– Transcript 67
R: Good evening. It’s good to be with you again in this lovely room, with Henry, in his house, and the dog, and the sun shining in my eyes. Welcome. I see a few new faces here. I want to remind you that I do not give speeches. I do not give lectures. I am not a philosopher. I do not give sermons. I give nothing. I am nothing. If you’ve come to hear a profound lecture, forget It.
There is really nothing to say. Words are superfluous. The only reason I use words is so you can detect the silence in the words. Silence is truth. You cannot explain truth in words. The words become meaningless, redundant. The truth comes to you of it’s own free will when you prepare yourself through deep surrender to yourself, giving up all attachment, giving up your body, your mind, and everything that’s important to you, to the Self.
As long as you’re holding on to anything, the reality will evade you. The reality only comes when you give up yourself, when you give up your ego, when you give up your needs, your wants, trying to make something happen, desires, when you give up trying to become self-realized, when you just give up. Then something wonderful happens. You begin to expand. Not your body, but the consciousness which you are. You become all pervading, absolute reality. It happens by itself.
Everything that you feel, hear, touch, smell and taste is Maya. Everything is Maya, the grand illusion. Most of us really do not understand what Maya really is. My trying to explain Maya is Maya. Everything your eyes behold, that you believe is so important, is Maya. Everything that you hear, everything that you read, everything that you try to do to better yourself, it’s all Maya. It reminds me of a story.
Once the Buddha and his chief disciple, Nerada, were having a discussion, and Nerada said, “Master, what is this Maya of yours? You claim everything to be Maya. How do you explain it in simple terms? What is Maya?” And the Buddha said, “Well, lets take a walk. I’ll explain it to you.” They walked along a dirt road. The Buddha didn’t utter a word. And Nerada said, “Master, are you going to explain Maya to me?” The Buddha said, “Oh, yes. But I’m thirsty right now. Can you please go get me a glass of water?” Nerada obeyed. He walked down the road. He saw a house. He knocked on the door and a lady opened the door. Nerada asked, “May I please have a glass of water?” The lady said, “Yes, come in.” The lady beckoned to her daughter. “Go get this gentleman a glass of water.”
Nerada looked at the daughter. She was beautifully voluptuous. He had never seen such beauty in his life. And the old lady said, “Would you like to marry my daughter?” And Nerada said, “Why not?“So they got married. Nerada worked in the fields. He had two sons and a daughter. The years passed. One day there was a hurricane, and the land was deluged by floods.
Water started to come into the house. Nerada piled all the furniture up in one place, and the whole family went on top of the furniture. But the water still started coming, deeper and deeper, higher and higher. They finally had to run to the roof for shelter. There was a pole on the roof, a clothes pole, and they were all hanging onto the pole for their dear life.
The winds were blowing at 150 miles an hour. Water was rising higher and higher. Finally the daughter had to let go, and she drowned. Nerada was distraught, but what could he do? Then his first son couldn’t hold on any longer either, and he let go, and he drowned.
This time Nerada was truly upset. He couldn’t understand what was happening. And the other son let go also. Then the mother-in-law let go, and Nerada said, “Well, she was old anyway.” Then the wife let go, and Nerada really was upset. And he was just about to let go also, he couldn’t hold on any longer, when he found himself standing beside Buddha with a glass of water. And Buddha said, “What’s the matter with you? Give me my water.”
Nerada said, “Now I know what your Maya is.”
This is also true of us. We get so involved in the world, we take everything so seriously. The first mistake we make is we think we’re important, the body has importance. We try to educate the body. We want to make the body feel good. We do all sorts of things to the body, as if it matters. We become concerned over worldly issues. We do not understand that everything is predestined. Instead of trying to find ourselves, instead of trying to ask, “Who am I?” we’re concerned with worldly situations. We get involved in beautiful things in the world, believing that’s going to last and that’s reality. We get involved in ugly things in the world, and we want to get rid of those ugly things, and change them into beautiful things. We’re so involved in the world, we have no time to think of reality.
Unfortunately it is only when a catastrophe comes along, like a death, or a sickness, or a severance from family for some reason or another, that we begin to question, “What is life all about? I’m born, I die, and in between I struggle, trying to achieve happiness. And when I achieve it, it’s not what I thought it was. What is reality? What is life?”
