– Transcript 100
R: Om, shanti, shanti, peace. Good afternoon. It is good being with you again. Welcome. I welcome you with all my heart.
Ask yourself the question, “Why am I here? What purpose do you have? What goals do you have? What do you think you are?” If you know you’re a good for nothing then you’re right. If you think you’re something or somebody then you have to see the truth and realize that your good for nothing. You did not come to this earth to become some body. You came to this earth to discover that you are nobody, no-body. You have no body. The body that appears real to you is a delusion. It appears real just as a dream appears real until you wake up.
The question often arises, “Should I take the world seriously?” The answer is yes and no. There is no standard answer. As long as you believe you are a body, a mind, an entity, then the world becomes very real to you. But when you investigate, when you intelligently begin to search within yourself, you begin to realize that the world is very changeable, it is never the same, things often change. As a matter of fact the only thing permanent in life is change.
How could something be real that is changeable? You say a tree is real. If the tree were real it would remain the same forever, but it started from a seed. You would say the seed is real. How long is the seed real? Until it begins to break apart and the tree begins to grow. Then the seed is no longer real. When the tree is small you say that’s a real tree, yet when you come back twenty years from now it’s a gigantic tree. It’s altogether different.
It’s growing apples or peaches or whatever. It’s no longer the same little tree that seemed incompetent, and wasn’t able to grow anything. So you say that now the tree is real because it’s bearing apples. You come back in another twenty years, the tree is dried out. It cannot bear apples.
This is true of everything, including your body. You came from a seed, the seed turned into a baby, the baby turned into a teenager, and now you’re your own ugly self.
What are you? Are you a baby? Are you a teenager? Are you an adult? Are you an ugly self? Are you handsome? All these conceptions are erroneous. You are none of these things, and the reason you appear to suffer and have so called problems in this world is because you take life too seriously. You have your own dogmatic opinions of what should be right and wrong, what’s good, what’s bad. How things ought to be. If anyone interferes with your belief system you become mad, you become angry, you fly off the handle.
(That’s an expression, fly off the handle. How can you fly off the handle?) SH: No problem at all. (laughter) (R: All these cliches, these sayings…) SJ: How do you not fly off the handle? (laughter)
R: But anyway, even if you don’t fly off the handle. (laughter) There is something wrong somewhere, because nothing is ever the same. Things make you angry. Things make you react. You believe your life is supposed to be orderly. If there is no order in the universe how can your life be orderly? Your part of the universe.
You begin to understand it makes no difference what is happening in this universe. The universe expresses all sorts of things, earthquakes, calamities of all types, volcanic eruptions, droughts. Everything happens to this world. Yet the world is spinning in space, revolving at a fantastic speed. The whole universe is movement. Nothing stands still. How can anything be real?
If it isn’t real, why would you react to it? Why do things bother you, annoy you?
Because you believe that things, the world, the universe, is real. The only way to stop that belief or to put an end to it, is to investigate yourself. You start with yourself. You cannot start with anything external to you, for you don’t know anything about it. But you know that you exist. There’s no doubt about that. You exist. Therefore you begin to question, “Who is it who exists? What exists? Is it a body that exists?” The body will not be around a hundred years from now. But I can think about these things. The body in itself cannot think. It is an inert substance. What thinks? Who thinks? You begin to question yourself.
The only reality you will ever find is the reality of your Self, not the reality of the world, not the reality of the universe. It has no reality. As you begin to study, investigate, intelligently look at your own existence, you begin to see the world as an illusion. It’s an appearance. And as you unfold on the path of knowledge, you no longer take this world seriously.
This doesn’t mean that you walk around not caring about anything, not being concerned, not giving a helpful hand to someone. You do not become sarcastic, or belligerent or cynical. You realize the world changes constantly. Therefore it cannot possibly be real. So how can you take the world seriously? Yet you also realize that if you can’t get rid of “I am the body” idea, or “I am the doer” idea, you have to sort of become a little serious in the world. It’s a paradox. You are not to take the world seriously, yet if you can’t get away from the body idea as being real, then you also have to see the world as real and take it seriously.
You were brought up to take everything seriously, to have goals, ambitions. Where do these things lead you? Look at the precarious condition the world is in today. Man’s inhumanity to man is everywhere prevalent. Wars, these dastardly conditions have been going on since the beginning of time. Yet what do you have to do with these things? You didn’t come here to straighten out the world. You didn’t come here to make peace. You didn’t come here to teach people anything or to show anybody anything. You are here in order to wake up, to awaken, to awaken from the mortal dream. That’s all you’re here for.
You’re not here for any other reason.
How about your life? What life? What life do you believe you have? You really have no life. You appear to have a life. Water also appears in the mirage, but you’re just as alive as the water in the mirage. In other words you are an optical illusion. You’re not who you think you are. You’re not what you think you are. You aren’t anything. Whatever you can think about, you’re not that.
