– Transcript 133
R: Welcome, it’s good to be with you again. I would like to thank Jay for the Artie. He goes to a lot of trouble to do this. We thank you Jay, let’s hear it for Jay. (students applaud) Now throw him out. (students laugh)
Here we are again, a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Henry’s house, miserable as always. (students laugh) So what pack of lies am I going to share with you today. I call it a pack of lies because all the world loves a lie. Therefore when I speak the truth, it thinks I’m telling a lie. After all it is a lie to believe that you were ever born, that you prevail and then you disappear. This is not true. It is a lie to believe that the world exists as the world all by itself, that’s a lie. It is a lie to believe that there is an anthropomorphic type of a God who looks down upon you and sits in a little room with a big book with your name in it. (students laugh) And tells you you’re going to go to heaven, you’re going to hell. But all the world loves a lie and everything I say is a lie. Due to the fact that I have to share things with you that you want to hear to make you feel better. When you try to improve your health. When you try to improve your finances. When you try to live a better life. That is a lie.
Only consciousness, only God exists. It is what we call God or consciousness that is the world, that is the universe. Nothing exists on its own. Everything in this universe comes from your mind. It isn’t real by itself it’s like a dream. You believe what you see with your eyes, what you hear with your ears, what you speak with your mouth, what you smell with your nose. You believe all these things are real. They are not real. They are lies. You believe you exist as a human being and you make decisions, you make choices.
You do certain things in this world. This is not true.
It is consciousness that does everything. You are like a puppet manipulated by the laws of karma. And everything that you do is the result of that karma. It’s a lie. For in truth karma does not exist and in truth you’ve never done anything because you were never born. There is absolutely nothing that you can ever do. You are spirit! All-pervading!
Omnipresent!
Not a little body like it looks and appears. As far as your problems are concerned forget them. As far as your life is concerned forget it. As far as the past is concerned it doesn’t exist. As far as the future is concerned there will never be a future. There is only this moment and in this moment you are nothing, pure nothingness. Nothing is everything and everything is nothing.People ask me, “Robert do you believe in God? Do Advaita Vedantists believe in God?” And I answer, “If you’re speaking of the anthropomorphic type as you just described, the old man with a beard up in the sky, no. If you’re speaking of consciousness, absolute reality, this is not a belief, this is an experience. So the answer whether Advaita Vedantists believe in God is yes and no. No to the anthropomorphic type of God and yes to the Self.”
You are consciousness. Consciousness means that it is conscious of something.
Something is conscious.
Everything on this planet, everything in this universe is conscious. Everything is alive. There is absolutely nothing in this universe that you can call dead. From the mineral kingdom to the animal kingdom, to the vegetable kingdom, to the human kingdom, everything throbs with life. Everything lives. There is no such thing as dead matter. Therefore everything is conscious. Everything is therefore consciousness.
Yet this all is established through your mind. It is an emanation of your mind.
Consciousness is the Self. The Self is absolute reality, Parabrahman, Sat-Chit-Ananda. You are that. That is your true nature.
You have never suffered nor will you ever suffer. You are free, totally free. Totally free in nirvana. Yet you have to experience this for yourself. You exist, you know that.
Nobody can deny that you exist. “Who exists?” you ask yourself. You inquire, “For whom is there existence?” Is this existence for you? You exist as consciousness. Consciousness is the whole universe and you are that. Tat-tvam-asi.
Everything is in your mind. When the mind is transcended there is no longer a universe for you. There is no longer good and bad, right and wrong, God and man, up and down, forward and backward. All of these things disappear when you are your Self. And you are the Self. You must never believe you are anything else but the Self. Just to think about this makes you free. Just to understand that the Self is one. Brahman is one without another. And you are that. Feel the power of that statement. Feel the reality. Feel the truth.
Do you still feel human? Do you still believe you are a human being, who goes through the vicissitudes of life, experiencing all kinds of things in this world? That is a lie, that is not the truth. There are no human beings. There is only consciousness.
When I use the term God I’m referring to consciousness, pure awareness, it is everywhere.
Do not look at your life as being permanent the way it is. People try to preserve their life, why? For whom? For what? Your true life is eternal. It never became anything, it never died. Your true life has always been and always will be. But the way you appear seems to fade as you get older. It seems to disappear it goes downhill. Then again you are not that life. You are the I-am. You are God, you are reality.
