– Transcript 132
R: Om, shanti, shanti, shanti, om, peace. Good evening. It’s good to be with you once again. I welcome you with all my heart.
Never forget the purpose of why you’re here. It is true in the absolute reality there is no purpose. The universe has no purpose for existing. You have no purpose for existing, in the absolute reality. But as long as you believe you are a body or a mind, then your purpose is to become no purpose. You spend your energy becoming nothing. But do not believe you’re nothing, when you haven’t become nothing yet.
Be honest with yourself. See where you’re coming from by the way you react to life situations every day. This will tell you where you are at, by the way you see yourself reacting to life’s predicaments. Life will present to you many predicaments, and it’s up to you to see these things in the right perspective, never to be frightened, never to believe anything is wrong, always to know, even though you believe you are a body, you are not alone. There is the pure awareness that is with you all the time, just awaiting your recognition, awaiting your understanding that you are not the body, that you are a spirit, called the atman, Brahman, absolute reality. This is who you really are. This is your real nature.
You’ve heard me talk on many occasions on the subject of love, compassion and humility. These three things are very important to understand. They have to be nurtured and developed. When you understand what love, compassion and humility really are, at that time you become a living embodiment of the truth, and the self will pull your ego into the heart center, and you will become liberated and free.
When I speak to you of all these things I’m referring to my own experiences.
Therefore, do not take these things I say lightly, even though I tell you many times to not believe a word I say. It sounds like a contradiction, but it isn’t. You are not to believe anything I say, yet you are to reflect and ponder on the things I say at the same time. Try to become a living embodiment of the highest truth.
When I had my spiritual awakening I was fourteen years old. This body was sitting in a classroom taking a math test. And all of a sudden I felt myself expanding. I never left my body, which proves that the body never existed to begin with. I felt the body expanding, and a brilliant light began to come out of my heart. I happened to see this light in all directions. I had peripheral vision, and this light was really my Self. It was not my body and the light. There were not two. There was this light that became brighter, and brighter and brighter, the light of a thousand suns. I thought I would be burnt to a crisp, but alas, I wasn’t. SK: How did you do on the test?
R: We haven’t come to that yet.
But this brilliant light, which I was the center and also the circumference, expanded throughout the universe, and I was able to feel the planets, the stars, the galaxies, as myself. And this light shone so bright, yet it was beautiful, it was bliss, it was ineffable, indescribable.
After a while the light began to fade away, and there was no darkness. There was just a place between light and darkness, the place beyond the light. You can call it the void, but it wasn’t just a void. It was this pure awareness I always talk about. I was aware that I am that I am. I was aware of the whole universe at the same time. There was no time, there was no space, there was just the I am.
Then everything began to return to normal, so-to-speak. And I was able to feel, and understand, that all of the planets, the galaxies, the people, the trees, the flowers on this earth, everything, were myriads of energy, and I was in everything. I was the flower. I was the sky. I was the people. The I was everything. Everything was the I. The word I encompassed the whole universe.
Now here’s the point I’m trying to make. I felt a love, a compassion, a humility, all at the same time, that was truly indescribable. It wasn’t a love that you’re aware of. Think of something that you really love, of someone that you really love with all your heart.
Multiply this by a jillion million trillion, and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
This particular love is like no thing that ever existed on this earth, consciously. There is nothing you can compare it with. It is beyond duality, beyond concepts, beyond words and thoughts. And since the I, which I was, was all pervading, there was no other place for anything else to be. There was no room for anything, because there was no space, and no time. There was just the I am, ever present, self-existent. The love of everything was the love of the self.
This is why, in scripture, it tells you to love your brother, and your sister, to love everyone and everything under all circumstances. This love couldn’t differentiate. It couldn’t say, “You’re good, so I love you. You’re bad, so I don’t love you.” Everything was going on as myself. I realized I am the murderer, I am the saint, I am the so-called evil on this earth, I am the so called goodness of this earth. Everything was the self. And it was all a game. All of the energy particles changed from one thing to another thing. But the love never changed.
Another word for this love was compassion. There was this fabulous, fantastic compassion. For everything! For everything was the self, the I am. There was no differentiation. There was not me, what you call me, and those things. There was only one expression, and that was consciousness.
Of course, I didn’t understand all these words at that time. There were no words like I’m talking about now. I’m trying my best to speak intelligently and try to use words to explain what happened, but you can’t. All the games that people are playing, and all the
planets, throughout the universe, is really the self. It was all the self, and I realized that nothing else existed but the self. Yet all of these things, the multiplicities of planets, of galaxies, of people, of animals, were really the self. Again, there are no words to describe this. I felt and knew that these multiplicities do not exist. Things do not exist. Only the self existed, only consciousness, pure awareness.
