– Transcript 99
R: Om, namah Shivaya, peace. Good evening. (Students: Good evening.) It’s good being with you again. I welcome you with all my heart. It’s always a pleasure to see all of you.
So smile, be happy. There’s absolutely nothing to be upset about. Unless you have a semblance of truth within yourself, you’ll never know how you’re going to react to a particular situation that comes your way. Sometimes life hits us squarely in the face. And unless you were prepared before by knowing truth and living truth, some of you may not be able to handle it, and you’ll become completely bamboozled.
This is the reason why you have to work on yourself everyday, you have to do some sort of sadhana. Otherwise you start reacting to the world. The world becomes real to you. People are just other human beings to you. You forget that there are no others and that you are the one, and that one is pure intelligence, divine harmony, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Parabrahman. You forget that you are that one, not as a body, but as all pervading omnipresence.
In other words, you will forget that wherever you look, you see your Self. I’m not speaking of yourself with a small “s”. Wherever you look you see the Self, for you are that.
You must never forget this. You are not just a frail human being, being manipulated like a puppet. You are of divine origin. You are the universe.
Everything is perfect just the way it is. If it doesn’t appear that way to you, it’s not because it’s not perfect. It is because you have your ideas since childhood of what right and wrong, good and bad is. Therefore some particular situations make you feel very upset. Some particular situations make you feel happy. They’re both impostors. Your real nature is bliss. That bliss is omnipresent. If you see your Self as bliss, you will see everything in the universe as bliss, from the mineral kingdom to the human kingdom. You will no longer look on them as kingdoms. You will see the one bliss shining through all. Wake up! Understand who you really are. You are not limited to a body. You are not the body that appears. You are that which you have always been, Sat-Chit-Ananda.
Many of you are making tremendous progress on this path. I am very happy for you. Some of the phone calls I receive, over fifty percent of the people here tonight, are making tremendous progress, and that’s really wonderful. I’m really proud of you. You’re making progress because you are beginning to realize that the only way to go is within.
There is nothing without that interests you too much. The kingdom is within. The answers you’re looking for is within. You have an inner Self which will never leave you nor forsake you. Your job is merely to trust it. To abide in it. That inner Self is your real Self. It is what you are.
It seems confusing some times when I say this, for it appears that I’m saying that you have two selves, your inner Self and your outer self. The truth is you only have an inner Self. Your body as it appears does not even exist. The world as it appears does not even exist. What I call the inner Self is absolute reality, pure awareness. That’s what you are. Many of you are finally beginning to understand this. The conversations I have with you in person or on the phone makes me see that all is well. There’s hope for you yet. And that is because, again, you are following certain principles that I always share with you.
You’re beginning to get it.
Three of those principles most of you are following, satsang, sadhana, and the transcripts. We’ll go into these things.
Satsang is not like a meeting or a lecture, as most of you know. It’s not coming here waiting for me to speak, and speak words of eloquence, high truths. This is good to hear, but that’s not it. Always remember that you’re not coming to a lecture. You’re not coming to a sermon. You are not coming to a talk. You’re coming to abide in the Self. Do not get Robert mixed up with the Self. Robert appears as another form to you, but the Self that shines forth in satsang is God, God in you. Satsang is God. Not my God or your God, but just God, ultimate oneness, nirvana.
Just by understanding this part so far, what I’ve discussed with you, will relieve you of all mental frustrations and conditioning. Satsang is very important. And those of you who are making progress, as I discussed, are always dying to come to satsang. You’re literally dying. You’re giving up your old body. That’s what I mean when I say you’re dying to come to satsang. Take that literally.
