– Transcript 1099
R: Good evening. It’s good to be with you again this beautiful Thursday night. How are you all feeling?
Students: Great!
R: You’re sure about that? You should feel great. If you only knew who you were you would never feel anything but great; if you were only aware that you are not what appears. You are neither male nor female, Christian nor Jew, black nor white. You just are.
There is no thing that comes after that. You just are. You are that. And that is the most beautiful, joyous, happiest, whatever you can ever be. You are the delight of the universe.
You are a total joy to yourself. You are infinite love. Everything about you is beauty and grace, just the way you are. And all you have to do is to awaken to that.
There are many of us when confronted by some hostility, confronted by some problem, having to make a decision, for instance you are at work and the president of the company calls you in, about to give you a promotion, but you don’t know why he or she is calling you in, and you begin to fear you might be losing your job, or you have to make a major decision at home, or perhaps the doctor has just diagnosed you with cancer, when things like that happen instantaneously, many of us do not have the patience, or the time, or the energy to practice self-inquiry.
Many of us cannot begin by saying “To whom does this come?” when we are immediately confronted by a situation. We can’t just say “I feel this. Who am I?” We can practice self-inquiry when we have peace and quiet, usually, when there is no immediate decision we have to make. But what do we do when we have to make an immediate decision, or somebody just told us something we have to react to? What do we do? There is something you can do. You can immediately say to yourself “Consciousness is the only power.” That is a very powerful statement. Quite a few people who have called me and told me about a certain problem, and I gave them this to say, have reported they’ve had wonderful results from doing this. Before you start to think about the problem, or solution, or reaction, you say to yourself “Consciousness is the only power.’
Now let’s dissect this and see what it really means. Consciousness is absolute reality. It is all pervading, omnipresence. It is pure intelligence. It is omniscient, omnipotent. It is pure awareness. There is no place it begins or ends. It is bliss, total joyous bliss.
There are no mistakes in consciousness. There is no such thing as good or bad in consciousness. Consciousness is conscious of itself, and there is nothing else. Nothing else exists. “Consciousness is the only power,” means that there is not consciousness and you, or consciousness expressing as you, or consciousness expressing as the universe. There is only consciousness. You have absolutely nothing to do with it. You don’t count. You are a nonentity. You don’t even exist. But consciousness is. As you make this statement with feeling the truth always prevails. Therefore you can rest assured that whatever happens after that is divine right action, perfection. Once you make that statement you no longer have anything to concern yourself about. You let go completely. Worries cease. Reaction is halted. Fears diminish. Anger is totally annihilated. You are completely free when you make that statement throughout your entire being, that consciousness is the only power.
For all these years you have believed that you are a human being, having to make decisions, having to do things or they will never get done. Now you are beginning to see that consciousness is everything. It takes care of everything when you get yourself out of the way. You get yourself out of the way by becoming still. Once you have affirmed to yourself that consciousness is the only power you will notice that your mind becomes quiet. There is no longer anything to argue about, no longer anything to confirm, to remember, nothing to react to. Consciousness has spoken and you are free. This doesn’t mean that you have awakened or that you have become self-realized. This appears to work for you at a so-called human level.
Now here is the paradox. At the human level nothing really exists, yet at the same time things begin to work for you. This is why this teaching is beyond words and thoughts. Do not attempt to analyze these things as I talk to you. Do not attempt to figure it out in any way. Just let it happen. Reality, as consciousness, exists and you don’t. Yet when you say “Consciousness is the only power,” something happens to your humanhood. You become happy. You couldn’t care less if they dropped an atom bomb on your head. You couldn’t care less if the doctor did tell you you’ve got two weeks to live and you’ve got cancer or whatever. Or you’ve been promoted to president of your company.
It’s all the same. You feel alive. You’re not alive as most people feel. It’s a universal aliveness. You sort of feel that your cells, your atoms, are connected to the entire universe. And you do know that all is well. You feel wonderful. This happens just by saying “Consciousness is the only power.’
