– Transcript 121
R: I welcome you with all my heart. It is good being with you again. I notice a few new faces here today.
Let me explain to you that I am not a preacher. I am not a guru. I am not a philosopher. I am not a yogi. I am not a sermonizer, is there such a word as sermonizer.
(laughter) I’ve heard of womanizer. (laughter)
SB: What are you? (laughter)
R: I am absolutely nothing. (SB: Then you prove it.) You have to prove it. I am no thing. You may see me as a mirror, if you desire. When you look at me you see yourself.
You see what you believe you are, when you look into the mirror. If you’ve come here expecting something, you will go away disappointed. For I have absolutely nothing to give you. And I give you nothing. If you feel empty inside you will be filled up. If you are already full, you will feel disappointed again. There is nothing profound that I say. If you’re looking for profundity, (Robert asks: Is there such a word?) (SH: Umm-hmm.) (agrees) Don’t look at me. Now that we have got that sorted. (students laugh) SC: That’s your sermon for the day.
R: That’s it. There was once a seeker who approached a Sage and said, “Master, have you seen God?” And the Sage asked him, “Why do you want to know?” The seeker said, “If you have seen God, you can give me his darshan, allow me to see him also. The Sage said, “Before I give you God’s darshan I have to introduce you to the Lord. Pray tell me who are you?”
And the seeker puffed himself up and said, “Why I am John Brown. The Sage said, “John Brown was the name that was given at birth. Tell me who you really are. Who are you?” The seeker said, “I told you sir, I am John Brown, I am a Catholic.” The Sage laughed and he said, “Your name, your religion were given to you at birth. You are not that, tell me who you are?” The seeker was becoming flabbergasted, he said, “I am an architect.” The Sage laughed again and said, “You went to school to be an architect, this is your profession. But I want you to tell me who you are right now so that I can give you the darshan of God.” At this time the seeker was very nervous. And he said, “I am, I am a man!” Again the Sage laughed, “Obviously so, but this is your gender. Who are you really? Who are you tell me?” The seeker was really upset now. He was crying and he said, “I am a part of the family of human beings of mankind.” Again the Sage laughed and he said, “This is your genus.” But he looked at the seeker and he had a great compassion and decided to give him a teaching. He said to the seeker, “You have such little knowledge of who you are. How can you possibly know who God is? First know thyself. Know who you are. Then you will not have to ask anyone for the darshan of God. You will know it yourself.”
So it is with us, we try to eliminate external conditions from our lives. We make a big mistake when we do this. A person has a disease, a sickness of some kind and they seek external ways to cure themselves. Whereas if they only went within themselves, if they discovered who they were, they would realize that the self which they are can have no disease. The self is absolute reality, all pervading. There is no room for disease. There is only God.
The same with a person who has fears, frustrations, anger. They go to psychiatrists, psychologists, do different things to eliminate these conditions. It’s very difficult. If only they would become wise and turn within. They would discover the self. Again the self is pure, uncontaminated. The self has no anger. The self is totally free. There is no mental anguish in the self. There are no problems in reality. The problems are in the dream state. The belief that you are a human being. That you are a mind and body phenomena.
As long as you identify with this state of yourself… (break in tape) …when will you begin to turn within and stop seeking, without. Everything is within you. All of the answers you’re looking for are within yourself. This is true of happiness, of peace. We seem to seek these things forever. We will never find it in the world. The world cannot give you peace. The world cannot give you happiness. Peace and happiness are your real nature.
You are that.
How do you find it? By turning within. By realizing your real nature. By awakening to the self. Yet no matter how many times I say this most of you still learn the hard way. You keep searching externally. You keep worrying. You keep looking without. Remember whatever you seem to get rid of in the outside world will turn up again and again. No matter how many times you eliminate a condition in the external world, it will pop up in different ways again and again.
It’s as if you have a tumor and you go to a surgeon. The surgeon cuts it off and it grows again some other place of your body. You go to the surgeon again and he cuts off the tumor and after a few months it pops up again somewhere else in your body.
The idea is not to eliminate the conditions but to discover the truth about yourself.
To realize who you are. To know the truth. To understand your divine nature.
