– Transcript 134
R: Good evening. It’s good to be with you once again on this lovely Thursday evening. My, most of you look very serious tonight. You look like an Albanian that just got his cow stolen. (laughter) Have you ever seen an Albanian without a cow? (laughter) He’s pretty excited.
You’re all enlightened. There is absolutely no one who is not enlightened.
What do you feel about yourself? What do you say? Do you believe you have a problem? Do you believe there is something wrong somewhere?
There is only one way to deal with problems. And that is to drop it, totally and completely. Let’s not beat around the bush, have you ever beat around the bush? (laughter) Let’s not do that. We don’t want to use techniques, sadhana’s, to become enlightened or to find ourselves or to do anything to ourselves. We just want to drop the world. Stop thinking about the world. Forget about the world.
The only reason you think something is wrong someplace is due to the fact you think! Your mind is always active. Your mind waves are always moving. And the only reason you think of course is due to the past. Thoughts about the past create your future.
When you begin to understand that there is no past and there is no future there is no one to think. Thinking is your downfall. Whether you’re thinking about good thoughts or bad thoughts, makes no difference. Good thoughts lead to bad thoughts and bad thoughts lead to good thoughts. It’s all thoughts and you’re not supposed to think. You were not put on this earth to think. Come to think of it you’re not even put on this earth.
(laughter)
What are you doing here? (S: I don’t know?) You don’t exist. You’ve never existed and you will never exist. Why don’t you believe me? There used to be a song like that. If only you could realize how beautiful and wonderful it is not to think. Not to have any thoughts coming into your mind. Oh thoughts will come into your mind but you will learn to drop it!
The problem is not with the thoughts that come to you but with your holding on to those thoughts. Giving them energy, giving them power. For only you can give them power. They have no power on their own. They cannot hurt you by themselves. Only you give them power by allowing the thoughts to control you, by looking at the thoughts and fearing or reacting to them. That’s where all the trouble begins.How many of you can really sit in a chair for an hour, without playing the TV, listening to the radio, reading the newspaper or doing anything else, just sitting in the quiet for an hour? That is all you need is one hour. Most of us cannot stand to be by ourselves where nothing is happening for an hour. We always have to be doing something, don’t we?
If we’re alone we have to play the television or have to play the radio. We have to listen to a tape or we have to read. But we don’t like to be by ourselves where nothing is happening. Yet I say to you this is the best time of your life. To be by yourself with absolutely nothing going on.
I know that some of you are afraid to do this because you’re afraid of the thoughts that come to your mind. The thoughts just seem to jump at you, when you’re not watching something or reading something. But this is how it begins. You have to allow the thoughts to jump at you. To try to take you over completely and become the witness to all of this. To watch how your thoughts control you, watch how you react. Whenever you think of a pleasant thought your countenance becomes happy, whenever you think of an ugly thought you become afraid, perturbed, upset. Thoughts have that power to do all this to you.
I told you this story before about the false telegram. Where Mrs Smith receives a telegram saying her husband has been killed he was out of town on business. And she becomes violently upset, screaming and crying and then the telegraph company calls her back and they say they were sorry it was another Mrs Smith, it wasn’t you at all. But look what happened to her when she believed that.
Think of the thoughts that make you angry, make you upset, make you feel out of sorts, make you feel as if there is something wrong. Understand that there can be absolutely nothing wrong anywhere at anytime. It’s just that things are not going the way that you want or the way that you think they should go.
Let’s take the AIDS epidemic. We believe that is terrible and I suppose rightly so, but if we look at the picture from a higher viewpoint we see that this is a cleansing of the earth. It sounds strange, I know. We can take any subject. Wars, cataclysms, earthquakes, anything, pestilence, disease. There is no God punishing anybody, there are no mistakes, there is not somebody trying to kill you because you cannot die. It’s really a joke to me when I see people trying to die and believe they’re dying. Nobody was ever born, nobody dies. All of these things take place in your mind.