I only see you about four or five times a week, or five hours a week I should say, not five times a week, four or five hours a week. Therefore the time that you get in satsang should be very important to you, for it is here that the old samskaras begin to fall away. As we sit in the silence, as the words flow by, every gesture, every movement, everything you see, everything you do, everything you hear, is satsang. That’s the first requisite, to be at satsang. And do not forget that satsang is not a sermon. It is not a talk. There is still some of you that when we sit in the silence, when we begin, say to yourself, “When is he going to talk?” You’re used to listening to lectures. You’ve been brought up believing that a lecture is going to do something for you. A lecture is only empty words. And you know as well as I do, the many lectures you’ve gone to, when you leave after the lecture, in ten minutes you’ve forgotten just about everything. We’re not talking about lectures.
Satsang gives you the incentive to practice sadhana, which is the second principle I’m referring to. Self-inquiry is the ideal sadhana for most of you who are here. Nevertheless, if self-inquiry is too difficult for you, you should do some other sadhana. Whether you do japa mantra, or pranayamas, or Vipassana meditation, watching the breath, the idea is to spend your day doing some sort of sadhana.
That’s why I’m saying I’m proud of most of you, for the conversation I’ve had with you, this is what you’re doing. Some of you are spending twenty-four hours a day practicing self-inquiry. I don’t mean you’re sitting at home by yourself. I mean you are practicing it wherever you go and whatever you do. You start when you wake up in the morning.
You begin by looking for that gap between waking and sleeping. There is a gap as you are aware by now. We’ve discussed it many times before. As soon as you awaken, before you get involved in the world and before you say “I,” there is a gap, which is the fourth dimension of life. That gap is your reality. It’s what you really are. You begin by trying to expand that gap, before the world gets a hold of you.
That is also the time when the mind has rested in the spiritual heart center all night while you slept, and at the second of awakening, it begins to rush into your brain, so you may become aware of your body and the world. You have to learn to catch yourself before that happens. And the way you catch yourself is to become aware that it’s happening. If every morning, as soon as you begin to awaken, you become aware of that gap, that place in between waking and sleeping, the silence, and you abide in it, you will begin to expand.
But even if you don’t grab hold of it in time, become aware that the I existed during sleep, during the dream state, and during the waking state. And you abide in the I-thought by inquiring, “Where did the I come from?” This is the way you should wake up, and you carry it through the day.
If somehow you cannot do this, as you awaken become the witness to you’re awakening. Observe yourself awakening. Observe everything you’re doing, every movement you make, become aware, watch, as if there was another person watching. It will bring you to the same place. Become aware, the witness to you sitting up, and getting out of bed, and washing your face or taking a shower, getting dressed.
In other words, don’t believe that you are doing this by yourself. Do not just think of yourself, with a small “s” as I. Your mind will immediately begin to tell you the different things about the day. “I’m going to be hot, so I’d better wear some cool clothes. What shall I eat for breakfast?” Do not get caught up in that lifestyle, but become aware what your body is doing. Become aware of your feelings, your needs, what’s going on. If you wake up like this, you’re going to carry it all through the day, and your day will really be exciting. You’ll have a wonderful day.
If that’s difficult for you, do the “I-am” meditation with your respiration. While you’re getting dressed, while you’re getting ready to go to work. Instead of watching TV, instead of listening to the radio, instead of thinking about problems, watch your breath. As you inhale you say, “I.” As you exhale you say, “am.” Wake up that way.
What I’m trying to tell you is, do not be like most people in the world, when you wake up and you begin to think of your body, and the world, and so forth, but get up and begin to understand that you are not the body, you are not the thinking mind. Yet you exist. You existed during sleep, you existed during dream, and you exist during waking state. “Who exists?” Ask yourself. “I exist. Therefore who am I?”
If you’re going to awaken in this incarnation, you have to vehemently do these things to yourself and not accept yourself the way you are. Again these people I’ve been talking to are doing just that. This is why they tell me, “I notice the world doesn’t frighten me any longer. I don’t seem to care any more what happens in the world, because I’m beginning to see that all is well.” You’re telling me all these things.