How do you do this? By focusing on the I. Following the I-thought. Asking, “To whom does this condition come?” Inquiring within yourself. Searching deeply.
There is no human being on this earth who can really help you. No matter where you turn, no matter who you go to. There are Sages who have been self-realized, they can show you the way. Yet you have to do it yourself. You only become interested in these things when the world has disappointed you to an extent, over and over again.
It’s unfortunate that when the world shows you the good side of it’s nature, you are not interested in these things, most people. For you’re experiencing financial success,
robust health, peace of mind for a while. But the pendulum has to swing back. Do not be deluded into thinking that you can have these things forever. Just as you cannot have disease forever, you cannot have poverty forever, you cannot have lack and limitation forever, the pendulum has to swing the other way. And so it is you cannot have the good life, so-to-speak, in this world forever.
Yet most of you are still trying to change bad into good and looking to improve your lot. You want to improve your affairs. (if you’re having any affairs.) Whatever you try to improve in this world is a joke. You take the world too seriously.
Take an honest look at yourself. When was the last time you became angry, disillusioned, upset, when things didn’t go your way. This is the nature of this world. Things hardly ever go the way that you want them to go. They unfold in your human life, so-to-speak, in accordance with your karma. There are certain experiences that your body will go through in this life, which was first outlined before you came into the body. Yet to whom does this come? Who sees this? Who feels this? Who experiences this? The one who believes they are a body.
Once you eliminate the body there will be no one left to experience anything on this earth, good or bad. Yet you will be in the body, so-to-speak, experiencing things, going through situations, yet again you will not be doing anything. You will be totally free of the whole mess.
We have to have a strong desire in the beginning stages to overcome the world.
We have to forget about the body, forget about life, forget about trying to make something out of ourselves, forget about trying to improve our affairs and find God. Once you find God, who is the purest of pure, the divine self, pure awareness, you will no longer concern yourself about anything else. You will not be able to see anything else or to feel anything else of the world. Others may look at you and it will appear to them as if they’re going through situations with you, as if you’re going through certain experiences but they are only seeing themselves. They’re only looking at their level of experience. But you will not be where they are. You will be so above this that there are no words to describe it.
You have to desire freedom. You have to desire illumination. When you desire this something will come to you. You will gravitate toward something that will lead you in the right direction, on the right path. Once this happens you give up all desire. Something else takes over and you begin to feel a higher pull. You begin to awaken. You begin to feel the real peace. The real happiness which has absolutely nothing to do with things, persons or places. You are beginning to feel your self.
If you can only begin to do this, how wonderful it is. If you only realized what I was talking about and you were able to feel the presence and the power, you would never again seek anything in the external world. Of course the thoughts would come to you by themselves that the world is a world of change. Constant and total change. How can you be happy with anything that changes. No thing is ever permanent in this world. Therefore no matter what you attain it will change eventually.The wise person stops seeking outside themselves and begins to seek within themselves. They begin to ask themselves, like in that story I told you, “Who am I? Who am I really? Who was I before I was born? Who was I before I was given a name? Before I was told what religion to worship? Before I became a professional person? Before I had all of my thoughts? My preconditioning? My preconceived ideas?” We become totally honest with ourselves. We begin to see how conditioned we really are. We’re totally conditioned.
Our belief system has becoming stronger since we were children and now we have beliefs about ourselves that are unconscious and conscious, both. This is what holds us back. Our belief system. And the worst thing that we can ever believe is that we are a body or a mind. The appearance may be there but to whom does it come? The appearance comes to the ego, to the I-thought.
So we discover something very interesting, we discover that we have to eliminate the I-thought and the ego. Which are really the same thing. We begin to see, slowly at first that we’re always saying I, all day long. All day long we say I. I am happy, I am sad. I am lonely, I am peaceful. I am this and I am that. I am hungry and I am full. It is always I, I, I-I. So we do begin to ask the question, “Who is this I? Who gave it birth? From where did it originate?’ If we’re really sincere we will discover that the origin of I is within ourselves.
How do we identify with the origin and become totally free from the whole mess?
We identify with our origin by removing the I. The thought I. Totally destroying the I-thought.