But since you believe they are taking place and you believe in these things, see it from a higher viewpoint. When there is an over population the animals know how to take care of this. The Lions eat the sheep, all these things take place when there is an over abundance of animals, of sheep. When there is an over population, cataclysms begin, wars start. Man’s inhumanity to man becomes stronger. If you view it from a human standpoint you’ll be mad at me for saying these things but we’re not talking from a human standpoint, we’re seeing it form above.
Everything is right, there are no mistakes. This doesn’t mean if you’re seeing this from a human standpoint we just sit down in a chair and say, “All is well, nothing is wrong.” When in your heart you’re feeling sad and frightened and you think everything is wrong. This is hypocrisy. As long as you feel that there is a mistake or something is wrong in this world, it is up to you to help correct it. Ironic isn’t it. If you see we’re being attacked by the Albanians, (laughter) we have to take action. We have to find those cows so the Albanians won’t get mad at us. As long as you feel there is something wrong you have to do something. If you see your brother or your sister or fellow human being hit by a car, it’s up to you to render service. Yet if you can rise above this you will feel and see a completely different picture. All is well, all is exceedingly well.
Remember all the things that you are afraid of or things that seem wrong in your life are taking place within your mind, within your self. You feel all this. You can even prove this in your humanhood. You may get up in the morning, feel depressed, feel that you have a headache, feel as if there is something wrong with you. And when you go out into the sunlight the trees are still there, the flowers are still smiling at you, the buds are coming out on the trees, there is absolutely nothing wrong with nature.
When there is a war bombs are dropped, cities are destroyed, people are killed and so forth. When everything settles down the grass begins to grow again. The animals seem to flourish again. The apple trees bloom once more. The oranges come out in abundance. The wheat grows. Life continues as it appears. The secret of life is to be in tune with the way nature works. Do not feel mad or upset. Never feel as if something is wrong or somebody is trying to hurt you or there is a God trying to punish you. All is well and everything is unfolding as it should.
Again, drop all those thoughts. As soon as your mind stats telling you something is wrong, drop the thought. Do not really change the thought for another thought, just drop it.
It is true people who have been meditating for a long time, people who have been practicing atma-vichara, self-inquiry, people who have been practicing the witness consciousness and so forth are able to do this faster than the other people. They are able to drop their thoughts and keep the mind still for a while.
If you’ve not practiced any type of meditation or done anything in your life it will appear to be a little more difficult. You will not be able to drop the thoughts so fast. For even when you drop the thought, other thoughts will attack you and make you feel depressed. Make you feel afraid of something. That is what thoughts do. Yet you remember it’s only a thought. It is only your thought that does this, nothing else.
Yet you may say, “What if I’m in pain? What if I’m dying of cancer?” Again most of you don’t understand this too well I suppose. Nobody dies of cancer. Nobody is in pain. It appears as if this is happening. The appearance is very strong in some people, less strong in other people and doesn’t exist in some others. As you know you can take the same pain and five different people can be experiencing the same pain. One person will feel as if they 1452are dying, another person will feel as if they are just hurting, another person will try not to think about it at all, another person may feel as if it’s not even happening. Everyone experiences these things differently in accordance with your state of consciousness. But the top of the line is, that there is no pain, there is no death, there is no disease.
From our talk on Sunday some of us are still having trouble with creation. We still feel creation comes out of consciousness. Consciousness is creation. For we still have a feeling that everything has to come from somewhere. The finite mind cannot grasp that creation comes from nothing or doesn’t even exist. It is difficult I admit, for the mind to accept things like this.
This is why I say do not accept what I say. Do not even believe what I say. But try to demonstrate this for yourself. Try to prove these things for yourself. (For all you know I may be as crazy as a loon and I am, what is a loon? (S: You.) Exactly, Looney tunes.) And you shouldn’t go around talking about these things to most people. You should always work on yourself. Do not try to prove anything to anyone. Do not try to show off to anyone whatever you know or whatever you think. It is only your experiences that count for you and cause your body to disappear even though it appears to be there.
Anyway to get this creation business out of the way, there is no creation. You do not exist. You have never existed. To some of you, you still don’t know what I’m talking about. Always remember the dream condition, where does the dream come from? Does it come from God? Or from consciousness or from pure awareness? From Sat-Chit-Ananda?