Some of you have even told me, “I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life, for no reason. Nothing is happening in this world to make me that happy, but I’m feeling joy, I’m feeling a peace, a profound peace I’ve never felt before. I am feeling this way, even if an atomic bomb was to explode and fall on my head, I won’t mind. For I’m beginning to realize there is no death and there is no birth.” You’re telling me, “I do not realize this intellectually any longer, it is no longer a theory with me. I can’t explain it Robert, but I’m feeling wonderful.”
This shows me that you’ve been practicing something. You’re doing something right, and it’s so simple. You’re either doing something or you’re doing nothing. You’re either working on your freedom or you’re accepting your bondage. This is the freedom you’ve got. This is the free choice you’ve got, to accept your freedom, or to accept your bondage. This is where karma and predestination does not interfere with you. You have the freedom to make a choice, to go deep within, as most of you are doing, or just be part of this world, which is always changing, changing, changing.
The third principle that I was referring to are the transcripts. I know many of you have read thousands of books. You’ve read so many books you’ve become a living encyclopedia. You know all the standard answers, yet you are not happy. There is something missing. This is why I have allowed the transcripts to come into being. When I first started teaching I didn’t want any transcripts, any tapes, nothing at all. But then I realized that most of you are really sincere. I therefore allowed the transcripts to be printed. Again, because you only see me four or five hours a week. (I was going to say, four or five hours a day. But we only see each other four or five hours a week.) The transcripts take my place.
They’re an extension of what we’re doing. There is power in them, and most of you who are advancing on the path are using the transcripts in the right way.
The way you should read these transcripts is preferably before you go to sleep at night. If you have time during the day, you should read them during the day also. Yet you should not read them as you read a book. You read a book, you finish, you go on to the next book. You should really stick to one transcript for at least a week, if not more. You read it through, and then you begin all over again. You go from paragraph to paragraph.
You do not read it fast or speed read it. You take each paragraph and you ponder on the paragraph. You put the transcript down and you cogitate, ponder the paragraph, assimilate it, digest it, make it a part of you’re being and then go to the next paragraph. If you’re doing this correctly, you will not have the time to read thousands of books. I’m not saying
you shouldn’t read other books, but if you really want to make headway fast, follow one direction. Go one way. You may find many contradictions when you read so many books, and you’ll become confused and even disgusted.
To give you an example. The book by Lakshimani Swami, “No mind, I am the That,” (It should be “No mind I am the Self,” edited PL) many of you have read this and you’re so excited over that book that I read it also. I usually don’t read books. But I realize the contradictions, and for a person trying to awaken, the contradictions can hurt. It can set you back, for you do not understand. I’ll explain one of the contradictions. Lakshimani Swami claims that the only way you can become enlightened is through a living guru.
And if the guru passes away you should find another guru, because that guru is no longer any good to you. It’s got to be a living form.
To an extent this is true. Yet if you’ve read Ramana’s books, Ramana Maharshi tells you, it is better to have a mental guru when your guru passes away. They asked him, “When you die, when you give up your body Ramana, shall I find another guru?” And he said, “Just think of me. If you think of me, I will be always with you. I will never leave you if you think of me.” For after all, the Sage is not the body. So what difference does it make if there is a body or not?
That appears as a contradiction, doesn’t it? Yet it’s really not. You have to understand where they’re coming from. Lakshimani Swami was talking to neophytes when he made that statement, beginners, people who really never practiced. So people who have never practiced or practiced little, are not really devotees. Therefore if the average person found a sat guru, and in a month the sat guru gave up his body and left, they wouldn’t really get any benefit from that sat guru because they were not in tune with him for a long time. For them it is better to have a living guru, so that the living guru can teach them. But for the devotees, they need not a living guru. The guru that they’ve been with will take care of all their needs, for the guru can never leave you. After all the guru and your Self are one, there’s no difference. So you see there appears to be a contradiction, but there’s not a contradiction. It depends who he was talking to.