Yet, at the same time, creation came into existence. And there’s no creation. We cannot understand this in human form. As long as we’re thinking with our brains it’s incomprehensible, for how can they both be simultaneously creating each other? There was creation going on, and yet there was no creation at all! There was no creation taking place, and creation was taking place. Sounds like the thoughts of a mad man. And it seemed normal. There’s absolutely nothing strange about this at all, being nothing and everything at the same time.
So this great compassion was there. Since I was everything, the compassion was for everything. No thing was excluded, for the things were really the self.
And then there was this fantastic humility. The love, compassion, and humility are all synonymous. I’m trying to break it down to make you understand, to an extent, what was going on. The humility was there not to change anything. Everything was right just the way it was. Planets were exploding, new planets were being born. Suns were evaporating, new suns were being born. From the suns the planets came, and then life began on the planets. All this was taking place instantaneously, at the same time. And yet nothing was taking place at all.
Therefore the humility is that everything was alright. There was nothing I had to change. There was nothing I had to correct. The people dying of cancer were in their right place where nobody dies, and there is no cancer. Wars, man’s inhumanity to man, was all part of it. There cannot be a creation if there is not an opposite to good. In order to have a creation there has to be opposites. There has to be the bad guy and the good guy. I was able to understand all these things.
The next thing I remember is my teacher was shaking me. I was the only one left in the class, everybody had gone, the bell rang, and I had not even started the mathematics test. Of course I got a great big zero.
But those feelings and the understanding never left me. From that time on my whole life changed. I was no longer interested in school. I was no longer interested in the friends I had. I won’t go on any more than that for now, as far as that’s concerned.
The point I’m trying to make is this. If the end result of realization is love, compassion, and humility, what if we were able to develop these qualities now? Do you see what I’m getting at? If we are able to develop this love, this beautiful joyous love, for everything, without exception, without being judgmental, and we had a great compassion, for everything, without being judgmental. You can’t have a compassion for one thing and not for another thing.Then of course, there’s humility. Humility means we don’t have to try to straighten things out, to get even, to stick up for our rights, for there is no one really left to do that. If some of us were to work on those aspects, it would lift us up and make us free.
This is something for you to think about. We have to learn to leave the world alone. We become so involved in politics, in family life, in work and the rest of these things we’re involved in, that we forget that we only have so many years left on this earth in the body. And what are we doing with all of the time we have? We’re spending the time on things that do not really exist, things that make no sense.
Imagine you’re in a play in the theater, and you’re playing a role, and you’re playing a part. All the time you’re aware that you’re playing a part. You’re not really that person. It’s only a part you’re playing. In the same way you are now playing a part, but you have forgotten you’re playing a part. You think your body, the way it looks, the way it appears, what it does, what it acquires, is real, and you put all your energy into the game of playing the part. This is indeed a waste of energy. If you’d only put your energy in finding the self, that you really never lost. And you can do this by developing the qualities of love, compassion and humility.
This is another method you have to work on. As you’re working on self-inquiry, work on the love, work on compassion, work on humility. Do not just practice self-inquiry for a while, and then react negatively to the world, and have your feelings hurt. Be yourself. Awaken from the dream. Refuse to play any longer. Look at yourself all day long. See the things that you do, the thoughts that you have, the feelings that you have. It makes no difference what situation you’re going through. It makes no difference what’s going on in your life. The only thing that matters is what’s going on inside of you.
Karmically you are put on this earth as a body, to go through karmic experiences.
Therefore, the experience you’re going through is part of the Maya, the karma. Do not reflect on these things. This is important. You have to drop this. Leave it alone. If you only knew that nothing can ever happen to you. There never was a time when you were born.
There will never be a time when you die. You have always lived. You are consciousness.
You have always existed. Identify with your existence. Merge into the existence of nothingness.
I tell you this again and again. Leave the world alone. Remember what I mean when I say to leave the world alone. I’m not saying that you should voluntarily, consciously, make a plan of how you’re going to leave the world alone. You’ll not be able to live up to it. By leaving the world alone I mean, entertain in your mind higher thoughts.
Always have in back of your mind, “I am not the body. I am not the doer. I am not the mind.” Feel this. Feel it deeply. Do not feel good or bad about it. Do not try to prolong your life. It’s a waste of energy. What you call your life will take care of itself. It knows what to do better than you do. We’re very limited in our understanding about the body, or the affairs of the body, what’s going on in the body. Do not try to do anything with your body. Your body will do whatever it came here to do. It knows what to do. Separate yourself from that. Of course, you may do this by inquiring, “To whom does the body come?
Who has this body?” and remain in the silence.