As you make the request known to yourself, something happens. You find a book.
You find a friend that is, perhaps, a few steps higher than you. You begin to ask questions.
You begin to read. And then you begin to understand that there is something else besides being born, going to school, getting a job, having a family, getting old, retiring, and dying.
Life is more meaningful. But yet you say, “I have not tasted this. I only know my humanhood.” If you continue being sincere, you will be led to a teacher, or perhaps a river, perhaps a tree, something that you can focus on, and you will begin to go deep within yourself. I don’t like to use the term meditation, because it’s been so misused. You begin to dive deep within yourself. You start to experience feelings you never had before. You have moments of bliss, but they go away, and you’re back to your old self. You start to think more about life, what it’s all about.
Then one day something happens to you. You begin to realize that it is your thinking that has caused you the problems to begin with, the illusion, the Maya. It is your thoughts that are the problem. You ponder this. The guru within you has been awakened.
Because of your sincerity, because of your wanting to awaken more than anything else in the world, the guru within you leads you to an outer guru that has gone farther than you.
And the outer guru tells you the personal self is only a thought, an idea. It is called the “I-thought.” You must follow the I to it’s source, which is on the right side of the chest. As you abide in the I, it will turn into your Self, which is consciousness, absolute reality. You will then be liberated.
This is only the beginning. You begin to practice, and in your practice you have many experiences. You visit occult realms. You hear beautiful music. You see geometrical figures. You have visitations from Sages. And you run to the guru and you tell him your experiences. He explains, “That’s nothing, kindergarten. You must go beyond. All that comes out of your mind. Your mind is the cause of all existence. It is your mind that gives birth to the universe, to God, to people, places and things. You must annihilate the mind.
“How do I do this? By asking and inquiring, “To whom does the mind come? Who has a mind?” By observation. By intelligently observing your thoughts, becoming the witness to your thought process.
You begin to practice this, but life interferes. Things happen. You get caught up again and again in Maya, the grand illusion. You take things seriously. You think the world has something to offer you, because all sorts of good things begin to happen in your life.
And then, of course, it reverses itself, and there is a death in the family again, or you lose your position you’ve had for twenty years. You go into bankruptcy. So again you begin to inquire. And you run back to the teacher. The teacher tells you, “Do not react to conditions.
Do not pay attention to the things of this world. Your body will do the work it came here to do. It has nothing to do with you. Whether you’re in bankruptcy or whether you’re a millionaire, whether you’re sickly, or whether you’re well and whole, whether you live in a hut, or you live in a castle, do not take these things seriously. But rather keep turning within. Go deeper. Dive deeper than you’ve ever dove before. Whatever happens to you in this world, simply observe. For the truth is that the substratum of all existence is love, harmony. There is nothing in the universe that wants to destroy you or hurt you. It is simply Maya.” Again you ask, “What is Maya?” and the teacher relates the story that I told you in the beginning, also makes the student understand, the water in the mirage, that is Maya, something that appears to be real, but upon investigation you find it’s not. The whole world is like that. The whole universe is like that. Do not be fooled again. Do not take anything seriously. Turn within. Do not react. And you vehemently make up your mind to go deeper this time, and not get waylaid by Maya.
So you begin to inquire resolutely, absolutely, every moment of the day. Whenever a thought comes to you, you ask, “To whom does it come?” Whenever you observe something on television, or in the world, that seems to upset you, or make you happy, you remember to ask, “To whom has this come? Who’s experiencing this?” You forget sometimes.
But you keep remembering more often than forgetting. No matter what the situation is, good or bad, you stop getting caught up in situations, and you inquire, “To whom does this come? It comes to me. I feel this. I feel this Maya. Then who am I? What is the source of the I that feels this Maya. Where did that I come from. Who gave it birth? Who am I?”
Of course you never answer that question. You pose the question again and again.
And you notice something else happens. You stop getting involved in wordy conversations. Before you used to talk, and talk, and talk, and talk about everything on earth, about the weather, about people, about places, about things, about situations, about the world.