So when you read the books, it becomes confusing for you. I try to explain all these things in the transcripts. If you stick to the transcripts you’ll be safe, and you will make headway. Those three things I outlined for you are very important, sadhana, satsang, and the transcripts. It’s easy. Remember those three things. Try to be at satsang all the time, work on your sadhana and self-inquiry, or whatever you have to do, and keep reading the transcripts. If you do these three things you will not have time for anything else. You will fill up your day with spiritual activity.
I’m not talking about sitting at home and practicing all day long in formal meditation. I’m speaking of during you’re working hours, whatever you do. Whether you wash dishes or whether your president of a bank, whether you’re a lawyer, a doctor, an Indian chief, it makes no difference what you are. Just remember to remember to keep practicing all day long. So again, let’s say you get up in the morning, you catch yourself in the gap between waking and sleeping. If you have time, read a paragraph from the transcript, and hold on to it. Take it with you to work. As you’re putting on your shoes, as you’re eating your breakfast, as you’re driving your car to work, remember to remember your sadhana.
Or remember the paragraph that you read in your transcript. See, you’re doing something even though you can’t keep up with, let’s say, self-inquiry. You remember a paragraph in the transcript. And you keep doing this all during the day. You take that truth with you wherever you go, to work, to the movies, while you’re watching TV.
Do not believe that if you’re watching TV or watching a movie you cannot meditate or practice self-inquiry. You will be amazed that as you’re watching the movie you can keep inquiring, “To whom does this come? Who am I?” Or you can become aware that you are like the screen in the movie. You cannot see the screen, you see the images on the screen. Yet the images are not real. If you try to grab them, you grab the screen. Just contemplating this helps. And then you realize that you are like the screen, that is your real nature, and all the images in the universe are superimposed upon you, just as the images of the movie are superimposed on the screen.
Remember these things. Yes, you people I’ve been talking to during the week, on the telephone or in person, have told me you’re doing these things, and you’re becoming happier and happier. The world no longer has a pull on you. The world can no longer show you anything that frightens you or makes you upset. As you practice, the reasons why become apparent. You begin to understand that your body is simply karmic in nature, for as long as you believe you have a body, it’s going through it’s karma. Everything is preordained. Therefore you’ll go through experience after experience after experience as a body. That’s how it appears.
But in the process of waking up, and the realization that it’s all karmic, and that it’s not really you, you begin to laugh, for you now understand that you can never die or be hurt. You were never born. You’re not going through any experiences at all. You are the Self, free from all this. Even though you’re going through experiences as a body, you become more aware everyday that you are free from body-consciousness, free from experiences in the world. You have total faith and trust in something which you’re just beginning to feel. You’re just beginning to feel that bliss-consciousness. You’re just beginning to feel, slightly at first, that joy, that total freedom, and you know something is happening.
As you experience these things, you will begin to leave the world alone. You will stop becoming entangled in the world. Again you will find your duties will become less and less. You’re growing. You’re unfolding. Things like anger begin to subside entirely.
Depression, all those bad feelings that you used to have, they begin to disappear. And many times you will find that certain things in your life that have caused you pain and discomfort, just disappear. You’re not looking for them to disappear. You’re no longer looking for anything. You’re not even looking for self-realization. Yet you’re growing and you’re making progress.
Therefore it does my heart good when you tell me these things about your progress, that’s why I’m here. Feel free to call me and ask me any question you want, and tell me the progress you’re making. I’m always ready to help you.
But to the few of you that are still the same, and you haven’t seen any improvement, ask yourself, Why? What do you do all day long? If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll probably see that you get involved with the world’s conditions, the world’s situations, and by doing this, aren’t you saying the world is real? Therefore you have to begin to let go of the world, to begin to understand in the beginning that there is a power and a presence within you, that will always take care of you, and watch over you. To the extent that you trust it, this is true.
So again you have to make a choice. Am I going to continue day, after day, after day being like a leaf in the wind, allowing nature to unfold me, or am I going to take the bull by the horns and begin to practice, doing something every day, every moment, falling asleep while practicing sadhana, getting up practicing sadhana. It will become second nature to you, and you will be happier than you’ve ever been in your life.