Of course not. A dream just appears. The whole dream is taking place in your mind. You are the dreamer. And it seems almost impossible to understand to a person who has never had a dream that in the dream all kinds of things are taking place.
There are vast cities, there are universes. You are doing all kinds of things in the dream and all that is taking place within your mind. To the one who has never dreamt it sounds very illogical doesn’t it? How can all these things be taking place in your mind?
Yet you’re dreaming and you’ve proven it to yourself that dreams exist.
Therefore if someone came to you and argued with you and told you, “I can’t believe that.” For they never had the experience of a dream and you tell them what you’ve been dreaming about and they’ll say, “That’s impossible. That just doesn’t make sense. I can never accept this.” You tell me the same thing. When I tell you that you’re dreaming today, now. You are dreaming the mortal dream. Everything about your life is a dream, everything. And you tell me I’m crazy. I’m out of my mind. This is true. Yet one day you have the dream yourself and you become totally fascinated. You have become aware of the dreamworld. And I say to you right now that you are dreaming, this is all a dream, a bubble, that will one day burst and you will be completely totally free. This freedom is bliss.
It’s like this. You’re having a horrible dream. You’re back in the inquisition days and you’re being tortured. Your fingers are cut off. Your toes are cut off. Your nose is cut off. You’re being severely tortured. All of a sudden you awaken and you’re in bliss, compared to what you’ve been going through aren’t you? You are in total bliss.
And so it is with this world. You go through so many experiences. Think of all the experiences you went through today. You did this, you did that, you went shopping. You were worried about what you were going to eat. You concern yourself with your neighbors. You did things at work. You worried about this, you thought about this. You took this action, you took that action and you forgot what I told you. Whenever you come here you forgot to remember it’s a dream. It isn’t real. Even though you’re feeling it, even though it pains you sometimes. Even though you have to go through many experiences.
Yet you do the same thing in the dream, the dream ends and you feel so grateful and so blissful because the experiences of your being tortured are not true. So some of you are being tortured in this life. Maybe because of lack or limitation or disease or marital problems, whatever. Yet it’s all a dream. You do not exist the way you appear.
If you’re only able to think about these things during the day when you go about your affairs, you’ll become the happiest person on earth. For this type of thinking will cause you not to react to person, place or thing. You will not react. You will not feel somebody is doing something to you. Somebody is trying to hurt you. Somebody doesn’t like you. All those thoughts will disappear, when you do not react.
But you have to have a reason for not reacting and the reason is the dream. You’re beginning to understand slowly but surely that this is all a dream. Therefore if you react to the dream you become further involved. That is why we discuss things like karma.
Whenever you react to a situation or a condition whether you’re justified or not justified, for whatever reason all you are doing is accruing karma. By accruing karma I really mean you’re making it tougher for you to break away. You’re making it harder for you to awaken. For the word karma itself means action and whatever you perform in action you are causing yourself to be drawn deeper into karma. But when you begin to see that you are not the doer then you refrain from reaction.
When I say you are not the doer and you refrain from reaction always remember what I’m talking about. I do not mean that you sit still and do absolutely nothing. It is some peoples karma to do this, to sit and do absolutely nothing. But most of us are in this world doing things. Yet if you can only accept the fact that you are not the doer the things that you do will be done better than you can ever imagine. You are taking action and non-action. You are working and no work. You are thinking with no mind. You have become free.
Therefore never think or believe that this kind of a teaching, Advaita Vedanta, will make you not to love your family, will cause you to lose your job, will cause you to have problems, on the contrary. If you understand what I’m talking about and do this in the right way you will continue to do anything and everything you have to do. And because you’re no longer perturbed, your body will not feel stress and things will be much better for you.
All is well. All is well. Drop all the pretending. Drop all your hurts. Drop the self pity. Drop everything, let go. Awaken, be free. Freedom is your real nature. You have always been that, yet you are allowing the thoughts to cover up that freedom so it appears.
You’re allowing your thoughts to tell you something else. And you’re caught up in the dreamworld believing it’s the real world.