Now you no longer have an interest in this. Something tells you it’s a waste of energy. You become more succinct. When someone asks you a question, you say yes or no. You no longer go into wordy explanations. Your life becomes simpler and simpler. You become happier and happier. It happens by itself.
And you find that you’re always inquiring, “Who am I? To whom does this come?”
You begin to abide in the I, tracing the I to the source. As thoughts come you keep asking, “To whom do they come?” You have no goals. You have no ambitions. Yet your body continues to do the work that it came here for. And it does the work better than you ever did it before. You’re amazed. You no longer analyze things too much. You no longer try to put things in the right perspective. You no longer stick up for your rights. You have found peace. You go and you share this with your teacher. You tell him how far you’ve gone, and what’s happening to you. And he tells you, “Oh, that’s nothing. You have to give all that up. The thought that something is happening to you, that you’re improving, that life is better for you, that you’re happier, you’ve simplified your life. All that has got to go also.”
You inquire how to get rid of those things fast. And the answer is, “Through self-surrender.” Not only should you inquire, but you should also surrender everything. All your thoughts, all your needs, all your desires, your body, your mind. All that, should be surrendered.
“To whom should I surrender, Master?”
“To yourself. The Self that is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. The Self that is all pervading. The Self that is ultimate oneness, pure awareness, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Parabrahman. Surrender to that Self, for you are truly that.”
And you are amazed by what you have heard. You begin to do just that. While you are at work, while you’re washing dishes, while you’re watching TV, you always remember to surrender. And one day the inner guru pulls your mind inward to the source and you awaken. You become liberated. You become yourself. Then you’re free.
Fred (SF): Question time?
R: Any time.
Fred (SF): Okay. I’ve been wrestling with this free will versus destiny matter. I’m told that “not a hair falls from my head without my fathers will.” Then they turn right around and tell me I should obey the ten commandments, I should love God and love my neighbor. I’m supposed to pray, and
meditate, and live an ethical life. Now that apparently leaves me with a lot of things to do, and my question is this: for the jiva, who thinks he can make a choice, he does have free will, but for the atman, where there’s no movement of any kind, thoughts and things arise simultaneously, spontaneously without going through the filter of the mind. When they do arise they’re recognized as unreal and need not be taken seriously, and beyond that all of this discussion, all of these words and arguments, including the question of free will versus destiny and all the discussion, it’s all part of the Leela. I wonder what you think of that scenario?
R: Since you know it’s all the Leela, why do you ask the question? (SF: To try to get somebody to corroborate my ideas, and they are still in the mind.) The teaching is a paradox. It is true that everything happens by itself. Everything is predestined. And yet we still have to make choices. It’s only when you ask yourself, “Who has to make choices?” that you realize that there’s nobody there to make a choice. There never was anybody there to make a choice, because the I never existed. You never existed as a body or as a mind. Therefore, there is no one who really has to do anything. But as long as you feel that you are the body, that you are the doer, that’s when you have to practice moral conduct. That’s when you practice the ten commandments, as you said. It is only for the populace, the masses, to make them understand that there’s such a thing as moral conduct. But this is also an illusion, like the sky is blue, like the snake in the rope. For in truth, Maya never existed, the body never existed, the mind never existed, the world never existed, God never existed, the universe never existed. You are truly Parabrahman, Sat-Chit-Ananda, and if you concern yourself with the questions you asked, it pulls you deeper into Maya. Rather, inquire of yourself, “Who am I? Who is the I that wants to know these things? Who is the I that needs to know this intellectual wisdom?”
It’s like what came first, the tree or the seed, the chicken or the egg? There’s no valid answer. It is only when you discover your true nature that you realize that this world is an illusion. It has no subsistence of it’s own. Everything is Brahman. The world, the universe is like images on a screen. The images appear to be doing what were doing right now, but the screen never changes. The images change. When you awaken you become like the screen and everything, everything in this universe, is superimposed on consciousness. You observe, but you understand, and all is well. (SF: Thank you. I think my answer came when you asked me why I asked the question.) Good.