Feel free to ask questions.
Fred (SF): Robert I’d like to ask about a practical way of using self-inquiry, like for instance if I say to myself, “I’m sick.” Turn around and I ask myself, “Who feels sick?” Then I say, “I do,” then I ask, “who am I?” Somewhere in the background is the real I and the sickness is an appearance in consciousness as is the entity that feels the sickness. Is that correct?
R: When you’re practicing self-inquiry forget about the real I. What you’re doing is you’re going backwards, you’re trying to destroy the I ego. And by destroying the I ego what you call the real I will be self evident. The real I is what you really are, that is your real nature. So you don’t have to feel that some place there is a real I. For what you’re doing is you’re making it sound as if there is you and the real I. (SF: Two.) There can never be you and the real I. There is only the real I, but because you don’t really understand this fully the practice the self-inquiry has been given to you to get rid of the false I.
So you inquire to yourself, “To whom does this sickness come? It comes to me. I feel it.” That’s the I ego. Therefore you inquire, “From where did the I come from?” or “Who am I?” it’s the same thing. “Where did this I come from that feels sick?” You never answer that question. You simply keep inquiring again and again. You wait a couple of seconds and you ask again, “To whom does the I come?” If you answer the question and if you say to yourself, “I’m the real I,” you’re fooling yourself because it is your mind playing with you. So forget about the real I. As you get rid of the false I the real I will shine by itself. So simply keep inquiring, “To whom comes this sickness? To me. I feel it. I feel sick.
Who is the I that feels sick?” Do not analyze it. Do not try to figure it out. Simply ask the question and leave no room for analyzation. “I feel sick. Who is the I that feels sick? Where did the I come from? Who am I? Who am I? Who is the I that feels sick? What is it’s source? What is the source of that I?” As you keep inquiring this way, one day something will happen without you forcing it or without you thinking about it. The I will return to its source in the spiritual heart and the spiritual heart is absolute consciousness, Parabrahman. Which will mean to you that the I-thought, the ego I, never existed at all. Only God, Brahman, consciousness exists. But do not say these things. It will come by itself of it’s own accord. When that realization comes you will never wonder about sickness again.
You will never have a thought like that again.
So remember, you inquire, “To whom does the sickness come? To me? I feel it.
What is the source of the I?” You do not analyze it. You keep asking again and again and while you’re asking, “Who am I?” again and again other thoughts may come into your mind. You do the same procedure. You inquire, “To whom do they come? I am feeling these thoughts.” For instance as you’re inquiring this way, thoughts may come to you and they’ll say, “Fred you’re wasting your time, you could be doing something constructive.
Instead of sitting here like a lump of clay inquiring about “Who am I?” When those thoughts come do not be angry with yourself simply inquire, “To whom do these thoughts come? Who feels them? I do. Who am I? What is the source of the I?” And you keep doing it over and over and over again. Like I say the day will come when the I will abide in the source and you will home free. ( SF: If I try to analyze the process that is just getting back into the mind?) Of course. (SF: Which isn’t going to do me any good?) Of course, because it is the mind that wants to analyze and we’re trying to kill the mind.
Jorge (SR): Robert, tonight I had for the first time a glimpse of being the screen and my question is, if the small self is created by karma and if all the things that are seen out there, all the trees and other people I guess are more aspects of karma, if everything is the screen, if the whole world is the Self or the screen, where does this karma come from?
R: Where does what come from? (SR: Karma?) Karma comes from nowhere. (SR: Then how can there be a body or the seeming seeing of other forms if all is the Self?) This is called Maya! Welcome to the world of Maya. (SR: How can there be Maya if all is the Self?) There cannot be Maya. But because you believe it’s not the Self there is Maya for you. (SR: How can one believe there’s not the Self?) Due to the fact that you’ve been brainwashed since you were a little boy to believe that the world appears real. This is part of you’re training. (SR: I guess it’s like that there was an original person that believed…) No. (SR: And then it was like original sin?) No. This is why I always give the example of the sky is blue. You look at the sky and you tell me how beautiful it looks as blue. If you go up to the sky and investigate you will find that there is no color in the sky. There is no blue, there is only black darkness.