Another factor to remember is whatever is happening to you in your life disappears when you go to sleep, doesn’t it? When you’re in deep sleep none of these things matter any longer. When you’re in deep sleep nothing is happening. The person who is sick forgets about their sickness. The person who is angry forgets about their anger. The person who is depressed forgets about their depression. The person who feels hurt forgets about the hurt.
That is why when you wake up in the morning you say, “I had a good sleep, I feel refreshed.” The reason you say you feel refreshed is because in the state of deep sleep all of your physical problems, all of your mental problems that you have when you’re so-called awake have gone into abeyance. They’re not here any longer.
It is explained in Advaita Vedanta that the mind is now resting in the heart center.
When the mind rests in the heart center no thing ever exists again. Nothing is there, but that which always is. When you awaken to this world, the mind rushes to the heart center back into the brain and you become cognizant of the body, of the world, of your problems, of everything. Therefore when you think about this intelligently you’ll see how can these things be real if they disappear when I go to sleep. The word real means something that is present all the time. Therefore when you feel depressed and you fall asleep the depression is not there. So it’s not present all the time. Therefore it’s not real.
And this is true of all the aspects of your life, everything. Everything that you can think about is not present when you are in deep sleep. So it cannot be real. Even the so-called good things of your life. Your beautiful home, your beautiful boyfriend or girlfriend or wife or husband, your beautiful children, your car, your great bank account, all of your investments. All of these things disappear when you’re in deep sleep. As if they never existed. When you wake up they exist once more.
It’s like having a recurring dream. We’ll go back to the inquisition. You’re being tortured a little more everyday. Now they cut off your fingers and your nose and your toes. You wake up during the day you go about your business. You go to sleep at night and you start dreaming again. The inquisition continues, your eyeballs are popped out. All these things are happening to you. Morning comes you wake up you go about your business. You go to sleep again and the inquisition continues until there is nothing left of you.
All the parts are gone. And you wake up again and you’re in this world.
This is exactly the same thing I’m talking about. This is exactly what is happening to us. We believe this world is so real. It appears so real. It’s like new people always tell me when I talk about these things, “Well Robert I can walk over to you and pinch you and you’ll feel the pinch.” You can also do that in the dream can’t you? If you see me in the dream and if you tell me, “Robert this is not a dream because I can pinch you.” So you
pinch me in the dream but it’s a dream pinch. It appears that I felt it in the dream, doesn’t it? So you see the same thing happens in this wake up world as in the dream world.
If you can only get what I’m talking about, you will become forever free. This world is not real. You’re wasting your time thinking about this world. Getting involved in this world and doing all the things you’re doing. What you should try to do is to awaken.
And the last thing I have to share with you. If you believe that this world is real you will also believe that the other worlds are also real. You will believe that when you die you will be free. That is like the born again Christians who can’t wait to go to heaven.
They say how rotten this world is but when they die they will be in glory, hallelujah.
Praise the Lord. (S: Yeah, Amen.) But I say to you if you have not found yourself in this life, you will not find yourself in the after life.
All you do in the after-life is take a break for a while, you take a rest, it’s like going to sleep. But then you have to awaken once more whether you’re on an astral plane or causal plane or wherever your delusion takes you. And you become aware of the same problems, the same stuff you had before. There is no end to it. The end only comes when you awaken.
Therefore do not think of death as heaven sent. It is only a continuum. You have to awaken now. When you awaken now you will realize there is absolutely no place to go, there is nothing to become. You will just be as you’ve always been, effortless choice-less pure awareness, your true nature. All is well.
Feel free to ask questions.
Fred (SF): What you were saying reminds me of: Krishnamurti said, “Thoughts are responsive to many.” One of the great ones he said, “Do not expect to fathom the unfathomable…” (R: Don’t expect what?) Do not expect to fathom the unfathomable nor measure the unmeasurable. For he who asks first and he who enters first, there remains only silence.” And it seems to me that all of these thoughts and words are so much - as soon as thoughts and words enter the equation there is a departure from the reality. It seems to me. And these are all words upon the illusory.
