consciousness from absorbance in anything observable, if we withdraw it totally out of everything, then what is left is just pure consciousness, we ourselves. This way we attain direct realization that we are nothing observable but the consciousness that is aware of everything and observes it.