The way your life appears is but a shadow. As you watch your shadow, you try to catch your shadow you cannot do it. You can never catch your shadow. So it is with your life. The life appears real to you. Just like the shadow, you cannot grasp it, it evades you.
You are an image on the screen of life. The screen of life is your Self. You are the image when you think of yourself as a human being. Do not look at yourself anymore as a human being. You must rise up. You must understand that you are that God which has always been and will always be. You are that consciousness, you are that absolute reality, which is everything and everyone. There is nothing wrong anywhere. There are no mistakes. Everything is right and good just the way it is. Do not worry. Do not fret. Leave yourself alone. Everything always works out in the right way.
Let the world do what it does. Do not judge it. Do not condemn it. Do not love it.
Do not hate it. Observe it. Watch it. But leave it alone. As you lose attachment to this world. The attachment to what we call God grows and grows. Until one day you transcend the body and become that which you have been attached to.
Therefore in this life, in the body that appears to be real, thoughts are things. You have to be very careful what you think about because you might get it and you might not want what you’ve got. Whatever your mind concentrates on, whatever the mind thinks about you ultimately become. Watch the mind, do not allow it to think all of the thoughts that most of us think about. The whole idea is to subdue the mind. To make the mind quiescent, still and quiet. When the mind becomes one-pointed the Self in the heart will pull the mind in. And that is called self-realization, moksha, liberation.
When the mind goes out the world is created. Yet you have complete control over this situation. You may allow the mind to go out. You may allow the mind to go into this world and partake of all the things of this world and you have your days of goodness, your days of badness. Your days of being sick, your days of being healthy. The mind will do this in the world.
Then you have the choice to cause your mind to go deep inwardly. To go inward.
To go within the Self and become annihilated. Remember you have that choice.
When does your mind go out? How can you tell? When you feel the vicissitudes of this world, when you feel anger. When you feel depressed. When you feel there is something wrong someplace, when you feel happiness of the world, when you enjoy the world. Then the mind has gone out and becomes the thing that you’re enjoying, the thing that you’re hating, the thing that you’re expressing.
Some people still don’t understand why you should curtail the mind from enjoying things in this world. True enjoyment comes from the Self. The Self, Brahman, absolute reality is true enjoyment. It is enjoyment that you cannot ever find in this world. It is love and peace and happiness that only exists in the Self. It makes the enjoyment of this world kindergarten, in comparison. Therefore when you go to a movie or you say you enjoyed it, you say it’s a beautiful day you say that you enjoy the day, it is your ego that enjoys these things. Yet the reason I say to not to keep thinking about these things is because it changes, as you very well know.
As an example of this is when it’s a beautiful sunny day everyone is happy. When there is a storm and there is rain, most people become upset. They would like it to be sunny all of the time. When you received a lollipop when you were a little boy or a little girl it made you happy. When the lollipop was finished you became sad. And so it is when you grow up. You enjoy your job. You get fired you become upset. You enjoy your family then there is a death, a divorce, sickness and you can’t understand what happened and you become miserable. And it can go on and on but you know what I’m talking about.
But when you turn within, to the Self, to Brahman, to Sat-Chit-Ananda, to absolute reality, to effortless choice-less pure awareness that is the power that never stops. It is the ineffable joy that I speak about all the time that you really are. It has absolutely nothing to do with conditions. It can rain or the sun can shine. There can be death, there can be life.
There can be human happiness. There can be human sadness. This will no longer upset you for you have risen. You have become that which is always real, which can never change.
Therefore do not put all of your mental thought into this world. For this world will always change. Rather learn to go within. Learn to dive deep within into that Self which is changeless. That is ultimate oneness. That knows absolutely nothing about sickness, depression, the world, but is a pure light of the heart, the absolute reality. You can make that choice. You have the freedom to make that choice. Everything else is preordained. Everything else is karmic. You have no other choices.
Your body came to this earth karmically to do certain things and that is what it is going to do. Yet you are not that. You have absolutely nothing to do with these things.
You begin your sadhana by inquiring, “To whom do these things come, who experiences good and bad, right and wrong, happy and sad, to whom do they come, who has these thoughts?” And something within will say, “I do, I think this,” and you question, “who am I? What is the source of the I?” The I is only a thought, it is not real. Everything is attached to the I. The world, the flowers the trees, the clouds, the galaxies, the universe, all of your thoughts, all of your ideas, all of your concepts. They are all I!