“How do I do this?” we ask ourselves. By allowing the I-thought to return to the source. When the I-thought is in the source there is no going out and no going in. There is complete awareness, complete awakening.
So we begin to observe ourselves. This is how it works. Every time we say, “I this and I that,” we catch ourselves and we inquire, “To whom does this I come? Why the I comes to me. I am always saying, I, I, I this and I that. Who is me? (Not woe is me.) Who is me? Who is this me? Who am I?” You feel that the entire universe and all it’s ramifications are attached to the I.
Consequently you do not try to eliminate the world or the universe or situations, you work on eliminating the I-thought. When the I disappears into the source everything else goes with it, everything. The entire universe and you become Sat-Chit-Ananda. You become effortless pure awareness. What you’ve always been. This is what you must do.
But how many of you really do this? You walk out the door and you get caught up in all of your problems and your lifestyle and you believe the whole world is centered upon you. That you are important and that you’ve got to do this and you’ve got to accomplish that. You have no idea what is in store for you. You might drop dead of a heart attack tomorrow. You might be shot by accident. You may trip and break your neck. Therefore by relying on the external world for your happiness and your life you’re making a grave mistake. For you never know how long you will be on this earth plane. In this form as a body.
The wise person begins to focus on reality and becomes free.
So I ask you again, what are you doing with your life? What is important to you?
Do you become hurt easily? Do things upset you easily? Does the world matter to you?
And you can tell where you are. When you watch the news on TV, do you become excited when you see something? Do you identify with things that you see? For instance if the newscaster shows you there is a terrible flu epidemic going around, do you feel as if it’s going to come to you and you have to take precautions? This shows you that you are identifying with the world and you are allowing the world to dictate to you, to tell you how things are. Subconsciously you are attracting the things that you see, believe and feel and then you become one of the bunch. Whatever is going around comes to you also. You have to come to that point and the place where you realize that there is absolutely nothing in the universe, in the world or anyplace else that wants to or can hurt you. You are beyond that.
Forget about the past. It makes no difference what happened to you in the past, you are here now. Now is the appointed time. Become centered in the now. Know yourself.
Leave the world alone. Leave people alone. Leave things alone. Always remember when I make these statements, I’m speaking of mentally doing these things. I’m not saying to you, you have to give up your friends and give up your work and give up your family and give up your life and move to a cave. I am saying that you mentally have to let go of your attachment to person, place or thing. It all begins in your mind. Remember the body will continue it’s work and do what it has to do but you have absolutely nothing to say about this. For you are not the body.
Do not allow television, newspapers, others to run your life. Stand up for your rights. What rights? You have no rights. You have nothing to stand up for, that is why you’re sitting. The world can’t hurt you. There is nothing anywhere that wants to hurt you or wants to harm you. You’re dreaming that something is wrong, someone is hurting, someone is suffering. Awaken from the mortal dream. Awaken today, now.
Become free from everything in this world. Do not think about this, your thoughts are not your friend. Your thoughts are here to keep you earth bound. Your thoughts will tell you all sorts of things to do to keep you earthbound. You cannot listen to your thoughts. But you can observe your thoughts, watch your thoughts, you can inquire, “To whom do these thoughts come?” But do not allow the thoughts to tell you anything. Know the truth.
I can only make my own confession. I am not the body or this world. I am not the phenomena that is all around me, I am Parabrahman. I am absolute reality, nirvana, ultimate oneness. I am effortless choice-less pure awareness. Sat-Chit-Ananda. Never was I born, never can I die. I appear to have a body yet I know I am not the body. The body is a superimposition on the screen of life. I am absolute freedom, pure consciousness. This is the truth about the self and the self being all pervading, omnipresent, this is the truth about you. For when the word self is mentioned it is self-contained absolute reality and there is no place for anything else. It takes up all space. There is no room for anything except the self.
So how can you complain? How can you believe that there is something else?
How can you feel there is sickness or death or birth or man’s inhumanity to man?
When there is only the self which is God, which is self-contained, which is omnipresent, all pervading. There is nothing else. You are that. Awaken and be happy.
Do we have any written questions today? Okay here’s one.
Q: (Robert reads) If we sit at home at the same time you are sitting in your home, 12 to 3
and 6 to 9, and something happens to us, how does this work? What I think you want to know is how does the whole thing work? How does everything work?