Jorge (SR): Robert, on this subject of Maya that you’re discussing just now, I’d like to tell you something that’s happened to me, and I don’t know whether nothing has happened, or is this an example of Maya. I left the room just now because something happened Sunday, and I remembered that I took something out of my car, and I don’t remember ever putting it back. I became convinced that I never put it back. I realized I never put it back. So I went and checked and there it was. And then it made me recall, a few weeks ago I was walking across a street, two streets, and all of a sudden my keys disappeared, and I didn’t know where they were. And I looked for two hours and I couldn’t find them. So then I found one key to do part of the job I needed to do, and I had it in my hand and I was about ready to do something with it, when it disappeared. Hey what’s going on? I gotta get out of this place. Is this Maya or am I just dropping things and not knowing about it. So I said maybe these keys are going into another dimension. Do you have any experience with crazies like that?
R: We shouldn’t give to much credence to things like this. It’s just like yogis who can dematerialize things and materialize things. In this world of Maya, all kinds of things happen. Some things you call miracle. Some things you call terrible. You lose things, you find things. But do not give this too much credence. Do not give it too much energy. Observe, watch, and ask, “To whom does this come? Who’s going through these experiences of losing keys or finding keys?” And you will realize that it’s the I-thought. It is always the I-thought. You follow the I. You inquire, “To whom does this I come? Who’s experiencing I?” Something will tell you that the whole world and everything in it, including your keys in your situation, is attached to the I. Therefore you need not trouble yourself by trying to straighten out the world, or to find your keys, or to lose your keys, or to think about these things. You merely have to annihilate the I. Then everything will go with it.
The I is the first pronoun. The second pronoun is am. When you realize I-am, you become free. This is called being. Not being this or being that. Just plain being. I am. It’s quite a different situation than identification with the body. The body will continue to lose keys, find keys, have experiences, yet you will not. You will be free from the whole ball of wax. Yet to other people, to others, it will appear as if you’re finding keys or losing keys, or whatever you’re doing. It appears to you as if finding keys and losing keys is a reality. Yet when you discover the truth about yourself and you awaken, you will no longer be connected to your body. At the same time you will appear to be a body to others, and they will see the games that you’re playing with your keys. But you will be free from that. Yet your body will continue to play the games. It’s a paradox. Your body appears as the water in the mirage, as the snake in the rope. But yet, when you awaken, you are no longer the body. And there is no body. But the body appears to others as being real.
This is why when a Jnani dies, or appears to be suffering, nothing is really happening to the Jnani. But to the ajnani all kinds of things are happening. They see the suffering. They identify with sorrow, with death, and with everything else. Therefore, I say to you, “Do not disturb yourself by these things. Inquire “To whom do they come?” and be free.”
(silence)
R: Feel free to ask questions or make statements at any time you choose.
Jorge (SR): Is it true that if you go further back towards the real I, that you become more and more magnetic?
R: When you go back toward the real I, as you put it, you are expanding your consciousness, so you become others. And you’re able to say, “Everything, the whole universe, is the Self, and I am that.” So the magnetism is only because you have become the trees, the earth, the sky, people. They are all you. There’s only the one and you are that.
Naturally people would be attracted to you, for they feel themselves in you.
Oh, someone asked me to say something about the transcripts. Most of you see me about four or five hours a week, and to stay on the path, keep reading those transcripts that we give out. It’s like being together. As you read those transcripts you will keep remembering what to do. The proper way to read them is to go through the transcript once, completely. Then, preferably before you go to sleep, to read paragraph by paragraph, pondering each paragraph, falling asleep as you contemplate what you read, so that you can assimilate and digest the words. Then it’s like we’re together all the time. There will always be transcripts here for you. Feel free to pick them up. They’re free.
SL: Does anyone have a copy of a transcript that when Robert describes his life, I don’t have that one. Can anybody get back to me?
R: I think I know the one that you’re talking about. (SK: Yeah I think it’s number 14, I’ll make copies of it.) Isn’t that the one Alan made up?
SL: I’ll make copies if you bring it to me. If anyone else would like one, who else would like one? (SJ: I think everybody would.)
R: Well who took the copies over here? ( SM: Everybody did. ) SL: Well how many people need them then? (Show of hands) I’ll make 10 copies then.
R: Dana did you bring anything to read? (SD: I’m sorry Robert I can’t help you I didn’t bring anything to read.) Okay. If you find interesting literature to read, then feel free to share it with us.