R: Umm. Was that your own experience Fred? (SF: It’s still intellectual.) Have your own experience. Have your own experience and drop all the intellectual. (SF: All the intellectual? Okay I’ll try.) Go home and tear up the bible. (students laugh) (SF: That quote wasn’t from the bible?) Tear up all the quotes. (SF: Tear up what?) All the quotes. (SF: All the quotes?) Wherever they come from. (SF: All the quotes.) Stand naked. (SF: Okay.) Stand naked in the face of God. Have no crutch. Whether it’s myself whomever you have a crutch on or a book. Lean on no one. All those quotations are making your head swim. You’re filled with quotations, mystical quotations. That’s nice, that’s good but what does it do to us? It adds on to all the stuff. We want to empty ourselves, not add on to ourselves, that’s important.
We do not want to add on further knowledge. It is the knowledge that keeps us bound. We want to give up all knowledge.
SH: Why do you call it nice and good then when it’s our bondage?R: Say that again? (SH: Why do you call it nice and good then when it’s our bondage?) What’s nice and good. (SH: You just said, (quote) “nice and good.” I’m quoting you.) They’re nice and good if you want to listen to that. It’s nice and good if you enjoy that. They sound nice to most people. Most people enjoy hearing beautiful sayings, poetry, biblical quotations. Therefore they sound nice and good. (SH: They don’t sound nice and good to me.) Good! (students laugh) (SH: If they do to you, fine.) Whatever you accept. (SH: I’d throw them all in the garbage can if I were you.) Okay I’ll have to do it. That’s good. (SH: Good but not nice.) Good for nothing.
Glen (SG): Robert I just want to suggest an eye for an eye. That sounds negative, nice and good.
R: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, an arm for an arm.
Glen (SG): The question I was going to ask was, it is perfect that thoughts arise if it doesn’t affect you in any way, however there seems to be a little bit of a problem when there are no thoughts the mind is free that is fine but the thoughts rise up again and sometimes you can observe them and other times you’re caught up in them. What is the subtle point at which you can be identifying and disengage from them and do that more and more, how do you do that? To have thoughts arising and not have them affecting you.
R: Without getting into the answer that you want to hear, you simply let go. Just drop them. Simple, drop them. You can do it. Drop the thoughts. (SG: By just being yourself?) Forget about being yourself, drop the thoughts. Being yourself is another thought.
See back in our minds we remember all the teachings we’ve had over the years. And these teachings conveniently come up to the mind at certain times and tell us certain things.
And we think we’re making progress but we’re not really making progress. We’re simply adding more thoughts to the fire, fuel to the fire, by thinking these thoughts and replacing them with these thoughts. We just have to drop all thoughts.
Glen (SG): What about the process in which there seems like there is silence and then all of a sudden you discover that you just hit a more and more subtle layer of thought. Woke up and it fooled me again, I thought there was silence and yet the thoughts were more subtle.
R: If you have discovered that about yourself, drop it! Drop that! Make the whole thing simple. Since your real nature is consciousness. There is nothing you have to do to remove the thoughts. There is no procedure, there is no process, you simply have to drop the thoughts. I know we can talk about self-inquiry. We can talk about witnessing. We can talk about many methods but we’re trying to get to the point when we understand that these things are for people who like going to school. They go from grade to grade and have to do all of these practices, all of these sadhanas. But most of you have been with me for a couple of years. And you never realize when I tell you, drop it! I mean just that. Drop everything! Stop yourself. Do not become intellectual. Do not become spiritual. Do not become anything. Just drop the thoughts and become free what you already are.
SD: Without being too obtuse what is the difference between dropping it and repressing it?
R: Repressing it is when you feel it and you think about it and you hold it and it goes deep into your subconscious somewhere but you still feel that it’s real or it’s true. But dropping it is when you totally transcend it, transmute it. Just drop it! Drop it!