Think how you can use this. Your mother in law calls you on the phone and starts screaming. You watch TV. You see all the news that’s going on in this world. Something is going on in your life. You have to meet something, somewhere, on a certain date. Instead of thinking of the problem, of the situation, whether it’s good or bad makes no difference, you say “Consciousness is the only power.” It’s really amazing at the results some people have had with this. You can also do this when you first awaken in the morning, as soon as you wake up. There are some of us who cannot catch the I. That’s really funny. Some people are calling me on the phone and saying “I’m trying to catch the I every morning when I wake up, but it eludes me, runs faster than I can catch it, because I immediately become concerned with the world. The I has really taken over and I missed it.” This happens a lot with some people. It is true you should try and catch that gap between awakening and sleeping, that gap in between, and watch the I, watch the I going from the heart to the
brain, when you become aware of the body, and you become aware of the world and the universe. Then you reverse the position, following the I-thought back from the brain into the heart. This is the practice you should do. Yet many of us do not have the time. We’re in a hurry, we get up too late. We cannot continue this. But you can say to yourself “Consciousness is the only power.’ You’ll find just by saying that you start to feel good. You’ve got control. You feel power. Say to yourself right now “Consciousness is the only power.”
Feel how meaningful that is. It removes all doubt. It helps in the thinking process. It allows the thinking process to stop, to slow down. This is a tool you can always use.
Of course if you can know the truth about yourself when you awaken all the time, that is even better. If you can realize the truth about your body, that you don’t have a body, that you do not have a mind, you are total freedom, total joy.
What I’m trying to say is you have to use whatever method you have to use to remove the idea of humanhood and the world. Most of us live a hectic life. We always have to be somewhere. We always have to do something. We’re always running back and forth. We don’t even know where we are going sometimes. We think we’re doing something important. We’ve got to be here, we’ve got to be there. In the long run does it really matter? It’s hard to understand, for some of us, that by being quiet, and not rushing and hurrying, we can get more done than we ever imagine. You do not come to this earth in the appearance of a body in order to bog yourself down in employment and family and homes.
Now these things are fine if you use them correctly. There is nothing wrong with having employment a family, a home. But do not allow those things to possess you. By affirming to yourself “Consciousness is the only power,” you free yourself from attachment. Yet there is more love, there is a greater compassion, there is a greater joy, greater peace. When you say “God is the only power,” or “Consciousness is the only power,” it’s the same thing, something begins to happen. A subtle energy begins to take shape, begins to take form, and begins to take over your life. You then realize that you have no life of your own. You go forth in this world doing the things you came here to do, living your life as it appears. Yet you’re no longer concerned. You’re no longer hurried or worried. Fear has left you. Anxiety has left you. Anger has left you. And you become one of those rare beings that appear to exist in the world but are totally free.
What I am explaining to you here is that you do not have to be liberated to experience this state. As I always tell you, there are no steps to liberation. You either become liberated or not. But there are steps to sadhana, to spiritual practices, and you can climb upon these steps, going very high, to the top floor, where you are not liberated but you have total harmony in your life. By total harmony in your life I mean the problems seem to be there, but not for you. There is no longer a problem. You wonder how can this be. Well, for whom is the problem? For the ego, as you know, for the mind, for the body. And even though you have not transmuted into self-awareness, the appearance of the body rises to a higher vibration. Remember, as I am explaining this, bear in mind that whatever I am talking about doesn’t even exist. That’s the wonderful thing about this teaching. I’m telling you a bunch of lies. Yet they appear to be true. Your humanhood appears to rise and you appear to have a good life, even though circumstances haven’t changed.
What we’re trying to do here tonight is to improve the status of your existence before liberation. Do not look for liberation. Do not desire anything. Most of you know this by now. Do not say to yourself “Oh Robert is saying these things that don’t even exist.
Why doesn’t he just tell us that we are consciousness and get over with?” This is true to an extent. You are consciousness. You are God. You are absolute reality. You are choice-less awareness. But even if I say this to you some of you still have to deal with the world. You still have to get up tomorrow and go about your business and do whatever you usually do. And I know that many of you forget this teaching, for you get enmeshed in the world.
The world grabs a hold of you. You begin to think about sex, about greed, about all kinds of things. This is normal for a human being.