Therefore when you follow the I-thread to the source, which is consciousness, absolute reality, Parabrahman, the I becomes the Self. The I becomes that which you have followed in your mind and once it becomes the Self there is no longer a mind, there is no longer a body, there is no longer a universe, there is no longer a God, there is only the Jivan-Mukta. Which you are. The one Self. The one reality. The one joy. The one peace. The one love. This is your real nature never forget this.
You must stop dwelling on this world. You must stop dwelling on your body, on being happy or unhappy, on life or death, sickness or health, richness or poverty. Do not think of these things. They will take care of themselves. This has to do with your body.
You are not your body. You are absolute freedom, absolute reality.
(long silence)
It is now that time again to play “Stump the guru.”
SV: Any prizes for succeeding? (R: Nobody succeeds.) Oh shit.
Q: (Robert reads) First question: Is intense emotional release of great benefit and can it lead to awakening? Second question: Is it possible to fully awaken in this life for an ordinary person?
A: (Robert answers) The first question: Is intense emotional release of great benefit and can it lead to awakening? When you ask a question like this, always remember that you are already awake, You are asking from the standpoint of the ego. The ego can become very emotional. It is true when you become spiritually emotional something may happen to release you from your bondage to a body. But this has to be spiritually emotional, not physically emotional.
By spiritually emotional I mean, you have such a love of God in your heart that you feel you’re going to burst. You have this fantastic joy and love inside of yourself and you feel these pangs of love and these pangs of joy so deep that your ego actually bursts.
You find that your ego just disappears. And you become free. So if you’re speaking from the physically emotional viewpoint, this is good. There have been people that I have known who have cried for God emotionally. They wept tears of joy for God, and these tears wiped away the karma. Removed the sorrow and they became free.
Question number two: Is it possible to fully awaken in this life for an ordinary person? Who is an ordinary person? There are no ordinary people. Everyone is the self. If you were not the Self you would never be able to become the Self. Of course it’s possible.
It’s possible only to the extent that you let go of the world. That you do not become attached to this world, to people, to persons, to things. When there is no attachment there is freedom. Where there is freedom there is the Self.
The object of our being here in a body is to become totally free and released. We have that opportunity now. So what are you doing with your opportunity to become free?
What do you do with your life all day long? What do you think about? Where do you go?
How do you spend your time? If you spend your time thinking of the Self, practicing self-inquiry, practicing being the witness, doing spiritual things, certainly you can awaken in this life, there is no question about it.
Q: (Robert reads) There is a man in San Diego who claims to be an incarnation of God. He took over a man’s body gradually over a period of four years with the man’s permission. He claims to be channeling enough energy to make it possible for thousands to become enlightened, sort of. Is he who he says he is? Would God take over somebody’s body?
A: (Robert answers) Well it sounds pretty fishy to me. (students laugh) But who am I to judge? I cannot judge these things. I’m only here to bring you to your Self. Whatever this person is, whatever he’s doing is between him and God.
What you have to do for yourself is to inquire within, “What do I have to do to become free? What should I do to know God, to understand my real Self as consciousness?” Don’t worry about this fellow, he will be taken care of at the appropriate time. Everything always unfolds in the right way. Do not think who is real, who is fake, who is right and who is wrong. Know that God dwells within yourself. Awaken your recognition.When you recognize God as you, then there is only God and you disappear. Work on yourself and forget about these other people.
Q: (Robert reads) Dear Robert you indicated that you like the questions to be type written.
(I never said that, I said it’s nice to have them. I don’t care what you do with them.) But I don’t have anything of world shaking importance to say. In fact I don’t even have anything of minor importance to say because nothing is more or even less important than anything else. So here it is.
I’m a hershey bar, I’m a hershey bar, I’m a hershey bar. Of course people in the know, know what they’re up to and know that hershey bar is a code name for God. But as I said nothing particularly important. Love Fred. (students laugh)
R: I always thought Fred was a hershey bar. (SV: You’re right.) SJ: One with nuts?
R: He’s mostly nuts. (SV: Code name nuts is my name.) You’re alright Fred.
Mary (SM): That’s it Robert. (referring to question box.)
R: Those are all written questions. Does anybody have anything to say, to add?