A: (Robert answers) When you look at yourself as a body you are separate. You are incomplete. You are all alone, you are all by yourself. When you sit as a self you are omnipresent, you’re omniscient, you’re omnipotent, you’re all pervading. Therefore when certain individuals sit with a Sage or a person who has realized the Self and they become part of the vibration of the self that has been realized. Subsequently they feel the grace, the peace, the joy of the Sage. And of course this helps them and their unfoldment and their worldly affairs. For they acquire more peace, they acquire happiness, they acquire wisdom for they are sitting with the self.
Consequently those of you who can remember to sit in the silence at home the hours are from 6 to 9 in the morning and 12 to 3 at night. If you cannot sit all of these hours sit the time that you can. I have been hearing many good results that many of you have been attaining in doing this. This is one way to unfold faster. It also gives you the power to practice self inquiry and the energy to be able to watch the thoughts and eliminate the mind and the body. So by all means do this.
Q: (Robert reads) If there is no mind how do we reason?
A: (Robert answers) It is not really the mind that reasons. The mind is a conglomeration of thoughts that is all the mind is. The reasoning power comes from the self. The absolute reality is where reasoning comes from, not from the mind. The mind are a bunch of thoughts of the past and worries of the future. That is all the mind really is. As you surrender the mind by observing it, by watching it, by inquiring, “To whom does this mind come?” you will use reasoning that comes from above, from God, from your self, the real Self.
Therefore you do not have to worry about this. You do not have to concern yourself about reasoning. Concern yourself of getting rid of your mind then watch and see if there is no reasoning. You will be… (break in tape) …in the ordinary sense of the word, where misunderstandings and something or other. That all is mind and losing our grasp and the reality outside of us. The difficulty is to hold firmly in the mind the two contradictory elements.
Q: Please comment. All I hear is the unreality of things, how about the reality also?
A: (Robert answers) Everything that comes from the mind and the body are illusions. If you believe in these things then you are asking for trouble because this will lead to suffering. Everything in the world leads to suffering. But there is beauty, there is joy, there is harmony, there is reality but this has absolutely nothing to do with your mind. The mind is not your friend. The mind leads to mistakes. When you begin to destroy the mind and the ego and you begin to realize that you are not the body, your life becomes beautiful. You begin to see a completely new world. You begin to see God as yourself. As divine harmony. So when you say, “Please comment, all I hear is the unreality of things how about the reality also?”
The reality is what you are. You’ve been covered up with illusion believing you are something that is not reality and you’ve been experiencing things in this world that seem to hurt you. That seem to cause you pain. These things are not the self, they are not really you. You therefore have to inquire, “To whom do they come?” And get rid of them completely entirely. Reality is always present. Beauty is always present. Joy is always present.
Bliss is always here. You are that. Awaken to it and be free. That’s it.
Nate (SC): Can I ask a question. (R: Sure.) I’d like to hear you talk about the self. How we can get in touch with the self, that with a capital “S.” When you say, “Who am I?” then you wait and I have up to now been concentrating on the I instead of the - that you talked before - about the Self, consciousness. I guess you can’t put a word or label on consciousness and that is what I’m trying to do I suppose but maybe you can speak more about that?
R: You do not meditate or concentrate on the I-thought. You abide in the I-thought and follow it to the source. The I-thought is something that is movable, flexible. It is not anything permanent. The source which is God which is absolute reality is permanent. You therefore in your mind, in your imagination see the I-thought coming from the brain and going into the source which is the self on the right side of the chest, the heart center. The heart center is God. The heart center is reality.
By inquiring, “Who am I?” You’re really saying, “To whom does the I come? Who feels the I?” I am sick, I am crazy, I am nervous. I am this and I am that, “Who sees this?
Where does the I come from?” As you inquire into the I, the I-thought becomes weaker and weaker by returning to the heart center, to the source. And as you rest in the silence when you inquire, “Who am I?” one day something will happen. One day you will all of a sudden feel a sort of explosion within yourself. You will feel your body melting. You will feel yourself becoming nothing. And the self, which is the real self, which is the heart center will become everything, you will be free, you will be liberated.