Yet you can think. You have the capacity to think, and it is your thinking that will take you out of the great lie of existence, for you begin to examine your mind. You begin to understand that your mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts, just thoughts, always thinking, always thinking, always thinking about something. There’s hardly a time when you do not think. And it’s always about yourself and in relationship to something else.
From morning till night you’re concerned with I, me, I, me. But you are not I and you are not me. Therefore why should you be concerned?
You always believe you have to look about your interests, take care of your problems, your world or you imagine all kinds of things will happen. There’s some of you have been employed for so many years, and you always worried about being unemployed. You believe that’s the worst thing in the world that can happen to you. That is probably the best thing that could ever happen to you, for it makes you move into a new venture, into new experiences.
The truth is you can never suffer. There is nothing in this universe that can make you suffer. If you’re suffering it’s your mind that is telling you things about someone, or about something, or about some place, or about some condition and this is why you suffer.
You have allowed yourself to think. You’re believing your thoughts. Your thoughts control you thoroughly, completely, absolutely. Your thoughts are your worst enemy. You learn therefore to grab a hold of your thoughts, by practicing self-inquiry, or by observing your thoughts, becoming the witness to your thoughts, watching yourself think. As you continue practicing sadhana, you’re headed towards illumination.
Yet the funny thing about this is that you are already there, and there’s nothing you have to do. You always believe you have to do something. You were brought up to believe that if you do nothing you’re a lazy bum. Yet you are nothing. Nothingness is your true nature. You are what you’re supposed to be. Everything is predetermined as far as your body is concerned, and you’re going through those experiences that are necessary for your fulfillment and your unfoldment.
As you become wise, and you begin to understand, you no longer react to your conditioning. Fear begins to melt. There’s no longer anything to fight. You do not have to win any points. There’s really no one you have to overcome. There’s no situation you have to heal. You merely have to be your Self. Be your Self.
How do you become yourself? By understanding that there’s one Self and you are that. There is only the one Self. People call it by all kinds of names, nirvana, Sat-Chit-Ananda, absolute reality. It’s called by all kinds of names, God. It makes no difference what you call it. You have to be it. You have to be that Self that has always been and will always be.
You have to lift yourself up to that place where there is no world, no universe, no body, no mind.
It really makes no difference what sadhana you practice, whether you practice Zen, or Taoism, or mystical Christianity, or Kabbalah. What you practice makes no difference. But what are you doing with the practice? Are you really diving deep within yourself and finding your own reality? Or are you still reading many books, going to many lectures, becoming totally confused?
Leave the world alone. Do not try to correct the world. When I say correct the world, I mean correct people, places or things. Everything has a tendency to balance itself.
There are certain laws in this universe that take care of itself. There’s a power and a presence that knows the way, and you are told to surrender to this power, to this presence.
Complete surrender. Not my will, but thine. This is the highest teaching of any system.
When you give up your ego, totally surrender, and allow the powers that be to direct you, and guide you, and take care of you and unfold as you. Everything will work out.
I recall at Ramana ashram, there was an Indian who was sort of a disciple of Ramana. And he used to come every once in a while, not study, for many, many years, yet nothing happened in his life. So as the years passed by he would begin to bad mouth Ramana to others. Try to tell others, “Ramana is not real. He’s just an old man. He doesn’t know what he is doing.” He would convince some people of this. When Ramana heard about this, of course he didn’t care one way or the other. But the point is the situation took care of itself. He didn’t show up for a while. Then the news came that a train hit him, and his body was gone for this incarnation.
The point I’m trying to make is, everything works itself out. Everything takes care of itself in due time. You have nothing to fear and you have nothing to fight. You have to learn to have faith in the powers that be. Those powers are within yourself. You are they.
They are not external to you. As most of you know by now, the only thing that’s external to you is your mind. Your mind has created your world, the world that you believe in. The things that you see in this world, the things that you feel, your frustrations, your happiness, your joys, your miseries, whatever you think is real for you, you have created yourself. Otherwise where would it come from?
The world just is. It isn’t good or bad. It just is. It is you who make it good or bad.
It is you who have opinions of how things should be, how they should look. The world itself has no opinions. It just appears as it is. But you give it life. It is you who see all these dastardly things going on. It is you who see these things going on in your life, somebody trying to hurt you, someone’s trying to take something from you, as if you can lose something. What is rightfully yours will always be yours. What is not rightfully yours, no matter how you try to hold on to it, it will leave you somehow.