Glen (SG): It was interesting in the writing of a lady in the kapas…unclear…in the church. (R: Yes.) And she described an experience called no Self…unclear…she said prior to that you go into a unity state in which the ego falls away and you’re in a state of oneness. But she said this unity state is not the end, such that it appears to some people to be the end but if you persist in this it will take you into the state where she said in the market place or living in the world in full experience and through bodily feelings that eventually even what she calls self falls away into this experience of no self whatsoever. And I noticed that this is kind of tallies with some of, struck me with some of Nisargadatta’s relationship. He said that this guru that told him first of all, “Be one with beingness and one with the universe,” and then that will carry you into a state of non-being. Is there this middle step you have to take first before going into the state of the absolute?
R: There is absolutely no states. It has been my experience that no state at all exists. That you are that now! And you just have to wake up, just have to awaken. But there are those who like to go through states. They go through Denver, Colorado, Florida and all the states they wish to go. It’s okay, it is good it doesn’t matter.
This has been Bernadette Piers Roberts, her experience, her expression. This is what she has been through, so this is what is good for her. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this but the more states you add on, the longer you have to awaken. For you say I’m going through this state now and now I have to go through that state. Then I have to go through this state and that state. It never ends. I say be free now, don’t worry about states. Know yourself, awaken to your self and whatever you have to go through you go through.
But again when you think about these states, when you think about these things it holds you back. For you believe and think that you have to go through the same experiences that she is going through. You don’t. You can awaken any hour. Any moment, any time and be totally free and liberated. It is not going through any states. If someone questions you it’s really what you want to do. If you want to practice going through states or do you want to be awakened?
(SI: I wanna be free?) (R: Then awaken and be free!) SF: If I wake from being sound asleep, which is perfection I’m told and I look out the window and I see a man in a tree. I’m aware of that man and I’m aware of that tree but I’m not aware of what it is that causes me to see the man? And it seems to me what I’ve done is I’ve also created…
(tape break) …and the truth of the matter is I’m not this psychosomatic apparatus, it is part of my mistake as the man in the tree was. And I’m no more or less real than I assumed the man in the tree I saw when I woke up. I didn’t make it very clear.
R: When you awaken, you awaken from a deep sleep which is the natural state.
Before you became cognizant of this world. You are in the fourth state of consciousness, chikara, which is beyond waking, sleeping and dreaming. You’re in that space before you become cognizant of this world. The mind is resting in the heart, then all of a sudden instantaneously, the mind goes from the heart to the brain and you become cognizant of your body and the world and the man in the tree, which is none other than yourself. You become cognizant of the mind which produces the entire universe. Or think back to the state prior to that when you were just coming out of the sleep. In those few seconds there were no thoughts. In those few seconds you were gloriously happy, joyous, blissful. That is your true state. That is what Masters state is bliss. Bu when you allow the mind to begin to think the world comes into effect. The man in the tree comes into effect. The universe comes into effect. So all these things comes from your mind. Your mind creates everything, your body, the man in the tree, the world, the universe and your thoughts. Therefore you should immediately ask yourself, “To whom does this come?” And you will realize that it comes to the ego, the mind not to you and you’ll be free.
SD: But where is the state of chikara from Colorado? (R: About fifty miles east.) You were talking about there being no states.
Fred (SF): I thought it was Turiya? (R: Trupala, Turiya, they’re both the same.) They’re both the same.
Glen (SG): (Student asks about emotional health)
R: We do not deal with the emotions. The emotions again are like the body, like everything else, they do not really exist, like the ego, the emotions belong to the I-thought.
The I-thought are your emotions. Therefore when you inquire, “To whom do these come?”
The answer will be, “They come to me. I feel this.” This I is the emotion. This I is everything, it is the I-thought. And everything is attached to the I. It makes no difference how deep the emotions are it is all part of the I-thought.
So rather than to deal with the emotions or to deal with any other subject we try to annihilate the I. To destroy the I-thought forever. By causing it to return to the heart center from whence it came. On return to the heart center from whence it came, this heart center is God, reality, pure awareness. Where there are no emotions, no qualities, nothing as you know it. And you become totally free in this state. So the emotions are simply the I-thought. Get rid of the I-thought by inquiring, “To whom does it come?” And you’ll be totally free.
Fred (SF): One of the Masters said something that translated as, “Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away.” My feeling is that what that translated was my words infers pure awareness.
R: My words that will not pass away is Om, pure awareness, reality, Sat-Chit-Ananda. The reality will not pass away. Reality is eternal from every place. Only what is born can pass away. (SF: Excuse me?) What has been born? (SF: Oh.) Since reality was never born, it cannot pass away.