Jorge (SR): Robert, can you describe a scenario and tell me where my perceptions are wrong. For example if I go to work, all the way I’m going to work and saying I’m not really here, there is no park here, there’s no road there…
R: You must be out of your mind. (students laugh) (SH: He’s nuts.) (laughter) SR: It’s all good…and then I get to work, I have to deal with some people and have to ask the question to get data, so would it be proper to go through the procedure, “I’m in the dream, I’m asking this person this question but I know it’s a dream I’m really not here, they’re not here.” Then I have to write a report. “And I’m not really writing a report. There is no report. There is no me and I’m writing this report.” Or, rather than that do you suggest that I say, when I get the thought, “I could be writing a report now,” I just push away the thought and my hands just miraculously go up and they start writing and I keep pushing away every thought and refuse to analyze the data and they just keep writing and writing and fifty minutes later the report is done and I can submit it and it’s over? Are you suggesting it would be better for me to realize it’s all a dream and be putting effort into it, trying to mentally use my mind but realize it’s a dream? Or to put away all thoughts, no thinking, refuse to think but my hands and mind will automatically just produce the reports and it will happen?
R: If you refuse to think the thoughts will be stronger than ever. You do not refuse to think. You simply just take a breath and let go of the whole thing. It’s all gone. (SR: Will the hands automatically write the report?) Everything will take care of itself. It’s so simple that I can’t make it any simpler.
Jorge (SR): What about the idea of this is really a dream and it appears that I’m thinking about this data to produce ideas to put on the report and then move there with the mind that doesn’t exist but realizing that this is all a false dream? But allowing myself to get involved in this false dream and write this report and put this data together but realize it’s a dream and realize there is no me, there is no hand, there is no pencil, there is nothing that we’re doing? (R: No.) That isn’t the right approach? (R: No.) The right approach is to drop all thoughts, not think about the data but somehow the report will be manifested.
R: That report will be manifested. Let go. Drop everything. Forget about it and be free. Total simplicity. (SR: It would help if I had a first step that I could understand.) If you want steps we go back into self-inquiry or you can run up and down the steps. What are steps?
First step, second step, third step. (SQ: …and twelfth step.) Twelfth step. We want to forget about steps. We want to get to the stage where we just are. We’re totally free without thinking about it. We do not have any thoughts about anything at all. We do not think that we’re free. We do not think that we’re not free. We just do not think. Just be yourself. That is what I mean when I say, “Just be yourself.” Your Self does not have to think about being itself. SR: Somebody was watching me who didn’t realize I wasn’t really here, am I really here.
Would it appear to them that I was asking questions to get data and would it appear to them that I was writing the report even though I’m not aware that I’m writing a report because there is no me and there is no report?
R: It will appear to them wherever they’re coming from. Wherever they are in consciousness. That is how it will appear to them. (SR: So they may say, “I saw you writing a report,” but I’ll be unaware of it, huh?) No, you will be aware of writing a report but you will not be aware of writing a report. Both are true. (SR: Both.) You will be writing the report but you will be aware of writing the report but then in the same instance, in the same consciousness you will be aware that there is nobody writing a report.
Jorge (SR): Well that is kind of what I was describing as the first scenario that you rejected. That is what I was trying to say. Aware that I’m doing it and yet aware that there is no me and there is no road at the same time.
R: Simultaneously. (SR: Yeah.) It happens at the same time. (SR: You can buy that one.) That’ll work. (SR: The only difficulty is my mind might have to make some analytical effort to analyze the data but at the same time if I realize there is no mind there is no me and no report, maybe okay?) See you’re realizing again. Do not realize those things at all. Just be your self.
Just do it. It will be done.
SL: Robert do you mean just let your mind do whatever it’s supposed to do and let the body do whatever it’s supposed to do, is that right?
R: Yes, everything will take care of itself. You have a background that is analytical and you always want to analyze things and place things in a proper perspective. What I’m saying is forget everything. (SL: Does it kind of go back to the second principle which is everything is predestined so let it do whatever it’s supposed to do.) True, yes. (SL: And get cut if you’re supposed to get cut?) Everything will take care of itself.
Jay (SJ): It’s like it deals with trust. It’s all trust.