Therefore do not meditate on the I, the I is problems, it creates problems for you.
The I is what brings the troubles and the bad feelings and the emotions to you. Follow the I, abide in the I by following it. It is destroyed when you follow it. It goes into the heart center and you rest in the silence. You become free and liberated. Do you follow that?
Nate (SC): Yes, we don’t try to get in touch with the consciousness, just be in the silence?R: You can’t get into touch with consciousness because you are consciousness. All you can do is get rid of the stuff that you’re not. You are not the I-thought. You are not Nate. You are not the one going through life suffering with various things and ailments.
This is not you get rid of that and consciousness will appear by itself.
Think of your real Self as the sun and all your problems and ailments are the clouds. When the clouds cover the sun do you say there is no sun? You realize that the is up there but the clouds are covering the sun. As the clouds dissipate slowly but surely the sun will shine again in all it’s glory and splendor.
In the same instance, you are not your problems, you are not your affairs, you are not your troubles or your sicknesses or anything else. They are clouds that have been hindering your view of reality. So you simply observe the clouds as the I-thought getting out of the way, moving into the heart, which is the sun and you will shine once again in all your glory and in all your splendor.
All this is the I-thought but you are your Self, you are pure awareness, you are absolute reality, you are Parabrahman, you are total freedom, you are completely whole, you are bright and shining. Let go of the past, let go of yesterday, awaken to your true Self.
Anyone else care to say something? Make a statement? Throw a pie in my face?
Some of you tell me you would like to practice meditation. Remember always that self-inquiry is not meditation. Self-inquiry can be practiced anywhere. But meditation is the I-am, that I share with you. That you can call meditation. And the reason you practice this is to make yourself one-pointed. When you become one-pointed you can then become still. Your mind will become still. And you will rest in the silence.
This is the purpose for all meditation, is to become one pointed and become still.
The I-am meditation is very powerful, very positive, it causes a lot of change in consciousness. You should practice all of these things I share with you. Let’s practice the I-am meditation now.
SD: Robert I have a question before we begin. Is part of the power of the I-am meditation is fact that I-am is the name of God? Is that sort of a form of a… (R: Of course.) …tata?
R: This is what it is based on. I-am is the first name of God. As you begin meditating on I-am you become calmer and calmer first. The thoughts slow down, the breathing slows down. You let go of all of your thoughts and you become free inside your mind.
So the first thing you want to do is make yourself comfortable in your chair. Relax completely. It’s better to close your eyes in the beginning stages because it removes obstructions. As you advance with this it doesn’t matter whether you close your eyes or not.
But when obstructions are in front of you it keeps you from thinking of I-am. So as we close our eyes we begin to relax the body first. We practice a sort of Vipassana meditation, where we observe our feelings, our sensations and our thoughts. If you feel your body is tense, you tell it to relax, it will listen to you. It will obey you. Your mind is in control of your body. You can tell your feet to relax, your knees to relax, your thighs to relax, your fingers, your hands to relax. Feel your shoulders relaxing, your neck, your back, the back
of your head, top of your head, your face, your eyes, your mouth, your jaw relaxes, your whole body is feeling very relaxed and peaceful. Focus your attention on your thoughts, your breath. You’re feeling very comfortable, nothing is bothering you, nothing is disturbing you. Observe your thoughts, observe your breath, do not try to change them, just observe them.
Now you ask yourself the question, “Who is the observer?” The answer is, “I-am.”
With your respiration, inhale you say, “I,” exhale you say, “am.” If you get lost in your thoughts when you catch yourself, gently go back to it, I-am with your breath. Inhale naturally you say, “I,” exhale naturally you say, “am.” You are invoking the first name of God.
(silence)
Do you want to read the Jnani? (Robert asks Mary) (SM: Alright Robert.) (Mary reads the Confessions of a Jnani refer to beginning of this book) R: Thank you Mary. (SM: Thank you Robert.)
R: Any more announcements?
SE: Kerema is preparing prashad. (R: Kerema’s preparing prashad, that sounds good.) SB: I have a question. I’ve read about what is called Baba samadhi where the realizer is so rested in consciousness that consciousness itself outshines the phenomenal world and the phenomenal world like disappears completely it’s out shined by the radiance of consciousness. (R: Okay?) Is that something that happens? (R: Sounds good.) (students laugh) That is called baba samadhi.