SL: Lee can I advertise the fact that there are copies of your poem now on one sheet, and many people who weren’t here on Sunday didn’t hear it. It’s really an exquisite poem.
Mary (SM): It’s going to be put out in a transcription. Fred did you start it? Lee is going to put it out in transcription, on Sundays transcription, and he’s going to make out forty copies. Is that right Lee? (SH: Umm umm.)
R: We have a lot of talented people here, poets, writers, mystics, musicians, singers, all kinds of people.
Glen (SG): Robert, what are the most common pitfalls or tricks of the mind when somebody is doing self-inquiry? Have you noticed some that your students refer to you?
R: Well, the main one is the mind will make you think it’s real. It will tell you after a while, “Why are you wasting your time doing this? You could be busy doing something else, getting drunk, going to a movie, watching TV, going bowling. Why do you waste your time with self-inquiry?” And then it will also tell you, “Look how much time has elapsed. And nothing has happened to you yet. Give it up. Go back to your old way of life.”
Your mind is not your friend. It will bring up all kinds of things. It’ll start by bringing up fears, fears of the past, even fears of past lives, and you will wonder what’s going on. You will see black spaces in your meditation, sometimes, and you will be frightened. You may see all kinds of negative conditions taking place in your mind, and you will be encouraged to stop asking for a while. Always remember, most people have gone through this, and the way to succeed is to keep inquiring, “To whom does this come? Who sees this. Who’s going through this?” It’s always the I. Abide in the I and become free.
SD: So, if you find yourself in the void, or blackness as you said, then you inquire, “To whom this void comes?”
R: Yes. And bear in mind that there is nothing that can hurt you. There are no devils, no demons, no anti-Christs. All of that is mental. And by inquiring “To whom does it come?” they disappear.
SK: Why does the mind seem to always go to the negative?
R: Because the mind is trying to save itself from annihilation. It doesn’t want to be destroyed. Therefore it will scare you. It will cook up all kinds of schemes so that you will forget about self-realization. After all, who wants to be destroyed? The mind wants to continue it’s nonsense. Therefore it brings up all kinds of negatives, to frighten you so you’ll give up the practice, sometimes. Sometimes it may show you wonderful things also.
It will tell you, “You don’t need this. Look what you’ve got! You’ve got all these beautiful people around you, and you’ve got everything you want out of life. This teaching is only for negative people.” (students laugh) Your mind will do anything. It will play all kinds of games with you. Keep up the self-inquiry.
Many of you like to meditate. This is why I share the I-am meditation with you, for if you have to meditate, the best form of meditation is I am. We can do this right now.
You start by making yourself comfortable. And you usually close your eyes to remove obstructions. You begin by becoming aware of your breath. You practice a form of Vipassana meditation. You observe your feelings. You observe your breath. You do not try to change anything. You are simply becoming the witness to everything that’s going on.
(pause)
All the while you are relaxing deeper and deeper. As you continue to observe, you forget about your body. You watch your thoughts. Then you finally ask yourself, “Who watches? Who is the witness? Who is the observer?” And it comes to you, “I am.” With your respiration, you inhale, you say, “I,” you exhale, you say, “am,” over and over again, with your respiration.
(20 minutes meditation)
R: Om, shanti, shanti, shanti, om, peace, peace.
Do we have any announcements?
SL: Is this article you said, is it for everyone to take or…?
R: Everyone to take. Everything here is free. You can take Henry’s chair, his furniture anything you like.
SU: Yeah take it all if you like.
R: We have some prashad. Very important that you eat prashad.
(tape ends)
Absätze ohne Sprecherpräfix gehören dem zuletzt genannten Sprecher — so steht es im Buch, wo der Präfix nur den Anfang einer Rede markiert. Die Zuordnung ist eine Folgerung dieser Ausgabe. Namen in Klammern sind aus dem Text erschlossen: sicher belegt sind SM = Mary, SF = Fred, SJ = Jay, SC = Nate, wahrscheinlich SG = Glen, SR = Jorge. Alle anderen Kürzel bleiben stehen, weil der Beleg nicht trägt.