Therefore we are talking tonight about how to rise above this, entertain a higher level of humanhood that doesn’t exist, before becoming liberated. And you simply do this by affirming “Consciousness is the only power.” You stop. You no longer think anything after that. You will find, as you say this, your thoughts will begin to stop by themselves.
It’s such a powerful statement that your mind is shocked into silence. You’re actually shocking your mind. Your mind can’t believe that you’re saying this. Your mind is expecting you to say “I’m worried over this situation. I’m happy over this situation. This is going on in my life and that is going on in my life.” And when you say “Consciousness is the only power,” the mind is stunned. It doesn’t know what to do. And you begin to feel feelings you never felt before. You feel fantastic joy welling up within you. Now, if you’ve got time, it is then that you can practice self-inquiry, if you have time, because you have stopped your mind. But some of you tell me when you first get up in the morning trying to practice self-inquiry is fruitless. You just don’t have the time. You’re thinking about where you are going to go and what you’ve got to do. But when you exclaim to yourself “Consciousness is the only power,” your mind starts to become quiet. Then you can ask yourself “To whom is this quietness come?” and you can go into self-inquiry.
Do not allow a day to go by where you do not practice something. Never allow your mind and your body to dictate to you how things are. Do what you’re doing and never regret it. Once you say to yourself “Consciousness is the only power,” what you do after that is good and right, no matter how it looks and how it turns out. That’s a little secret. You have to hold on to your statement. In other words, let’s say you say to yourself “Consciousness is the only power.” Then you go outside and you find that your car has been stolen. Does that mean that it didn’t work? Does that mean something is wrong? This is where we separate the men from the boys and the women from the girls. Your car being stolen is a blessing for you, a blessing in disguise. I know it doesn’t appear that way when it happens, but if you have firmly affirmed that consciousness is the only power, how can
there be a mistake after that? Where would the mistake come from? As we discussed previously, what we call consciousness is all pervading. There is no room for anything else.
There cannot be something evil or something good when consciousness is the only power.
Therefore, when you make that statement, flow with everything. Flow with everything. By flow with everything I mean observe, watch, look, but do not react. Your body may be in pain. You may feel awful. Or you may feel healthy as a horse. When you’re healthy or sick, or happy or sad, this has absolutely nothing to do with your unfoldment.
This is something you really have to understand. We’re not trying to exchange bad humanhood for good humanhood. We don’t even think about humanhood. We’re not even thinking about the condition or the situation. We observe it. We watch it. We look at it, but leave it alone. Now if you can do this, I can assure you, you will become one of the happiest people who ever lived. And this is before you become self-realized, before you awaken. You’ll be radiantly happy.
It is also true, when you do awaken, that kind of happiness disappears, for that’s sort of human happiness, to an extent. Do not try to figure it out, do not try to analyze it, for when you do you’re using your mind, and your mind has been programmed, conditioned, since you were born, and before. Therefore whenever you try to analyze anything, whenever you try to figure out situations and conditions, you’re using your conditioned mind. From a conditioned mind there can never be peace, there can never be real joy, there can never be real love. The mind has to be unconditioned to feel these things. But when you say “Consciousness is the only power,” just by saying those words something subtle takes place within your being. I can’t really explain what happens but I can assure you, you’ll like it.
As you work on yourself this way, as your perception becomes deeper, the perception into yourself, at that time you can have an instant awakening, becoming totally free also. The transmutation takes place at that time. You become liberated, free. Yet if you look for this, if you expect this, it will elude you. What I’m trying to say is, keep yourself to the point where you are saying “Consciousness is the only power.” This will lift you high by itself. It will take care of everything.
You always believe you’ve got to do something. You’ve got to lift yourself up, or you’ve got to know the right words, or you’ve got to be in the right state of mind. This is not true. People who have been liberated have become so because of a quiet mind, by not really thinking about these things, by not really desiring anything like that, by not caring about this. When you’re saying “Consciousness is the only power,” you’re not thinking of what you want or what you don’t want. You’re not really trying to improve your humanhood. You’re not trying to decide what is good and what is bad. You’re simply making that statement in nothingness. It’s a blind statement. It’s something that needs no explanation, no defining. You simply exclaim it and leave it alone.