Many of us here this evening are making tremendous progress. I’ve been talking to many of you who are really getting there. Of course, I use all these terms loosely. There’s no where to get. But I have to talk to you this way, to remind you to leave yourself alone. I know some of you may be in pain sometimes, and you say, “Well I want to live a life free of pain, therefore I have to do things to myself so I don’t feel that pain.” This is really a mistake. If you could only realize who has the pain. To whom does the pain come? I have the pain. Then who am I? If I have the pain, it means that the person who is thinking these things does not have the pain, for it is I that has the pain. You are free of pain, for you are not the I-thought. Remember the I we’re talking about now is the thought, the I-thought, that has the pain and the experience of being born, the experience of dying, the experience of having problems. This is the I-thought that has these things. Not you.
You have to vehemently make up your mind that the only thing that matters to you is to become free, liberated, and let go of all the other things that keep you bound.
This is why you have to work with love, compassion and humility. For if this is the end result of awakening, if you do this first, the awakening will come faster.
Even while I’m talking to you, some of you are thinking about your body, you’re thinking about the mind, you’re thinking about your work. This is what keeps you back.
Destroy the thoughts through self-inquiry. Become free. Do not fight. Do not fear. Observe, watch, look, but have no opinions for or against. Some people think if they act this way they will not be able to function in the world. You will function. Always remember, there’s an appearance of the body, and the body came here to do certain things, and it’s going to do those things. It has absolutely nothing to do with you.
It’s interesting, I’m really talking to myself, because there’s only the Self. So why am I talking to myself? I must be crazy.
SH: Sure.
R: Many times when I talk to you I have to keep from laughing, (laughter) explaining all these things, talking about all these things, when you’re already free, and you already know these things. Sometimes we’re pulled into the illusion. For there’s really no thing. When I talk of God we’re speaking of nothingness. God is nothing. And that nothing is you. We get deeper involved when we study, when we read, we get deeply involved, in Maya.
Why can’t you be yourself and wake up? Why do you have to go through all these things, and make me sit here talking to you like this? Just think what I could be doing if I didn’t have to talk to you. I could be watching Tales From The Crypt. (students laugh) All is well. (laughter)
SD: Robert, I don’t mean this irreverently, quite the contrary, but you tell us to try to develop these qualities of love, compassion and humility, that you’ve described as beyond our comprehension. How do we try to develop something we can’t comprehend?R: Simple. Be your self. When you are yourself the thoughts come slowly to you until they cease. When the thoughts become slower and slower into your mind, and the thoughts begin to disappear, you automatically become loving, compassionate and you’ll have humility. In other words, the faster you get rid of your thoughts, the faster these other things come, these other qualities. So it’s a matter of stopping your thoughts. It is the thoughts that see everything in this world as good and bad, right and wrong. As the thoughts begin to subside, love comes by itself, compassion, humility come by themselves.
So again, we have to stop thinking.
(silence)
Feel free to say something. (laughter)
Fred (SF): I’d like to check these intellectual ideas out. In Hindu Brahman is creator. Vishnu is the sustainer. (R: Umm.) And Shiva is the destroyer. So to ask the question, what is it that Shiva destroy? That is an illusion the first two are real. Finally Shiva himself, if this is the case, is there a reason why an individual who has a deep understanding shouldn’t meditate on I-am Shiva. Can you comment on that?
R: Shouldn’t meditate on I-am Shiva? (SF: Sir?) Should not meditate on I am Shiva, you said? (SF: Is there no reason why we shouldn’t? Or you say we should?) No I’m asking you what did you say, we should or we shouldn’t? (SF: There is no reason why I shouldn’t, in other words I should?) Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma are all part of the story of creation. Just like our bible in the West, Adam and Eve were the first people to be born. And God loved the world so much that he created Adam and Eve. They’re both stories for children who are curious about how creation started. So the Hindu mythology are for the common people.
The people making stories to make you understand how things began and what is going on. So they say Brahma created the world, Vishnu sustains it and then after a while Shiva destroys it and it becomes nothing, pure consciousness again. And then creation begins once again. But of course those are stories which are typical for those people who cannot understand that nothing exists. There never was a Brahma, there never was a Shiva and there is no Vishnu. And nothing was ever destroyed and nothing was ever created. This is too much for some people. So all of these books have been written for the masses. So that they may comprehend all of this.
SD: I believe you said one time that Maharshi even paid homage to Shiva and to give support? (R: Yes.) So in that light, may it not be appropriate for someone like Fred to pay homage to Shiva as long as he honestly identifies with the mind and the body. It’s sort of like believing it?
R: True, this is what it’s for. I am not saying not to pay respect to Shiva. Enjoy Shiva. (SD: But to be honest about it?) Shiva, Shiva, let Shiva take care of himself. (laughter) It all depends where we’re coming from. When all these scholarly people used to come to Ramana Maharshi, these pundits, they memorize the upanishads, the veda’s and they wanted to see what Maharshi says, and they asked Ramana, “Is all necessary?” And he would just say, “Yes, yes, it’s all necessary just keep it up.” (students laugh) Because he
realized that he would be arguing with these people for five hours. So he agreed with everybody.
