– Transcript 71
R: (tape starts abruptly) …because you adjusted the microphone, I have to say something. So, Good evening. (Good evening) How are you? Fine I hope.
SH: All is well. (laughter)
R: Are you sure?
SH: That’s what I hear you say.
R: As most of you know, I take walks during the day in the park, especially in the morning. And I meet people, interesting people. There was this gentleman I’ve been talking to every once in a while. And after about six months of seeing him every once in a while, speaking to him, I gave him some of the transcripts. He approached me this morning and told me he was a producer in Hollywood, of some sort, and he can get me on the Steve Edward’s show and also Larry King. So I mean, I really didn’t know what to say.
After reading the transcripts, talking, he believes I should become famous all over the world, and everybody should know about me.
So I asked him, “Why?” He answered, “So you can help others. People never heard of you before and will be able to hear of you, and they will be helped.” I said, “Why?” and he claimed it was good for everybody. So I said, “What’s the point?” and I don’t know what he told me. I can’t remember. But we’ll spend the remainder of the time talking about this.
Do we really help people? If you look at the world, the dastardly things that are going on in this world, so-to-speak, people have been helping people since the beginning of time, and the world is worse than ever. Should we really help people?
First we have to begin to understand that everything is predetermined anyway, and whether we are chosen to help others is no concern of ours. If your karma dictates the fact that you are to help others, you will not be able to stop. You will become like Mother Theresa, and you will obey the karmic laws, whether you like it or not.
But as far as a Jnani is concerned, there are no others. Others are merely himself.
So by being in a body, so-to-speak, a Jnani becomes an asset to all of humanity.
For the average person, they should never even think, “Should I, or shouldn’t I help others?” but they should make it a policy to help whomever is in need, if they can, and not think about it. This is your karma in any event. It has been preordained again, every step you’re going to take in this body, in this plane of existence. You should take no concern about this. But if the chance arises, when you have an opportunity to help other people, by all means do so.
But a Jnani has transcended that question. A Jnani is not of this world, even though he or she appears to be in the world. They are omnipresent, all pervading, so their existence is a benefit to all mankind. Just their very existence, because they are omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient.
If a person advertises himself or herself, makes TV appearances, goes on the radio, writes a lot of books and so forth, you can be assured that person is not a Jnani. That’s the first clue to let you know. Why? There has to be a personal I to do these things. In a Jnani there is no personal I. The personal I has been killed. So how can the Jnani act like a personal I, and make public appearances and do all these things? Think about that.
There is no ambition left in a Jnani. There are no goals. A Jnani never goes out of their way to teach classes. And the least thing they want to do is to build up the classes, to attract hundreds of people. It’s not necessary. Those who are so karmically inclined, those who have paid the price in a previous life through meditation, through concentration, through searching in a previous life, will automatically be attracted to the Sage. Nothing will be able to stop it.
Everyone in this group who keeps coming back over and over again to satsang, is a being who has perfected themselves in a previous life. They have gone through the stage of effortless mindfulness, and now they’re ready to go all the way. That doesn’t say it’s going to take one lifetime, but they’re very advanced. And whether you like it or not, this is the truth about you.
There’s more going on in your consciousness than you can ever imagine. Why do you think you come here? You think you voluntarily come here, but you don’t. You are compelled to do so. This is your time. So you see the Jnani does not go out looking for students. The Jnani does not go looking for admiration, for a following, or to build a movement. But the Jnani remains where he or she is, and those students who are ready will be attracted like a magnet to iron. Even if the devotee lives in China or in Japan or in Africa, the vibration of the Jnani is such that he or she will be attracted, and sooner or later will come in contact with the last stage of their life, which is the Sage.
You therefore have nothing to think about, nothing to plan, nothing to worry about, nothing to wonder about. You just have to be yourself, and everything will take care of itself. Isn’t that wonderful? You don’t have to wonder at home, “Shall I go to see Robert this week or shall I go to a movie?” There’s something in you that has prearranged everything. You have nothing to say about it. So why try to make decisions?
Many of you are learning that when you keep still, and sort of get yourself out of your way, things couldn’t be better for you. You’re finding peace, happiness, freedom.
You’re beginning to see that all is well and you’re no longer concerned about the world situation, about man’s inhumanity to man. Those things are important of course in this world of illusion, but you begin to look at it from a different angle, different perspective.
You know it’s virtually impossible to change the world no matter how men have tried. The world is still unfolding as it should. There will always be man’s inhumanity to man. There will always be clashes of personality, conflicts, wars. This is only natural on this illusory plane of existence. For if you understand that this is a plane of duality, how can things be one way?
Can you imagine a world that is totally peaceful, where everyone loves one another? It’s idealistic and we wish in our deluded state that it were true. Yet this is not the nature of this planet. This planet is supposed to be as confusing and as confounding as it appears. Everything is supposed to be the way it is. Just to understand this, is an advanced state. For you realize you’re not saying that you’re not going to help others. You’re realizing you cannot help others, even if it appears that you can. It’s paradoxical.