R: Well you can say that but there has to be someone to trust. (SJ: Yeah well.) Those things take care of themselves. (SJ: I guess these analogies are so good that you should have all the more understanding so that we can totally trust them?) Well at that level you have to trust.
See we’re getting all the levels mixed up.
SL: I guess the thing that what you are saying is that…I can understand that my mind runs away with myself sometimes and it’s like trying to put everything into place and I have to keep reminding myself that maybe things are predestined. So let it go, don’t try to put extra thought into thinking that when I do this report I know I’m thinking about it. Later on maybe just observing myself otherwise I get crazy. Not that I’m not. (laughter) R: On the level you’re speaking on this is true, on that level. But when I say, “Drop it!” This is the ultimate. There is nothing else. Drop it! Stop believing that you have to write a report or you don’t have to write a report or you have to have an analysis or you don’t have to have an analysis. Drop the whole ball of wax.
SD: Is “dropping it,” above witnessing?
R: Yes, it’s above everything. (SD: Because it seems to me what Greg was saying was sort of that if he could go ahead and function while witnessing, while watching himself and pray or something, that you’ve recommended it.) That’s on that level yes. We’re getting all these levels mixed up. On a certain level you have to practice self-inquiry and ask yourself, “To whom do these things come?” You have to do what you have to do but tonight I’m speaking to you on the highest level when I say, “Drop it!” (SD: But we’re in kindergarten maybe we’re not capable of dropping it?) Sure you are. Just by being here you are. Drop it! Say that again, what did you say?
SL: When you say drop it, drop what?
R: Drop it! (SL: What’s it? I’m not sure about all that?) “It,” is the whole ball of wax.
“It,” is the whole universe, your body, the dream state, everything. (SL: In other words it’s the same thing as, “Just wake up!”) Yes.
Glen (SG): So Robert if we’re trying to be in a new situation say that we’re in a new job and dealing with some serious matters and we had to give a lot of critical, analytical, creative thinking.
There is a lot of pressure it requires, you know concentration of our whole being and dealing with other people. That we can do all that and we can use all those functions and at the same time be free of it? (R: Exactly, that’s it.)
Jorge (SR): Robert would you like to explain a little bit more, what you were saying to Jay, “That is true on one level but there are so many levels.” Would you be willing to explain some of them?
Some of these different levels that maybe get some kind of an idea, a better idea?
R: Well, there is the witnessing level. When you become the witness, to everything is happening. There is a level where you just watch your breath or pay attention to your breath. There is a level when you practice self-inquiry and inquire, “To whom do these things come.” There is a level when you practice the I-am meditation. ( SR: We are actually at a different perceptual level at each of these states?) Yes. (SR: You’re perceiving things at each of those that you wouldn’t perceive at one or the other?) Yes, but what I’m saying tonight is to drop everything. Just drop it and become free.
SD: Is that the same as surrender or is that even beyond surrender?
R: It’s beyond surrender. Because when you drop it that is instantaneous. Drop it is right in the now, in the present second. There is no one to surrender, there is no past, there is no present and no one to do anything. (laughter) You just drop it and you’re finished.
SI: Robert is that the same as letting go of your attachments to see what is?
R: Well of course. Because when you drop it you drop everything. You drop your attachments, you drop everything that you can ever imagine. You let go of everything. But it’s beyond letting go, it’s beyond the attachments. You don’t even think of those things.
SH: How is it beyond letting go? (R: Because there has to be somebody to let go.) SD: What? Doesn’t there have to be someone to drop it? (students laugh) R: No, there is no one left to drop it. You just drop it. (SD: Well who are you talking to when you say drop it.) I’m not talking to anyone. (laughter) 1460SJ: But the next stage is drop dropping it…(students laugh) …but that’s next week.
Glen (SG): What you’re saying Robert there are all these other forms short of dropping it. There is always a you to do it and when it comes to dropping, you’re speaking like consciousness to consciousness. (R: Yes.) SH: What it really does it eliminates the illusory notion of the separate you totally at one moment. (R: Correct, it’s all done in a split second, in the now.) SI: So it kinds of gets rid of the idea that you think that it’s you?