(SR: I see.) There is no sky. (SR: So there is no karma, it’s just an optical illusion?) It’s an optical illusion correct. Like the water in the mirage. (SR: Alright, we’ve heard that.) The water seems real and you say to yourself, “How can I see this beautiful water when it doesn’t exist?” Yet you appear to see it. But if you try to grab it you’ll grab sand. And so it is with the world and the universe and everything else. It appears as if it’s real. This is Maya the grand illusion playing games with you. Your job is to transcend it through self-inquiry.
Jorge (SR): Okay, I’ll work on that. Robert I have another question which is going to be a very controversial one but I noticed it’s stronger on my chest today so I’m going to say it. It’s been on
my mind for a while. I was kind of surprised that you were encouraging people to telephone you and ask questions and so forth. Because there is a part of me that - maybe I’m wrong on this - but there is a part of m e that believes that trying to come to you and ask questions secretly so nobody else can hear is only increasing my ego. That is my fear of ridicule or sense of embarrassment, possibly that someone is going to know something about me. But to me seeking you out privately is just increasing the ego?
R: Not really, if you were seeking an ordinary person that would be true to an extent. But since I’m here as you, to be you, as the Self. Then what you’re really seeking is the Self. Therefore when you’re talking to me you’re talking to the Self. The one Self. And my mission what I appear to be doing with the body is to be of service to humanity. That is all I do. I do nothing else. Therefore while I’m here as a body you should take every opportunity to make contact with me because in making contact things begin to happen.
The reason you’re saying this is because you believe you’re talking to Robert. You’re talking to a form, to a body and to a mind. But that’s not true. When I am in relationship with you and when you sit with me, there is no body, there is no mind, there is no world. And you’re able to comprehend this in a faster pace.
So I am really yourself. It’s like going within yourself when you talk to me. There is only one Self and that is I-am. Therefore asking me questions is of benefit. It is not like you are calling a psychologist or a psychiatrist, or a lawyer, or a human being. You’re talking to yourself. Of course when too many people call me I change my phone number.
(students laugh) So it’s all very paradoxical.
ST: Robert, I talk to you all the time.
R: You do? Good! (ST: Yeah, and I never call you on the phone.) Umm. That’s good.
Keep it up. (ST: Yeah it doesn’t seem to be a problem. And I always felt that it was going along fine. And there wasn’t a particular need to pick up the phone.) Yes, that is very good that is even better. (ST: Okay.) If there is the Self, the Self is not limited to one place. The Self is omnipresence. Whenever you think of the Self, never believe that you’re a body as the Self and you’re limited. Just by thinking of the Self, of consciousness, of absolute reality that is all pervading. It is omnipresence itself. So certainly you can do what you say. You can be anywhere and I’m always there. One who is doing this very well and is into it is Dana. As you know she is ill and she is always talking to me, not in person, not on the phone but just like you’re doing. She always claims I’m with her and the answers come. And when she is in pain she thinks of me and surrenders her pain to me. And she feels better, she feels at peace. She’s improving. So you can do this.
Another thing that I’ll share with you that I’ve shared with a few people already is during the hours from six to nine and from twelve in the evening to three in the morning I sit in the silence. If you would like to join me be free to do so. From six to nine in the morning and from twelve to three in the evening I usually sit still. That is a wonderful time to come into communion. Feel free to do this if you want. SK: Robert I know your familiar with the teachings of Joel Goldsmith. What do you see are the main differences with Joel’s teachings and your teachings?
R: There is no real difference. I usually do not get into that. I never talk about other teachers, what they teach compared to what I teach. If a teacher is a Sage, an enlightened being they’re all the same there is no difference.