Because you say in “The Jnani,” you say that the phenomenal world is appearing but it can’t be gotten rid of. But in this condition of this type of samadhi isn’t it out shined by consciousness?
R: What Mary means when she says that… (SB: Yeah.) …is that only the Self exists.
But even when the body appears it is not real. Even when it appears to hinder the person.
It’s an appearance to others, other see it that way. But to the Sage there is no hindrance, there is no body. There is consciousness just like you said. (SB: Oh so I see. So the Sage is still amongst the consciousness but even though phenomenal objects appear they are not binding to…) Except there is nothing to bind. (SB: He can see through them that they’re not real and that only consciousness is…) It’s not that he sees through them, there is no one left to see anything.
There is nothing to see. There is just pure being. (SB: At that point do even the phenomenal objects disappear?) The phenomenal objects are never there to begin with. They don’t have to disappear because if they disappear it would mean that they existed. Only what exists disappears. (SB: So why did you used to say that we can get beyond phenomena but they continue to appear?) This is for the sake of others. Others see certain things happening. They appear real, but it’s not true. They don’t exist whatsoever. (SB: Is there a point in your resting in consciousness where it deepens to the point of complete immersion and absolute loss of…) You’re speaking of stages. There are no stages. When one awakens, they are awakened just like when one turns on the light there is no darkness.
SB: There is no difference to your perception. Now you’re speaking to us and when you’re completely at rest in samadhi. (R: It’s the same thing.) There is no change at all? (R: No change.)SC: I’ll ask a question which is asked many times that I heard that there are men in India when they come stay in United States and when they see a bus coming down the street, they don’t realize the potential danger and they walk in front of it, like aha? (R: Well they’re an idiot!) (laughter) I heard that they didn’t realize that danger was there because they didn’t know what it was. It’s the same thing as you’re saying that, “Things don’t exist.” Which is hard for my mind and other minds to comprehend this. I know it’s the mind, but still bringing it up.
R: Things do not exist but what appears to be the body will always take care of itself. The body will not purposely walk in front of a bus unless the person is a babbling idiot. (students laugh) (SC: It’s still is not the point or is it? I keep hearing over and over even in my readings that we don’t exist and the mind is trying to grasp the don’t exist and making existent or nonexistent it’s still trying to figure it out. It seems so…) You can’t figure it out. Do not use your mind that’s the whole problem. You’re always using your mind trying to analyze it.
Remember your mind is limited, very limited. Your mind is finite, it can never comprehend the infinite. So when you’re trying to analyze or trying to figure it something out with your mind you’ll get nowhere. The mind is given to you for your body. For the world. Your mind is the world, the body. The universe, that is your mind. Beyond the mind is reality. (SC: So that’s what is, is that what you’re saying? And the mind cannot comprehend what you just said?) Exactly. So do not use your mind to try to figure something out, you can’t do it. Your mind is meant for the earth. (SC: Well it seems so unbelievable that this is an object and yet it doesn’t exist.) Science can prove to you that it doesn’t exist. (SC: I know, with the electronic microscope, etc., but…) (students laugh) SG: Don’t believe that either, huh? (laughter)
SH: You ain’t getting across no matter what. (laughter) SD: Isn’t it partly Robert as you’ve told us not to deceive ourselves that as long as we have even an inkling that we are thinking that we are the body then we must obey the rules of the universe. So this person who ignores a bus is obviously still relating to the body to a certain degree so they have to relate to the bus as well.
R: Exactly. True. Where is the prashad? Mary has got an announcement.
Mary (SM): For the new people that are here we have an introductory transcript to give to you.
And Dennis it’s was nice he brought back his transcript so we have some today of another number.
And please sign our guest book if you will please.
R: Remember to love yourself, to pray to yourself, to worship yourself, to bow to yourself. For God dwells in you as you. God bless you and peace.
Until we meet again go forth and multiply. (laughter)
SH: Too late. (laughter) (SD: Yeah right, lots to lose, right?) Yeah…
(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.