R: It doesn’t really get rid of the idea. If the idea was there you wouldn’t be able to drop it. Forget about ideas, forget about everything just drop it. Forget about the you or the I. Drop it!
SH: That is the ultimate in simplicity?
R: Of course, I can’t make it any simpler than that. You all want me to explain all kinds of things to you. If I explain the things to you in a technical way that you like I’ll pull you deeper into Maya. (laughter) That’s why I ask you so often, “Why do I sit here like this? Talking to a bunch of Albanian peasants,” (students laugh) I guess dropping it is too easy for you. You like to make things complicated.
SH: Or it’s too direct, it’s too straight, it’s too naked.
Jorge (SR): It’s like hitting a home run. You have to learn to hit a single first, a double, a triple.
It’s hard to hit the ball out of the ball park right away.
R: Who has to hit a home run. Who has to get a single or a double or a triple.
There is nobody left to do that. Don’t you feel good now when you drop it?
(short silence)
R: To help you with this, as you’re sitting here listening to me, as you sit in the silence and thoughts come to you keep saying drop it to yourself. Whenever any thoughts come to you say, “Drop it!” Whether the thoughts are good or bad, whatever they may be, whatever you feel, say, “Drop it!”
SD: And that is on a higher level than inquiry, self-inquiry?
R: Yes, inquiry is a method. It is a teaching. (SD: Isn’t telling yourself to drop it a method?) No because there is nothing behind it and there is nothing before it. There is nothing to say. You are not saying, “Who am I?” or “What is this?” (SD: Well you’re saying, “Drop it,” that’s…) What does saying, “Drop it,” mean?
SH: It’s like saying, “Off with their head.” (students laugh) “Off with your head!” (R: True, it’s direct.) The red queen. (R: Red queen, yes.) SL: It’s not similar to self-inquiry. Self-inquiry is to negate things right? Then you say, “Drop it,” it’s similar?
R: In “drop it” there is no analyzation. (SL: Yeah.) It’s just a blunt statement. Drop it!
(SL: So that’s what is trying to clear our minds.) You’re not really to clear our mind there is no mind to clear. (laughter) You’re just saying, “Drop it!” without thinking of what you’re doing. If you start thinking what it means, it’ll become very complicated again. (SL: Is that
similar to the “I-am” or “I - I?”) In a way but not really, when you say I-am it’s the name of God then it gets back into God, mythology and the rest of it. When you say, “Drop it!” it is simple language, two words and means everything. It is the entire teaching, the entire Advaita Vedanta.
SH: It’s a command to wake up?
R: Yes, sure. (SH: A direct command to wake up.) Exactly. So tomorrow when you find yourself complicated at work or thinking about some problem, remind yourself and say, “Drop it!” And forget about the whole thing.
SK: If you happen to be asking, “Who am I?” and then wait in silence is that the entire teaching also.
R: That’s a sadhana. (SK: Silence?) The spiritual discipline is, “Who am I?” The silence, is “drop it.” If you can stay in the silence? If you can remain in the silence there is no need to say, “Drop it!” (SK: No I said that you say, “Who am I?” and remain in the silence. Is that not the entire teaching, the silence?) The silence is the entire teaching, yes.
(SK: We could come from starting off with self-inquiry could it not?) Oh of course, yes. That is what I mentioned before. We’ve been here for a while we’ve been practicing self-inquiry, we’ve been practicing witnessing, we’ve been doing sadhana, now we’re ready to drop it!
(students laugh)
Fred (SF): All those other things are in the mind? (R: Yes.) Even drop it, you can use it as a mantra. (R: Yes.) (SH: It shoves your “I” away, permanently.) SR: I just had a thought that we all stay with Robert for ourselves and then see what happens to us, and people start dancing, so forth and so on. (laughter) (R: Could be?) Yeah that is a good idea, isn’t it? (R: Sure, there is no telling what will happen.) Gives you real freedom huh? (R: Of course.)
Do we have announcements?
Mary (SM): Yes Robert. We have some transcripts to hand out.
R: That’s it?
We’ve got some delicious prashad…
(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.