The beginning of wisdom is to understand that the things that appear to be in action, to make this happen, are simply a creation of your mind. So, “To whom will you be
angry? To whom will you vent your emotions?” Whatever you say, whatever you do, however you react, you’re doing it all to yourself. There’s only one Self. There are not two selves or three selves. There’s one. And everything that comes out of your mouth, out of your thoughts, out of your actions, are only to yourself. If you are hurting inside, it is only because you feel that the world isn’t turning the way you want it to turn, things are not going the way you think they should go. You’ve got to grow up, some of you, and let things be. You have to learn to leave people alone, to leave the world alone. If there is anything you want to change that you don’t like, look within yourself. The person, the thing, that seems to hurt you is only a vehicle of your own karma. No one is responsible for anything that ever happens to you.
When you understand these basic things, it is only then that you can begin to work on yourself and practice things like atma-vichara, self-inquiry. But as long as you’re still hurtable and you’re still reacting to conditions, you have to sort of reconcile yourself with the whole universe. Find peace by turning within. Makes no difference what happens. Do not think of what’s happening or what may happen. Turn within yourself. See the reality of your own being. Understand your true nature. Begin to drop the whole world from your mind by realizing, “This is not the truth. The tree is not the reality. The sky is not the reality. My body is not the reality. My mind is not the reality.” Negate everything. Negate the whole universe.
What’s left over is you, the Self, pure intelligence, ultimate oneness, absolute reality, consciousness. Parabrahman is your real nature. Happiness is your real Self, not just temporary happiness but permanent happiness. It is your real Self. Everybody is searching for happiness, and the reason they do the things that they do, hurting one another, stealing, causing problems, is because at that stage of their existence they believe that’s how they become happy. They’re really searching for eternal happiness.
But that’s like the man who sits under a shade tree and feels comfortable. Then decides to go into the sun, and the sun burns him, and he screams and he cries and he gets upset, “Why is this happening to me?” Then he goes back under the shade and he feels comfortable again. Then he goes back into the sun and burns and becomes violent and miserable. He keeps going back and forth, back and forth. Only a fool would do this. Why not stay in the shade and remain there and don’t go out?
That’s how it is with us. Just the way we are now this minute is perfect. Just the way you feel right now, you feel peaceful, you feel calm, you’re happy. But then you go out into the sun. This means you go out into your workplace, you go out into the world, you begin to externalize your life, and you get burnt. You become miserable. Then again you run inside your house where you’re alone and you feel peaceful. You feel at home.
Instead of staying put you keep going back out again, involving yourself with all the vicissitudes of life. And when you react to these things you exacerbate the condition. Then you wonder why you suffer so.Why didn’t you sit still? Literally, you do not have to sit still physically. I’m talking about in your mind. Everything begins in your mind. You make your mind still. When your mind is still your body can go anywhere, but you will be in the shade all the time.
You can do anything, you can snore, you can cry, you can laugh, but this is an external appearance. When the mind has become quiescent there is always peace. Find that peace.
It’s yours. Never react to a situation before you can look for the peace in your mind, and then see if you’re going to react.
There is a story of an old Samurai warrior whose Master had been killed. He began to search for the killer of his Master. He searched high and low. Finally one day he found out who it was, and he cornered him, drew out his big sword and was about to chop his head off, when the villain spit in the Samurais face. The Samurai moved his head back, sheathed his sword, and started to walk away. The villain started to shout, “Hey Samurai, how come you didn’t kill me? You had me cornered.” And the Samurai looked back and he said, “I got angry.” They never fight in anger. The Samurais were taught to fight for the good of humanity, but they never had anger. When you’re angry nothing ever works out.
Now look at your life personally. Only you know what’s going on in your head.
You can fool some of the people some of the time, as the saying goes. You can even fool yourself. You put on an act and you try to fool people, yet you’re only fooling yourself.
You’re fooling yourself because the powers that be have taken care of everything, and everything is working out the way it’s supposed to. So you find that you’re suffering all the time, for you’re trying to fool yourself. You’re trying to hide all of your bad feelings, the fears that cause you to do all these things you do.
But as you begin to work on yourself, you begin to practice self-inquiry, you inquire of yourself, “To whom do these feelings come? Who has these feelings? Who feels betrayed all the time? Who is so sensitive that it always hurts, and feels all these little things always going on in their mind? Who feels like this? I do.” You work on the I.
After a while you realize that the I has been giving you all this trouble. Your belief, as an individual, that you are separate and apart has been giving you all this trouble. So you reverse your life by following the I-thought to the source.
The source of course is God, nirvana, absolute reality, consciousness. You merge into the source and you begin to laugh, for all this time nothing has been happening. All of these experiences you’ve gone through, the adventures you had, it was a joke. It never existed. You never existed at all. And you awaken and become free to conclude, the only work you have in this world is to become liberated. Yet you’re already liberated. You therefore have to see this. Awaken, by not reacting to the world, by diving deep within, seeing the truth and becoming the truth. It’s up to you. (tape ends)
***Note: The Question and Answer section is the same as talk 900823. Refer to question and answer section of 900823.
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.