Glen (SG): Robert, I have found that self-inquiry is a wonderful tool, brought me a lot of peace however for those around sometimes it appears they don’t understand it and the more I withdraw the more I go into silence. and the more do I speak and my wife who is around, they do not understand and they expect a certain way of responding emotionally and I find that sometimes a little difficult in relationships to practice self-inquiry, practice being alone in the silence.
R: Well, you have to do the best you can. Sometimes you have to get up a few hours earlier before the family gets up. If you have to get up at four o clock in the morning to practice then that is what you have to do. You have to find the time. Karmically your situation is the way it is because that is what you have to go through as a body. That is the appearance but it makes no difference where you are, with whom you’re with, whether you’re with twenty-five people or a hundred people or by yourself. If you really want to find the truth. If you really want to unfold and that comes first in your life something within you will tell you what to do to make it happen. Do not think that anybody is a burden to you or someone is in your way keeping you back from your unfoldment. This is not so. Something that seems to keep you back from practicing is really a blessing in disguise. For it makes you stronger. And it makes you want more than ever before to find the time to be in the silence, to be free.
Whereas usually if a person does not have a hindrance or a little friction they become lazy and they don’t follow the truth as hard. We need friction in our lives to push forward. Therefore look at your situation as a blessing and try to find the time. Go within all you can and you will be shown what to do. Sleep is not that important. When your wife goes to sleep, your kids are sleeping, get up at three o’clock, four o’clock, practice then.
There is always a way.
Fred (SF): Sir we’ve had a lots of discussions about scripture and I know lots of scripture.
R: I know you do Fred. (SF: What I’m going to say is there is nothing intrinsically wrong with scripture it’s how it’s interpreted. And my interpretation of scripture isn’t going to be the same as Billy Grahams and I think I’m right about that. I mean I don’t have to worry about the fact that I know a lot of scripture.) There is nothing wrong with scripture but there has to come a time when you have to put the scripture aside and dive deep within yourself and become your own scripture. (SF: But scripture is words.) Scripture is wonderful words. But the words are just like saying, “I am God.” And as we just discussed that is your ego playing games with you. It is your mind telling you that you are not the body and that your God. Whereas you don’t have to state that you are God because that is your real nature, that is what you really are. It’s like saying, “I am a man, I am a man.” It’s evident that you are a man. Therefore there is something within you that is evident that you are God. You
are consciousness. Yet it’s difficult to go about it that way. So great Sages and great Masters have taught us to “dive deep within,” and leave the scriptures alone. Jesus himself said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” He said, “Look here, look there, look everywhere, you’ll never find the kingdom,” because it’s already within you. He never told people to study the scriptures. He quoted from the old testament but he never told people to go home and study scriptures. He told them to dive deep within themselves. Find the kingdom. It is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He always spoke about the kingdom which is consciousness, God. So by memorizing the scripture you become a walking bible and that is good as far as it goes. But it’s better to dive deep within yourself and inquire, “Who am I?”
Fred (SF): I learned something last night that I hadn’t known. Someone gave me a tape by mister Ganesh the editor of the Mountain path. (R: Oh yes.) And grand nephew of Maharshi. (R: Yes.) And I hadn’t known it but when he went to stay with his uncle after his father died, Maharshi of course. He went to the American mission school and this was before he had any conscious interest in spiritual matters. He stood first in his class in bible studies, and when he wrote that note to his brother about going, he said, “I am going in search of my father.” And he used that term which really interested me. Plus when he got to Tiruvannamalai, when he went to the temple, he went into the sanatorium, I guess there was nobody there to stop him and he embraced the lingam and said, “Father I have come according to your bidding.” So many have think of him as a pure, well he was of course a pure Advaitan but there was a tremendous element of devotion all through his life.