SH: Before that appears that’s it? (R: Appears yes, whatever appears.) That means the whole universe everything you can see, without exception. (R: It’s all nonsense, it’s a lie, it is fake.) Glad to hear that. (R: Bodhisattvic.)
SB: If consciousness is all pervading how come it feels like it’s focused in the body now.
Like I’m looking out at you and it feels like it is and the eye’s are now claiming I, just like attention.
R: But your focusing is not consciousness. You are focusing on something that is inside of yourself, an emotion, a feeling, it is not consciousness. Consciousness cannot be focused, consciousness just is. (SB: So attention is like the root of the mind. Right?) Attention is like the root of the mind? (SB: Yes.) Attention is being still, being quiet. It depends how you use that word.
SB: In other words is consciousness completely free of any focus any center at all?
R: It is totally free. There is no center, there is no circumference, it is pure awareness. (SB: It’s funny how the awareness seems to be the same as attention in the body. As we look at objects and as we’re focused in the head, it feels like that is consciousness.) Pure awareness, consciousness has absolutely nothing to do with focusing or anything to do with the body or any other object. It is pure ineffable bliss. It knows nothing about the things you are referring to. It doesn’t make anything happen. It doesn’t destroy anything. It doesn’t do anything. It is all pervading. It knows itself as consciousness and nothing else.
SB: How is it related to the attention? If I focus my attention on my toe, I mean that awareness is consciousness, that’s part of it or the essence of it and yet it seems to be confined to the movement of the mind through attention.
R: You’re getting confused. Consciousness knows nothing about a toe, nothing about attention. Consciousness knows nothing about all the things you’re talking about.
Consciousness only knows itself. It is pure awareness by itself. It knows nothing about attention. (SB: But isn’t that the life force itself that we’re using to see and hear and feel and be alive and moving around as awareness? There is something happening some relationship in our everyday awareness.) You’re referring to yourself as a body that is aware. In truth there is no body to be aware of anything. The body does not exist. Consciousness has nothing to do with your body whatsoever. You’re trying to say that consciousness caused the body to be the way it is. And if you pay attention to the toes or to something else, you say it’s consciousness. This is attention, this is awareness. (SB: A certain aspect of it anyway?) No, consciousness is consciousness. There is only consciousness, nothing else exists.
Glen (SG): Robert isn’t our meditation to have such consciousness, attention on the saying of I-am? Isn’t that concentrated attention?
R: All meditation techniques is to still the mind, to make the mind one-pointed.
(SG: Attention a technique?) Yes, that is the only reason for meditation. For when you meditate and the mind becomes still, you have no thoughts and when you have no thoughts then you are consciousness, when you have thoughts you are the body. So meditation is only to still the mind. To make the mind one pointed. So you can be the Self.
SK: Robert what’s the meaning if consciousness ??? Then how do we account for that?
R: From what viewpoint are you speaking? You’re speaking from the human viewpoint. (SK: But that would still imply a duality with consciousness and as a human experience.) No you’re speaking from your human viewpoint by saying there is consciousness and there’s experience. There is only consciousness. There is no human viewpoint. But you’re speaking from the human viewpoint because you think you’re human. (SK: If consciousness is omniscient and all pervading wouldn’t it be the one that is experiencing the human viewpoint?) No it cannot experience the human viewpoint. Due to the fact that it is all pervading there is no place for a human viewpoint. There is no space, there is no place for anything but consciousness. It takes up all space, it takes up everything, there is nothing that exists except consciousness. The human viewpoint when you speak of that you’re speaking from your own standards. From where your brain is coming from. The way you see it, the way you look at it. And this has to be transcended. This has to go. Everything has to go. All types of human viewpoints, beliefs, talking about yourself, as compared to consciousness.
SK: It seems like the two are separate, it seems you can’t get further than that.
R: Because you’re trying to get somewhere, there is nowhere to get. (students laugh) (SK: If they are unrelated then it seems that we’re in bad shape.) No they are not completely unrelated at all. There is only consciousness. There is no human viewpoint. You seem to be speaking from a human viewpoint. But that’s just seeming to speak from a human viewpoint. In truth there is no human viewpoint. There is no human. There is only consciousness and you are that. (SK: Then how do you account for all these misconceptions that everyone has?) How do you account for your dream? When you dream everything in the dream seems real. It seems as if you’re doing things, you’re going places, flying in airplanes and being in wars and having children, then you wake up. What was the purpose of the dream? No purpose whatsoever. The same is true for existence as it appears. It has no purpose, it doesn’t exist. It is the I-thought. Follow the I-thought to the heart and be free.