Let’s use an example. Say you go for your yearly check up and the doctor tells you you’ve got diabetes, and you’re going to lose all your toes, and your fingers, and your tongue and your eyeballs. That wouldn’t be so bad. It could be worse. When you say “Consciousness,” to yourself “is the only power,” you’re not meaning to say this is not going to happen to me. Nothing like that at all. You have no reasoning behind it. There are no wants or desires. I want to make this perfectly clear. You are making that statement in the silence and you’re not trying to get a better reading for yourself from the doctor. You’re not trying to change anything. You’re not trying to do anything. You’re simply making that statement “Consciousness is the only power.” And you can do that over and over again, as many times as you like, during the day. Even if nothing is happening you can say this. Do not desire anything. Do not look for anything. Do not expect anything to happen. Do not believe your life style is going to be changed, or you’re going to become liberated. Simply make that statement.
So when the doctor told you you’ve got diabetes, you make that statement, you smile, and you do not think about what the doctor told you, whether it’s true or not, right or wrong, false or not false. You keep all your energy on that statement “Consciousness is the only power.” Everything will take care of itself. You’ll be delighted with the results.
You can practice this any time, any where, for you’re doing it to yourself. You’re watching TV and you see the dastardly situations in the news, say to yourself “Consciousness is the only power.” You’re not trying to change anything. You are not trying to do anything. You are merely affirming the truth and the truth will make you free. Feel free to ask any questions about this.
S: Robert, instead of the word consciousness, the things that come to my mind is the equivalent “I am is the only power.” Would that be appropriate?
R: If it works for you it’s good. ( S: The other thing was, when I say “I am is the only power,” would I go into the self-inquiry “Who am I?”) No, not necessarily. Stick to that. If you feel inclined to practice self-inquiry you can do so, but I was referring to using this method when you are confronted by life’s vicissitudes.
S: Is it equal to say “Consciousness alone is. All else is illusory?”
R: Don’t make it too long. You can say that. Just say “Consciousness alone is.” ( S: “Consciousness alone is” isn’t any longer than “Consciousness is the only power.”) But don’t say “All else is illusory.” (S: Well, that’s not a necessary comment. It reminds you of the state of affairs.) Exactly. You can say that, yes, if that’s meaningful to you. But this is like ammunition we use in our everyday experience, in our everyday life. Because again, there are many of us that have to face the world day, after day, after day, after day. And perhaps we’re in situations we’re not happy with, or in a job we don’t like, or there is something going on in our lives that seems to bother us. If you will use this method and just keep affirming “Consciousness is the only power,” and leave it alone, you’ll be surprised at what happens.
S: What do you mean exactly when you say keep affirming “but leave it alone?’
R: I mean when you affirm it do not try to break it up, or ask yourself what it means, or where you are going with it. (S: Say it several times, just don’t think about it?) Exactly. Just say it to yourself. It’s sort of like that experience I had when I was a kid, that I
was telling somebody about. When I wanted something, I used to say “God, God, God,”
three times, and somehow it would appear. I never realized what I did, but when I said “God, God, God,” three times, I never defined what I wanted, what I really was doing. My mind was just on what I said. In other words I sort of surrendered to the words “God, God, God,” and I recall I never really went into what I really wanted. I think I told you the story about the violin. Did I tell you that? (S: Yes.) It’s in one of the transcripts, yes. I wanted to play the violin and my mom thought it was a waste of time. She didn’t think I could. She was right. But I wanted the violin in any case. So I went to sleep. I forgot about the violin to an extent. And I said “God, God, God.” I fell asleep saying “God, God, God,”
three times in succession. And the next day an uncle of mine that I hadn’t seen in years came by and brought me a violin. Of course I wrecked it. After playing with it for a day I got tired of it, broke it. So I suppose, from experience, there is something that happens when you make such a statement without any desire or motivation. Just to make the statement. There’s more to life than meets the eye.