You appear to be helping others when you help a homeless person, let’s say. You give a homeless person a good meal. You put him or her up for a couple of days. You give them $50 in their pocket, and they go their way. A few days later the person is right back where they were before, yet you have done what you’re supposed to do.
This is why when you do help anyone, you shouldn’t think about it. You shouldn’t ask, “What’s going on?” You shouldn’t even wonder if you did the right thing. You are doing what you’re supposed to do, and then you drop it and forget it. You do not become a part of the karma game. You have risen above this. And as you become peaceful, as anger slowly drops from your consciousness, as all anxiety and bitterness and hate are transcended, and you begin to feel a wonderful peace, you begin to notice that those people who come into your aura also feel peaceful, feel harmonious. You’re not doing anything voluntarily. You have just risen. You have risen to a higher state of consciousness.
A rose need not declare, “I am fragrant.” By it’s very nature, it is fragrant. So you need not declare, “I’m doing a good deed, I am helping others.” By your very nature you can’t help, helping others, by your very presence. And as you continue to unfold you notice that you’re getting less and less involved in the games of this world. You’re playing less and less games. You leave others alone to an extent. If you can’t say a good word, or help in any way, you say nothing, and by your very silence you have blessed someone else.
When you actually become your real being, when your real nature of awakening comes, you begin to realize that there’s nothing left to do, there is no one to help, for you see that the whole universe is an emanation of yourself. And as you begin to go even further, you are no longer yourself, with a small s, but you are the universal Self, and even as you look at the world, you see the Self.
Again this is paradoxical. A Sage looks at the world, he or she sees everything you see, but yet they look right through everything. They see consciousness, absolute reality.
It’s like a burnt rope. A Sage realizes that the rope is burnt and it is of no use to anyone, whereas the average person looks at a burnt rope and believes the rope is real and can be used. So it is, when the average person looks at the world, everything their senses tell them appears to be real. They identify with all these things. They identify with situations, with persons, with places, with things. Whereas the Sage sees the same thing, but is only conscious of the Self as the universe. Do not attempt to analyze this. Remember the finite mind cannot comprehend the infinite.
This is why it is important to always see where you are coming from. What were you involved in today, as an example? In retrospect go back to this morning. What was the first thing you did when you opened your eyes? You should have been aware that the I-thought has traveled from the heart center to the brain, and now you are awake, and you feel your body and you feel the world. You should not go any further. You should now attempt to work on yourself, where you send the I-thought back from the brain, back to the spiritual center, the spiritual heart. You should immediately attempt to do this.
In other words, you should not continue the game of the I-thought telling you things about your body, about the world. And you should not flick on the TV and watch the world news, for that pulls you further into illusion. But you should immediately begin to inquire, “What happened to the I? Where is the I? Apparently it must be in my head, for I am aware of my body and the world, and I am identifying with it.” This is the way you should talk to yourself, and you ask yourself the question, “But how did that I-thought get to my brain?” and you stop.
As you begin to think about this, you are abiding in the I, and if you’re really abiding in the I, the I-thought begins to travel backwards. It begins to leave your head and begins to travel backward to the heart. But you have to catch yourself. This is the first thing you should do when you awaken. I know most of you forget. Yet you should have some clue that tells you, “It is time for me to abide in the I. I am not going to allow the I to bring all of these thoughts into my head.”
You forget about your work for a moment, you forget about getting dressed, you forget about the time, and you realize the reason you’re thinking about your body or about anything else, is because the I-thought has gone into your brain, and it now forms a body and a mind. You begin to see that the mind is nothing more than a conglomeration of thoughts. If there were no thoughts, there would be no mind. Can’t you see what you’re doing? As you begin to think this way, the I-thought begins to return to its source, by itself.
In other words, you don’t really have to send the I-thought back to the Self or to the heart center. You simply have to inquire what the I-thought really is. You’ll come to the conclusion it is, after all, only a thought. If the I-thought really does not exist, then my body and the world does not exist. Just thinking about these things, you begin to feel peaceful, happy.
I know you’re saying, “Well, I don’t have the time to do this every morning. I’m late for work. I’ve got to get dressed. I’ve got to eat breakfast.” But again I say to you, this is not yoga or meditation, where you have to take time out to meditate and then go about your business. This is the superior method of self-inquiry, and if you just begin to practice
this self-inquiry, you will notice that when it’s time to get dressed, eat your breakfast and go to work, your body will do this in record time. You will not even be thinking about these things, but yet your body will shower, do what it has to do, and you’ll be out of the house and you’ll feel great.