R: Yes you’re right. I was speaking of those things one Sunday I think. Nisargadatta, Ramana Maharshi and all the Advaitan’s they had tremendous devotion. They were bhaktis also, so you’re right about that, that’s very true. (SF: Thank you. I was interested in about he being first in his class in bible studies when he just a young fellow.) SH: You would be. (laughs) Well you’re interested in his being first in his bible study. (SF: Yeah it’s pretty fascinating.) I couldn’t care less.
R: Well Ganesh has become a great philosopher. ( SH: Has he? A philosopher.) Umm.
(SH: What does that mean?) It means he philosophizes. (SH: Oh that’s a handicap isn’t it?) There is nothing else to say. (long pause) So many people used to come to Ramana Maharshi. Many of them from Panditcheri, from the Shri Arbinda ashram and they would try to debate with Ramana. They would tell him Shri Arbinda says this, the mother says this, somebody else says this and you say this Ramana, who is right. Ramana wouldn’t answer.
He’d keep still. Each person has to come to terms with themselves. You have to know what you want and you have to go after it. For when you compare teachers or you compare teachings and to compare what everybody said you can never know who you are. For you are too busy working in the external world and trying to find out who is good, who is bad, who is right, who is wrong. The real teacher is within yourself. Dive deep within yourself and ask yourself whom shall I follow and you will receive an answer. So please do no ask me, “Was Krishnamurti enlightened, was Jesus self-realized? Was this one this way, was that one that way?’ Your job is to find out who you are and to work on yourself and then you will know about everybody else.
(silence)
SH: (Talks about his dog) He digs you Robert. (Robert laughs) SL: Speaking of self-inquiry, in answer to a question earlier. You said when we state, “To whom does this come? It comes to me.” And you said that the real I would know the difference between the other I. Is it just as effective to say, “To whom does this come?” Is it effective to say… or if you’re saying, “Who feels this” and you say, “my mind feels this,” or “my body feels this,” is that just as effective? I think I seem to feel a dilemma that Fred came to - or will the real I know the difference and so I start deviating and say, “My mind feels this,” or “my body feels this,” instead of I feel this. So saying, “My mind feels this, ” or “my body feels that,” is that effective in itself?
R: The real I doesn’t know anything, it just is. Don’t concern yourself about the real I. The mind, the body and the I-thought are the same thing. You can say the mind or the thoughts or the ego. But yet the I is more effective when you use the term I because you’re always referring to yourself as I. You never say my mind thinks this. In the normal course of conversation you say, “I think this. I believe this. I thought of this.” That is why it is better to deal with the I itself, then with the mind or the ego. Realizing at the same time that the ego, the mind, the world, the universe, karma everything is attached to that I.
Therefore when you transcend the I you will transcend everything else. So it’s best to work with the I-thought. Only because you refer to the I all day long. You say, “I feel sick. I have a headache.” You never say, “My mind has a headache.” You never say, “My mind feels sick. My ego feels depressed.” You always talk about I.
SL: More recently I notice myself saying, “My head has a headache.” It’s like I’m breaking things down differently now. “My stomach is hungry,” instead of, “I am hungry.” Then I started deviating, “Who has a headache?” head has a headache. Who is hungry? My stomach is hungry,”
instead of I am hungry…
R: It seems to me it makes it a little harder because you’re referring to your I and your ego and your stomach and your eyes and your nose. Everything is attached to the I.
SL: So that’s why I say things like, “Well how do we feel today?” (laughter) Are we having a good time? (laughs) I guess I’m never alone. (laughter) SJ: Robert plus if you do it that way it doesn’t have the chance to go to the source anyway and dissolve in the source?
R: It can go to it’s source because the ego, the thoughts, the I, it’s all the same. (SJ: But it doesn’t have a leeway to follow anything to the source it’s just…) The I is better. Use the I it’s a better method only because you always talk about the I all day long. You’re always referring to I the false I. You’re always thinking of the false I. So therefore you work with the false I, you get rid of it by inquiring, “From where did it come?” (SL: Thank you.) (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.