Many people in Advaita Vedanta feel the only time they can experience total happiness and joy is when they become liberated. The reason you can feel a higher sense of happiness before it happens is because of the fact that you are already liberated, and you don’t know it. When I tell you to make that statement, you’re making it in the face of liberation. You’re not bringing anything to you from far away. You’re not causing anything to happen, secret powers coming down of the sky, or something coming out of you, and make something good happen to you. You’re speaking as a liberated person. Your nature is moksha, liberation. You are that from the beginning. Otherwise when you say “Consciousness is the only power,” it will be nothing. It would be dead. Nothing would ever happen if you were not already liberated. The reason something does happen is because you’re working from the standpoint of consciousness. You are already that. But you think you’re human. Therefore what I’m trying to show you is even if you believe you are sort of human, by making that statement you can lose a good portion of your humanhood and lift yourself up to a higher plateau. Again it’s very paradoxical because in one breath I say “You cannot become liberated from doing anything,” and the next breath I’m telling you to use this method and you lift yourself up. But it’s really the same thing. You are already the one and there are no others. You are that one, right now. That one is all pervading, omniscient, omnipotent. That one is you.
S: Robert, if I think that something should be different than it is, it brings in the element of time. And time itself is not real. Is that correct?
R: Just by thinking that something should be different you are making a mistake.
When you say “Consciousness is the only power,” you’re not trying to change anything.
You’re not trying to do anything. You’re just resting in that statement. Yet everything will appear to change. Things will happen by itself.
S: Robert, is this the way it may work with this Advaita Vedanta dictum “I am Brahman,” or “You are that?“R: Yes, that is the same when you say “I am Brahman, I am Shiva,” it’s the same thing. But many times for westerners when you say “I am Brahman,” you are saying “I am God.” Therefore, when you have a problem and you say “I am God,” you don’t believe it, because you’re involved in the problem. (S: It’s blasphemy from the Christian position, which is our culture.) Of course. But even from our position we’ve been so brainwashed that some of us, when we say “I am God,” we think we are committing a mortal sin. And when there is a problem staring us in the face, when some of us say “I am God,” we don’t believe it, because we say to ourselves “How can I be God and have this problem?” But when you say “Consciousness is the only power,’ you’re leaving yourself out of it. And that’s more believable for you because the I is left out, yet you’re saying the same thing. You’re playing tricks on your mind. That’s all you’re doing. Consciousness is I, consciousness is God.
You’re not saying “I am God,” because you will not believe yourself. Yet when you say “Consciousness is the only power,” what have I got to do with consciousness? Nothing.
Yet the words themselves are very powerful. They will accomplish everything with everybody.
S: If you say “Consciousness alone is,” that has to include you. (R: Yes.) There’s no way around it. But you’re not saying “I am God.” (R: No.) Or “I-am consciousness.” If you say “Consciousness alone is,” that includes you as well as everything else.
R: It’s the same thing as saying “I am God.” ( S: No, it’s not the same thing because you don’t really…) It’s a very subtle way of saying “I am God,” but actually means the same thing. (S: It’s implying it.) Yes. (S: it’s implying it without saying it.) And that’s how you fool the mind. The mind will go for that.
S: But they say “Be still and know that I am God.” But we have to have the stillness before we can say that.
R: I believe what they mean by that, they’re telling the mind “Be still. Be still and know that I am. I am God.” (S: If the mind is perfectly still will that knowledge automatically appear?) When the mind is perfectly still then God is. (S: That’s all there is?) That’s all.
There’s nothing else. (S: But there is no one there to know that.) The knower has been transcended.
S: When something good happens to a person, good or bad, we say it’s his or her karma.
But the fact of the matter is they’re not individuals. So it can be said it’s karma, but not it’s his karma or her karma. Is that correct?
R: As long as you believe in karma, then karma will always grab you, and turn you in all directions. But when you ask “For whom is there karma?” and realize it’s only for the personal I, then there is no longer any karma. As long as you believe you are the body then karma exists for you also, for karma only exists for the body. Karma does not exist for the Self. Karma only exists for the body and the mind. And when the body and the mind has been totally transmuted, where is there karma? It’s gone. It never was.
(end)
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.