And Jesus said the same thing, he said, “Agree quickly with thy adversary.” Don’t argue with someone. “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.’ Let people believe what they want. Every human being on this earth is in a different grade in school. The universe is like a school room. We’re all in different grades. Some people have to believe this and some people have to believe that. That is what makes Maya so interesting. There are multiplicity of thoughts, of forms, of things, of everything. And everybody wants to stick up for their rights and for their point of view. So let them, they’re all right.
The reason it’s all right is because it is all coming from their mind. They are creating God in their image.
Think of the God you believe in, Jehovah, Christ, Allah these are all names given to the one God by man. And people worship these Gods in different ways. It’s all good.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. But when you begin to practice Advaita Vedanta, non-duality, you transcend all the belief systems, you transcend the whole world, the whole universe, you get rid of everything so there is nothing left for you to hold on to.
And when there is nothing left for you to hold onto you then become the self. Until then believe all the things you want to believe.
SD: Someone said to me once that to criticize someone else’s spiritual involvement would be as ridiculous as criticizing someone for being say the age of three, if you were not.
R: Yes of course. That’s why all is well. Everything is in it’s right place, there are no mistakes. That is why I keep emphasizing again and again and again, leave the world alone. Do not criticize people let them believe what they like. (SF: If I criticize a person and it’s an implication that that person should be more like me then that’s not good?) More people should be like you Fred. (SF: Is that right?) Because you’re a gentle, wonderful man.
Even when you try to fight the world you can’t win. The world will always beat you down. So why fight? Leave everything alone. Try to remember what I mean when I say this, leave everything alone. When I make these statements I’m not speaking of physical. Physically the body will do what it has to do. But clear your mind. Make the mind gentle, peaceful and then allow the body to do what it will.
Everything begins in the mind, therefore if you control the mind you’ll be at peace.
The quieter the mind becomes the greater the self within you, the greater the consciousness. Pure awareness expresses itself through you. All you have to do is quiet the mind.
Therefore when I say leave everything alone, leave the world alone, leave people alone, I’m speaking of mentally. Do not sit at home or sit at the office and think about all the people who have hurt you, of all the things that are wrong someplace, drop it. Keep the mind quiet. When the mind starts to fight you. When the mind starts to think about other things, you can say, “All Is Well.’ This will remind the mind that everything is okay just the way it is.
(silence)R: Well, it’s your turn to say something.
Fred (SF): I have a little verse from a professor in philosophy in Fremont, called I may be missing but I’m not lost. And he calls them doll grants. And his wife was saying, his wife drew some stick figures with the …???…and one of the first things she said, “If I have to think about what words I’m going to use how can I possibly teach philosophy?” And then he goes on to say, “Words can be a formidable barrier to communication.” And in another place he says, “When you realize that the broken string in your yo-yo has never fastened anything in the first place, there might be enlightenment.” (R: That’s a good one.) He has a bunch of them. There is something else, the last statement for the night. There is only one consciousness (I’m sure you’re familiar with this one) There is only one consciousness equally distributed everywhere. You through ignorance give it unequal distribution. No distribution, no evidence. (R: True.) Sir can you summarize it?
R: The one consciousness is all there is. There is not even any place to distribute it.
Fred (SF): Robert I guess what Jesus meant when he said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God,” purity of heart I guess there will be no contaminants in your heart and a contaminant in your heart would be a thought occurring? As a man thinketh in his heart so is he, How’s that sound? (R: That’s good, yes. You are a bible scholar Fred.) No, I got all kinds of quotes.
(students laugh) The Swami down here used to quote Jesus to illustrate points he would make and that’s where I got most of them, Christian quotes. When I have them he indicates that my thoughts are aright and that makes me feel good, but it’s still of the mind…
R: You’re doing well Fred. (SF: When you say I’m doing well, I have a feeling I’m not doing anything?) You’re not. You never did Fred. You have absolutely nothing to do with yourself.
(Fred continues to talk but tape is not clear enough to follow.) R: You’re alright Fred. (laughter)
Fred (SF): Thank you, better than being the other extreme.
R: Never believe that when you sit in the silence and you’re quiet for a while, that nothing is happening. As many of you are aware there is more going on in the silence than when we’re talking. The silence is pure awareness.
(silence)
R: Another form of meditation you can practice is just to watch the breath. Become observant of your breath and as thoughts arise inquire, “To whom do they come?” This quiets the mind considerably.
(silence) (then Robert finishes up)
Om shanti, shanti, shanti, shanti, peace.
Keep working in the week for the rest of the week on love, compassion and humility. We have some goodies…
(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.