This is the difference between self-inquiry and meditation. You are not meditating on anything. You’re simply inquiring about your I-thought, and each step will come by itself. You will not have to think about what I’m going to say next. For instance, as you’re working on yourself this way and thoughts come to you, something within you will immediately say, “To whom do these thoughts come?” You’re not planning this. You have not rehearsed.
And by the way, never rehearse, never plan the night before, what you are going to do in the morning. Unless it’s spontaneous, it will not work. Remember this. Self-inquiry should be spontaneous. It should not be a drudgery. It should not be something you planned. You simply begin to look at yourself. You open your eyes when you wake up. You begin to realize that just before you woke up you were in a total state of peace, in a no-thought state. You were in an effortless, no-thought state. But now you have allowed the I-thought to go to the brain, and you’re thinking about your body and the world. So the thought comes to you, “How do I get back to the effortless, no-thought state? By abiding in the I. Where did the I come from? Who am I? Surely the I must have a source. That source must be quite a powerful thing in itself, whatever it is.”
In other words, I’m assuming that you don’t realize that the source is the Self. But just by thinking that the I-thought came out of it, it must be something powerful.
“Then why did the I-thought come out of it? What is the I-thought? I keep calling it the I-thought. It’s a thought. There is no I.” This gives you a clue. It makes you happy, for you realize you’ve got nothing to fight. As a matter of fact, some people just become still and they say nothing else. In other words, when you realize the I is a thought you become still, and the I will immediately disappear. There will be no thoughts. You will feel wonderful.
Then you can get dressed and go to work. But the momentum of what you did this morning will follow you through the day. It is true you will get involved in the world, yet you will find that you have time to think of your Self. You will abide in the I. It’ll happen all by itself and you will find in your work, whatever you do, you’re making the right decisions without thinking, Things do not disturb you. You are at peace with the world.
You feel blissful.
Then you can begin to see what I was talking about before. You have no desire to tell people about this. People have to be ready. They have to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps. People have to be prepared to be able to practice self-inquiry, and the preparation was usually made in a previous life. Therefore something tells you it is a waste of time to write books, to go on public television, to try to expand the teaching, to do anything.You simply live your life in a wonderful way. Everything takes care of itself, and you notice that your consciousness is expanding. It began by thinking of yourself, and now it is expanding to take in the world, to take in the universe. And then you begin to see everything in this universe as an image on the screen, and you are the screen. You never worry again. You never fear anything again. You understand the wholeness of everything, that there are no mistakes, all is well, nothing is wrong.
But you have to do these things every day, especially in the morning when you first open your eyes. That is the time to really work on yourself. If you wait until later, then Maya becomes too strong and grabs a hold of you, causing you to get really involved in the Leela, in the game of life. But as you work on yourself every morning, the body takes care of itself, the mind becomes extinguished, the ego turns into humility, you become happy. There is nothing you have to do.
And again, your body will do whatever it came here to do, but you have nothing to do with that. You are at peace.
(silence)
Shanti, shanti, shanti, peace.
You can ask questions if you like.
SK: Robert once in the past you - I can’t remember when it was — you said the statement, “I think therefore I am.” But then you said it should be another way.
Mary (SM): I think it was, “I am therefore I don’t need to think.”
R: Yes, what about that?
SK: I just couldn’t remember the phrase of it. Thank you.
(silence)
R: Anyone know any good jokes? (SF: Yeah.) Go ahead. (SF: What did the Zen Buddhist monk say to the hamburger salesman?) I give up? (SF: Make me one with everything.) (students laugh) That’s good. (laughter) (silence)
R: Anymore jokes, comments?
SL: Tracy Ellen said that a rich man can’t pass through the eye of a camel with a needle…
unclear (laughter)
R: This lady is going to Israel. So she goes over to the ticket counter and she asks, “Do you take dogs?” So the ticket manager said, “Yes we do but they’ve got to be crated.”
She says, “Ok.” So she crates her dog and brings it to the baggage handlers and says, “Take good care of this dog.” And they say, “Okay.” And she’s real fussy.
Now on the way to Israel there is a lot of turbulence and all the animals get all shook up and when the plane lands, they look into her crate and the dogs dead. And she’s out there screaming, “Bring me my dog! Bring me my dog!” So the baggage handlers don’t know what to do because they know she’ll sue. She’s real fussy. They called the manager and they told the manager their story and the manager said, “Here’s what we’ll do. There is
a pet shop across the street and they’ve got a white poodle just like this dog, so go buy the poodle and replace him, she’ll never know the difference.”
So they buy the poodle and they take out the dead dog and they put the live one there. And she screamed, “Where is my dog?” And they bring the crate out to her and they say, “Here’s your dog lady, see.” And they showed her the dog and she said, “This is not my dog.” And they said, “Why not?” She said, “My dog was dead, I was taking her to Israel to bury her.” (students laugh)
(pause)
We’ve got prashad to eat. You can pass it this way. You can pass it that way.
(handing out prashad and general talk between students)
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.