Remember all of these things you’re asking me are coming from your mind. It’s coming from your viewpoint which you think is a viewpoint. What I’m saying to you have no viewpoint, you have no viewpoint it never existed. Don’t identify with your viewpoint.
What I’m talking about, lift up your thinking. Identify with consciousness. Drop all the chatter about viewpoints. Identify with the highest, with Brahman. You are that and nothing else.
SK: From this viewpoint, why do teachers go into that? You know this very attempt to try to convince people that are not sort of some inward being like that they are not like a bird in a cage, no matter how subtle the body may be whether it goes into a soul body, the subtle body let alone the physical body and try to disabuse people of this notion that they are an inward being, as if there is some potency for these misconceptions.
R: Every teacher teaches from the standpoint of the student. It’s like when we talk about creation. We talk about Adam and Eve, we talk about how creation began. This is for those people who need that. Who are in that grade of universal feeling and consciousness, one has to be totally free of this way. But the true Master teaches in the silence. The true Master does not say anything, teaches in silence and stillness. All these things are from viewpoints of certain students, but in reality they do not exist. It never existed.
It’s like people who used to come to Ramana Maharshi and ask him, “Does karma exit, does reincarnation exist?” and he would look at them and say, “Yes, yes they all exist.”
Because he realized if they started an argument and they start talking about it for hours and hours and hours non-stop. So he told them, “Be good, do good deeds and overcome your problems.” But to a person who was ready, there is no karma, there is no reincarnation, there is no world, there is no universe, there is only that and you are that!
Fred (SF): Words are in the mind. Everything is words to explain things in our minds.
R: Of course, everything comes from the mind. You cannot interpret what I say with the mind for you will have endless questions it will never stop. It’ll never be solved.
Rather rest in the silence. (SF: It’s a forlorn hope to rely on the intellect) Yes, keep your mind from chattering. The mind is like a bunch of monkeys always chattering, chattering, chattering. Still the mind.
SX: Robert when people say…when you see something, God’s inner space, are you just seeing things that really don’t exist?
R: When somebody tells you that you are dreaming things or seeing things? (SX: Yeah but you really saw this?) Oh I see what you mean. People are speaking from their viewpoint. You may be able to see something deep inside of yourself that no one else can see. So if they can’t see it they will tell you that that they can’t see it either. But that is where they are coming from. Perhaps you can see through things, you can see beautiful things, you can see everything. So they’re seeing where they’re at, according to their development. So their outlook in the world sees the world in accordance with their development. When you look at the world you see from the point of your development. So everybody looks at the same thing and sees something else. Do you see? (SX: Yes.) You’re seeing this world from your viewpoint where you are coming from. How you see it depends on your age and the way you were brought up. A grown up will see the world from their viewpoint. From the things they’ve been through, from the experiences they’ve had, we’re seeing where we’re coming from.
Therefore when you tell them about your viewpoint they’re only thinking about their viewpoint, what they see, they will try to convince you of their viewpoint. Therefore we begin to leave people alone. We do not try to convince people of anything. Just bless them, leave them alone and we search within our selves for the reality and the truth.
SH: All viewpoints are all necessarily false?
R: Yes. (SH: There is no such thing as a valid viewpoint?) Exactly, all viewpoints come from the mind, from your thoughts, from your experiences. Therefore silence is the best answer for everything. To keep still and not learn to keep arguments.
SD: This boys viewpoint is no less valid or valid than anyone? (R: True, yes.) What he sees is what he sees.
SH: They’re both worthless. (R: That’s your viewpoint.) Yeah and that’s worthless. Throw it away. Get rid of it. Drop it.
Fred (SF): Somebody asked Maharshi if they should read the Gita. He said, “Always.” The person said, “How about the Bible?” And Maharshi said, “The bible and the Gita are the same.” And the person said, “The bible teaches that man is born in sin?” And the Master said, “The man sense is sin.” (R: The What?) Sir? (R: What’s sin?) The man sense. (R: The man sense, of course) The word sin means separation.
R: There are no sinners, no one has ever sinned, so-to-speak.
Announcements of any kind?
Mary (SM): No I want to thank everyone for bringing back the transcripts. We have some more coming up.
R: We have some prashad.
There is enough for everybody. Why don’t you open the…
(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.